told him, with that freedom
which was peculiar to him, that under such vexatious circumstances
nothing was left but to accept the horse-dealer's proposal, and to
grant an amnesty on account of the past, that he might renew his suit.
Public opinion, he remarked, was completely on the side of this man,
and that to a dangerous degree; nay, to such an extent, that even the
city of Wittenberg, which he had burned three times, raised a voice in
his favour. If his offer were refused it would unquestionably be
brought, accompanied by very obnoxious remarks, to the notice of the
people, who might easily be so far led away that the state authority
could do nothing whatever with the transgressor. He concluded with the
observation, that in this case the difficulty of treating with a
citizen who had taken up arms must be passed over; that by the conduct
towards him the man had been in a certain manner released from his
obligation to the state; and that in short, to settle the matter, it
would be better to consider him as a foreign person who had invaded the
country--which would be in some measure correct, as he was indeed a
foreigner[5]--than as a rebel who had taken up arms against the throne.

The elector received this letter just when Prince Christian of Misnia,
generalissimo of the empire, and uncle of the Prince Frederic who was
defeated at Muehlberg, and still very ill of his wounds, the high
chancellor of the tribunal, Count Wrede, Count Kallheim, president of
the state-chancery, and the two von Tronkas, the cup-bearer, and the
chamberlain, who had both been friends of the elector from his youth,
were present in the castle. The chamberlain, who, as a privy
counsellor of the elector, conducted private correspondence, with the
privilege of using his name and coat of arms, first opened the subject,
and after explaining at great length, that on his own authority he
would never have set aside the petition which the horse-dealer had
presented to the tribunal against his cousin the squire, if he had not
been induced by false representations to consider it a mere vexatious
and useless affair,--he came to the present state of things. He
observed that neither according to divine nor human laws had the
horse-dealer any right to take such a monstrous revenge, as he had
allowed himself on account of this oversight. He dwelled on the lustre
which would fall on the impious head of Kohlhaas, if he were treated as
a party lawfully at wa