is mantle, "is he recovered now?"

"Tolerably," she answered, "with the exception of the spitting of
blood. I wished immediately to send a servant to the Tronkenburg, to
take care of the horses till you went there, for Herse has always been
so honest, indeed so much more faithful to us than any one else, that I
never thought of doubting a statement supported by so many evident
signs of truth, or of believing that he had lost the horses in any
other way. Yet he entreated me not to counsel any one to show himself
in that robber's nest, and to give up the horses, if I would not
sacrifice a human being."

"Is he still in bed?" asked Kohlhaas, loosening his neckcloth.

"For the last few days he has gone about in the court," she
answered--"in short, you will see that all is true enough, and that
this affair is one of the atrocities which the people at the
Tronkenburg have lately perpetrated against strangers."

"That I must look into," said Kohlhaas. "Call him here, Lisbeth, if he
is up." With these words he sat himself down, while the housewife, who
was pleased to see him so forbearing, went and fetched the servant.

"What have you been doing at the Tronkenburg?" asked Kohlhaas, as
Lisbeth entered the room with him. "I am not well pleased with you."
The servant, in whose pale face a spot of red appeared at these words,
was silent for a while, and then said--

"You are right, master, for I flung into the Elbe a match, which, by
God's providence, I had with me, to set on fire the robber's nest, from
which I was driven, as I heard a child crying within, and thought to
myself--'God's lightning may consume it, but I will not.'"

"But what did you do to be sent away from the Tronkenburg?" said
Kohlhaas, much struck.

"It was on account of a bad piece of business," said Herse, wiping the
perspiration from his forehead; "but no matter, 'what can't be cured
must be endured.' I would not allow the horses to be ruined by field
work, and told them they were still young, and had never been used for
drawing."

Kohlhaas, endeavouring to conceal the perturbation of his mind,
observed, that Herse had not quite told the truth in this instance, as
the horses had been in harness a little during the preceding spring.
"As you were a kind of guest at the castle, you might have obliged them
once or twice, when they were forced to get in their harvest as quickly
as they could."

"So I did, master," replied Herse, "I thought, as the