d expected at first--namely, that the story
about the passport was a mere fable. The displeased councillors
having, at the request of Kohlhaas, given him a certificate as to the
nullity of the requisition, he laughed at the thin squire's jest,
though he did not exactly see the purport of it; and, having in a few
weeks sold his horses to his satisfaction, he returned to the
Tronkenburg without any bitter feeling beyond that at the general
troubles of the world. The castellan, to whom he showed the
certificate, gave no sort of explanation, but merely said, in answer to
the question of the horse-dealer, whether he might have the horses back
again, that he might go and fetch them. Already, as he crossed the
court-yard, Kohlhaas heard the unpleasant news that his servant, on
account of improper conduct, as they said, had been beaten and sent off
a few days after he had been left at the Tronkenburg. He asked the
young man who gave him this intelligence, what the servant had done,
and who had attended the horses in the meanwhile. He replied that he
did not know, and opened the stall in which they were kept to the
horse-dealer, whose heart already swelled with dark misgivings. How
great was his astonishment when, instead of his sleek, well-fed blacks,
he saw a couple of skinny, jaded creatures, with bones on which things
might have been hung, as on hooks, and manes entangled from want of
care; in a word, a true picture of animal misery. Kohlhaas, to whom
the horses neighed with a slight movement, was indignant in the highest
degree, and asked what had befallen the creatures? The servant
answered, that no particular misfortune had befallen them, but that, as
there had been a want of draught-cattle, they had been used a little in
the fields. Kohlhaas cursed this shameful and preconcerted act of
arbitrary power; but, feeling his own weakness, suppressed his rage,
and, as there was nothing else to be done, prepared to leave the
robber's nest with his horses, when the castellan, attracted by the
conversation, made his appearance, and asked what was the matter.

"Matter!" said Kohlhaas, "who allowed Squire Von Tronka and his people
to work in the fields the horses that I left?" He asked if this was
humanity, tried to rouse the exhausted beasts by a stroke with a
switch, and showed him that they could not move. The castellan, after
he had looked at him for awhile, insolently enough said, "Now, there's
an ill-mannered clown!