"So thought the nobles before the unlucky war of the peasants," said Tausdorf, "and Germany was turned into a desert by it."
"Don't take it ill, Tausdorf," returned Netz; "in other respects you may be a brave knight; but if we were to follow your maxims, we should all be forced to fly the cities."
Tausdorf shrugged up his shoulders at their incorrigible stubbornness, when Rasselwitz burst into the room, his face glowing with rage, and asked furiously, "Is not Francis Friend here?"
"He was here a quarter of an hour ago," replied Netz; "perhaps you may yet find him at doctor Heidenreich's."
"I am in no humour to hunt after the rascal any longer," roared Rasselwitz. "This is the day whereon he promised to give up the horse to me. I have already beat up his quarters, but found him abroad, and the stable locked."
"He does not intend to give up the horse to you. He has openly and loudly declared as much here."
"We'll soon see that," cried Rasselwitz furiously. "I'll ask his wife for the stable-key, and if she refuses it, I'll break the door open, and fetch out the animal by force. Will you join me?"
"Of course," replied Netz and Bieler.
"And you, Herr von Tausdorf?" said Netz. "A brave companion like you, will you not run the hazard with us?"
"I do not like such disputes," replied Tausdorf, gravely: "they too often degenerate into frays, wherein more honour is to be lost than gained. Besides, it seems to me that the right is not on your side. If you really have any well-grounded pretensions to the horse, an appeal to the courts would be a better way of proceeding than this forcible violation of another's property, which sets you in the class of feud-makers and agitators."