is given me for all that I
have suffered."

The woman, setting the child down upon the ground, said, that he was
right in many respects, and could do and suffer what he pleased; and,
taking her crutch again in her hand, prepared to go.

Kohlhaas repeated his question respecting the contents of the strange
paper; and when she answered him hastily, that he might open it, if
only out of curiosity, he wished to be informed about a thousand things
more before she quitted him; such as who she was; how she acquired her
science; why she had refused to give the wonderful paper to the
elector, for whom it was written, and had just selected him, who had
never cared about her science, among so many thousand persons.

At this very moment a noise was heard, made by some police officers,
who were coming up stairs, and the woman, who seemed suddenly afraid
lest she should be found by them in these apartments, answered:
"Farewell till we meet again, Kohlhaas! When we meet again, you shall
have knowledge of all this." Turning towards the door, she cried,
"Good-bye, children, good-bye!" and kissing the little folks one after
the other, she departed.

In the meanwhile the Elector of Saxony, entirely given up to his
melancholy thoughts, had summoned two astrologers named Oldenholm and
Olearius, who then stood in high repute in Saxony, and had consulted
them as to the contents of the mysterious paper, which was of such high
import to himself and the whole race of his posterity. When these men,
after a deep inquiry, which had continued for three days in the castle
at Dresden, could not agree whether the prophecy referred to distant
ages or to the present time, while perhaps the crown of Poland, the
relations with which were so warlike, might be pointed at,--the
uneasiness, not to say the despair of the unhappy prince, far from
being lessened by the learned dispute, was rendered more acute, and
that to a degree perfectly insupportable. About the same time, the
chamberlain charged his wife, who was on the point of following him to
Berlin, to point out to the elector before her departure, how doubtful,
after the failure of the attempt he had made with the old woman, whom
he had never seen since--how doubtful was the hope of obtaining the
paper now in the possession of Kohlhaas, since the sentence of death
had already been signed by the Elector of Brandenburg after a careful
examination of the documents, and the execution was already appo