ohlhaas, "that it was such a poor shelter for
horses that it was more like a pigsty than a stable?"

"It was a pigsty, Sir," answered Herse; "really and truly a pigsty,
with the pigs running in and out; I couldn't stand upright in it."

"Perhaps there was no other shelter to be found for the blacks,"
Kohlhaas rejoined; "and of course, in a way, the knights' horses had
the right to better quarters."

"There wasn't much room," answered the groom, dropping his voice.
"Counting these two, there were, in all, seven knights lodging at the
castle. If it had been you, you would have had the horses moved closer
together. I said I would try to rent a stable in the village, but the
castellan objected that he had to keep the horses under his own eyes
and told me not to dare to take them away from the courtyard."

"Hum!" said Kohlhaas. "What did you say to that?"

"As the steward said the two guests were only going to spend the night
and continue on their way the next morning, I led the two horses into
the pigsty. But the following day passed and they did not go, and on
the third it was said the gentlemen were going to stay some weeks
longer at the castle."

"After all, it was not so bad, Herse, in the pigsty, as it seemed to
you when you first stuck your nose into it," said Kohlhaas.

"That's true," answered the groom. "After I had swept the place out a
little, it wasn't so bad! I gave a groschen to the maid to have her
put the pigs somewhere else; and by taking the boards from the
roof-bars at dawn and laying them on again at night, I managed to
arrange it so that the horses could stand upright in the daytime. So
there they stood like geese in a coop, and stuck their heads through
the roof, looking around for Kohlhaasenbrueck or some other place where
they would be better off."

"Well then," said Kohlhaas, "why in the world did they drive you
away?"

"Sir, I'll tell you," answered the groom, "it was because they wanted
to get rid of me, since, as long as I was there, they could not work
the horses to death. Everywhere, in the yard, in the servants' hall,
they made faces at me, and because I thought to myself, 'You can draw
your jaws down until you dislocate them, for all I care,' they picked
a quarrel and threw me out of the courtyard."

"But what provoked them?" cried Kohlhaas; "they must have had some
sort of provocation!"

"Oh, to be sure," answered Herse; "the best imaginable! On the evening
of the second day spe