Pearl • August 2019 41the woman's lap amid much rejoicing, the elector,
reaching into his pocket and adding a gold piece to the
pile, asked her whether the greeting she would give to
me had such a silvery sound to it as his. After opening a
box that stood beside her and laboriously arranging the
money in it according to denomination and quantity
and locking the box again, the woman held her hand
against the sun as if it annoyed her and looked at me;
and when I repeated the question and, jokingly, while
she was examining my hand, said to the elector that she
seemed to have nothing very agreeable to announce, she
grabbed her crutches, raised herself slowly with their
aid from the stool, and pressing close to me with hands
mysteriously held out, she whispered, loud enough to
hear, in my ear, “No!” – “Really!” I uttered, in some
confusion, and drew a step back from the figure who
with a cold and lifeless look, as though from eyes of
marble, sat down once more on the stool behind her;
“from what quarter does danger threaten my house?”
‘The woman, taking a piece of charcoal and a paper
and crossing her knees, asked whether she should write
it down for me; and when, truly embarrassed, because
in the circumstances, not knowing what else to do, I
answered, “Yes, do that”, she replied “Very well then. I
will write down three things for you: the name of the
last ruler of your house, the year in which he will lose
his kingdom, and the name of the person who by force
of arms will seize it from him.” This done, and in full
view of all the people, she rose, sealed the slip of the
paper with a glue which she moistened on her parched
lips and pressed upon it a leaden signet ring she wore on
her middle finger. And when, more curious, as you can
easily understand, than words can describe, I made to
grasp the paper, she uttered, “By no means, your
highness", adding as she turned round and raised one of
her crutches, “from that man yonder who with the
plumed hat is standing behind all the people on the
bench at the church entrance, from him, if you please,
you may get the paper.”
‘And with that, before I had rightly made out what
she was saying, she left me standing in the square,
speechless with astonishment; and packing up the box
that stood behind her and hoisting it over her back, she
went in among the crowd of people surrounding us so
that I could no longer see what else she did.
‘Just then, to my profound relief, the knight whom
the elector had sent to the castle returned and reported
with a broad smile that the roebuck had been slaugh-
tered and had been dragged into the kitchen by two
hunters before his eyes. The elector, merrily linking
arms with me with the intention of leading me away
from the square, said, “Well, well, the prophecy was a
commonplace swindle and not worth the time and gold
it has cost us.” But how great was our astonishment
when, even while these words were being spoken, a cry
went up around the whole square, and all eyes turnedtowards a huge butcher’s dog trotting our way from the
direction of the castle and which, having seized the
roebuck in the kitchen by the neck as good spoil and,
chased by servants and maids, dropped it on the ground
some three paces from us. Thus the woman’s prophecy,
as a pledge for the truth of everything that she uttered,
was really fulfilled and the roebuck, although dead, had
come to meet us at the marketplace.
‘Lightning falling from heaven on a winter's day
cannot be more devastating than this sight was to me,
and as soon as I had broken free of the company in
which I found myself, my first effort was immediately to
seek out the man with the plumed hat whom the woman
had pointed out to me. But none of my people, sent out
continually for three days to gather information, was
able to give me even the slightest bit of news concerning
this man. And now, my friend, a few weeks ago in the
dairy farm at Dahme, I saw the man with my own eyes.’
With these words at he let go of the chamberlain's
hand and, wiping the perspiration from his brow, sank
back on his bed.
The chamberlain, who considered it a wasted effort
to contradict and correct the elector’s view of the
incident by his own, urged him to try by all means to get
hold of the slip of paper and thereafter to leave the
fellow to his fate; but the elector replied that he simply
could see no way to achieve this even though the
thought of going without the slip of paper or, worse, of
seeing the knowledge go down with this man, was
driving him to brink of misery and despair. To his
friend’s question as to whether he had made any
attempts to locate the gypsy woman herself, the elector
replied that the government, pursuant to an order he
had issued under a false pretext, had to this very day
been searching throughout the electorate to find this
woman and so far in vain, whereby, for reasons which
he, however, refused to elaborate, he doubted very
much that she was to be found anywhere in Saxony.
Now it happened that the chamberlain wished to
travel to Berlin to attend to several sizeable properties
in Neumark bequeathed to his wife by the recently
deposed and, shortly thereafter, deceased Count
Kallheim, the former grand chancellor; and seeing that
he had a great affection for the elector, he asked him,
after a moment’s reflection, if he would be willing to
give him a free hand in this matter, and when the
elector, warmly pressing the chamberlain’s hand to his
heart, replied, ‘Put yourself in my place and get me the
paper!’ And so, after entrusting his business to other
hands, the chamberlain brought forward his departure
by a few days and leaving his wife behind he set off for
Berlin accompanied only by a few servants. From the novella ‘Michael Kohlhaas’; first published in 1810.Pearl • August 2019 41the woman's lap amid much rejoicing, the elector,
reaching into his pocket and adding a gold piece to the
pile, asked her whether the greeting she would give to
me had such a silvery sound to it as his. After opening a
box that stood beside her and laboriously arranging the
money in it according to denomination and quantity
and locking the box again, the woman held her hand
against the sun as if it annoyed her and looked at me;
and when I repeated the question and, jokingly, while
she was examining my hand, said to the elector that she
seemed to have nothing very agreeable to announce, she
grabbed her crutches, raised herself slowly with their
aid from the stool, and pressing close to me with hands
mysteriously held out, she whispered, loud enough to
hear, in my ear, “No!” – “Really!” I uttered, in some
confusion, and drew a step back from the figure who
with a cold and lifeless look, as though from eyes of
marble, sat down once more on the stool behind her;
“from what quarter does danger threaten my house?”
‘The woman, taking a piece of charcoal and a paper
and crossing her knees, asked whether she should write
it down for me; and when, truly embarrassed, because
in the circumstances, not knowing what else to do, I
answered, “Yes, do that”, she replied “Very well then. I
will write down three things for you: the name of the
last ruler of your house, the year in which he will lose
his kingdom, and the name of the person who by force
of arms will seize it from him.” This done, and in full
view of all the people, she rose, sealed the slip of the
paper with a glue which she moistened on her parched
lips and pressed upon it a leaden signet ring she wore on
her middle finger. And when, more curious, as you can
easily understand, than words can describe, I made to
grasp the paper, she uttered, “By no means, your
highness", adding as she turned round and raised one of
her crutches, “from that man yonder who with the
plumed hat is standing behind all the people on the
bench at the church entrance, from him, if you please,
you may get the paper.”
‘And with that, before I had rightly made out what
she was saying, she left me standing in the square,
speechless with astonishment; and packing up the box
that stood behind her and hoisting it over her back, she
went in among the crowd of people surrounding us so
that I could no longer see what else she did.
‘Just then, to my profound relief, the knight whom
the elector had sent to the castle returned and reported
with a broad smile that the roebuck had been slaugh-
tered and had been dragged into the kitchen by two
hunters before his eyes. The elector, merrily linking
arms with me with the intention of leading me away
from the square, said, “Well, well, the prophecy was a
commonplace swindle and not worth the time and gold
it has cost us.” But how great was our astonishment
when, even while these words were being spoken, a cry
went up around the whole square, and all eyes turned
towards a huge butcher’s dog trotting our way from the
direction of the castle and which, having seized the
roebuck in the kitchen by the neck as good spoil and,
chased by servants and maids, dropped it on the ground
some three paces from us. Thus the woman’s prophecy,
as a pledge for the truth of everything that she uttered,
was really fulfilled and the roebuck, although dead, had
come to meet us at the marketplace.
‘Lightning falling from heaven on a winter's day
cannot be more devastating than this sight was to me,
and as soon as I had broken free of the company in
which I found myself, my first effort was immediately to
seek out the man with the plumed hat whom the woman
had pointed out to me. But none of my people, sent out
continually for three days to gather information, was
able to give me even the slightest bit of news concerning
this man. And now, my friend, a few weeks ago in the
dairy farm at Dahme, I saw the man with my own eyes.’
With these words at he let go of the chamberlain's
hand and, wiping the perspiration from his brow, sank
back on his bed.
The chamberlain, who considered it a wasted effort
to contradict and correct the elector’s view of the
incident by his own, urged him to try by all means to get
hold of the slip of paper and thereafter to leave the
fellow to his fate; but the elector replied that he simply
could see no way to achieve this even though the
thought of going without the slip of paper or, worse, of
seeing the knowledge go down with this man, was
driving him to brink of misery and despair. To his
friend’s question as to whether he had made any
attempts to locate the gypsy woman herself, the elector
replied that the government, pursuant to an order he
had issued under a false pretext, had to this very day
been searching throughout the electorate to find this
woman and so far in vain, whereby, for reasons which
he, however, refused to elaborate, he doubted very
much that she was to be found anywhere in Saxony.
Now it happened that the chamberlain wished to
travel to Berlin to attend to several sizeable properties
in Neumark bequeathed to his wife by the recently
deposed and, shortly thereafter, deceased Count
Kallheim, the former grand chancellor; and seeing that
he had a great affection for the elector, he asked him,
after a moment’s reflection, if he would be willing to
give him a free hand in this matter, and when the
elector, warmly pressing the chamberlain’s hand to his
heart, replied, ‘Put yourself in my place and get me the
paper!’ And so, after entrusting his business to other
hands, the chamberlain brought forward his departure
by a few days and leaving his wife behind he set off for
Berlin accompanied only by a few servants. From the novella ‘Michael Kohlhaas’; first published in 1810.