ase, could not take that into account. And
indeed, after the situation had been explained to him and he had been
told that, to offset this, complete satisfaction would be rendered to
him in Dresden in his suit against Squire Wenzel Tronka, he very soon
acquiesced in the matter.

Thus it happened that, precisely on the day of the arrival of the
Chamberlain, judgment was pronounced, and Kohlhaas was condemned to
lose his life by the sword, which sentence, however, in the
complicated state of affairs, no one believed would be carried out, in
spite of its mercy. Indeed the whole city, knowing the good will which
the Elector bore Kohlhaas, confidently hoped to see it commuted by an
electoral decree to a mere, though possibly long and severe, term of
imprisonment.

The Chamberlain, who nevertheless realized that no time was to be lost
if the commission given him by his master was to be accomplished, set
about his business by giving Kohlhaas an opportunity to get a good
look at him, dressed as he was in his ordinary court costume, one
morning when the horse-dealer was standing at the window of his
prison innocently gazing at the passers-by. As he concluded from a
sudden movement of his head that he had noticed him, and with great
pleasure observed particularly that he put his hand involuntarily to
that part of the chest where the locket was lying, he considered that
what had taken place at that moment in Kohlhaas' soul was a sufficient
preparation to allow him to go a step further in the attempt to gain
possession of the paper. He therefore sent for an old woman who
hobbled around on crutches, selling old clothes; he had noticed her in
the streets of Berlin among a crowd of other rag-pickers, and in age
and costume she seemed to him to correspond fairly well to the woman
described to him by the Elector of Saxony. On the supposition that
Kohlhaas probably had not fixed very deeply in mind the features of
the old gipsy, of whom he had had but a fleeting vision as she handed
him the paper, he determined to substitute the aforesaid woman for her
and, if it were practicable, to have her act the part of the gipsy
before Kohlhaas. In accordance with this plan and in order to fit her
for the role, he informed her in detail of all that had taken place in
Jueterbock between the Elector and the gipsy, and, as he did not know
how far the latter had gone in her declarations to Kohlhaas, he did
not forget to impress particularly upon the