ree gold gulden that I had wrapped in a red silk
neckcloth and hidden away behind the manger? Blazes, hell, and the
devil! When you talk like that, I'd like to relight at once the
sulphur cord I threw away!"

"There, there!" said the horse-dealer, "I really meant no harm. What
you have said--see here, I believe it word for word, and when the
matter comes up, I am ready to take the Holy Communion myself as to
its truth. I am sorry that you have not fared better in my service.
Go, Herse, go back to bed. Have them bring you a bottle of wine and
make yourself comfortable; you shall have justice done you!" With
that he stood up, made out a list of the things which the head groom
had left behind in the pigsty, jotted down the value of each, asked
him how high he estimated the cost of his medical treatment, and sent
him from the room after shaking hands with him once more.

Thereupon he recounted to Lisbeth, his wife, the whole course of the
affair, explained the true relation of events, and declared to her
that he was determined to demand public justice for himself. He had
the satisfaction of finding that she heartily approved his purpose,
for, she said, many other travelers, perhaps less patient than he,
would pass by the castle, and it was doing God's work to put a stop to
disorders such as these. She added that she would manage to get
together the money to pay the expenses of the lawsuit. Kohlhaas called
her his brave wife, spent that day and the next very happily with her
and the children, and, as soon as his business would at all permit it,
set out for Dresden in order to lay his suit before the court.

Here, with the help of a lawyer whom he knew, he drew up a complaint,
in which, after giving a detailed account of the outrage which Squire
Wenzel Tronka had committed against him and against his groom Herse,
he petitioned for the lawful punishment of the former, restoration of
the horses to their original condition, and compensation for the
damages which he and his groom had sustained. His case was indeed
perfectly clear. The fact that the horses had been detained contrary
to law threw a decisive light on everything else; and even had one
been willing to assume that they had sickened by sheer accident, the
demand of the horse-dealer to have them returned to him in sound
condition would still have been just. While looking about him in the
capital, Kohlhaas had no lack of friends, either, who promised to give
his case l