“Hum!” said Kohlhaas.  “What did you say to that?”

“As the steward said the two guests were only going to spend the night and continue on their way the next morning, I led the two horses into the pigsty.  But the following day passed and they did not go, and on the third it was said the gentlemen were going to stay some weeks longer at the castle.”

“After all, it was not so bad, Herse, in the pigsty, as it seemed to you when you first stuck your nose into it,” said Kohlhaas.

“That’s true,” answered the groom.  “After I had swept the place out a little, it wasn’t so bad!  I gave a groschen to the maid to have her put the pigs somewhere else; and by taking the boards from the roof-bars at dawn and laying them on again at night, I managed to arrange it so that the horses could stand upright in the daytime.  So there they stood like geese in a coop, and stuck their heads through the roof, looking around for Kohlhaasenbrueck or some other place where they would be better off.”

“Well then,” said Kohlhaas, “why in the world did they drive you away?”

“Sir, I’ll tell you,” answered the groom, “it was because they wanted to get rid of me, since, as long as I was there, they could not work the horses to death.  Everywhere, in the yard, in the servants’ hall, they made faces at me, and because I thought to myself, ’You can draw your jaws down until you dislocate them, for all I care,’ they picked a quarrel and threw me out of the courtyard.”

“But what provoked them?” cried Kohlhaas; “they must have had some sort of provocation!”

“Oh, to be sure,” answered Herse; “the best imaginable!  On the evening of the second day spent in the pigsty, I took the horses, which had become dirty in spite of my efforts, and started to ride them down to the horse-pond.  When I reached the castle-gate and was just about to turn, I heard the castellan and the steward, with servants, dogs and cudgels, rushing out of the servants’ hall after me and calling, ’Stop thief!  Stop gallows-bird!’ as if they were possessed.  The gate-keeper stepped in front of me, and when I asked him and the raving crowd that was running at me, ’What in the world is the matter?’—­’What’s the matter!’ answered the castellan, seizing my two black horses by the bridle.  ‘Where are you going with the horses?’ he asked, and seized me by the chest.  ‘Where am I going?’ I repeated.  ’Thunder and lightning!  I am riding down to the horse-pond.  Do you think that I—?’—­’To the horse-pond!’ cried the castellan.  ’I’ll teach you, you swindler, to swim along the highroad back to Kohlhaasenbrueck!’ And with a spiteful, vicious jerk he and the steward, who had caught me by the leg, hurled me down from the horse so that I measured my full length in the mud.  ‘Murder!  Help!’ I cried; ’breast straps and blankets and a bundle of linen belonging to me are in the stable.’  But while the steward led the horses away, the castellan and servants fell upon me with their feet and whips