with the electoral decree. For the government,
having listened to the applications of the citizens of Dresden, would
not hear of the squire taking up his abode in this the chief city, till
the incendiary was conquered; but charged the governor to protect him,
wherever he might be, and remember he must be content with such forces
as he had. He, however, informed the good city of Wittenberg, to allay
uneasiness, that a troop of five hundred strong, under the command of
Prince Frederic, of Misnia, was advancing to protect it from further
molestations by Kohlhaas. The governor plainly saw that a decree of
this kind would by no means satisfy the people, since not only had the
many little advantages which the horse-dealer had gained at different
points before the city, caused most alarming reports to be spread as to
his increase of strength, but the war which he carried on in the
darkness of night, with pitch, straw, and brimstone, aided by a rabble
in disguise, might, unexampled as it was, completely frustrate a
greater protective force than that which was coming with the Prince of
Misnia. Therefore, after a short reflection, the governor resolved to
suppress the decree. He merely posted up against the corners of the
city, a letter, in which the Prince of Misnia announced his arrival. A
covered cart, which left the prison-yard at break of day, accompanied
by four guards on horse-back, heavily armed, passed along the street to
Leipzig, the guards causing it to be vaguely reported that it was going
to the Pleissenburg. The people being thus appeased as to the
ill-fated squire, to whose presence fire and sword were bound, the
governor himself set off with a troop of three hundred men, to join
Prince Frederic of Misnia. In the meanwhile, Kohlhaas, by the singular
position he had taken in the world, had increased his force to a
hundred and ten persons; and as he had procured a good store of arms at
Jessen, and had armed his band in the most perfect manner, he was no
sooner informed of the double storm, than he resolved to meet it with
all possible speed, before it should break over him. Therefore, on the
following night he attacked the Prince of Misnia, by Muehlberg, in which
encounter, to his great grief, he lost Herse, who fell by his side on
the first fire. However, enraged at this loss, he so defeated the
prince, who was unable to collect his force together, in a three hours
contest, that at break of day, on account o