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Volume 1
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Title:  The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck - Volume 1

Author:  Baron Trenck

Translator:  Thomas Holcroft

June, 2001  [Etext #2668]


The Project Gutenberg Etext Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck
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Hughes and Roland Chapman.





LIFE AND ADVENTURE OF BARON TRENCK - VOLUME 1




TRANSLATED BY THOMAS HOLCROFT




INTRODUCTION.



There were two cousins Von der Trenck, who were barons descended
from an ancient house in East Prussia, and were adventurous
soldiers, to whom, as to the adventurous, there were adventures that
lost nothing in the telling, for they were told by the authors' most
admiring friends--themselves.  Franz, the elder, was born in 1711,
the son of an Austrian general; and Frederick, whose adventures are
here told, was the son of a Prussian major-general.  Franz, at the
age of seventeen, fought duels, and cut off the head of a man who
refused to lend him money.  He stood six feet three inches in his
shoes, knocked down his commanding officer, was put under arrest,
offered to pay for his release by bringing in three Turks' heads
within an hour, was released on that condition, and actually brought
in four Turks' heads.  When afterwards cashiered, he settled on his
estates in Croatia, and drilled a thousand of his tenantry to act as
"Pandours" against the banditti.  In 1740, he served with his
Pandours under Maria Theresa, and behaved himself as one of the more
brutal sort of banditti.  He offered to capture Frederick of
Prussia, and did capture his tent.  Many more of his adventures are
vaingloriously recounted by himself in the Memoires du Baron Franz
de Trenck, published at Paris in 1787.  This Trenck took poison when
imprisoned at Gratz, and died in October, 1747, at the age of
thirty-six.

His cousin Frederick is the Trenck who here tells a story of himself
that abounds in lively illustration of the days of Frederick the
Great.  He professes that Frederick the King owed him a grudge,
because Frederick the Trenck had, when eighteen years old,
fascinated the Princess Amalie at a ball.  But as Frederick the
Greater was in correspondence with his cousin Franz at the time when
that redoubtable personage was planning the seizure of Frederick the
Great, there may have been better ground for the Trenck's arrest
than he allows us to imagine.  Mr. Carlyle shows that Frederick von
der Trenck had been three months in prison, and was still in prison,
at the time of the battle of the Sohr, in which he professes to have
been engaged.  Frederick von der Trenck, after his release from
imprisonment in 1763, married a burgomaster's daughter, and went
into business as a wine merchant.  Then he became adventurous again.
His adventures, published in German in 1786-7, and in his own French
version in 1788, formed one of the most popular books of its time.
Seven plays were founded on them, and ladies in Paris wore their
bonnets a la Trenck.  But the French finally guillotined the author,
when within a year of threescore and ten, on the 26th of July, 1794.
He had gone to Paris in 1792, and joined there in the strife of
parties.  At the guillotine he struggled with the executioner.

H.M.



THE LIFE OF BARON TRENCK.



CHAPTER I.

I was born at Konigsberg in Prussia, February 16, 1726, of one of
the most ancient families of the country.  My father, who was lord
of Great Scharlach, Schakulack, and Meichen, and major-general of
cavalry, died in 1740, after receiving eighteen wounds in the
Prussian service.  My mother was daughter of the president of the
high court at Konigsberg.  After my father's death she married Count
Lostange, lieutenant-colonel in the Kiow regiment of cuirassiers,
with whom she went and resided at Breslau.  I had two brothers and a
sister; my youngest brother was taken by my mother into Silesia; the
other was a cornet in this last-named regiment of Kiow; and my
sister was married to the only son of the aged General Valdow.

My ancestors are famous in the Chronicles of the North, among the
ancient Teutonic knights, who conquered Courland, Prussia, and
Livonia.

By temperament I was choleric, and addicted to pleasure and
dissipation; my tutors found this last defect most difficult to
overcome; happily, they were aided by a love of knowledge inherent
in me, an emulative spirit, and a thirst for fame, which disposition
it was my father's care to cherish.  A too great consciousness of
innate worth gave me a too great degree of pride, but the endeavours
of my instructor to inspire humility were not all lost; and habitual
reading, well-timed praise, and the pleasures flowing from science,
made the labours of study at length my recreation.

My memory became remarkable; I am well read in the Scriptures, the
classics, and ancient history; was acquainted with geography; could
draw; learnt fencing, riding, and other necessary exercises.

My religion was Lutheran; but morality was taught me by my father,
and by the worthy man to whose care he committed the forming of my
heart, whose memory I shall ever hold in veneration.  While a boy, I
was enterprising in all the tricks of boys, and exercised my wit in
crafty excuses; the warmth of my passions gave a satiric, biting
cast to my writings, whence it has been imagined, by those who knew
but little of me, I was a dangerous man; though, I am conscious,
this was a false judgment.

A soldier himself, my father would have all his sons the same; thus,
when we quarrelled, we terminated our disputes with wooden sabres,
and, brandishing these, contested by blows for victory, while our
father sat laughing, pleased at our valour and address.  This
practice, and the praises he bestowed, encouraged a disposition
which ought to have been counteracted.

Accustomed to obtain the prize, and be the hero of scholastic
contentions, I acquired the bad habit of disputation, and of
imagining myself a sage when little more than a boy.  I became
stubborn in argument.; hasty to correct others, instead of patiently
attentive:  and, by presumption, continually liable to incite
enmity.  Gentle to my inferiors, but impatient of contradiction, and
proud of resisting power, I may hence date, the origin of all my
evils.

How might a man, imbued with the heroic principles of liberty, hope
for advancement and happiness, under the despotic and iron
Government of Frederic?  I was taught neither to know nor to avoid,
but to despise the whip of slavery.  Had I learnt hypocrisy, craft,
and meanness, I had long since become field-marshal, had been in
possession of my Hungarian estates, and had not passed the best
years of my life in the dungeons of Magdeburg.  I was addicted to no
vice:  I laboured in the cause of science, honour, and virtue; kept
no vicious company; was never in the whole of my life intoxicated;
was no gamester, no consumer of time in idleness nor brutal
pleasures; but devoted many hundred laborious nights to studies that
might make me useful to my country; yet was I punished with a
severity too cruel even for the most worthless, or most villanous.

I mean, in my narrative, to make candour and veracity my guides, and
not to conceal my failings; I wish my work may remain a moral lesson
to the world.  Yet it is an innate satisfaction that I am conscious
of never having acted with dishonour, even to the last act of this
distressful tragedy.

I shall say little of the first years of my life, except that my
father took especial care of my education, and sent me, at the age
of thirteen, to the University of Konigsberg, where, under the
tuition of Kowalewsky, my progress was rapid.  There were fourteen
other noblemen in the same house, and under the same master.

In the year following, 1740, I quarrelled with one young Wallenrodt,
a fellow-student, much stronger than myself, and who, despising my
weakness, thought proper to give me a blow.  I demanded
satisfaction.  He came not to the appointed place, but treated my
demand with contempt; and I, forgetting all further respect,
procured a second, and attacked him in open day.  We fought, and I
had the fortune to wound him twice; the first time in the arm, the
second in the hand.

This affair incited inquiry:- Doctor Kowalewsky, our tutor, laid
complaints before the University, and I was condemned to three
hours' confinement; but my grandfather and guardian, President
Derschau, was so pleased with my courage, that he took me from this
house and placed me under Professor Christiani.

Here I first began to enjoy full liberty, and from this worthy man I
learnt all I know of experimental philosophy and science.  He loved
me as his own son, and continued instructing me till midnight.
Under his auspices, in 1742, I maintained, with great success, two
public theses, although I was then but sixteen; an effort and an
honour till then unknown.

Three days after my last public exordium, a contemptible fellow
sought a quarrel with me, and obliged me to draw in my own defence,
whom, on this occasion, I wounded in the groin.

This success inflated my valour, and from that time I began to
assume the air and appearance of a Hector.

Scarcely had a fortnight elapsed before I had another with a
lieutenant of the garrison, whom I had insulted, who received two
wounds in the contest.

I ought to remark, that at this time, the University of Konigsberg
was still highly privileged.  To send a challenge was held
honourable; and this was not only permitted, but would have been
difficult to prevent, considering the great number of proud, hot-
headed, and turbulent nobility from Livonia, Courland, Sweden,
Denmark, and Poland, who came thither to study, and of whom there
were more than five hundred.  This brought the University into
disrepute, and endeavours have been made to remedy the abuse.  Men
have acquired a greater extent of true knowledge, and have begun to
perceive that a University ought to be a place of instruction, and
not a field of battle; and that blood cannot be honourably shed,
except in defence of life or country.

In November, 1742, the King sent his adjutant-general, Baron Lottum,
who was related to my mother, to Konigsberg, with whom I dined at my
grandfather's.  He conversed much with me, and, after putting
various questions, purposely, to discover what my talents and
inclinations were, he demanded, as if in joke, whether I had any
inclination to go with him to Berlin, and serve my country, as my
ancestors had ever done:  adding that, in the army, I should find
much better opportunities of sending challenges than at the
University.  Inflamed with the desire of distinguishing myself, I
listened with rapture to the proposition, and in a few days we
departed for Potzdam.

On the morrow after my arrival, I was presented to the King, as
indeed I had before been in the year 1740, with the character of
being, then, one of the most hopeful youths of the University.  My
reception was most flattering; the justness of my replies to the
questions he asked, my height, figure, and confidence, pleased him;
and I soon obtained permission to enter as a cadet in his body
guards, with a promise of quick preferment.

The body guards formed, at this time, a model and school for the
Prussian cavalry; they consisted of one single squadron of men
selected from the whole army, and their uniform was the most
splendid in all Europe.  Two thousand rix-dollars were necessary to
equip an officer:  the cuirass was wholly plated with silver; and
the horse, furniture, and accoutrements alone cost four hundred rix-
dollars.

This squadron only contained six officers and a hundred and forty-
four men; but there were always fifty or sixty supernumeraries, and
as many horses, for the King incorporated all the most handsome men
he found in the guards.  The officers were the best taught of any
the army contained; the King himself was their tutor, and he
afterwards sent them to instruct the cavalry in the manoeuvres they
had learnt.  Their rise was rapid if they behaved well; but they
were broken for the least fault, and punished by being sent to
garrison regiments.  It was likewise necessary they should be
tolerably rich, as well as possess such talents as might be
successfully employed, both at court and in the army.

There are no soldiers in the world who undergo so much as this body
guard; and during the time I was in the service of Frederic, I often
had not eight hours' sleep in eight days.  Exercise began at four in
the morning, and experiments were made of all the alterations the
King meant to introduce in his cavalry.  Ditches of three, four,
five, six feet, and still wider, were leaped, till that someone
broke his neck; hedges, in like manner, were freed, and the horses
ran careers, meeting each other full speed in a kind of lists of
more than half a league in length.  We had often, in these our
exercises, several men and horses killed or wounded.

It happened more frequently than otherwise that the same experiments
were repeated after dinner with fresh horses; and it was not
uncommon, at Potzdam, to hear the alarm sounded twice in a night.
The horses stood in the King's stables; and whoever had not dressed,
armed himself, saddled his horse, mounted, and appeared before the
palace in eight minutes, was put under arrest for fourteen days.

Scarcely were the eyes closed before the trumpet again sounded, to
accustom youth to vigilance.  I lost, in one year, three horses,
which had either broken their legs, in leaping ditches, or died of
fatigue.

I cannot give a stronger picture of this service than by saying that
the body guard lost more men and horses in one year's peace than
they did, during the following year, in two battles.

We had, at this time, three stations; our service, in the winter,
was at Berlin, where we attended the opera, and all public
festivals:  in the spring we were exercised at Charlottenberg; and
at Potzdam, or wherever the King went, during the summer.  The six
officers of the guard dined with the King, and, on gala days, with
the Queen.  It may be presumed there was not at that time on earth a
better school to form an officer and a man of the world than was the
court of Berlin.

I had scarcely been six weeks a cadet before the King took me aside,
one day, after the parade, and having examined me near half an hour,
on various subjects, commanded me to come and speak to him on the
morrow.

His intention was to find whether the accounts that had been given
him of my memory had not been exaggerated; and that he might be
convinced, he first gave me the names of fifty soldiers to learn by
rote, which I did in five minutes.  He next repeated the subjects of
two letters, which I immediately composed in French and Latin; the
one I wrote, the other I dictated.  He afterwards ordered me to
trace, with promptitude, a landscape from nature, which I executed
with equal success; and he then gave me a cornet's commission in his
body guards.

Each mark of bounty from the monarch increased an ardour already
great, inspired me with gratitude, and the first of my wishes was to
devote my whole life to the service of my King and country.  He
spoke to me as a Sovereign should speak, like a father, like one who
knew well how to estimate the gifts bestowed on me by nature; and
perceiving, or rather feeling, how much he might expect from me,
became at once my instructor and my friend.

Thus did I remain a cadet only six weeks, and few Prussians can
vaunt, under the reign of Frederic, of equal good fortune.

The King not only presented me with a commission, but equipped me
splendidly for the service.  Thus did I suddenly find myself a
courtier, and an officer in the finest, bravest, and best
disciplined corps in Europe.  My good fortune seemed unlimited,
when, in the month of August, 1743, the King selected me to go and
instruct the Silesian cavalry in the new manoeuvres:  an honour
never before granted to a youth of eighteen.

I have already said we were garrisoned at Berlin during winter,
where the officers' table was at court:  and, as my reputation had
preceded me, no person whatever could be better received there, or
live more pleasantly.

Frederic commanded me to visit the literati, whom he had invited to
his court:  Maupertuis, Jordan, La Mettrie, and Pollnitz, were all
my acquaintance.  My days were employed in the duties of an officer,
and my nights in acquiring knowledge.  Pollnitz was my guide, and
the friend of my heart.  My happiness was well worthy of being
envied.  In 1743, I was five feet eleven inches in height, and
Nature had endowed me with every requisite to please.  I lived, as I
vainly imagined, without inciting enmity or malice, and my mind was
wholly occupied by the desire of earning well-founded fame.

I had hitherto remained ignorant of love, and had been terrified
from illicit commerce by beholding the dreadful objects of the
hospital at Potzdam.  During the winter of 1743, the nuptials of his
Majesty's sister were celebrated, who was married to the King of
Sweden, where she is at present Queen Dowager, mother of the
reigning Gustavus.  I, as officer of my corps, had the honour to
mount guard and escort her as far as Stettin.  Here first did my
heart feel a passion of which, in the course of my history, I shall
have frequent occasion to speak.  The object of my love was one whom
I can only remember at present with reverence; and, as I write not
romance, but facts, I shall here briefly say, ours were mutually the
first-fruits of affection, and that to this hour I regret no
misfortune, no misery, with which, from a stock so noble, my destiny
was overshadowed.

Amid the tumult inseparable to occasions like these, on which it was
my duty to maintain order, a thief had the address to steal my
watch, and cut away part of the gold fringe which hung from the
waistcoat of my uniform, and afterwards to escape unperceived.  This
accident brought on me the raillery of my comrades; and the lady
alluded to thence took occasion to console me, by saying it should
be her care that I should be no loser.  Her words were accompanied
by a look I could not misunderstand, and a few days after I thought
myself the happiest of mortals.  The name, however, of this high-
born lady is a secret, which must descend with me to the grave; and,
though my silence concerning this incident heaves a void in my life,
and indeed throws obscurity over a part of it, which might else be
clear, I would much rather incur this reproach than become
ungrateful towards my best friend and benefactress.  To her
conversation, to her prudence, to the power by which she fixed my
affections wholly on herself, am I indebted for the improvement and
polishing of my bodily and mental qualities.  She never despised,
betrayed, or abandoned me, even in the deepest of my distress; and
my children alone, on my death-bed, shall be taught the name of her
to whom they owe the preservation of their father, and consequently
their own existence.

I lived at this time perfectly happy at Berlin, and highly esteemed.
The King took every opportunity to testify his approbation; my
mistress supplied me with more money than I could expend; and I was
presently the best equipped, and made the greatest figure, of any
officer in the whole corps.  The style in which I lived was
remarked, for I had only received from my father's heritage the
estate of Great Scharlach; the rent of which was eight hundred
dollars a year, which was far from sufficient to supply my then
expenses.  My amour, in the meantime, remained a secret from my best
and most intimate friends.  Twice was my absence from Potzdam and
Charlottenberg discovered, and I was put under arrest; but the King
seemed satisfied with the excuse I made, under the pretext of having
been hunting, and smiled as he granted my pardon.

Never did the days of youth glide away with more apparent success
and pleasure than during these my first years at Berlin.  This good
fortune was, alas, of short duration.  Many are the incidents I
might relate, but which I shall omit.  My other adventures are
sufficiently numerous, without mingling such as may any way seem
foreign to the subject.  In this gloomy history of my life, I wish
to paint myself such as I am; and, by the recital of my sufferings,
afford a memorable example to the world, and interest the heart of
sensibility.  I would also show how my fatal destiny has deprived my
children of an immense fortune; and, though I want a hundred
thousand men to enforce and ensure my rights, I will leave
demonstration to my heirs that they are incontestable.



CHAPTER II.



In the beginning of September, 1744, war again broke out between the
Houses of Austria and Prussia.  We marched with all speed towards
Prague, traversing Saxony without opposition.  I will not relate in
this place what the great Frederic said to us, with evident emotion,
when surrounded by all his officers, on the morning of our departure
from Potzdam.

Should any one be desirous of writing the lives of him and his
opponent, Maria Theresa, without flattery and without fear, let him
apply to me, and I will relate anecdotes most surprising on this
subject, unknown to all but myself, and which never must appear
under my own name.

All monarchs going to war have reason on their side; and the
churches of both parties resound with prayers, and appeals to Divine
Justice, for the success of their arms.  Frederic, on this occasion,
had recourse to them with regret, of which I was a witness.

If I am not mistaken, the King's army came before Prague on the 14th
of September, and that of General Schwerin, which had passed through
Silesia, arrived the next day on the other side of the Moldau.  In
this position we were obliged to wait some days for pontoons,
without which we could not establish a communication between the two
armies.

The height called Zischka, which overlooks the city, being guarded
only by a few Croats, was instantly seized, without opposition, by
some grenadiers, and the batteries, erected at the foot of that
mountain, being ready on the fifth day, played with such success on
the old town with bombs and red-hot balls that it was set on fire.
The King made every effort to take the city before Prince Charles
could bring his army from the Rhine to its relief.

General Harsh thought proper to capitulate, after a siege of twelve
days, during which not more than five hundred men of the garrison,
at the utmost, were killed and wounded, though eighteen thousand men
were made prisoners.

Thus far we had met with no impediment.  The Imperial army, however,
under the command of Prince Charles of Lorraine, having quitted the
banks of the Rhine, was advancing to save Bohemia.

During this campaign we saw the enemy only at a distance; but the
Austrian light troops being thrice as numerous as ours, prevented us
from all foraging.  Winter was approaching, dearth and hunger made
Frederic determine to retreat, without the least hope from the
countries in our rear, which we had entirely laid waste as we had
advanced.  The severity of the season, in the month of November,
rendered the soldiers excessively impatient of their hardships; and,
accustomed to conquer, the Prussians were ashamed of and repined at
retreat:  the enemy's light troops facilitated desertion, and we
lost, in a few weeks, above thirty thousand men.  The pandours of my
kinsman, the Austrian Trenck, were incessantly at our heels, gave us
frequent alarms, did us great injury, and, by their alertness, we
never could make any impression upon them with our cannon.  Trenck
at length passed the Elbe, and went and burnt and destroyed our
magazines at Pardubitz:  it was therefore resolved wholly to
evacuate Bohemia.

The King hoped to have brought Prince Charles to the battle between
Benneschan and Kannupitz, but in vain:  the Saxons, during the
night, had entered a battery of three-and-twenty cannon on a mound
which separated two ponds:  this was the precise road by which the
King meant to make the attack.

Thus were we obliged to abandon Bohemia.  The dearth, both for man
and horse, began to grow extreme.  The weather was bad; the roads
and ruts were deep; marches were continual, and alarms and attacks
from the enemy's light troops became incessant.  The discontent all
these inspired was universal, and this occasioned the great loss of
the army.

Under such circumstances, had Prince Charles continued to harass us,
by persuading us into Silesia, had he made a winter campaign,
instead of remaining indolently at ease in Bohemia, we certainly
should not have vanquished him, the year following, at Strigau; but
he only followed at a distance, as far as the Bohemian frontiers.
This gave Frederic time to recover, and the more effectually because
the Austrians had the imprudence to permit the return of deserters.

This was a repetition of what had happened to Charles XII. when he
suffered his Russian prisoners to return home, who afterwards so
effectually punished his contempt of them at the battle of Pultawa.

Prague was obliged to be abandoned, with considerable loss; and
Trenck seized on Tabor, Budweis, and Frauenberg, where he took
prisoners the regiments of Walrabe Kreutz.

No one would have been better able to give a faithful history of
this campaign than myself, had I room in this place, and had I at
that time been more attentive to things of moment; since I not only
performed the office of adjutant to the King, when he went to
reconnoitre, or choose a place of encampment, but it was, moreover,
my duty to provide forage for the headquarters.  The King having
only permitted me to take six volunteers from the body guard, to
execute this latter duty, I was obliged to add to them horse
chasseurs, and hussars, with whom I was continually in motion.  I
was peculiarly fortunate on two occasions, by happening to come
after the enemy when they had left loaded waggons and forage
bundles.

I seldom passed the night in my tent during this campaign, and my
indefatigable activity obtained the favour and entire confidence of
Frederic.  Nothing so much contributed to inspire me with emulation
as the public praises I received, and my enthusiasm wished to
perform wonders.  The campaign, however, but ill supplied me with
opportunities to display my youthful ardour.

At length no one durst leave the camp, notwithstanding the extremity
of the dearth, because of the innumerable clouds of pandours and
hussars that hovered everywhere around.

No sooner were we arrived in Silesia, than the King's body guard
were sent to Berlin, there to remain in winter quarters.

I should not here have mentioned the Bohemian war, but that, while
writing time history of my life, I ought not to omit accidents by
which my future destiny was influenced.

One day, while at Bennaschen, I was commanded out, with a detachment
of thirty hussars and twenty chasseurs, on a foraging party.  I had
posted my hussars in a convent, and gone myself, with the chasseurs,
to a mansion-house, to seize the carts necessary for the conveyance
of the hay and straw from a neighbouring farm.  An Austrian
lieutenant of hussars, concealed with thirty-six horsemen in a wood,
having remarked the weakness of my escort, taking advantage of the
moment when my people were all employed in loading the carts, first
seized our sentinel, and then fell suddenly upon them, and took them
all prisoners in the very farm-yard.  At this moment I was seated at
my ease, beside the lady of the mansion-house, and was a spectator
of the whole transaction through the window.

I was ashamed of and in despair at my negligence.  The kind lady
wished to hide me when the firing was heard in the farm-yard.  By
good fortune, the hussars, whom I had stationed in the convent, had
learnt from a peasant that there was an Austrian detachment in the
wood:  they had seen us at a distance enter the farmyard, hastily
marched to our aid, and we had not been taken more than two minutes
before they arrived.  I cannot express the pleasure with which I put
myself at their head.  Some of the enemy's party escaped through a
back door, but we made two-and-twenty prisoners, with a lieutenant
of the regiment of Kalnockichen.  They had two men killed, and one
wounded; and two also of my chasseurs were hewn down by the sabre,
in the hay-loft, where they were at work.

We continued our forage with more caution after this accident:  the
horses we had taken served, in part, to draw the carts; and, after
raising a contribution of one hundred and fifty ducats on the
convent, which I distributed among the soldiers to engage them to
silence, we returned to the army, from which we were distant about
two leagues.

We heard firing as we marched, and the foragers on all sides were
skirmishing with the enemy.  A lieutenant and forty horse joined me;
yet, with this reinforcement, I durst not return to the camp,
because I learned we were in danger from more than eight hundred
pandours and hussars, who were in the plain.  I therefore determined
to take a long, winding, but secret route, and had the good fortune
to come safe to quarters with my prisoners and five-and-twenty
loaded carts.  The King was at dinner when I entered his tent.
Having been absent all night, it was imagined I had been taken, that
accident having happened the same day to many others.

The instant I entered, the King demanded if I returned singly.  "No,
please your Majesty," answered I; "I have brought five-and-twenty
loads of forage, and two-and-twenty prisoners, with their officer
and horses."

The King then commanded me to sit down, and turning himself towards
the English ambassador, who was near him, said, laying his hand on
my shoulder, "C'est un Matador de ma jeunesse."

A reconnoitring party was, at the same moment, in waiting before his
tent:  he consequently asked me few questions, and to those he did
ask, I replied trembling.  In a few minutes he rose from the table,
gave a glance at the prisoners, hung the Order of Merit round my
neck, commanded me to go and take repose, and set off with his
party.

It is easy to conceive the embarrassment of my situation; my
unpardonable negligence deserved that I should have been broken,
instead of which I was rewarded; an instance, this, of the great
influence of chance on the affairs of the world.  How many generals
have gained victories by their very errors, which have been
afterwards attributed to their genius! It is evident the sergeant of
hussars, who retook me and my men by bringing up his party, was much
better entitled than myself to the recompense I received.  On many
occasions have I since met with disgrace and punishment when I
deserved reward.  My inquietude lest the truth should be discovered,
was extreme, especially recollecting how many people were in the
secret:  and my apprehensions were incessant.

As I did not want money, I gave the sergeants twenty ducats each,
and the soldiers one, in order to insure their silence, which, being
a favourite with them, they readily promised.  I, however, was
determined to declare the truth the very first opportunity, and this
happened a few days after.

We were on our march, and I, as cornet, was at the head of my
company, when the King, advancing, beckoned me to come to him, and
bade me tell him exactly how the affair I had so lately been engaged
in happened.

The question at first made me mistrust I was betrayed, but remarking
the King had a mildness in his manner, I presently recovered myself,
and related the exact truth.  I saw the astonishment of his
countenance, but I at the same time saw he was pleased with my
sincerity.  He spoke to me for half an hour, not as a King, but as a
father, praised my candour, and ended with the following words,
which, while life remains, I shall never forget:  "Confide in the
advice I give you; depend wholly upon me, and I will make you a
man."  Whoever can feel, may imagine how infinitely my gratitude
towards the King was increased, by this his great goodness; from
that moment I had no other desire than to live and die for his
service.

I soon perceived the confidence the King had in me after this
explanation, of which I received very frequent marks, the following
winter, at Berlin.  He permitted me to be present at his
conversations with the literati of his court, and my state was truly
enviable.

I received this same winter more than five hundred ducats as
presents.  So much happiness could not but excite jealousy, and this
began to be manifest on every side.  I had too little disguise for a
courtier, and my heart was much too open and frank.

Before I proceed, I will here relate an incident which happened
during the last campaign, and which will, no doubt, be read in the
history of Frederic.

On the rout while retreating through Bohemia, the King came to
Kollin, with his horse-guards, the cavalry piquets of the head-
quarters, and the second and third battalions of guards.  We had
only four field pieces, and our squadron was stationed in one of the
suburbs.  Our advance posts, towards evening, were driven back into
the town, and the hussars entered pell-mell:  the enemy's light
troops swarmed over the country, and my commanding officer sent me
immediately to receive the King's orders.  After much search, I
found him at the top of a steeple, with a telescope in his hand.
Never did I see him so disturbed or undecided as on this occasion.
Orders were immediately given that we should retreat through the
city, into the opposite suburb, where we were to halt, but not
unsaddle.

We had not been here long before a most heavy rain fell, and the
night became exceedingly dark.  My cousin Trenck made his approach
about nine in the evening, with his pandour and janissary music, and
set fire to several houses.  They found we were in the suburb, and
began to fire upon us from the city windows.  The tumult became
extreme:  the city was too full for us to re-enter:  the gate was
shut, and they fired from above at us with our field-pieces.  Trenck
had let in the waters upon us, and we were up to the girths by
midnight, and almost in despair.  We lost seven men, and my horse
was wounded in the neck.

The King, and all of us, had certainly been made prisoners had my
cousin, as he has since told me, been able to continue the assault
he had begun:  but a cannon ball having wounded him in the foot, he
was carried off, and the pandours retired.  The corps of Nassau
arrived next day to our aid; we quitted Kollin, and during the march
the King said to me, "Your cousin had nearly played us a malicious
prank last night, but the deserters say he is killed."  He then
asked what our relationship was, and there our conversation ended.



CHAPTER III.



It was about the middle of December when we came to Berlin, where I
was received with open arms.  I became less cautious than formerly,
and, perhaps, more narrowly observed.  A lieutenant of the foot
guards, who was a public Ganymede, and against whom I had that
natural antipathy and abhorrence I have for all such wretches,
having indulged himself in some very impertinent jokes on the secret
of my amour, I bestowed on him the epithet he deserved:  we drew our
swords, and he was wounded.  On the Sunday following I presented
myself to pay my respects to his Majesty on the parade, who said to
me as he passed, "The storm and the thunder shall rend your heart;
beware!" {1}  He added nothing more.

Some little time after I was a few minutes too late on the parade;
the King remarked it, and sent me, under arrest, to the foot-guard
at Potzdam.  When I had been here a fortnight, Colonel Wartensleben
came, and advised me to petition for pardon.  I was then too much a
novice in the modes of the court to follow his counsel, nor did I
even remark the person who gave it me was himself a most subtle
courtier.  I complained bitterly that I had so long been deprived of
liberty, for a fault which was usually punished by three, or, at
most, six days' arrest.  Here accordingly I remained.

Eight days after, the King being come to Potzdam, I was sent by
General Bourke to Berlin, to carry some letters, but without having
seen the King.  On my return I presented myself to him on the
parade; and as our squadron was garrisoned at Berlin, I asked, "Does
it please your Majesty that I should go and join my corps?"  "Whence
came you?" answered he.  "From Berlin."  "And where were you before
you went to Berlin?"  "Under arrest."  "Then under arrest you must
remain!"

I did not recover my liberty till three days before our departure
for Silesia, towards which we marched, with the utmost speed, in the
beginning of May, to commence our second campaign.

Here I must recount an event which happened that winter, which
became the source of all my misfortunes, and to which I must entreat
my readers will pay the utmost attention; since this error, if
innocence can be error, was the cause that the most faithful and the
best of subjects became bewildered in scenes of wretchedness, and
was the victim of misery, from his nineteenth to the sixtieth year
of his age.  I dare presume that this true narrative, supported by
testimonies the most authentic, will fully vindicate my present
honour and my future memory.

Francis, Baron of Trenck, was the son of my father's brother,
consequently my cousin german.  I shall speak, hereafter, of the
singular events of his life.  Being a commander of pandours in the
Austrian service, and grievously wounded at Bavaria, in the year
1743, he wrote to my mother, informing her he intended me, her
eldest son, for his universal legatee.  This letter, to which I
returned no answer, was sent to me at Potzdam.  I was so satisfied
with my situation, and had such numerous reasons so to be,
considering the kindness with which the King treated me, that I
would not have exchanged my good fortune for all the treasures of
the Great Mogul.

On the 12th of February, 1744, being at Berlin, I was in company
with Captain Jaschinsky, commander of the body guard, the captain of
which ranks as colonel in the army, together with Lieutenant
Studnitz, and Cornet Wagnitz.  The latter was my field comrade, and
is at present commander-general of the cavalry of Hesse Cassel.  The
Austrian Trenck became the subject of conversation, and Jaschinsky
asked if I were his kinsman.  I answered, yes, and immediately
mentioned his having made me his universal heir.  "And what answer
have you returned?" said Jaschinsky.--"None at all."

The whole company then observed that, in a case like the present, I
was much to blame not to answer; that the least I could do would be
to thank him for his good wishes, and entreat a continuance of them.
Jaschinsky further added, "Desire him to send you some of his fine
Hungarian horses for your own use, and give me the letter; I will
convey it to him, by means of Mr. Bossart, legation counsellor of
the Saxon embassy; but on condition that you will give me one of the
horses.  This correspondence is a family, and not a state affair; I
will make myself responsible for the consequences."

I immediately took my commander's advice, and began to write; and
had those who suspected me thought proper to make the least inquiry
into these circumstances, the four witnesses who read what I wrote
could have attested my innocence, and rendered it indubitable.  I
gave my letter open to Jaschinsky, who sealed and sent it himself.

I must omit none of the incidents concerning this letter, it being
the sole cause of all my sufferings.  I shall therefore here relate
an event which was the first occasion of the unjust suspicions
entertained against me.

One of my grooms, with two led horses, was, among many others, taken
by the pandours of Trenck.  When I returned to the camp, I was to
accompany the King on a reconnoitring party.  My horse was too
tired, and I had no other:  I informed him of my embarrassment, and
his Majesty immediately made me a present of a fine English courser.

Some days after, I was exceedingly astonished to see my groom
return, with my two horses, and a pandour trumpeter, who brought me
a letter, containing nearly the following words:-

"The Austrian Trenck is not at war with the Prussian Trenck, but, on
the contrary, is happy to have recovered his horses from his
hussars, and to return them to whom they first belonged," &c.

I went the same day to pay my respects to the King, who, receiving
me with great coldness, said, "Since your cousin has returned your
own horses, you have no more need of mine."

There were too many who envied me to suppose these words would
escape repetition.  The return of the horses seems infinitely to
have increased that suspicion Frederic entertained against me, and
therefore became one of the principal causes of my misfortunes:  it
is for this reason that I dwell upon this and suchlike small
incidents, they being necessary for my own justification, and, were
it possible, for that of the King.  My innocence is, indeed, at
present universally acknowledged by the court, the army, and the
whole nation; who all mention the injustice I suffered with pity,
and the fortitude with which it was endured with surprise.

We marched for Silesia, to enter on our second campaign:  which, to
the Prussians, was as bloody and murderous as it was glorious.

The King's head-quarters were fixed at the convent of Kamentz, where
we rested fourteen days, and the army remained in cantonments.
Prince Charles, instead of following us into Bohemia, had the
imprudence to occupy the plain of Strigau, and we already concluded
his army was beaten.  Whoever is well acquainted with tactics, and
the Prussian manoeuvres, will easily judge, without the aid of
calculation or witchcraft, whether a well or ill-disciplined army,
in an open plain, ought to be victorious.

The army hastily left its cantonments, and in twenty-four hours was
in order of battle; and on the 14th of June, eighteen thousand
bodies lay stretched on the plain of Strigau.  The allied armies of
Austria and Saxony were totally defeated.

The body guard was on the right; and previous to the attack, the
King said to our squadron, "Prove today, my children, that you are
my body guard, and give no Saxon quarter."

We made three attacks on the cavalry, and two on the infantry.
Nothing could withstand a squadron like this, which for men, horses,
courage, and experience, was assuredly the first in the world.  Our
corps alone took seven standards and five pairs of colours, and in
less than an hour the affair was over.

I received a pistol shot in my right hand, my horse was desperately
wounded, and I was obliged to change him on the third charge.  The
day after the battle all the officers were rewarded with the Order
of Merit.  For my own part, I remained four weeks among the wounded,
at Schweidnitz, where there were sixteen thousand men under the
torture of the army surgeons, many of whom had not their wounds
dressed till the third day.

I was near three months before I recovered the use of my hand:  I
nevertheless rejoined my corps, continued to perform my duty, and as
usual accompanied the King when he went to reconnoitre.  For some
time past he had placed confidence in me, and his kindness towards
me continually increased, which raised my gratitude even to
enthusiasm.

I also performed the service of adjutant during this campaign, a
circumstantial account of which no person is better enabled to write
than myself, I having been present at all that passed.  I was the
scholar of the greatest master the art of war ever knew, and who
believed me worthy to receive his instructions; but the volume I am
writing would be insufficient to contain all that personally relates
to myself.

I must here mention an adventure that happened at this time, and
which will show the art of the great Frederic in forming youth for
his service, and devotedly attaching them to his person.

I was exceedingly fond of hunting, in which, notwithstanding it was
severely forbidden, I indulged myself.  I one day returned, laden
with pheasants; but judge my astonishment and fears when I saw the
army had decamped, and that it was with difficulty that I could
overtake the rear-guard.

In this my distress, I applied to an officer of hussars, who
instantly lent me his horse, by the aid of which I rejoined my
corps, which always marched as the vanguard.  Mounting my own horse,
I tremblingly rode to the head of my division, which it was my duty
to precede.  The King, however, had remarked my absence, or rather
had been reminded of it by my superior officer, who, for some time
past, had become my enemy.

Just as the army halted to encamp, the King rode towards me, and
made a signal for me to approach, and, seeing my fears in my
countenance, said, "What, are you just returned from hunting?"
"Yes, your Majesty.  I hope--"  Here interrupting me, he added,
"Well, well, for this time, I shall take no further notice,
remembering Potzdam; but, however, let me find you more attentive to
your duty."

So ended this affair, for which I deserved to have been broken.  I
must remind my readers that the King meant by the words remembering
Potzdam, he remembered I had been punished too severely the winter
before, and that my present pardon was intended as a compensation.

This was indeed to think and act greatly; this was indeed the true
art of forming great men:  an art much more effectual than that of
ferocious generals, who threaten subalterns with imprisonment and
chains on every slight occasion; and, while indulging all the
rigours of military law, make no distinction of minds or of men.
Frederic, on the contrary, sometimes pardoned the failings of
genius, while mechanic souls he mechanically punished, according to
the very letter of the laws of war.

I shall further remark, the King took no more notice of my late
fault, except that sometimes, when I had the honour to dine with
him, he would ridicule people who were too often at the chase, or
who were so choleric that they took occasion to quarrel for the
least trifle.

The campaign passed in different manoeuvres, marches, and
countermarches.  Our corps was the most fatigued, as being encamped
round the King's tent, the station of which was central, and as
likewise having the care of the vanguard; we were therefore obliged
to begin our march two hours sooner than the remainder of the army,
that we might be in our place.  We also accompanied the King
whenever he went to reconnoitre, traced the lines of encampment, led
the horse to water, inspected the head-quarters, and regulated the
march and encampment, according to the King's orders; the
performance of all which robbed us of much rest, we being but six
officers to execute so many different functions.

Still further, we often executed the office of couriers, to bear the
royal commands to detachments.  The King was particularly careful
that the officers of his guards, whom he intended should become
excellent in the art of tactics, should not be idle in his school.
It was necessary to do much in order that much might be learnt.
Labour, vigilance, activity, the love of glory and the love of his
country, animated all his generals; into whom, it may be said, he
infused his spirit.

In this school I gained instruction, and here already was I selected
as one designed to instruct others; yet, in my fortieth year, a
great general at Vienna told me, "My dear Trenck, our discipline
would be too difficult for you to learn; for which, indeed, you are
too far advanced in life."  Agreeable to this wise decision was I
made an Austrian invalid, and an invalid have always remained; a
judgment like this would have been laughed at, most certainly, at
Berlin.

If I mistake not, the famous battle of Soor, or Sorau, was fought on
the 14th day of September.  The King had sent so many detachments
into Saxony, Bohemia, and Silesia, that the main army did not
consist of more than twenty-five thousand men.  Neglecting advice,
and obstinate in judging his enemy by numbers, and not according to
the excellence of discipline, and other accidents, Prince Charles,
blind to the real strength of the Prussian armies, had enclosed this
small number of Pomeranian and Brandenburg regiments, with more than
eighty-six thousand men, intending to take them all prisoners.

It will soon be seen from my narrative with what kind of secrecy his
plan was laid and executed.

The King came into my tent about midnight; as he also did into that
of all the officers, to awaken them; his orders were, "Secretly to
saddle, leave the baggage in the rear, and that the men should stand
ready to mount at the word of command."

Lieutenant Studnitz and myself attended the King, who went in
person, and gave directions through the whole army; meantime, break
of day was expected with anxiety.

Opposite the defile through which the enemy was to march to the
attack eight field-pieces were concealed behind a hill.  The King
must necessarily have been informed of the whole plan of the
Austrian general, for he had called in the advanced posts from the
heights, that he might lull him into security, and make him imagine
we should be surprised in the midst of sleep.

Scarcely did break of day appear before the Austrian artillery,
situated upon the heights, began to play upon our camp, and their
cavalry to march through the defile to the attack.

As suddenly were we in battle array; for in less than ten minutes we
ourselves began the attack, notwithstanding the smallness of our
number, the whole army only containing five regiments of cavalry.
We fell with such fury upon the enemy (who at this time were wholly
employed in forming their men at the mouth of the defile, and that
slowly, little expecting so sudden and violent a charge), that we
drove them back into the defile, where they pressed upon each other
in crowds; the King himself stood ready to unmask his eight field-
pieces, and a dreadful and bloody slaughter ensued in this narrow
place; from which the enemy had not the power to retreat.  This
single incident gained the battle, and deceived all time hopes of
Prince Charles.

Nadasti, Trenck, and the light troops, sent to attack our rear, were
employed in pillaging the camp.  The ferocious Croats met no
opposition, while this their error made our victory more secure.  It
deserves to be noticed that, when advice was brought to the King
that the enemy had fallen upon and were plundering the camp, his
answer was, "So much the better; they have found themselves
employment, and will be no impediment to our main design."

Our victory was complete, but all our baggage was lost; the
headquarters, utterly undefended, were totally stripped; and Trenck
had, for his part of the booty, the King's tent and his service of
plate.

I have mentioned this circumstance here, because that, in the year
1740, my cousin Trenck, having fallen into the power of his enemies,
who had instituted a legal, process against him, was accused, by
some villanous wretches, of having surprised the King in bed at the
battle of Sorau, and of having afterwards released him for a bribe.

What was still worse, they hired a common woman, a native of Brunn,
who pretended she was the daughter of Marshal Schwerin, to give in
evidence that she herself was with the King when Trenck entered his
tent, whom he immediately made prisoner, and as immediately
released.

To this part of the prosecution I myself, an eye-witness, can
answer:  the thing was false and impossible.  He was informed of the
intended attack.  I accompanied the watchful King from midnight till
four in the morning, which time he employed in riding through the
camp, and making the necessary preparations to receive the enemy;
and the action began at five.  Trenck could not take the King in
bed, for the battle was almost gained when he and his pandours
entered the camp and plundered the head-quarters.

As for the tale of Miss Schwerin, it is only fit to be told by
schoolboys, or examined by the Inquisition, and was very unworthy of
making part of a legal prosecution against an innocent man at
Vienna.

This incident, however, is so remarkable that I shall give in this
work a farther account of my kinsman, and what was called his
criminal process, at reading which the world will be astonished.  My
own history is so connected with his that this is necessary, and the
more so because there are many ignorant or wicked people at Vienna,
who believe, or affirm, Trenck had actually taken the King of
Prussia prisoner.

Never yet was there a traitor of the name of Trenck; and I hope to
prove, in the clearest manner, the Austrian Trenck as faithfully
served the Empress-Queen as the Prussian Trenck did Frederic, his
King.  Maria Theresa, speaking to me of him some time after his
death, and the snares that had been laid for him, said, "Your
kinsman has made a better end than will be the fate of his accusers
and judges."

Of this more hereafter:  I approach that epoch when my misfortunes
began, and when the sufferings of martyrdom attended me from youth
onward till my hairs grew grey.



CHAPTER IV.



A few days after the battle of Sorau, the usual camp postman brought
me a letter from my cousin Trenck, the colonel of pandours,
antedated at Effek four months, of which the following is a copy:-

"Your letter, of the 12th of February, from Berlin, informs me you
desire to have some Hungarian horses.  On these you would come and
attack me and my pandours.  I saw with pleasure, during the last
campaign, that the Prussian Trenck was a good soldier; and that I
might give you some proofs of my attachment, I then returned the
horses which my men had taken.  If, however, you wish to have
Hungarian horses, you must take mine in like manner from me in the
field of battle:  or, should you so think fit, come and join one who
will receive you with open arms, like his friend and son, and who
will procure you every advantage you can desire," &c.

At first I was terrified at reading this letter, yet could not help
smiling.  Cornet Wagenitz, now general in chief of the Hesse Cassel
forces, and Lieutenant Grotthausen, both now alive, and then
present, were my camp comrades.  I gave them the letter to read, and
they laughed at its contents.  It was determined to show it to our
superior officer, Jaschinsky, on a promise of secrecy, and it was
accordingly shown him within an hour after it was received.

The reader will be so kind as to recollect that, as I have before
said, it was this Colonel Jaschinsky who on the 12th of February,
the same year, at Berlin, prevailed on me to write to the Austrian
Trenck, my cousin; that he received the letter open, and undertook
to send it according to its address; also that, in this letter, I in
jest had asked him to send me some Hungarian horses, and, should
they come, had promised one to Jaschinsky.  He read the letter with
an air of some surprise; we laughed, and, it being whispered through
the army that, in consequence of our late victory, detached corps
would be sent into Hungary, Jaschinsky said, "We shall now go and
take Hungarian horses for ourselves."  Here the conversation ended,
and I, little suspecting future consequences, returned to my tent.

I must here remark the following observations:-

1st.  I had not observed the date of the letter brought by the
postman, which, as I have said, was antedated four months:  this,
however, the colonel did not fail to remark.

2ndly.  The probability is that this was a net, spread for me by
this false and wicked man.  The return of my horses, during the
preceding campaign, had been the subject of much conversation.  It
is possible he had the King's orders to watch me; but more probably
he only prevailed on me to write that he might entrap me by a
fictitious answer.  Certain it is, my cousin Trenck, at Vienna,
affirmed to his death he never received any letter from me,
consequently never could send any answer.  I must therefore conclude
this letter was forged.

Jaschinsky was at this time one of the King's favourites; his spy
over the army; a tale-bearer; an inventor of wicked lies and
calumnies.  Some years after the event of which I am now speaking,
the King was obliged to break and banish him the country.

He was then also the paramour of the beauteous Madame Brossart, wife
of the Saxon resident at Berlin, and there can be little doubt but
that this false letter was, by her means, conveyed to some Saxon or
Austrian post-office, and thence, according to its address, sent to
me.  He had daily opportunities of infusing suspicions into the
King's mind concerning me; and, unknown to me, of pursuing his
diabolical plan.

I must likewise add he was four hundred ducats indebted to me.  At
that time I had always a plentiful supply of money.  This booty
became his own when I, unexamined, was arrested, and thrown into
prison.  In like manner he seized on the greatest part of my camp
equipage.

Further, we had quarrelled during our first campaign, because he had
beaten one of my servants; we even were proceeding to fight with
pistols, had not Colonel Winterfield interfered, and amicably ended
our quarrel.  The Lithuanian is, by nature, obstinate and
revengeful; and, from that day, I have reason to believe he sought
my destruction.

God only knows what were the means he took to excite the King's
suspicious; for it is incredible that Frederic, considering his
WELL-KNOWN PROFESSIONS of public justice, should treat me in the
manner he did, without a hearing, without examination, and without a
court-martial.  This to me has ever remained a mystery, which the
King alone was able to explain; he afterwards was convinced I was
innocent:  but my sufferings had been too cruel, and the miseries he
had inflicted too horrible, for me ever to hope for compensation.

In an affair of this nature, which will soon he known to all Europe,
as it long has been in Prussia, the weakest is always guilty.  I
have been made a terrible example to this our age, how true that
maxim is in despotic States.

A man of my rank, having once unjustly suffered, and not having the
power of making his sufferings known, must ever be highly rewarded
or still more unjustly punished.  My name and injuries will ever
stain the annals of Frederic THE GREAT; even those who read this
book will perhaps suppose that I, from political motives of hope or
fear, have sometimes concealed truth by endeavouring to palliate his
conduct.

It must ever remain incomprehensible that a monarch so clear-
sighted, himself the daily witness of my demeanour, one well
acquainted with mankind, and conscious I wanted neither money,
honour, nor hope of future preferment; I say it is incomprehensible
that he should really suppose me guilty.  I take God to witness, and
all those who knew me in prosperity and misfortune, I never
harboured a thought of betraying my country.  How was it possible to
suspect me?  I was neither madman nor idiot.  In my eighteenth year
I was a cornet of the body guard, adjutant to the King, and
possessed his favour and confidence in the highest degree.  His
presents to me, in one year, amounted to fifteen hundred dollars.  I
kept seven horses, four men in livery; I was valued, distinguished,
and beloved by the mistress of my soul.  My relations held high
offices, both civil and military; I was even fanatically devoted to
my King and country, and had nothing to wish.

That I should become thus wretched, in consequence of this
unfortunate letter, is equally wonderful:  it came by the public
post.  Had there been any criminal correspondence, my kinsman
certainly would not have chosen this mode of conveyance; since, it
is well known, all such letters are opened; nor could I act more
openly.  My colonel read the letter I wrote; and also that which I
received, immediately after it was brought.

The day after the receipt of this letter I was, as I have before
said, unheard, unaccused, unjudged, conducted like a criminal from
the army, by fifty hussars, and imprisoned in the fortress of Glatz.
I was allowed to take three horses, and my servants, but my whole
equipage was left behind, which I never saw more, and which became
the booty of Jaschinsky.  My commission was given to Cornet
Schatzel, and I cashiered without knowing why.  There were no legal
inquiries made:  all was done by the King's command.

Unhappy people! where power is superior to law, and where the
innocent and the virtuous meet punishment instead of reward.
Unhappy land! where the omnipotent "SUCH IS OUR WILL" supersedes all
legal sentence, and robs the subject of property, life, and honour.

I once more repeat I was brought to the citadel of Glatz; I was not,
however, thrown into a dungeon, but imprisoned in a chamber of the
officer of the guard; was allowed my servants to wait on me, and
permitted to walk on the ramparts.

I did not want money, and there was only a detachment from the
garrison regiment in the citadel of Glatz, the officers of which
were all poor.  I soon had both friends and freedom, and the rich
prisoner every day kept open table.

He only who had known me in this the ardour of my youth, who had
witnessed how high I aspired, and the fortune that attended me at
Berlin, can imagine what my feelings were at finding myself thus
suddenly cast from my high hopes.

I wrote submissively to the King, requesting to be tried by a court-
martial, and not desiring any favour should I be found guilty.  This
haughty tone, in a youth, was displeasing, and I received no answer,
which threw me into despair, and induced me to use every possible
means to obtain my liberty.

My first care was to establish, by the intervention of an officer, a
certain correspondence with the object of my heart.  She answered,
she was far from supposing I had ever entertained the least thought
treacherous to my country; that she knew, too well, I was perfectly
incapable, of dissimulation.  She blamed the precipitate anger and
unjust suspicions of the King; promised me speedy aid, and sent me a
thousand ducats.

Had I, at this critical moment, possessed a prudent and intelligent
friend, who could have calmed my impatience, nothing perhaps might
have been more easy than to have obtained pardon from the King, by
proving my innocence; or, it may be, than to have induced him to
punish my enemies.

But the officers who then were at Glatz fed the flame of discontent.
They supposed the money I so freely distributed came all from
Hungary, furnished by the pandour chest; and advised me not to
suffer my freedom to depend upon the will of the King, but to enjoy
it in his despite.

It was not more easy to give this advice than to persuade a man to
take it, who, till then, had never encountered anything but good
fortune, and who consequently supported the reverse with impatience.
I was not yet, however, determined; because I could not yet resolve
to abandon my country, and especially Berlin.

Five months soon passed away in prison:  peace was concluded; the
King was returned to his capital; my commission in the guards was
bestowed on another, when Lieutenant Piaschky, of the regiment of
Fouquet, and Ensign Reitz, who often mounted guard over me, proposed
that they and I should escape together.  I yielded; our plan was
fixed, and every preparatory step taken.

At that time there was another prisoner at Glatz, whose name was
Manget, by birth a Swiss, and captain of cavalry in the Natzmerschen
hussars; he had been broken, and condemned by a court-martial to ten
years' imprisonment, with an allowance of only four rix-dollars per
month.

Having done this man kindness, I was resolved to rescue him from
bondage, at the same time that I obtained freedom for myself.  I
communicated my design, and made the proposal, which was accepted by
him, and measures were taken; yet were we betrayed by this vile man,
who thus purchased pardon and liberty.

Piaschky, who had been informed that Reitz was arrested, saved
himself by deserting.  I denied the fact in presence of Manget, with
whom I was confronted, and bribed the Auditor with a hundred ducats.
By this means Reitz only suffered a year's imprisonment, and the
loss of his commission.  I was afterwards closely confined in a
chamber, for having endeavoured to corrupt the King's officers, and
was guarded with greater caution.

Here I will interrupt my narrative, for a moment, to relate an
adventure which happened between me and this Captain Manget, three
years after he had thus betrayed me--that is to say, in 1749, at
Warsaw.

I there met him by chance, and it is not difficult to imagine what
was the salutation he received.  I caned him; he took this ill, and
challenged me to fight with pistols.  Captain Heucking, of the
Polish guards, was my second.  We both fired together; I shot him
through the neck at the first shot, and he fell dead on the field.

He alone, of all my enemies, ever died by my own hand; and he well
merited his end, for his cowardly treachery towards the two brave
fellows of whom I have spoken; and still more so with respect to
myself, who had been his benefactor.  I own, I have never reproached
myself for this duel, by which I sent a rascal out of the world.

I return to my tale.  My destiny at Glatz was now become more
untoward and severe.  The King's suspicions were increased, as
likewise was his anger, by this my late attempt to escape.

Left to myself, I considered my situation in the worst point of
view, and determined either on flight or death.  The length and
closeness of my confinement became insupportable to my impatient
temper.

I had always had the garrison on my side, nor was it possible to
prevent my making friends among them.  They knew I had money, and,
in a poor garrison regiment, the officers of which are all
dissatisfied, having most of them been drafted from other corps, and
sent thither as a punishment, there was nothing that might not be
undertaken.

My scheme was as follows:- My window looked towards the city, and
was ninety feet from the ground in the tower of the citadel, out of
which I could not get, without having found a place of refuge in the
city.

This an officer undertook to procure me, and prevailed on an honest
soap-boiler to grant me a hiding place.  I then notched my pen-
knife, and sawed through three iron bars; but this mode was too
tedious, it being necessary to file away eight bars from my window,
before I could pass through; another officer therefore procured me a
file, which I was obliged to use with caution, lest I should be
overheard by the sentinels.

Having ended this labour, I cut my leather portmanteau into thongs,
sewed them end to end, added the sheets of my bed, and descended
safely from this astonishing height.

It rained, the night was dark, and all seemed fortunate, but I had
to wade through moats full of mud, before I could enter the city, a
circumstance I had never once considered.  I sank up to the knees,
and after long struggling, and incredible efforts to extricate
myself, I was obliged to call the sentinel, and desire him to go and
tell the governor, Trenck was stuck fast in the moat.

My misfortune was the greater on this occasion, because that General
Fouquet was then governor of Glatz.  He was one of the cruellest of
men.  He had been wounded by my father in a duel; and the Austrian
Trenck had taken his baggage in 1744, and had also laid the country
of Glatz under contribution.  He was, therefore, an enemy to the
very name of Trenck; nor did he lose any opportunity of giving
proofs of his enmity, and especially on the present occasion, when
he left me standing in the mire till noon, the sport of the
soldiers.  I was then drawn out, half dead, only again to be
imprisoned, and shut up the whole day, without water to wash me.  No
one can imagine how I looked, exhausted and dirty, my long hair
having fallen into the mud, with which, by my struggling, it was
loaded.

I remained in this condition till the next day, when two fellow-
prisoners were sent to assist and clean me.

My imprisonment now became more intolerable.  I had still eighty
louis-d'ors in my purse, which had not been taken from me at my
removal into another dungeon, and these afterwards did me good
service.

The passions soon all assailed me at once, and impetuous, boiling,
youthful blood overpowered reason; hope disappeared; I thought
myself the most unfortunate of men, and my King an irreconcileable
judge, more wrathful and more fortified in suspicion by my own
rashness.  My nights were sleepless, my days miserable; my soul was
tortured by the desire of fame; a consciousness of innocence was a
continued stimulus inciting me to end my misfortunes.  Youth,
inexperienced in woe and disastrous fate, beholds every evil
magnified, and desponds on every new disappointment, more especially
after having failed in attempting freedom.  Education had taught me
to despise death, and these opinions had been confirmed by my friend
La Mettrie, author of the famous work, "L'Homme Machine," or "Man a
Machine."

I read much during my confinement at Glatz, where books were allowed
me; time was therefore less tedious; but when the love of liberty
awoke, when fame and affection called me to Berlin, and my baulked
hopes painted the wretchedness of my situation; when I remembered
that my loved country, judging by appearances, could not but
pronounce me a traitor; then was I hourly impelled to rush on the
naked bayonets of my guards, by whom, to me, the road of freedom was
barred.

Big with such-like thoughts, eight days had not elapsed since my
last fruitless attempt to escape, when an event happened which would
appear incredible, were I, the principal actor in the scene, not
alive to attest its truth, and might not all Glatz and the Prussian
garrison be produced as eye and ear witnesses.  This incident will
prove that adventurous, and even rash, daring will render the most
improbable undertakings possible, and that desperate attempts may
often make a general more fortunate and famous than the wisest and
best concerted plans.

Major Doo {2} came to visit me, accompanied by an officer of the
guard, and an adjutant.  After examining every corner of my chamber,
he addressed me, taxing me with a second crime in endeavouring to
obtain my liberty; adding this must certainly increase the anger of
the King.

My blood boiled at the word crime; he talked of patience; I asked
him how long the King had condemned me to imprisonment; he answered,
a traitor to his country, who has correspondence with the enemy,
cannot be condemned for a certain time, but must depend for grace
and pardon on the King.

At that instant I snatched his sword from his side, on which my eyes
had some time been fixed, sprang out of the door, tumbled the
sentinel from the top to the bottom of the stairs, passed the men
who happened to be drawn up before the prison door to relieve the
guard, attacked them sword in hand, threw them suddenly into
surprise by the manner in which I laid about me, wounded four of
them, made way through the rest, sprang over the breastwork of the
ramparts, and, with my sword drawn in my hand, immediately leaped
this astonishing height without receiving the least injury.  I
leaped the second wall with equal safety and good fortune.  None of
their pieces were loaded; no one durst leap after me, and in order
to pursue, they must go round through the town and gate of the
citadel; so that I had the start full half an hour.

A sentinel, however, in a narrow passage, endeavoured to oppose my
flight, but I parried his fixed bayonet, and wounded him in the
face.  A second sentinel, meantime, ran from the outworks, to seize
me behind, and I, to avoid him, made a spring at the palisadoes;
there I was unluckily caught by the foot, and received a bayonet
wound in the upper lip; thus entangled, they beat me with the butt-
end of their muskets, and dragged me back to prison, while I
struggled and defended myself like a man grown desperate.

Certain it is, had I more carefully jumped the palisadoes, and
despatched the sentinel who opposed me, I might have escaped, and
gained the mountains.  Thus might I have fled to Bohemia, after
having, at noonday, broken from the fortress of Glatz, sprung past
all its sentinels, over all its walls, and passed with impunity, in
despite of the guard, who were under arms, ready to oppose me.  I
should not, having a sword, have feared any single opponent, and was
able to contend with the swiftest runners.

That good fortune which had so far attended me forsook me at the
palisadoes, where hope was at an end.  The severities of
imprisonment were increased; two sentinels and an under officer were
locked in with me, and were themselves guarded by sentinels without;
I was beaten and wounded by the butt-ends of their muskets, my right
foot was sprained, I spat blood, and my wounds were not cured in
less than a month.



CHAPTER V.



I was now first informed that the King had only condemned me to a
year's imprisonment, in order to learn whether his suspicions were
well founded.  My mother had petitioned for me, and was answered,
"Your son must remain a year imprisoned, as a punishment for his
rash correspondence."

Of this I was ignorant, and it was reported in Glatz that my
imprisonment was for life.  I had only three weeks longer to repine
for the loss of liberty, when I made this rash attempt.  What must
the King think?  Was he not obliged to act with this severity?  How
could prudence excuse my impatience, thus to risk a confiscation,
when I was certain of receiving freedom, justification, and honour,
in three weeks?  But, such was my adverse fate, circumstances all
tended to injure and persecute me, till at length I gave reason to
suppose I was a traitor, notwithstanding the purity of my
intentions.

Once more, then, was I in a dungeon, and no sooner was I there than
I formed new projects of flight.  I first gained the intimacy of my
guards.  I had money, and this, with the compassion I had inspired,
might effect anything among discontented Prussian soldiers.  Soon
had I gained thirty-two men, who were ready to execute, on the first
signal, whatever I should command.  Two or three excepted, they were
unacquainted with each other; they consequently could not all be
betrayed at a time:  had chosen the sub-officer Nicholai to head
them.

The garrison consisted only of one hundred and twenty men from the
garrison regiment, the rest being dispersed in the county of Glatz,
and four officers, their commanders, three of whom were in my
interest.  Everything was prepared; swords and pistols were
concealed in the oven which was in my prison.  We intended to give
liberty to all the prisoners, and retire with drums beating into
Bohemia.

Unfortunately, an Austrian deserter, to whom Nicholai had imparted
our design, went and discovered our conspiracy.  The governor
instantly sent his adjutant to the citadel, with orders that the
officer on guard should arrest Nicholai, and, with his men, take
possession of the casement.

Nicholai was on the guard, and the lieutenant was my friend, and
being in the secret, gave the signal that all was discovered.
Nicholai only knew all the conspirators, several of whom that day
were on guard.  He instantly formed his resolution, leaped into the
casement, crying, "Comrades, to arms, we are betrayed!"  All
followed to the guard-house, where they seized on the cartridges,
the officer having only eight men, and threatening to fire on
whoever should offer resistance, came to deliver me from prison; but
the iron door was too strong, and the time too short for that to be
demolished.  Nicholai, calling to me, bid me aid them, but in vain:
and perceiving nothing more could be done for me, this brave man,
heading nineteen others, marched to the gate of the citadel, where
there was a sub-officer and ten soldiers, obliged these to accompany
him, and thus arrived safely at Braunau, in Bohemia; for, before the
news was spread through the city, and men were collected for the
pursuit, they were nearly half-way on their journey.

Two years after I met with this extraordinary man at Ofenbourg,
where hue was a writer:  he entered immediately into my service, and
became my friend, but died some months after of a burning fever, at
my quarters in Hungary, at which I was deeply grieved, for his
memory will be ever dear to me.

Now was I exposed to all the storms of ill-fortune:  a prosecution
was entered against me as a conspirator, who wanted to corrupt the
officers and soldiers of the King.  They commanded me to name the
remaining conspirators; but to these questions I made no answer,
except by steadfastly declaring I was an innocent prisoner, an
officer unjustly broken; unjustly, because I had never been brought
to trial; that consequently I was released from all my engagements;
nor could it be thought extraordinary that I should avail myself of
that law of nature which gives every man a right to defend his
honour defamed, and seek by every possible means to regain his
liberty:  that such had been my sole purpose in every enterprise I
had formed, and such should still continue to be, for I was
determined to persist, till I should either be crowned with success,
or lose my life in the attempt.

Things thus remained:  every precaution was taken except that I was
not put in irons; it being a law in Prussia that no gentleman or
officer can be loaded with chains, unless he has first for some
crime been delivered over to the executioner; and certainly this had
not been my case.

The soldiers were withdrawn from my chamber; but the greatest ill
was I had expended all my money, and my kind mistress, at Berlin,
with whom I had always corresponded, and which my persecutors could
not prevent, at last wrote -


"My tears flow with yours; the evil is without remedy--I dare no
more--escape if you can.  My fidelity will ever be the same, when it
shall be possible for me to serve you.--Adieu, unhappy friend:  you
merit a better fate."


This letter was a thunderbolt:- my comfort, however, still was that
the officers were not suspected, and that it was their duty to visit
my chamber several times a day, and examine what passed:  from which
circumstance I felt my hopes somewhat revive.  Hence an adventure
happened which is almost unexampled in tales of knight-errantry.

A lieutenant, whose name was Bach, a Dane by nation, mounted guard
every fourth day, and was the terror of the whole garrison; for,
being a perfect master of arms, he was incessantly involved in
quarrels, and generally left his marks behind him.  He had served in
two regiments, neither of which would associate with him for this
reason, and he had been sent to the garrison regiment at Glatz as
punishment.

Bach one day, sitting beside me, related how, the evening before, he
had wounded a lieutenant, of the name of Schell, in the arm.  I
replied, laughing, "Had I my liberty, I believe you would find some
trouble in wounding me, for I have some skill in the sword."  The
blood instantly flew in his face; we split off a kind of pair of
foils from an old door, which had served me as a table, and at the
first lunge I hit him on the breast.

His rage became ungovernable, and he left the prison.  What was my
astonishment when, a moment after, I saw him return with two
soldiers' swords, which he had concealed under his coat.--"Now,
then, boaster, prove," said he, giving me one of them, "what thou
art able to do."  I endeavoured to pacify him, by representing the
danger, but ineffectually.  He attacked me with the utmost fury, and
I wounded him in the arm.

Throwing his sword down, he fell upon my neck, kissed me, and wept.
At length, after some convulsive emotions of pleasure, he said,
"Friend, thou art my master; and thou must, thou shalt, by my aid,
obtain thy liberty, as certainly as my name is Bach."  We bound up
his arm as well as we could.  He left me, and secretly went to a
surgeon, to have it properly dressed, and at night returned.

He now remarked, that it was humanly impossible I should escape,
unless the officer on guard should desert with me;--that he wished
nothing more ardently than to sacrifice his life in my behalf, but
that he could not resolve so far to forget his honour and duty to
desert, himself, while on guard:  he notwithstanding gave me his
word of honour he would find me such a person in a few days; and
that, in the meantime, he would prepare everything for my flight.

He returned the same evening, bringing with him Lieutenant Schell,
and as he entered said, "Here is your man."  Schell embraced me,
gave his word of honour, and thus was the affair settled, and as it
proved, my liberty ascertained.

We soon began to deliberate on the means necessary to obtain our
purpose.  Schell was just come from garrison at Habelchwert to the
citadel of Glatz, and in two days was to mount guard over me, till
when our attempt was suspended.  I have before said, I received no
more supplies from my beloved mistress, and my purse at that time
only contained some six pistoles.  It was therefore resolved that
Bach should go to Schweidnitz, and obtain money of a sure friend of
mine in that city.

Here must I inform the reader that at this period the officers and I
all understood each other, Captain Roder alone excepted, who was
exact, rigid, and gave trouble on all occasions.

Major Quaadt was my kinsman, by my mother's side, a good, friendly
man, and ardently desirous I should escape, seeing my calamities
were so much increased.  The four lieutenants who successively
mounted guard over me were Bach, Schroeder, Lunitz, and Schell.  The
first was the grand projector, and made all preparations; Schell was
to desert with me; and Schroeder and Lunitz three days after were to
follow.

No one ought to be surprised that officers of garrison regiments
should be so ready to desert.  They are, in general, either men of
violent passions, quarrelsome, overwhelmed with debts, or unfit for
service.  They are usually sent to the garrison as a punishment, and
are called the refuse of the army.  Dissatisfied with their
situation, their pay much reduced, and despised by the troops, such
men, expecting advantage, may be brought to engage in the most
desperate undertaking.  None of them can hope for their discharge,
and they live in the utmost poverty.  They all hoped by my means to
better their fortune, I always having had money enough; and, with
money, nothing is more easy than to find friends, in places where
each individual is desirous of escaping from slavery.

The talents of Schell were of a superior order; he spoke and wrote
six languages, and was well acquainted with all the fine arts.  He
had served in the regiment of Fouquet, had been injured by his
colonel, who was a Pomeranian; and Fouquet, who was no friend to
well-informed officers, had sent him to a garrison regiment.  He had
twice demanded his dismissal, but the King sent him to this species
of imprisonment; he then determined to avenge himself by deserting,
and was ready to aid me in recovering my freedom, that he might, by
that means, spite Fouquet.

I shall speak more hereafter of this extraordinary man, that I must
not in this place interrupt my story.  We determined everything
should be prepared against the first time Schell mounted guard, and
that our project should be executed on our next.  Thus, as he
mounted guard every four days, the eighth was to be that of our
flight.

The governor meantime had been informed how familiar I was become
with the officers, at which taking offence, he sent orders that my
door should no more be opened, but that I should receive my food
through a small window that had been made for the purpose.  The care
of the prison was committed to the major, and he was forbidden to
eat with me, under pain of being broken.

His precautions were ineffectual; the officers procured a false key,
and remained with me half the day and night.

Captain Damnitz was imprisoned in an apartment by the side of mine.
This man had deserted from the Prussian service, with the money
belonging to his company, to Austria, where he obtained a commission
in his cousin's regiment, who having prevailed on him to serve as a
spy, during the campaign of 1744, he was taken in the Prussian
territories, known, and condemned to be hanged.

Some Swedish volunteers, who were then in the army, interested
themselves in his behalf, and his sentence was changed to perpetual
imprisonment, with a sentence of infamy.

This wretch, who two years after, by the aid of his protectors, not
only obtained his liberty but a lieutenant-colonel's commission, was
the secret spy of the major over the prisoners; and he remarked
that, notwithstanding the express prohibition laid on the officers,
they still passed the greater part of their time in my company.

The 24th of December came, and Schell mounted guard.  He entered my
prison immediately, where he continued a long time, and we made our
arrangements for flight when he next should mount guard.

Lieutenant Schroeder that day dined with the governor, and heard
orders given to the adjutant that Schell should be taken from the
guard, and put under arrest.

Schroeder, who was in the secret, had no doubt but that we were
betrayed, not knowing that the spy Damnitz had informed the governor
that Schell was then in my chamber.

Schroeder, full of terror, came running to the citadel, and said to
Schell, "Save thyself, friend; all is discovered, and thou wilt
instantly be put under arrest."

Schell might easily have provided for his own safety, by flying
singly, Schroeder having prepared horses, on one of which he himself
offered to accompany him into Bohemia.  How did this worthy man, in
a moment so dangerous, act toward his friend?

Running suddenly into my prison, he drew a corporal's sabre from
under his coat, and said, "Friend, we are betrayed; follow me, only
do not suffer me to fall alive into the hands of my enemies."

I would have spoken:  but interrupting me, and taking me by the
hand, he added, "Follow me; we have not a moment to lose."  I
therefore slipped on my coat and boots, without having time to take
the little money I had left; and, as we went out of the prison,
Schell said to the sentinel, "I am taking the prisoner into the
officer's apartment; stand where you are."

Into this room we really went, but passed out at the other door.
The design of Schell was to go under the arsenal, which was not far
off, to gain the covered way, leap the palisadoes, and afterwards
escape after the best manner we might.

We had scarcely gone a hundred paces before we met the adjutant and
Major Quaadt.

Schell started back, sprang upon the rampart, and leaped from the
wall, which was there not very high.  I followed, and alighted
unhurt, except having grazed my shoulder.  My poor friend was not so
fortunate; having put out his ankle.  He immediately drew his sword,
presented it to me, and begged me to despatch him, and fly.  He was
a small, weak man:  but, far from complying with his request, I took
him in my arms, threw him over the palisadoes, afterwards got him on
my back, and began to run, without very well knowing which way I
went.



CHAPTER VI.



It may not be unnecessary to remark those fortunate circumstances
that favoured our enterprise.

The sun had just set as we took to flight; the hoar frost fell.  No
one would run the risk that we had done, by making so dangerous a
leap.  We heard a terrible noise behind us.  Everybody knew us; but
before they could go round the citadel, and through the town, in
order to pursue us, we had got a full half league.

The alarm guns were fired before we were a hundred paces distant; at
which my friend was very much terrified, knowing that in such cases
it was generally impossible to escape from Glatz, unless the
fugitives had got the start full two hours before the alarm guns
were heard; the passes being immediately all stopped by the peasants
and hussars, who are exceedingly vigilant.  No sooner is a prisoner
missed than the gunner runs from the guard-house, and fires the
cannon on the three sides of the fortress, which are kept loaded day
and night for that purpose.

We were not five hundred paces from the walls, when all before us
and behind us were in motion.  It was daylight when we leaped, yet
was our attempt as fortunate as it was wonderful:  this I attributed
to my presence of mind, and the reputation I had already acquired,
which made it thought a service of danger for two or three men to
attack me.

It was besides imagined we were well provided with arms for our
defence; and it was little suspected that Schell had only his sword,
and I an old corporal's sabre.

Among the officers commanded to pursue us was Lieutenant Bart, my
intimate friend.  Captain Zerbst, of the regiment of Fouquet, who
had always testified the kindness of a brother towards me, met us on
the Bohemian frontiers, and called to me, "Make to time left,
brother, and you will see some lone houses, which are on the
Bohemian confines:  the hussars have ridden straight forward."  He
then passed on as if he had not seen us.

We had nothing to fear from the officers; for the intimacy between
the Prussian officers was at that time so great, and the word of
honour so sacred, that during my rigorous detention at Glatz I had
been once six-and-thirty hours hunting at Neurode, at the seat of
Baron Stillfriede; Lunitz had taken my place in the prison, which
the major knew when he came to make his visit.  Hence may be
conjectured how great was the confidence in which the word of the
unfortunate Trenck was held at Glatz, since they did not fear
letting him leave his dungeon, and hunt on the very confines of
Bohemia.  This, too, shows the governor was deceived, in despite of
his watchfulness and order, and that a man of honour, with money,
and a good head and heart, will never want friends.

These my memoirs will be the picture of what the national character
then was; and will prove that, with officers who lived like
brothers, and held their words so sacred, the great Frederick well
might vanquish his enemies.

Arbitrary power has now introduced the whip of slavery, and mechanic
subordination has eradicated those noble and rational incitements to
concord and honour.  Instead of which, mistrust and slavish fear
having arisen, the enthusiastic spirit of the Brandenburg warrior
declines, and into this error have most of the other European States
fallen.

Scarcely had I borne my friend three hundred paces before I set him
down, and I looked round me, but darkness came on so fast that I
could see neither town nor citadel; consequently, we ourselves could
not be seen.

My presence of mind did not forsake me:  death or freedom was my
determination.  "Where are we, Schell?" said I to my friend.  "Where
does Bohemia lie? on which side is the river Neiss?"  The worthy man
could make no answer:  his mind was all confusion, and he despaired
of our escape:  he still, however, entreated I would not let him be
taken alive, and affirmed my labour was all in vain.

After having promised, by all that was sacred, I would save him from
an infamous death, if no other means were left, and thus raised his
spirits, he looked round, and knew, by some trees, we were not far
from the city gates.  I asked him, "Where is the Neiss?"  He pointed
sideways--"All Glatz has seen us fly towards the Bohemian mountains;
it is impossible we should avoid the hussars, the passes being all
guarded, and we beset with enemies."  So saying, I took him on my
shoulders, and carried him to the Neiss; here we distinctly heard
the alarm sounded in the villages, and the peasants, who likewise
were to form the line of desertion, were everywhere in motion, and
spreading the alarm.  As it may not be known to all my readers in
what manner they proceed on these occasions in Prussia, I will here
give a short account of it.

Officers are daily named on the parade whose duty it is to follow
fugitives as soon as the alarm-guns are fired.

The peasants in the villages, likewise, are daily appointed to rim
to the guard of certain posts.  The officers immediately fly to
these posts to see that the peasants do their duty, and prevent the
prisoner's escape.  Thus does it seldom happen that a soldier can
effect his escape unless he be, at the very least, an hour on the
road before the alarm-guns are fired.

I now return to my story.

I came to the Neiss, which was a little frozen, entered it with my
friend, and carried him as long as I could wade, and when I could
not feel the bottom, which did not continue for more than a space of
eighteen feet, he clung round me, and thus we got safely to the
other shore.

My father taught all his sons to swim, for which I have often had to
thank him; since by means of this art, which is easily learnt in
childhood, I had on various occasions preserved my life, and was
more bold in danger.  Princes who wish to make their subjects
soldiers, should have them educated so as to fear neither fire nor
water.  How great would be the advantage of being able to cross a
river with whole battalions, when it is necessary to attack or
retreat before the enemy, and when time will not permit to prepare
bridges!

The reader will easily suppose swimming in the midst of December,
and remaining afterwards eighteen hours in the open air, was a
severe hardship.  About seven o'clock the hoar-fog was succeeded by
frost and moonlight.  The carrying of my friend kept me warm, it is
true, but I began to be tired, while he suffered everything that
frost, the pain of a dislocated foot (which I in vain endeavoured to
reset), and the danger of death from a thousand hands, could
inflict.

We were somewhat more tranquil, however, having reached the opposite
shore of the Neiss, since nobody would pursue us on the road to
Silesia.  I followed the course of the river for half an hour, and
having once passed the first villages that formed the line of
desertion, with which Schell was perfectly acquainted, we in a lucky
moment found a fisherman's boat moored to the shore; into this we
leaped, crossed the river again, and soon gained the mountains.

Here being come, we sat ourselves down awhile on the snow; hope
revived in our hearts, and we held council concerning how it was
best to act.  I cut a stick to assist Schell in hopping forward as
well as he could when I was tired of carrying him; and thus we
continued our route, the difficulties of which were increased by the
mountain snows.

Thus passed the night; during which, up to the middle in snow, we
made but little way.  There were no paths to be traced in the
mountains, and they were in many places impassable.  Day at length
appeared:  we thought ourselves near the frontiers, which are twenty
English miles from Glatz, when we suddenly, to our great terror,
heard the city clock strike.

Overwhelmed, as we were, by hunger, cold, fatigue, and pain, it was
impossible we should hold out through the day.  After some
consideration, and another half-hour's labour, we came to a village
at the foot of the mountain, on the side of which, about three
hundred paces from us, we perceived two separate houses, which
inspired us with a stratagem that was successful.

We lost our hats in leaping the ramparts; but Schell had preserved
his scarf and gorget, which would give him authority among the
peasants.

I then cut my finger, rubbed the blood over my face, my shirt, and
my coat, and bound up my head, to give myself the appearance of a
man dangerously wounded.

In this condition I carried Schell to the end of the wood not far
from these houses; here he tied my hands behind my back, but so that
I could easily disengage them in ease of need:  and hobbled after
me, by aid of his staff, calling for help.

Two old peasants appeared, and Schell commanded them to run to the
village, and tell a magistrate to come immediately with a cart.  "I
have seized this knave," added he, "who has killed my horse, and in
the struggle I have put out my ankle; however, I have wounded and
bound him; fly quickly, bring a cart, lest he should die before he
is hanged."

As for me, I suffered myself to be led, as if half-dead, into the
house.  A peasant was despatched to the village.  An old woman and a
pretty girl seemed to take great pity on me, and gave me some bread
and milk:  but how great was our astonishment when the aged peasant
called Schell by his name, and told him he well knew we were
deserters, having the night before been at a neighbouring alehouse
where the officer in pursuit of us came, named and described us, and
related the whole history of our flight.  The peasant knew Schell,
because his son served in his company, and had often spoken of him
when he was quartered at Habelschwert.

Presence of mind and resolution were all that were now left.  I
instantly ran to the stable, while Schell detained the peasant in
the chamber.  He, however, was a worthy man, and directed him to the
road toward Bohemia.  We were still about some seven miles from
Glatz, having lost ourselves among the mountains, where we had
wandered many miles.  The daughter followed me:  I found three
horses in the stable, but no bridles.  I conjured her, in the most
passionate manner, to assist me:  she was affected, seemed half
willing to follow me, and gave me two bridles.  I led the horses to
the door, called Schell, and helped him, with his lame leg, on
horseback.  The old peasant then began to weep, and beg I would not
take his horses; but he luckily wanted courage, and perhaps the will
to impede us; for with nothing more than a dung-fork, in our then
feeble condition, he might have stopped us long enough to have
called in assistance from the village.

And now behold us on horseback, without hats or saddles; Schell with
his uniform scarf and gorget, and I in my red regimental coat.
Still we were in danger of seeing all our hopes vanish, for my horse
would not stir from the stable; however, at last, good horseman-
like, I made him move:  Schell led the way, and we had scarcely gone
a hundred paces, before we perceived the peasants coming in crowds
from the village.

As kind fortune would have it, the people were all at church, it
being a festival:  the peasants Schell had sent were obliged to call
aid out of church.  It was but nine in the morning; and had the
peasants been at home, we had been lost past redemption.

We were obliged to take the road to Wunshelburg, and pass through
the town where Schell had been quartered a month before, and in
which he was known by everybody.  Our dress, without hats or
saddles, sufficiently proclaimed we were deserters:  our horses,
however, continued to go tolerably well, and we had the good luck to
get through the town, although there was a garrison of one hundred
and eighty infantry, and twelve horse, purposely to arrest
deserters.  Schell knew the road to Brummem, where we arrived at
eleven o'clock, after having met, as I before mentioned, Captain
Zerbst.

He who has been in the same situation only can imagine, though he
never can describe, all the joy we felt.  An innocent man,
languishing in a dungeon, who by his own endeavours, has broken his
chains, and regained his liberty, in despite of all the arbitrary
power of princes, who vainly would oppose him, conceives in moments
like these such an abhorrence of despotism, that I could not well
comprehend how I ever could resolve to live under governments where
wealth, content, honour, liberty, and life all depend upon a
master's will, and who, were his intentions the most pure, could not
be able, singly, to do justice to a whole nation.

Never did I, during life, feel pleasure more exquisite than at this
moment.  My friend for me had risked a shameful death, and now,
after having carried him at least twelve hours on my shoulders, I
had saved both him and myself.  We certainly should not have
suffered any man to bring us, alive, back to Glatz.  Yet this was
but the first act of the tragedy of which I was doomed the hero, and
the mournful incidents of which all arose out of, and depended on,
each other.



CHAPTER VII.



Could I have read the book of fate, and have seen the forty years'
fearful afflictions that were to follow, I certainly should not have
rejoiced at this my escape from Glatz.  One year's patience might
have appeased the irritated monarch, and, taking a retrospect of all
that has passed, I now find it would have been a fortunate
circumstance, had the good and faithful Schell and I never met,
since he also fell into a train of misfortunes, which I shall
hereafter relate, and from which he could never extricate himself,
but by death.  The sufferings which I have since undergone will be
read with astonishment.

It is my consolation that both the laws of honour and nature justify
the action.  I may serve as an example of the fortitude with which
danger ought to be encountered, and show monarchs that in Germany,
as well as in Rome, there are men who refuse to crouch beneath the
yoke of despotism, and that philosophy and resolution are stronger
than even those lords of slaves, with all their threats, whips,
tortures, and instruments of death.

In Prussia, where my sufferings might have made me supposed the
worst of traitors, is my innocence universally acknowledged; and
instead of contempt, there have I gained the love of the whole
nation, which is the best compensation for all the ills I have
suffered, and for having persevered in the virtuous principles
taught me in my youth, persecuted as I have been by envy and
malicious power.  I have not time further to moralise; the numerous
incidents of my life would otherwise swell this volume to too great
an extent.

Thus in freedom at Braunau, on the Bohemian frontiers, I sent the
two horses, with the corporal's sword, back to General Fouquet, at
Glatz.  The letter accompanying them was so pleasing to him that all
the sentinels before my prison door, as well as the guard under
arms, and all those we passed, were obliged to run the gauntlet,
although the very day before he had himself declared my escape was
now rendered impossible.  He, however, was deceived; and thus do the
mean revenge themselves on the miserable, and the tyrant on the
innocent.

And now for the first time did I quit my country, and fly like
Joseph from the pit into which his false brethren had cast him; and
in this the present moment of joy for my escape, the loss even of
friends and country appeared to me the excess of good fortune.

The estates which had been purchased by the blood of my forefathers
were confiscated; and thus was a youth, of one of the noblest
families in the land, whose heart was all zeal for the service of
his King and country, and who was among those most capable to render
them service, banished by his unjust and misled King, and treated
like the worst of miscreants, malefactors, and traitors.

I wrote to the King, and sent him a true state of my case; sent
indubitable proofs of my innocence, and supplicated justice, but
received no answer.

In this the monarch may be justified, at least in my apprehension.
A wicked man had maliciously and falsely accused me; Colonel
Jaschinsky had made him suspect me for a traitor, and it was
impossible he should read my heart.  The first act of injustice had
been hastily committed; I had been condemned unheard, unjudged; and
the injustice that had been done me was known too late; Frederic the
Great found he was not infallible.  Pardon I would not ask, for I
had committed no offence; and the King would not probably own, by a
reverse of conduct, he had been guilty of injustice.  My resolution
increased his obstinacy:  but, in the discussion of the cause, our
power was very unequal.

The monarch once really loved me; he meant my punishment should only
be temporary, and as a trial of my fidelity.  That I had been
condemned to no more than a year's imprisonment had never been told
me, and was a fact I did not learn till long after.

Major Doo, who, as I have said, was the creature of Fouquet, a mean
and covetous man, knowing I had money, had always acted the part of
a protector as he pretended to me, and continually told me I was
condemned for life.  He perpetually turned the conversation on the
great credit of his general with the King, and his own great credit
with the general.  For the present of a horse, on which I rode to
Glatz, he gave me freedom of walking about the fortress; and for
another, worth a hundred ducats, I rescued Ensign Reitz from death,
who had been betrayed when endeavouring to effect our escape.  I
have been assured that on that very day on which I snatched his
sword from his side, desperately passed through the garrison, and
leaped the walls of the rampart, he was expressly come to tell me,
after some prefatory threats, that by his general's intercession, my
punishment was only to be a year's imprisonment, and that
consequently I should be released in a few days.

How vile were means like these to wrest money from the unfortunate!
The King, after this my mad flight, certainly was never informed of
the major's base cunning; he could only be told that, rather than
wait a few days, I had chosen, in this desperate manner, to make my
escape, and go over to the enemy.

Thus deceived and strengthened in his suspicion, must he not imagine
my desire to forsake my country, and desert to the enemy, was
unbounded?  How could he do otherwise than imprison a subject who
thus endeavoured to injure him and aid his foes?  Thus, by the
calumnies of wicked men, did my cruel destiny daily become more
severe; and at length render the deceived monarch irreconcilable and
cruel.

Yet how could it be supposed that I would not willingly have
remained three weeks longer in prison, to have been honourably
restored to liberty, to have prevented the confiscation of my
estate, and to have once more returned to my beloved mistress at
Berlin.

And now was I in Bohemia, a fugitive stranger without money,
protector, or friend, and only twenty years of age.

In the campaign of 1744 I had been quartered at Braunau with a
weaver, whom I advised and assisted to bury his effects, and
preserve them from being plundered.  The worthy man received us with
joy and gratitude.  I had lived in this same house but two years
before as absolute master of him and his fate.  I had then nine
horses and five servants, with the highest and most favourable hopes
of futurity; but now I came a fugitive, seeking protection, and
having lost all a youth like me had to lose.

I had but a single louis-d'or in my purse, and Schell forty
kreutzers, or some three shillings; with this small sum, in a
strange country, we had to cure his sprain, and provide for all our
wants.

I was determined not to go to my cousin Trenck at Vienna, fearful
this should seem a justification of all my imputed treasons; I
rather wished to embark for the East Indies, than to have recourse
to this expedient.  The greater my delicacy was the greater became
my distress.  I wrote to my mistress at Berlin, but received no
answer; possibly because I could not indicate any certain mode of
conveyance.  My mother believed me guilty, and abandoned me; my
brothers were still minors, and my friend at Schweidnitz could not
aid me, being gone to Konigsberg.

After three weeks' abode at Braunau, my friend recovered of his
lameness.  We had been obliged to sell my watch, with his scarf and
gorget, to supply our necessities, and had only four florins
remaining.

From the public papers I learned my cousin, the Austrian Trenck, was
at this time closely confined, and under criminal prosecution.  It
will easily be imagined what effect this news had upon me.

Never till now had I felt any inconvenience from poverty; my wants
had all been amply supplied, and I had ever lived among, and been
highly loved and esteemed by, the first people of the land.  I was
destitute, without aid, and undetermined how to seek employment, or
obtain fame.

At length I determined to travel on foot to Prussia to my mother,
and obtain money from her, and afterwards enter into the Russian
service.  Schell, whose destiny was linked to mine, would not
forsake me.  We assumed false names:  I called myself Knert, and
Schell, Lesch; then, obtaining passports, like common deserters, we
left Braunau on the 21st of January, in the evening, unseen of any
person, and proceeded towards Bielitz in Poland.  A friend I had at
Neurode gave me a pair of pocket pistols, a musket, and three
ducats; the money was spent at Braunau.  Here let me take occasion
to remark I had lent this friend, in urgent necessity, a hundred
ducats, which he still owed me; and when I sent to request payment,
he returned me three, as if I had asked charity.

Though a circumstantial description of our travels alone would fill
a volume, I shall only relate the most singular accidents which
happened to us; I shall also insert the journal of our route, which
Schell had preserved, and gave me in 1776, when he came to see me at
Aix-la-Chapelle, after an absence of thirty years.

This may be called the first scene in which I appeared as an
adventurer, and perhaps my good fortune may even have overbalanced
the bad, since I have escaped death full thirty times when the
chances were a hundred to one against me; certain it is I undertook
many things in which I seemed to have owed my preservation to the
very rashness of the action, and in which others equally brave would
have found death.


JOURNAL OF TRAVELS ON FOOT.


From Braunau, in Bohemia, through Bielitz, in Poland, to Meseritsch,
and from Meseritsch, by Thorn, to Ebling; in the whole 169 miles,
{3} performed without begging or stealing.

January 18th, 1747.--From Braunau, by Politz, to Nachod, three
miles, we having three florins forty-five kreutzers in our purse.

Jan. 19.--To Neustadt.  Here Schell bartered his uniform for an old
coat, and a Jew gave him two florins fifteen kreutzers in exchange;
from hence we went to Reichenau; in all, three miles.

Jan. 20.--We went to Leitomischl, five miles.  Here I bought a loaf
hot out of the oven, which eating greedily, had nearly caused my
death.  This obliged us to rest a day, and the extravagant charge of
the landlord almost emptied our purse.

Jan. 22.--From Trubau, to Zwittau, in Moravia, four miles.

Jan. 23.--To Sternberg, six miles.  This day's journey excessively
fatigued poor Schell, his sprained ankle being still extremely weak.

Jan. 24.--To Leipnik, four miles, in a deep snow, and with empty
stomachs.  Here I sold my stock-buckle for four florins.

Jan. 25.--To Freiberg, by Weiskirch, to Drahotusch, five miles.
Early in the morning we found a violin and case on the road; the
innkeeper in Weiskirch gave us two florins for it, on condition that
he should return it to the owner on proving his right, it being
worth at least twenty.

Jan. 26.--To Friedek, in Upper Silesia, two miles.

Jan. 27.--To a village, four miles and a half.

Jan. 28.--Through Skotschau, to Bielitz, three miles.  This was the
last Austrian town on the frontiers of Poland, and Captain Capi, of
the regiment of Marischall, who commanded the garrison, demanded our
passports.  We had false names, and called ourselves common Prussian
deserters; but a drummer, who had deserted from Glatz, knew us, and
betrayed us to the captain, who immediately arrested us very rudely,
and sent us on foot to Teschin (refusing us a hearing), four miles
distant.

Here we found Lieut.-Colonel Baron Schwarzer, a perfectly worthy
man, who was highly interested in our behalf, and who blamed the
irregular arbitrary conduct of Captain Capi.  I frankly related my
adventures, and he used every possible argument to persuade me,
instead of continuing my journey through Poland to go to Vienna, but
in vain; my good genius, this time, preserved me--would to God it
ever had!  How many miseries had I then avoided, and how easily
might I have escaped the snares spread for me by the powerful, who
have seized on my property, and in order to secure it, have hitherto
rendered me useless to the state by depriving me of all post or
preferment.

I returned, therefore, a second time to Beilitz, travelling these
four miles once more.  Schwarzer lent us his own horse and four
ducats, which I have since repaid, but which I shall never forget,
as they were of signal service to me, and procured me a pair of new
boots.

Irritated against Captain Capi, we passed through Beilitz without
stopping, went immediately to Biala, the first town in Poland, and
from thence sent Capi a challenge to fight me, with sword or pistol,
but received no answer; and his non-appearance has ever confirmed
him in my opinion a rascal.

And here suffer me to take a retrospective view of what was my then
situation.  By the orders of Capi I was sent prisoner as a
contemptible common deserter, and was unable to call him to account.
In Poland, indeed, I had that power, but was despised as a vagabond
because of my poverty.  What, alas! are the advantages which the
love of honour, science, courage, or desire of fame can bestow,
wanting the means that should introduce us to, and bid us walk erect
in the presence of our equals?  Youth depressed by poverty, is
robbed of the society of those who best can afford example and
instruction.  I had lived familiar with the great, men of genius had
formed and enlightened me; I had been enumerated among the
favourites of a court; and now was I a stranger, unknown,
unesteemed, nay, condemned, obliged to endure the extremes of cold,
hunger, and thirst; to wander many a weary mile, suffering both in
body and mind, while every step led me farther from her whom most I
loved, and dearest; yet had I no fixed plan, no certain knowledge in
what these my labours and sufferings should end.

I was too proud to discover myself; and, indeed, to whom could I
discover myself in a strange land?  My name might have availed me in
Austria, but in Austria, where this name was known, would I not
remain; rather than seek my fortune there, I was determined to shun
whatever might tend to render me suspicious in the eyes of my
country.  How liable was a temper so ardent as mine, in the midst of
difficulties, fatigues, and disappointments, hard to endure, to
betray me into all those errors of which rash youth, unaccustomed to
hardship, impatient of contrariety, are so often guilty!  But I had
taken my resolution, and my faithful Schell, to whom hunger or ease,
contempt or fame, for my sake, were become indifferent, did whatever
I desired.

Once more to my journal.

Feb. 1.--We proceeded four miles from Biala to Oswintzen, I having
determined to ask aid from my sister, who had married Waldow, and
lived much at her case on a fine estate at Hanmer, in Brandenburg,
between Lansberg, on the Warta and Meseritsch, a frontier town of
Poland.  For this reason we continued our route all along the
Silesian confines to Meseritsch.

Feb. 2.--To Bobrek and Elkusch, five miles.  We suffered much this
day because of the snow, and that the lightness of our dress was ill
suited to such severe weather.  Schell, negligently, lost our purse,
in which were nine florins.  I had still, however, nineteen grosch
in my pocket (about half-a-crown).

Feb. 3.--To Crumelew, three miles; and

Feb. 4.--To Wladowiegud Joreck, three miles more; and from thence,
on.

Feb. 5.--To Czenstochowa, where there is a magnificent convent,
concerning which, had I room, I might write many remarkable things,
much to the disgrace of its inhabitants.

We slept at an inn kept by a very worthy man, whose name was Lazar.
He had been a lieutenant in the Austrian service, where he had
suffered much, and was now become a poor innkeeper in Poland.  We
had not a penny in our purse, and requested a bit of bread.  The
generous man had compassion on us, and desired us to sit down and
eat with himself.  I then told him who we were, and trusted him with
the motives of our journey.  Scarcely had we supped, before a
carriage arrived with three people.  They had their own horses, a
servant and a coachman.

This is a remarkable incident, and I must relate it
circumstantially, though as briefly as possible.

We had before met this carriage at Elkusch, and one of these people
had asked Schell where we were going; he had replied, to
Czenstochowa; we therefore had not the least suspicion of them,
notwithstanding the danger we ran.

They lay at the inn, saluted us, but with indifference, not seeming
to notice us, and spoke little.  We had not been long in bed, before
our host came to awaken us, and told us with surprise, these
pretended merchants were sent to arrest us from Prussia; that they
had offered, first, fifty, afterwards, a hundred ducats, if he would
permit them to take us in his house, and carry us into Silesia:
that he had firmly rejected the proposal, though they had increased
their promises:  and that at last they had given him six ducats to
engage his silence.

We clearly saw these were an officer and under-officers sent by
General Fouquet, to recover us.  We conjectured by what means they
had discovered our route, and imagined the information they had
received could only come from one Lieutenant Molinie, of the
garrison of Habelschwert, who had come to visit Schell, as a friend,
during our stay at Braunau.  He had remained with us two days, and
had asked many questions concerning the road we should take, and he
was the only one who knew it.  He was probably the spy of Fouquet,
and the cause of what happened afterwards, which, however, ended in
the defeat of our enemies.

The moment I heard of this infamous treachery, I was for entering
with my pistols primed, into the enemy's chamber, but was prevented
by Schell and Lazar:  the latter entreated me, in the strongest
manner, to remain at his house till I should receive a supply from
my mother, that I might be enabled to continue my journey with more
ease and less danger:  but his entreaties were ineffectual; I was
determined to see her, uncertain as I was of what effect my letter
had produced.  Lazar assured me, we should, most infallibly, be
attacked on the road.  "So much the better," retorted I; "that will
give me an opportunity of despatching them, sending them to the
other world, and shooting them as I would highwayman."  They
departed at break of day, and took the road to Warsaw.

We would have been gone, likewise, but Lazar, in some sort, forcibly
detained us, and gave us the six ducats he had received from the
Prussians, with which we bought us each a shirt, another pair of
pocket pistols, and other urgent necessaries; then took an
affectionate leave of our host, who directed us on our way, and we
testified our gratitude for the great services done us.

Feb. 6.--From Czenstochowa to Dankow, two miles.  Here we expected
an attack.  Lazar had told us our enemies had one musket:  I also
had a musket, and an excellent sabre, and each of us was provided
with a pair of pistols.  They knew not we were so well armed, which
perhaps was the cause of their panic, when they came to engage.

Feb. 7.--We took the road to Parsemechi:  we had not been an hour on
the road, before we saw a carriage; as we drew near, we knew it to
be that of our enemies, who pretended it was set in the snow.  They
were round it, and when they saw us approach, began to call for
help.  This, we guessed, was an artifice to entrap us.  Schell was
not strong; they would all have fallen upon me, and we should easily
have been carried off, for they wanted to take us alive.

We left the causeway about thirty paces, answering--"we had not time
to give them help;" at which they all ran to their carriage, drew
out their pistols, and returning full speed after us, called, "Stop,
rascals!"  We began to run, but I suddenly turning round, presented
my piece, and shot the nearest dead on the spot.  Schell fired his
pistols; our oppressors did the same, and Schell received a ball in
the neck at this discharge.  It was now my turn; I took out my
pistols, one of the assailants fled, and I enraged, pursued him
three hundred paces, overtook him, and as he was defending himself
with his sword, perceiving he bled, and made a feeble resistance,
pressed upon him, and gave him a stroke that brought him down.  I
instantly returned to Schell, whom I found in the power of two
others that were dragging him towards the carriage, but when they
saw me at their heels, they fled over the fields.  The coachman,
perceiving which way the battle went, leaped on his box, and drove
off full speed.

Schell, though delivered, was wounded with a ball in the neck, and
by a cut in the right hand, which had made him drop his sword,
though he affirmed he had run one of his adversaries through.

I took a silver watch from the man I had killed, and was going to
make free with his purse, when Schell called, and showed me a coach
and six coming down a hill.  To stay would have exposed us to have
been imprisoned as highwaymen; for the two fugitives who had escaped
us would certainly have borne witness against us.  Safety could only
be found in flight.  I, however, seized the musket and hat of him I
had first killed, and we then gained the copse, and after that the
forest.  The road was round about, and it was night before we
reached Parsemechi.

Schell was besmeared with blood; I had bound up his wound the best I
could; but in Polish villages no surgeons are to be found:  and he
performed his journey with great difficulty.  We met with two Saxon
under-officers here, who were recruiting for the regiment of guards
at Dresden.  My six feet height and person pleased them, and they
immediately made themselves acquainted with me.  I found them
intelligent, and entrusted them with our secret, told them who we
were, related the battle we had that day had with our pursuers, and
I had not reason to repent of my confidence in them.  Schell had his
wounds dressed, and we remained seven days with these good Saxons,
who faithfully kept us company.

I learned, meantime, that of the four men by whom we had been
assaulted, one only, and the coachman, returned to Glatz.  The name
of the officer who undertook this vile business was Gersdorf; he had
a hundred and fifty ducats in his pocket when found dead.  How great
would our good fortune have been, had not that cursed coach and six,
by its appearance, made us take to flight; since the booty would
have been most just!  Fortune, this time, did not favour the
innocent; and though treacherously attacked, I was obliged to escape
like a guilty wretch.  We sold the watch to a Jew for four ducats,
the hat for three florins and a half, and the musket for a ducat,
Schell being unable to carry it farther.  We left most of this money
behind us at Parsemechi.  A Jew surgeon sold us some dear plaisters,
which we took with us and departed.

Feb. 15.--From Parsemechi, through Vielum, to Biala, four miles.

Feb. 16.--Through Jerischow to Misorcen, four miles and a half.

Feb. 17.--To Osterkow and Schwarzwald, three miles.

Feb. 18.--To Sdune, four miles.

Feb. 19.--To Goblin two miles.

Here we arrived wholly destitute of money.  I sold my coat to a Jew,
who gave me four florins and a coarse waggoner's frock, in exchange,
which I did not think I should long need, as we now drew nearer to
where my sister lived, and where I hoped I should be better
equipped.  Schell, however, grew weaker and weaker; his wounds
healed slowly, and were expensive; the cold was also injurious to
him, and, as he was not by nature cleanly in his person, his body
soon became the harbour of every species of vermin to be picked up
in Poland.  We often arrived wet and weary, to our smoky, reeking
stove-room.  Often were we obliged to lie on straw, or bare boards;
and the various hardships we suffered are almost incredible.
Wandering as we did, in the midst of winter, through Poland, where
humanity, hospitality, and gentle pity, are scarcely so much as
known by name; where merciless Jews deny the poor traveller a bed,
and where we disconsolately strayed, without bread, and almost
naked:  these were sufferings, the full extent of which he only can
conceive by whom they have been felt.  My musket now and then
procured us an occasional meal of tame geese, and cocks and hens,
when these were to be had; otherwise, we never took or touched
anything that was not our own.  We met with Saxon and Prussian
recruiters at various places; all of whom, on account of my youth
and stature, were eager to inveigle me.  I was highly diverted to
hear them enumerate all the possibilities of future greatness, and
how liable I was hereafter to become a corporal:  nor was I less
merry with their mead, ale, and brandy, given with an intent to make
me drunk.  Thus we had many artifices to guard against; but thus had
we likewise, very luckily for us, many a good meal gratis.

Feb. 21.--We went from Goblin to Pugnitz, three miles and a half.

Feb. 22.--Through Storchnest to Schmiegel, four miles.

Here happened a singular adventure.  The peasants at this place were
dancing to a vile scraper on the violin:  I took the instrument
myself, and played while they continued their hilarity.  They were
much pleased with my playing:  but when I was tired, and desired to
have done, they obliged me, first by importunities, and afterwards
by threats, to play on all night.  I was so fatigued, I thought I
should have fainted; at length they quarrelled among themselves.
Schell was sleeping on a bench, and some of them fell upon his
wounded hand:  he rose furious:  I seized our arms, began to lay
about me, and while all was in confusion, we escaped, without
further ill-treatment.

What ample subject of meditation on the various turns of fate did
this night afford!  But two years before I danced at Berlin with the
daughters and sisters of kings:  and here was I, in a Polish hut, a
ragged, almost naked musician, playing for the sport of ignorant
rustics, whom I was at last obliged to fight.

I was myself the cause of the trifling misfortune that befell me on
this occasion.  Had not my vanity led me to show these poor peasants
I was a musician, I might have slept in peace and safety.  The same
vain desire of proving I knew more than other men, made me through
life the continued victim of envy and slander.  Had nature, too,
bestowed on me a weaker or a deformed body, I had been less
observed, less courted, less sought, and my adventures and mishaps
had been fewer.  Thus the merits of the man often become his
miseries; and thus the bear, having learned to dance, must live and
die in chains.

This ardour, this vanity, or, if you please, this emulation, has,
however, taught me to vanquish a thousand difficulties, under which
others of cooler passions and more temperate desires would have
sunk.  May my example remain a warning; and thus may my sufferings
become somewhat profitable to the world, cruel as they have been to
myself!  Cruel they were, and cruel they must continue; for the
wounds I have received are not, will not, cannot be healed.

Feb. 23.--From Schmiegel to Rakonitz, and from thence to Karger
Holland, four miles and a half.  Here we sold, to prevent dying of
hunger, a shirt and Schell's waistcoat for eighteen grosch, or nine
schostacks.  I had shot a pullet the day before, which necessity
obliged us to eat raw.  I also killed a crow, which I devoured
alone, Schell refusing to taste.  Youth and hard travelling created
a voracious appetite, and our eighteen grosch were soon expended.

Feb. 24.--We came through Benzen to Lettel, four miles.  Here we
halted a day, to learn the road to Hammer, in Brandenburg, where my
sister lived.  I happened luckily to meet with the wife of a
Prussian soldier who lived at Lettel, and belonged to Kolschen,
where she was born a vassal of my sister's husband.  I told her who
I was, and she became our guide.

Feb. 26.--To Kurschen and Falkenwalde.

Feb. 27.--Through Neuendorf and Oost, and afterwards through a
pathless wood, five miles and a half to Hammer, and here I knocked
at my sister's door at nine o'clock in the evening.



CHAPTER VIII.



A maidservant came to the door, whom I knew; her name was Mary, and
she had been born and brought up in my father's house.  She was
terrified at seeing a sturdy fellow in a beggar's dress; which
perceiving, I asked, "Molly, do not you know me?"  She answered,
"No;" and I then discovered myself to her.  I asked whether my
brother-in-law was at home.  Mary replied, "Yes; but he is sick in
bed."  "Tell my sister, then," said I, "that I am here."  She showed
me into a room, and my sister presently came.

She was alarmed at seeing me, not knowing that I had escaped from
Glatz, and ran to inform her husband, but did not return.

A quarter of an hour after the good Mary came weeping, and told us
her master commanded us to quit the premises instantly, or he should
be obliged to have us arrested, and delivered up as prisoners.  My
sister's husband forcibly detained her, and I saw her no more.

What my feelings must be, at such a moment, let the reader imagine.
I was too proud, too enraged, to ask money; I furiously left the
house, uttering a thousand menaces against its inhabitants, while
the kind-hearted Mary, still weeping, slipped three ducats into my
hand, which I accepted.

And, now behold us once more in the wood, which was not above a
hundred paces from the house, half dead with hunger and fatigue, not
daring to enter any habitation, while in the states of Brandenburg,
and dragging our weary steps all night through snow and rain, until
our guide at length brought us back, at daybreak, once again to the
town of Lettel.

She herself wept in pity at our fate, and I could only give her two
ducats for the danger she had run; but I bade her hope more in
future; and I afterwards sent for her to Vienna, in 1751, where I
took great care of her.  She was about fifty years of age, and died
my servant in Hungary, some weeks before my unfortunate journey to
Dantzic, where I fell into my enemies' hands, and remained ten years
a prisoner at Magdeburg.

We had scarcely reached the wood, before, in the anguish of my
heart, I exclaimed to Schell, "Does not such a sister, my friend,
deserve I should fire her house over her head?"  The wisdom of
moderation, and calm forbearance, was in Schell a virtue of the
highest order; he was my continual mentor; my guide, whenever my
choleric temperament was disposed to violence.  I therefore honour
his ashes; he deserved a better fate.

"Friend," said he, on this occasion, "reflect that your sister may
be innocent, may be withheld by her husband; besides, should the
King discover we had entered her doors, and she had not delivered us
again into his power, she might become as miserable as we were.  Be
more noble minded, and think that even should your sister be wrong,
the time may come when her children may stand in need of your
assistance, and you may have the indescribable pleasure of returning
good for evil."

I never shall forget this excellent advice, which in reality was a
prophecy.  My rich brother-in-law died, and, during the Russian war,
his lands and houses were laid desolate and in ruins; and, nineteen
years afterwards, when released from my imprisonment at Magdeburg, I
had an opportunity of serving the children of my sister.  Such are
the turns of fate; and thus do improbabilities become facts.

My sister justified her conduct; Schell had conjectured the truth;
for ten years after I was thus expelled her house, she showed,
during my imprisonment, she was really a sister.  She was shamefully
betrayed by Weingarten, secretary to the Austrian ambassador at
Berlin; lost a part of her property, and at length her life fell an
innocent sacrifice to her brother.

This event, which is interwoven with my tragical history, will be
related hereafter:  my heart bleeds, my very soul shudders, when I
recollect this dreadful scene.

I have not the means fully to recompense her children; and
Weingarten, the just object of vengeance, is long since in the
grave; for did he exist, the earth should not hide him from my
sword.

I shall now continue my journal:  deceived in the aid I expected, I
was obliged to change my plan, and go to my mother, who lived in
Prussia, nine miles beyond Konigsberg.

Feb. 28.--We continued, tired, anxious, and distressed, at Lettel.

March 1.--We went three miles to Pleese, and on the 2nd, a mile and
a half farther to Meseritz.

March 3.--Through Wersebaum to Birnbaum, three miles.

March 4.--Through Zircke, Wruneck, Obestchow, to Stubnitz, seven
miles, in one day, three of which we had the good fortune to ride.

March 5.--Three miles to Rogosen, where we arrived without so much
as a heller to pay our lodgings.  The Jew innkeeper drove us out of
his house; we were obliged to wander all night, and at break of day
found we had strayed two miles out of the road.

We entered a peasant's cottage, where an old woman was drawing bread
hot out of the oven.  We had no money to offer, and I felt, at this
moment, the possibility even of committing murder, for a morsel of
bread, to satisfy the intolerable cravings of hunger.  Shuddering,
with torment inexpressible, at the thought, I hastened out of the
door, and we walked on two miles more to Wongrofze.

Here I sold my musket for a ducat, which had procured us many a
meal:  such was the extremity of our distress.  We then satiated our
appetites, after having been forty hours without food or sleep, and
having travelled ten miles in sleet and snow.

March 6.--We rested, and came, on the 7th, through Genin, to a
village in the forest, four miles.

Here we fell in with a gang of gipsies (or rather banditti)
amounting to four hundred men, who dragged me to their camp.  They
were mostly French and Prussian deserters, and thinking me their
equal, would force me to become one of their hand.  But, venturing
to tell my story to their leader, he presented me with a crown, gave
us a small provision of bread and meat, and suffered us to depart in
peace, after having been four and twenty hours in their company.

March 9.--We proceeded to Lapuschin, three miles and a half; and the
10th to Thorn, four miles.

A new incident here happened, which showed I was destined, by
fortune, to a variety of adventures, and continually to struggle
with new difficulties.

There was a fair held at Thorn on the day of our arrival.
Suspicions might well arise, among the crowd, on seeing a strong
tall young man, wretchedly clothed, with a large sabre by his side,
and a pair of pistols in his girdle, accompanied by another as
poorly apparelled as himself, with his hand and neck bound up, and
armed likewise with pistols, so that altogether he more resembled a
spectre than a man.

We went to an inn, but were refused entertainment:  I then asked for
the Jesuits' college, where I inquired for the father rector.  They
supposed at first I was a thief, come to seek an asylum.  After long
waiting and much entreaty his jesuitical highness at length made his
appearance, and received me as the Grand Mogul would his slave.  My
case certainly was pitiable:  I related all the events of my life,
and the purport of my journey; conjured him to save Schell, who was
unable to proceed further, and whose wounds grew daily worse; and
prayed him to entertain him at the convent till I should have been
to my mother, have obtained money, and returned to Thorn, when I
would certainly repay him whatever expense he might have been at,
with thanks and gratitude.

Never shall I forget the haughty insolence of this priest.  Scarcely
would he listen to my humble request; thou'd and interrupted me
continually, to tell me, "Be brief, I have more pressing affairs
than thine."  In fine, I was turned away without obtaining the least
aid; and here I was first taught jesuitical pride; God help the poor
and honest man who shall need the assistance of Jesuits!  They, like
all other monks, are seared to every sentiment of human pity, and
commiserate the distressed by taunts and irony.

Four times in my life I have sought assistance and advice from
convents, and am convinced it is the duty of every honest man to aid
in erasing them from the face of the earth.

They succour rascals and murderers, that their power may be idolised
by the ignorant, and ostentatiously exert itself to impede the
course of law and justice; but in vain do the poor and needy
virtuous apply to them for help.

The reader will pardon my native hatred of hypocrisy and falsehood,
especially when he hears I have to thank the Jesuits for the loss of
all my great Hungarian estates.  Father Kampmuller, the bosom friend
of the Count Grashalkowitz, was confessor to the court of Vienna,
and there was no possible kind of persecution I did not suffer from
priestcraft.  Far from being useful members of society, they take
advantage of the prejudices of superstition, exist for themselves
alone, and sacrifice every duty to the support of their own
hierarchy, and found a power, on error and ignorance, which is
destructive of all moral virtue.

Let us proceed.  Mournful and angry, I left the college, and went to
my lodging-house, where I found a Prussian recruiting-officer
waiting for me, who used all his arts to engage me to enlist;
offering me five hundred dollars, and to make me a corporal, if I
could write.  I pretended I was a Livonian, who had deserted from
the Austrians, to return home, and claim an inheritance left me by
my father.  After much persuasion, he at length told me in
confidence, it was very well known in the town that I was a robber;
that I should soon be taken before a magistrate, but that if I would
enlist he would ensure my safety.

This language was new to me; my passion rose instantaneously; I
remembered my name was Trenck, I struck him, and drew my sword; but,
instead of defending himself, he sprang out of the chamber, charging
the host not to let me quit the house.  I knew the town of Thorn had
agreed with the King of Prussia, secretly, to deliver up deserters,
and began to fear the consequences.  Looking through the window, I
presently saw two under Prussian officers enter the house.  Schell
and I instantly flew to our arms, and met the Prussians at the
chamber door.  "Make way," cried I, presenting my pistols.  The
Prussian soldiers drew their swords, but retired with fear.  Going
out of the house, I saw a Prussian lieutenant, in the street, with
the town-guard.  These I overawed, likewise, by the same means, and
no one durst oppose me, though every one cried, "Stop thief!"  I
came safely, however, to the Jesuits' convent; but poor Schell was
taken, and dragged to prison like a malefactor.

Half mad at not being able to rescue him, I imagined he must soon be
delivered up to the Prussians.  My reception was much better at the
convent than it had been before, for they no longer doubted but I
was really a thief, who sought an asylum.  I addressed myself to one
of the fathers, who appeared to be a good kind of a man, relating
briefly what had happened, and entreated he would endeavour to
discover why they sought to molest us.

He went out, and returning in an hour after, told me, "Nobody knows
you:  a considerable theft was yesterday committed at the fair:  all
suspicious persons are seized; you entered the town accoutred like
banditti.  The man where you put up is employed as a Prussian
enlister, and has announced you as suspicious people.  The Prussian
lieutenant therefore laid complaint against you, and it was thought
necessary to secure your persons."

My joy, at hearing this, was great.  Our Moravian passport, and the
journal of our route, which I had in my pocket, were full proofs of
our innocence.  I requested they would send and inquire at the town
where we lay the night before.  I soon convinced the Jesuit I spoke
truth; he went, and presently returned with one of the syndics, to
whom I gave a more full account of myself.  The syndic examined
Schell, and found his story and mine agreed; besides which, our
papers that they had seized, declared who we were.  I passed the
night in the convent without closing my eyes, revolving in my mind
all the rigours of my fate.  I was still more disturbed for Schell,
who knew not where I was, but remained firmly persuaded we should be
conducted to Berlin; and, if so, determined to put a period to his
life.

My doubts were all ended at ten in the morning when my good Jesuit
arrived, and was followed by my friend Schell.  The judges, he said,
had found us innocent, and declared us free to go where we pleased;
adding, however, that he advised us to be upon our guard, we being
watched by the Prussian enlisters; that the lieutenant had hoped, by
having us committed as thieves, to oblige me to enter, and that he
would account for all that had happened.

I gave Schell a most affectionate welcome, who had been very ill-
used when led to prison, because he endeavoured to defend himself
with his left hand, and follow me.  The people had thrown mud at
him, and called him a rascal that would soon be hanged.  Schell was
little able to travel farther.  The father-rector sent us a ducat,
but did not see us; and the chief magistrate gave each of us a
crown, by way of indemnification for false imprisonment.  Thus sent
away, we returned to our lodging, took our bundles, and immediately
prepared to leave Thorn.

As we went, I reflected that, on the road to Elbing, we must pass
through several Prussian villages, and inquired for a shop where we
might purchase a map.  We were directed to an old woman who sat at
the door across the way, and were told she had a good assortment,
for that her son was a scholar.  I addressed myself to her, and my
question pleased her, I having added we were unfortunate travellers,
who wished to find, by the map, the road to Russia.  She showed us
into a chamber, laid an atlas on the table, and placed herself
opposite me, while I examined the map, and endeavoured to hide a bit
of a ragged ruffle that had made its appearance.  After steadfastly
looking at me, she at length exclaimed, with a sad and mournful
tone--"Good God! who knows what is now become of my poor son!  I can
see, sir, you too are of a good family.  My son would go and seek
his fortune, and for these eight years have I had no tidings of him.
He must now be in the Austrian cavalry."  I asked in what regiment.
"The regiment of Hohenhem; you are his very picture."  "Is he not of
my height?"  "Yes, nearly."  "Has he not light hair?"  "Yes, like
yours, sir."  "What is his name?"  "His name is William."  "No, my
dear mother," cried I, "William is not dead; he was my best friend
when I was with the regiment."  Here the poor woman could not
contain her joy.  She threw herself round my neck, called me her
good angel who brought her happy tidings:  asked me a thousand
questions which I easily contrived to make her answer herself, and
thus, forced by imperious necessity, bereft of all other means, did
I act the deceiver.

The story I made was nearly as follows: --I told her I was a soldier
in the regiment of Hohenhem, that I had a furlough to go and see my
father, and that I should return in a month, would then take her
letters, and undertake that, if she wished it, her son should
purchase his discharge, and once more come and live with his mother.
I added that I should be for ever and infinitely obliged to her, if
she would suffer my comrade, meantime, to live at her house, he
being wounded by the Prussian recruiters, and unable to pursue his
journey; that I would send him money to come to me, or would myself
come back and fetch him, thankfully paying every expense.  She
joyfully consented, told me her second husband, father-in-law to her
dear William, had driven him from home, that he might give what
substance they had to the younger son; and that the eldest had gone
to Magdeburg.  She determined Schell should live at the house of a
friend, that her husband might know nothing of the matter; and, not
satisfied with this kindness, she made me eat with her, gave me a
new shirt, stockings, sufficient provisions for three days, and six
Lunenburg florins.  I left Thorn, and my faithful Schell, the same
night, with the consolation that he was well taken care of; and
having parted from him with regret, went on the 13th two miles
further to Burglow.

I cannot describe what my sensations were, or the despondence of my
mind, when I thus saw myself wandering alone, and leaving,
forsaking, as it were, the dearest of friends.  These may certainly
be numbered among the bitterest moments of my life.  Often was I
ready to return, and drag him along with me, though at last reason
conquered sensibility.  I drew near the end of my journey, and was
impelled forward by hope.

March 14.--I went to Schwetz, and

March 15.--To Neuburg and Mowe.  In these two days I travelled
thirteen miles.  I lay at Mowe, on some straw, among a number of
carters, and, when I awoke, perceived they had taken my pistols, and
what little money I had left, even to my last penny.  The gentlemen,
however, were all gone.

What could I do?  The innkeeper perhaps was privy to the theft.  My
reckoning amounted to eighteen Polish grosch.  The surly landlord
pretended to believe I had no money when I entered his house, and I
was obliged to give him the only spare shirt I had, with a silk
handkerchief, which the good woman of Thorn had made me a present
of, and to depart without a single holler.

March 16.--I set off for Marienburg, but it was impossible I should
reach this place, and not fall into the hands of the Prussians, if I
did not cross the Vistula, and, unfortunately, I had no money to pay
the ferry, which would cost two Polish schellings.

Full of anxiety, not knowing how to act, I saw two fishermen in a
boat, went to them, drew my sabre, and obliged them to land me on
the other side; when there, I took the oars from these timid people,
jumped out of the boat, pushed it off the shore, and left it to
drive with the stream.

To what dangers does not poverty expose man!  These two Polish
schellings were not worth more than half a kreutzer, or some
halfpenny, yet was I driven by necessity to commit violence on two
poor men, who, had they been as desperate in their defence as I was
obliged to be in my attack, blood must have been spilled and lives
lost; hence it is evident that the degrees of guilt ought to be
strictly and minutely inquired into, and the degree of punishment
proportioned.  Had I hewn them down with my sabre, I should surely
have been a murderer; but I should likewise surely have been one of
the most innocent of murderers.  Thus we see the value of money is
not to be estimated by any specific sum, small or great, but
according to its necessity and use.  How little did I imagine when
at Berlin, and money was treated by me with luxurious neglect, I may
say, with contempt, I should be driven to the hard necessity, for a
sum so apparently despicable, of committing a violence which might
have had consequences so dreadful, and have led to the commission of
an act so atrocious!

I found Saxon and Prussian recruiters at Marion-burgh, with whom,
having no money, I ate, drank, listened to their proposals, gave
them hopes for the morrow, and departed by daybreak.

March 17.--To Elbing, four miles.

Here I met with my former worthy tutor, Brodowsky, who was become a
captain and auditor in the Polish regiment of Golz.  He met me just
as I entered the town.  I followed triumphantly to his quarters; and
here at length ended the painful, long, and adventurous journey I
had been obliged to perform.

This good and kind gentleman, after providing me with immediate
necessaries, wrote so affectionately to my mother, that she came to
Elbing in a week, and gave me every aid of which I stood in need.

The pleasure I had in meeting once more this tender mother, whose
qualities of heart and mind were equally excellent, was
inexpressible.  She found a certain mode of conveying a letter to my
dear mistress at Berlin, who a short time after sent me a bill of
exchange for four hundred ducats upon Dantzic.  To this my mother
added a thousand rix-dollars, and a diamond cross worth nearly half
as much, remained a fortnight with me, and persisted, in spite of
all remonstrance, in advising me to go to Vienna.  My determination
had been fixed for Petersburg; all my fears and apprehensions being
awakened at the thought of Vienna, and which indeed afterwards
became the source of all my cruel sufferings and sorrows.  She would
not yield in opinion, and promised her future assistance only in
case of my obedience; it was my duty not to continue obstinate.
Here she left me, and I have never seen her since.  She died in
1751, and I have ever held her memory in veneration.  It was a
happiness for this affectionate mother that she did not hive to be a
witness of my afflictions in the year 1754.

An adventure, resembling that of Joseph in Egypt, happened to me in
Elbing.  The wife of the worthy Brodowsky, a woman of infinite
personal attraction, grew partial to me; but I durst not act
ungratefully by my benefactor.  Never to see me more was too painful
to her, and she even proposed to follow me, secretly, to Vienna.  I
felt the danger of my situation, and doubted whether Potiphar's wife
offered temptations so strong as Madame Brodowsky.  I owned I had an
affection for this lady, but my passions were overawed.  She
preferred me to her husband, who was in years, and very ordinary in
person.  Had I yielded to the slightest degree of guilt, that of the
present enjoyment, a few days of pleasure must have been followed by
years of bitter repentance.

Having once more assumed my proper name and character, and made
presents of acknowledgment to the worthy tutor of my youth, I became
eager to return to Thorn.

How great was my joy at again meeting my honest Schell!  The kind
old woman had treated him like a mother.  She was surprised, and
half terrified, at seeing me enter in an officer's uniform, and
accompanied by two servants.  I gratefully and rapturously kissed
her hand, repaid, with thankfulness, every expense (for Schell had
been nurtured with truly maternal kindness), told her who I was,
acknowledged the deceit I had put upon her concerning her son, but
faithfully promised to give a true, and not fictitious account of
him, immediately on my arrival at Vienna.  Schell was ready in three
days, and we left Thorn, came to Warsaw, and passed thence, through
Crakow, to Vienna.

I inquired for Captain Capi, at Bilitz, who had before given me so
kind a reception, and refused me satisfaction; but he was gone, and
I did not meet with him till some years after, when the cunning
Italian made me the most humble apologies for his conduct.  So goes
the world.

My journey from Dantzic to Vienna would not furnish me with an
interesting page, though my travels on foot thither would have
afforded thrice as much as I have written, had I not been fearful of
trifling with the reader's patience.

In poverty one misfortune follows another.  The foot-passenger sees
the world, becomes acquainted with it, converses with men of every
class.  The lord luxuriously lolls and slumbers in his carriage,
while his servants pay innkeepers and postillions, and passes
rapidly over a kingdom, in which he sees some dozen houses, called
inns; and this he calls travelling.  I met with more adventures in
this my journey of 169 miles, than afterwards in almost as many
thousand, when travelling at ease, in a carriage.

Here, then, ends my journal, in which, from the hardships therein
related, and numerous others omitted, I seem a kind of second
Robinson Crusoe, and to have been prepared, by a gradual increase
and repetition of sufferings, to endure the load of affliction which
I was afterwards destined to bear.

Arrived at Vienna in the month of April, 1747.

And now another act of the tragedy is going to begin.



CHAPTER IX.



After having defrayed the expenses of travelling for me and my
friend Schell, for whose remarkable history I will endeavour to find
a few pages in due course, I divided the three hundred ducats which
remained with him, and, having stayed a month at Vienna, he went to
join the regiment of Pallavicini, in which he had obtained a
lieutenant-colonel's commission, and which was then in Italy.

Here I found my cousin, Baron Francis Trenck, the famous partisan
and colonel of pandours, imprisoned at the arsenal, and involved in
a most perplexing prosecution.

This Trenck was my father's brother's son.  His father had been a
colonel and governor of Leitschau, and had possessed considerable
lordships in Sclavonia, those of Pleternitz, Prestowacz, and
Pakratz.  After the siege of Vienna, in 1683, he had left the
Prussian service for that of Austria, in which he remained sixty
years.

That I may not here interrupt my story, I shall give some account of
the life of my cousin Baron Francis Trenck, so renowned in the war
of 1741, in another part, and who fell, at last, the shameful
sacrifice of envy and avarice, and received the reward of all his
great and faithful services in the prison of the Spielberg.

The vindication of the family of the Trencks requires I should speak
of him; nor will I, in this, suffer restraint from the fear of any
man, however powerful.  Those indeed who sacrificed a man most
ardent in his country's service to their own private and selfish
views, are now in their graves.

I shall insert no more of his history here than what is interwoven
with my own, and relate the rest in its proper place.

A revision of his suit was at this time instituted.  Scarcely was I
arrived in Vienna before his confidential agent, M. Leber, presented
me to Prince Charles and the Emperor; both knew the services of
Trenck, and the malice of his enemies; therefore, permission for me
to visit him in his prison, and procure him such assistance as he
might need, was readily granted.  On my second audience, the Emperor
spoke so much in my persecuted cousin's favour that I became highly
interested; he commanded me to have recourse to him on all
occasions; and, moreover, owned the president of the council of war
was a man of a very wicked character, and a declared enemy of
Trenck.  This president was the Count of Lowenwalde, who, with his
associates, had been purposely selected as men proper to oppress the
best of subjects.

The suit soon took another face; the good Empress Queen, who had
been deceived, was soon better informed, and Trenck's innocence
appeared, on the revision of the process most evidently.  The trial,
which had cost them twenty-seven thousand florins, and the sentence
which followed, were proved to have been partial and unjust; and
that sixteen of Trenck's officers, who most of them had been broken
for different offences, had perjured themselves to insure his
destruction.

It is a most remarkable circumstance that public notice was given,
in the Vienna Gazette, to the following purport.

"All those who have any complaints to make against Trenck, let them
appear, and they shall receive a ducat per day, so long as the
prosecution continues."

It will readily be imagined how fast his accusers would increase,
and what kind of people they were.  The pay of these witnesses alone
amounted to fifteen thousand florins.  I now began the labour in
concurrence with Doctor Gerhauer, and the cause soon took another
turn; but such was the state of things, it would have been necessary
to have broken all the members of the council of war, as well as
counsellor Weber, a man of great power.  Thus, unfortunately,
politics began to interfere with the course of justice.

The Empress Queen gave Trenck to understand she required he should
ask her pardon; and on that condition all proceedings should be
stopped, and he immediately set at liberty.  Prince Charles, who
knew the court of Vienna, advised me also to persuade my cousin to
comply; but nothing could shake his resolution.  Feeling his right
and innocence, he demanded strict justice; and this made ruin more
swift.

I soon learned Trenck must fall a sacrifice--he was rich--his
enemies already had divided among them more than eighty thousand
florins of his property, which was all sequestered, and in their
hands.  They had treated him too cruelly, and knew him too well, not
to dread his vengeance the moment he should recover his freedom.

I was moved to the soul at his sufferings, and as he had vented
public threats, at the prospect of approaching victory over his
enemies, they gained over the Court Confessor:  and, dreading him as
they did, put every wily art in practice to insure his destruction.
I therefore, in the fulness of my heart, made him the brotherly
proposition of escaping, and, having obtained his liberty, to prove
his innocence to the Empress Queen.  I told him my plan, which might
easily have been put in execution, and which he seemed perfectly
decided to follow.

Some days after, I was ordered to wait on field-marshal Count
Konigseck, governor of Vienna.  This respectable old gentleman,
whose memory I shall ever revere, behaved to me like a father and
the friend of humanity, advised me to abandon my cousin, who he gave
me clearly to understand had betrayed me by having revealed my
proposed plan of escape, willing to sacrifice me to his ambition in
order to justify the purity of his intentions to the court, and show
that, instead of wishing to escape, he only desired justice.

Confounded at the cowardly action of one for whom I would willingly
have sacrificed my life, and whom I only sought to deliver, I
resolved to leave him to his fate, and thought myself exceedingly
happy that the worthy field-marshal would, after a fatherly
admonition, smother all farther inquiry into this affair.

I related this black trait of ingratitude to Prince Charles of
Lorraine, who prevailed on me to again see my cousin, without
letting him know I knew what had passed, and still to render him
every service in my power.

Before I proceed I will here give the reader a per-'trait of this
Trenck.

He was a man of superior talents and unbounded ambition; devoted,
even fanatically, to his sovereign; his boldness approached
temerity; he was artful of mind, wicked of heart, vindictive and
unfeeling.  His cupidity equalled the utmost excess of avarice, even
in his thirty-third year, in which he died.  He was too proud to
receive favours or obligations from any man, and was capable of
ridding himself of his best friend if he thought he had any claims
on his gratitude or could get possession of his fortune.

He knew I had rendered him very important services, supposed his
cause already won, having bribed the judges, who were to revise the
sentence, with thirty thousand florins, which money I received from
his friend Baron Lopresti, and conveyed to these honest counsellors.
I knew all his secrets, and nothing more was necessary to prompt his
suspicious and bad heart to seek my destruction.

Scarcely had a fortnight elapsed, after his having first betrayed
me, before the following remarkable event happened.

I left him one evening to return home, taking under my coat a bag
with papers and documents relating to the prosecution, which I had
been examining for him, and transcribing.  There were at this time
about five-and-twenty officers in Vienna who had laid complaints
against him, and who considered me as their greatest enemy because I
had laboured earnestly in his defence.  I was therefore obliged, on
all occasions, to be upon my guard.  A report had been propagated
through Vienna that I was secretly sent by the King of Prussia to
free my cousin from imprisonment; he, however, constantly denied, to
the hour of his death, his ever having written to me at Berlin;
hence also it will follow the letter I received had been forged by
Jaschinsky.

Leaving the Arsenal, I crossed the court, and perceived I was
closely followed by two men in grey roquelaures, who, pressing upon
my heels, held loud and insolent conversation concerning the runaway
Prussian Trenck.  I found they sought a quarrel, which was a thing
of no great difficulty at that moment, for a man is never more
disposed to duelling than when he has nothing to lose, and is
discontented with his condition.  I supposed they were two of the
accusing officers broken by Trenck, and endeavoured to avoid them,
and gain the Jew's place.

Scarcely had I turned down the street that leads thither before they
quickened their pace.  I turned round, and in a moment received a
thrust with a sword in the left side, where I had put my bag of
papers, which accident alone saved my life; the sword pierced
through the papers and slightly grazed the skin.  I instantly drew,
and the heroes ran.  I pursued, one of them tripped and fell.  I
seized him; the guard came up:  he declared he was an officer of the
regiment of Kollowrat, showed his uniform, was released, and I was
taken to prison.  The Town Major came the next day, and told me I
had intentionally sought a quarrel with two officers, Lieutenants F-
g and K-n.  These kind gentlemen did not reveal their humane
intention of sending me to the other world.

I was alone, could produce no witness, they were two.  I must
necessarily be in the wrong, and I remained six days in prison.  No
sooner was I released, than these my good friends sent to demand
satisfaction for the said pretended insult.  The proposal was
accepted, and I promised to be at the Scotch gate, the place
appointed by them, within an hour.  Having heard their names, I
presently knew them to be two famous swaggerers, who were daily
exercising themselves in fencing at the Arsenal, and where they
often visited Trenck.  I went to my cousin to ask his assistance,
related what had happened, and, as the consequences of this duel
might be very serious, desired him to give me a hundred ducats, that
I might be able to fly if either of them should fall.

Hitherto I had expended my own money on his account, and had asked
no reimbursement; but what was my astonishment when this wicked man
said to me, with a sneer, "Since, good cousin, you have got into a
quarrel without consulting me, you will also get out of it without
my aid!"  As I left him, he called me back to tell me, "I will take
care and pay your undertaker;" for he certainly believed I should
never return alive.

I ran now, half-despairing, to Baron Lopresti, who gave me fifty
ducats and a pair of pistols, provided with which I cheerfully
repaired to the field of battle.

Here I found half a dozen officers of the garrison.  As I had few
acquaintances in Vienna, I had no second, except an old Spanish
invalid captain, named Pereyra, who met me going in all haste, and,
having learned whither, would not leave me.

Lieutenant K-n was the first with whom I fought, and who received
satisfaction by a deep wound in the right arm.  Hereupon I desired
the spectators to prevent farther mischief; for my own part I had
nothing more to demand.  Lieutenant F-g next entered the lists, with
threats, which were soon quieted by a lunge in the belly.  Hereupon
Lieutenant M-f, second to the first wounded man, told me very
angrily--"Had I been your man, you would have found a very different
reception."  My old Spaniard of eighty proudly and immediately
advanced, with his long whiskers and tottering frame, and cried--
"Hold!  Trenck has proved himself a brave fellow, and if any man
thinks proper to assault him further, he must first take a breathing
with me."  Everybody laughed at this bravado from a man who scarcely
could stand or hold a sword.  I replied--"Friend, I am safe, unhurt,
and want not aid; should I be disabled, you then, if you think
proper, may take my place; but, as long as I can hold a sword, I
shall take pleasure in satisfying all these gentlemen one after
another."  I would have rested myself a moment, but the haughty M-f,
enraged at the defeat of his friend, would not give me time, but
furiously attacked me, and, having been wounded twice, once in the
hand and again in the groin, he wanted to close and sink me to the
grave with himself, but I disarmed and threw him.

None of the others had any desire to renew the contest.  My three
enemies were sent bleeding to town; and, as M-f appeared to be
mortally wounded, and the Jesuits and Capuchins of Vienna refused me
an asylum, I fled to the convent of Keltenberg.

I wrote from the convent to Colonel Baron Lopresti, who came to me.
I told him all that had passed, and by his good offices had liberty,
in a week, to appear once more at Vienna.

The blood of Lieutenant F-g was in a corrupt state, and his wound,
though not in itself dangerous, made his life doubtful.  He sent to
entreat I would visit him, and, when I went, having first requested
I would pardon him, gave me to understand I ought to beware of my
cousin.  I afterwards learned the traitorous Trenck had promised
Lieutenant F-g a company and a thousand ducats if he would find
means to quarrel with me and rid the world of me.  He was deeply in
debt, and sought the assistance of Lieutenant K-n; and had not the
papers luckily preserved me, I had undoubtedly been despatched by
his first lunge.  To clear themselves of the infamy of such an act,
these two worthy gentlemen had pretended I had assaulted them in the
streets.

I could no more resolve to see my ungrateful and dangerous kinsman,
who wished to have me murdered because I knew all his secrets, and
thought he should be able to gain his cause without obligation to me
or my assistance.  Notwithstanding all his great qualities, his
marked characteristic certainly was that of sacrificing everything
to his private views, and especially to his covetousness, which was
so great that, even at his time of life, though his fortune amounted
to a million and a half, he did not spend per day more than thirty
kreutzers.

No sooner was it known that I had forsaken Trenck than General Count
Lowenwalde, his most ardent enemy, and president of the first
council of war, by which he had been condemned, desired to speak to
me, promised every sort of good fortune and protection, if I would
discover what means had secretly been employed in the revision of
the process; and went so far as to offer me four thousand florins if
I would aid the prosecution against my cousin.  Here I learned the
influence of villains in power, and the injustice of judges at
Vienna.  The proposal I rejected with disdain, and rather determined
to seek my fortune in the East Indies than continue in a country
where, under the best of Queens, the most loyal of subjects, and
first of soldiers, might be rendered miserable by interested, angry,
and corrupt courtiers.  Certain it is, as I now can prove, though
the bitterest of my enemies, and whose conduct towards me merited my
whole resentment, he was the best soldier in the Austrian army, had
been liberal of his blood and fortune in the Imperial service, and
would still so have continued had not his wealth, and his contempt
for Weber and Lowenwalde put him in the power of those wretches who
were the avowed enemies of courage and patriotism, and who only
could maintain their authority, and sate their thirst of gain, by
the base and wicked arts of courts.  Had my cousin shared the
plunder of the war among these men, he had not fallen the martyr of
their intrigues, and died in the Spielberg.  His accusers were,
generally, unprincipled men of ruined fortunes, and so insufficient
were their accusations that a useful member of society ought not,
for any or all of them, to have suffered an hour's imprisonment.
Being fully informed, both of all the circumstances of the
prosecution and the inmost secrets of his heart, justice requires I
should thus publicly declare this truth and vindicate his memory.
While living he was my bitterest enemy, and even though dead, was
the cause of all my future sufferings; therefore the account I shall
give of him will certainly be the less liable to suspicion, where I
shall show that he, as well as myself, deserved better of Austria.

I was resolved forever to forsake Vienna.  The friends of Trenck all
became distrustful of him because of his ingratitude to me.  Prince
Charles still endeavoured to persuade me to a reconciliation, and
gave me a letter of recommendation to General Brown, who then
commanded the Imperial army in Italy.  But more anxious of going to
India, I left Vienna in August, 1748, desirous of owing no
obligation to that city or its inhabitants, and went for Holland.
Meantime, the enemies of Trenck found no one to oppose their
iniquitous proceedings, and obtained a sentence of imprisonment, in
the Spielberg, where he too late repented having betrayed his
faithful adviser, and prudent friend.  I pitied him, and his judges
certainly deserved the punishment they inflicted:  yet to his last
moments he showed his hatred towards me was rooted, and, even in the
grave, strove by his will to involve me in misfortune, as will
hereafter be seen.

I fled from Vienna, would to God it had been for ever; but fate by
strange ways, and unknown means, brought me back where Providence
thought proper I should become a vessel of wrath and persecution:  I
was to enact my part in Europe, and not in Asia.  At Nuremberg I met
with a body of Russians, commanded by General Lieuwen, my mother's
relation, who were marching to the Netherlands, and were the peace-
makers of Europe.  Major Buschkow, whom I had known when Russian
resident at Vienna, prevailed on me to visit him, and presented me
to the General.  I pleased him, and may say, with truth, he behaved
to me like a friend and a father.  He advised me to enter into the
Russian service, and gave me a company of dragoons, in the regiment
of Tobolski, on condition I should not leave him, but employ myself
in his cabinet:  and his confidence and esteem for me were
unbounded.

Peace followed; the army returned to Moravia, without firing a
musket, and the head-quarters were fixed at Prosnitz.

In this town a public entertainment was given, by General Lieuwen,
on the coronation day of the Empress Elizabeth; and here an
adventure happened to me, which I shall ever remember, as a warning
to myself, and insert as a memento to others.

The army physician, on this day, kept a Faro bank for the
entertainment of the guests.  My stock of money consisted of two and
twenty ducats.  Thirst of gain, or perhaps example, induced me to
venture two of these, which I immediately lost, and very soon, by
venturing again to regain them, the whole two and twenty.  Chagrined
at my folly, I returned home:  I had nothing but a pair of pistols
left, for which, because of their workmanship, General Woyekow had
offered me twenty ducats.  These I took, intending by their aid to
attempt to retrieve my loss.  Firing of guns and pistols was heard
throughout the town, because of the festival, and I, in imitation of
the rest, went to the window and fired mine.  After a few
discharges, one of my pistols burst, and endangered my own hand, and
wounded my servant.  I felt a momentary despondency, stronger than I
ever remember to have experienced before; insomuch that I was half
induced, with the remaining pistol, to shoot myself through the
head.  I however, recovered my spirits, asked my servant what money
he had, and received from him three ducats.  With these I repaired,
like a desperate gamester, once more to the Faro table, at the
General's, again began to play, and so extraordinary was my run of
luck, I won at every venture.  Having recovered my principal, I
played on upon my winnings, till at last I had absolutely broke the
Doctor's bank:  a new bank was set up, and I won the greatest part
of this likewise, so that I brought home about six hundred ducats.

Rejoiced at my good fortune, but recollecting my danger, I had the
prudence to make a solemn resolution never more to play at any game
of chance, to which I have ever strictly adhered.

It were to be wished young men would reflect upon the effects of
gaming, remembering that the love of play has made the most
promising and virtuous, miserable; the honest, knaves; and the
sincere, deceivers and liars.  Officers, having first lost all their
own money, being entrusted with the soldiers' pay, have next lost
that also; and thus been cashiered, and eternally disgraced.  I
might, at Prosnitz, have been equally rash and culpable.  The first
venture, whether the gamester wins or loses, ensures a second; and,
with that, too often destruction.  My good fortune was almost
miraculous, and my subsequent resolution very uncommon; and I
entreat and conjure my children, when I shall no longer be living to
advise and watch for their welfare, most determinedly to avoid play.
I seemed preserved by Providence from this evil but to endure much
greater.

General Lieuwen, my kind patron, sent me, from Crakow, to conduct a
hundred and forty sick men down the Vistula to Dantzic, where there
were Russian vessels to receive and transport them to Riga.

I requested permission of the General to proceed forward and visit
my mother and sister, whom I was very desirous to see:  at Elbing,
therefore, I resigned the command to Lieutenant Platen, and,
attended by a servant, rode to the bishopric of Ermeland, where I
appointed an interview with them in a frontier village.

Here an incident happened that had nearly cost me my life.  The
Prussians, some days before, had carried off a peasant's son from
this village, as a recruit.  The people were all in commotion.  I
wore leathern breeches, and the blue uniform of the Russian cavalry.
They took me for a Prussian, at the door, and fell upon me with
every kind of weapon.  A chasseur, who happened to be there, and the
landlord, came to my assistance, while I, battling with the
peasants, had thrown two of them down.  I was delivered, but not
till I had received two violent bruises, one on the left arm, and
another which broke the bridge of my nose.  The landlord advised me
to escape as fast as possible, or that the village would rise and
certainly murder me; my servant, therefore, who had retired for
defence, with a pair of pistols, into the oven, got ready the horses
and we rode off.

I had my bruises dressed at the next village; my hand and eyes were
exceedingly swelled, but I was obliged to ride two miles farther, to
the town of Ressel, before I could find an able surgeon, and here I
so far recovered in a week, that I was able to return to Dantzic.
My brother visited me while at Ressel, but my good mother had the
misfortune, as she was coming to me, to be thrown out of her
carriage, by which her arm was broken, so that she and my sister
were obliged to return, and I never saw her more.

I was now at Dantzic, with my sick convoy, where another most
remarkable event happened, which I, with good reason, shall ever
remember.

I became acquainted with a Prussian officer, whose name I shall
conceal out of respect to his very worthy family; he visited me
daily, and we often rode out together in the neighbourhood of
Dantzic.

My faithful servant became acquainted with his, and my astonishment
was indeed great when he one day said to me, with anxiety, "Beware,
sir, of a snare laid for you by Lieutenant N-; he means to entice
you out of town and deliver you up to the Prussians."  I asked him
where he learned this.  "From the lieutenant's servant," answered
he, "who is my friend, and wishes to save me from misfortune."

I now, with the aid of a couple of ducats, discovered the whole
affair, and learned it was agreed, between the Prussian resident,
Reimer, and the lieutenant, that the latter should entice me into
the suburb of Langfuhr, where there was an inn on the Prussian
territories.  Here eight recruiting under-officers were to wait
concealed, and seize me the moment I entered the house, hurry me
into a carriage, and drive away for Lauenberg in Pomerania.  Two
under-officers were to escort me, on horseback, as far as the
frontiers, and the remainder to hold and prevent me from calling for
help, so long as we should remain on the territories of Dantzic.

I farther learned my enemies were only to be armed with sabres, and
that they were to wait behind the door.  The two officers on
horseback were to secure my servant, and prevent him from riding off
and raising an alarm.

These preparations might easily have been rendered fruitless, by my
refusing to accept the proposal of the lieutenant, but vanity gave
me other advice, and resentment made me desirous of avenging myself
for such detestable treachery.

Lieutenant N- came, about noon, to dine with me as usual, was more
pensive and serious than I had ever observed him before, and left me
at four in the afternoon, after having made a promise to ride early
next day with him as far as Langfuhr.  I observed my consent gave
him great pleasure, and my heart then pronounced sentence on the
traitor.  The moment he had left me I went to the Russian resident,
M. Scheerer, an honest Swiss, related the whole conspiracy, and
asked whether I might not take six of the men under my command for
my own personal defence.  I told him my plan, which he at first
opposed; but seeing me obstinate, he answered at last, "Do as you
please; I must know nothing of the matter, nor will I make myself
responsible."

I immediately joined my soldiers, selected six men, and took them,
while it was dark, opposite the Prussian inn, hid them in the corn,
with an order to run to my help with their firelocks loaded the
first discharge they should hear, to seize all who should fall into
their power, and only to fire in case of resistance.  I provided
them with fire-arms, by concealing them in the carriage which
brought them to their hiding-place.

Notwithstanding all these precautions, I still thought it necessary
to prevent surprise, by informing myself what were the proceedings
of my enemies, lest my intelligence should have been false; and I
learned from my spies that, at four in the morning, the Prussian
resident, Reimer, had left the city with post horses.

I loaded mine and my servant's horse and pocket pistols, prepared my
Turkish sabre, and, in gratitude to the lieutenant's man, promised
to take him into my service, being convinced of his honesty.

The lieutenant cheerfully entered about six in the morning,
expatiated on the fineness of the weather, and jocosely told me I
should be very kindly received by the handsome landlady of Langfuhr.

I was soon ready; we mounted, and left the town, attended by our
servants.  Some three hundred paces from the inn, my worthy friend
proposed that we should alight and let our servants lead the horses,
that we might enjoy the beauty of the morning.  I consented, and
having dismounted, observed his treacherous eyes sparkle with
pleasure.

The resident, Reimer, was at the window of the inn, and called out,
as soon as he saw me, "Good-morrow, captain, good-morrow; come, come
in, your breakfast is waiting."  I, sneering, smiled, and told him I
had not time at present.  So saying, I continued my walk, but my
companion would absolutely force me to enter, took me by the arm,
and partly struggled with me, on which, losing all patience, I gave
him a blow which almost knocked him down, and ran to my horses as if
I meant to fly.

The Prussians instantly rushed from behind their door, with clamour,
to attack me.  I fired at the first; my Russians sprang from their
hiding-place, presented their pieces, and called, Stuy, stuy,
yebionnamat.

The terror of the poor Prussians may well be supposed.  All began to
run.  I had taken care to make sure of my lieutenant, and was next
running to seize the resident, but he had escaped out of the back
door, with the loss only of his white periwig.  The Russians had
taken four prisoners, and I commanded them to bestow fifty strokes
upon each of them in the open street.  An ensign, named Casseburg,
having told me his name, and that he had been my brother's
schoolfellow, begged remission, and excused himself on the necessity
which he was under to obey his superiors.  I admitted his excuses
and suffered him to go.  I then drew my sword and bade the
lieutenant defend himself; but he was so confused, that, after
drawing his sword, he asked my pardon, laid the whole blame upon the
resident, and had not the power to put himself on his guard.  I
twice jerked his sword out of his hand, and, at last, taking the
Russian corporal's cane, I exhausted my strength with beating him,
without his offering the least resistance.  Such is the meanness of
detected treachery.  I left him kneeling, saying to him, "Go,
rascal, now, and tell your comrades the manner in which Trenck
punishes robbers on the highway."

The people had assembled round us during the action, to whom I
related the affair, and the attack having happened on the
territories of Dantzic, the Prussians were in danger of being stoned
by the populace.  I and my Russians marched off victorious,
proceeded to the harbour, embarked, and three or four days after,
set sail for Riga.

It is remarkable that none of the public papers took any notice of
this affair; no satisfaction was required.  The Prussians, no doubt,
were ashamed of being defeated in an attempt so perfidious.

I since have learnt that Frederic, no doubt by the false
representations of Reimer, was highly irritated, and what afterwards
happened proves his anger pursued me through every corner of the
earth, till at last I fell into his power at Dantzic, and suffered a
martyrdom most unmerited and unexampled.

The Prussian envoy, Goltz, indeed, made complaints to Count
Bestuchef, concerning this Dantzic skirmish, but received no
satisfaction.  My conduct was justified in Russia, I having defended
myself against assassins, as a Russian captain ought.

Some dispassionate readers may blame me for not having avoided this
rencontre, and demanded personal satisfaction of Lieutenant N -.
But I have through life rather sought than avoided danger.  My
vanity and revenge were both roused.  I was everywhere persecuted by
the Prussians, and I was therefore determined to show that, far from
fearing, I was able to defend myself.

I hired the servant of the lieutenant, whom I found honest and
faithful, and whom I comfortably settled in marriage, at Vienna, in
1753.  After my ten years' imprisonment, I found him poor, and again
took him into my service, in which he died, at Zwerbach, in 1779.



CHAPTER X.



And now behold me at sea, on my voyage to Riga.  I had eaten
heartily before I went on board; a storm came on; I worked half the
night, to aid the crew, but at length became sea-sick, and went to
lie down.  Scarcely had I closed my eyes before the master came with
the joyful tidings, as he thought, that we were running for the port
of Pillau.  Far from pleasing, this, to me, was dreadful
intelligence.  I ran on deck, saw the harbour right before me, and a
pilot coming off.  The sea must now be either kept in a storm, or I
fall into the hands of the Prussians; for I was known to the whole
garrison of Pillau.

I desired the captain to tack about and keep the sea, but he would
not listen to me.  Perceiving this, I flew to my cabin, snatched my
pistols, returned, seized the helm, and threatened the captain with
instant death if he did not obey.  My Russians began to murmur; they
were averse to encountering the dangers of the storm, but luckily
they were still more averse to meet my anger, overawed, as they
were, by my pistols, and my two servants, who stood by me
faithfully.

Half an hour after, the storm began to subside, and we fortunately
arrived the next day in the harbour of Riga.  The captain, however,
could not be appeased, but accused me before the old and honourable
Marshal Lacy, then governor of Riga.  I was obliged to appear, and
reply to the charge by relating the truth.  The governor answered,
my obstinacy might have occasioned the death of a hundred and sixty
persons; I, smiling, retorted, "I have brought them all safe to
port, please your Excellency; and, for my part, my fate would have
been much more merciful by falling into the hands of my God than
into the hands of my enemies.  My danger was so great that I forgot
the danger of others; besides, sir, I knew my comrades were
soldiers, and feared death as little as I do."  My answer pleased
the fine grey-headed general, and he gave me a recommendation to the
chancellor Bestuchef at Moscow.

General Lieuwen had marched from Moravia, for Russia, with the army,
and was then at Riga.  I went to pay him my respects; he kindly
received me, and took me to one of his seats, named Annaburg, four
miles from Riga.  Here I remained some days, and he gave me every
recommendation to Moscow, where the court then was.  It was intended
I should endeavour to obtain a company in the regiment of
cuirassiers, the captains of which then ranked as majors, and he
advised me to throw up my commission in the Siberian regiment of
Tobolski dragoons.  Peace be to the names and the memory of this
worthy man!  May God reward this benevolence!  From Riga I departed,
in company with M. Oettinger, lieutenant-colonel of engineers, and
Lieutenant Weismann, for Moscow.  This is the same Weismann who
rendered so many important services to Russia, during the last war
with the Turks.

On my arrival, after delivering in my letters of recommendation, I
was particularly well received by Count Bestuchef.  Oettinger, whose
friendship I had gained, was exceedingly intimate with the
chancellor, and my interest was thereby promoted.

I had not been long at Moscow before I met Count Hamilton, my former
friend during my abode at Vienna.  He was a captain of cavalry, in
the regiment of General Bernes, who had been sent as imperial
ambassador to Russia.

Bernes had been ambassador at Berlin in 1743, where he had
consequently known me during the height of my favour at the court of
Frederic.  Hamilton presented me to him, and I had the good fortune
so far to gain his friendship, that, after a few visits, he
endeavoured to detach me from the Russian service, offering me the
strongest recommendations to Vienna, and a company in his own
regiment.  My cousin's misfortunes, however, had left too deep an
impression on my mind to follow his advice.  The Indies would then
have been preferred by me to Austria.

Bernes invited me to dine with him in company with his bosom friend,
Lord Hyndford, the English ambassador.  How great was the pleasure I
that day received!  This eminent statesman had known me at Berlin,
and was present when Frederic had honoured me with saying, C'est un
matador de ma jeunesse.  He was well read in men, conceived a good
opinion of my abilities, and became a friend and father to me.  He
seated me by his side at table, and asked me, "Why came you here,
Trenck?"  "In search of bread and honour, my lord," answered I,
"having unmeritedly lost them both in my own country."  He further
inquired the state of my finances; I told him my whole store might
be some thirty ducats.

"Take my counsel," said he; "you have the necessary qualifications
to succeed in Russia, but the people here despise poverty, judge
from the exterior only, and do not include services or talents in
the estimate; you must have the appearance of being wealthy.  I and
Bernes will introduce you into the best families, and will supply
you with the necessary means of support.  Splendid liveries, led
horses, diamond rings, deep play, a bold front, undaunted freedom
with statesmen, and gallantry among the ladies, are the means by
which foreigners must make their way in this country.  Avail
yourself of them, and leave the rest to us."  This lesson lasted
some time.  Bernes entered in the interim, and they determined
mutually to contribute towards my promotion.

Few of the young men who seek their fortune in foreign countries
meet incidents so favourable.  Fortune for a moment seemed willing
to recompense my past sufferings, and again to raise me to the
height from which I had fallen.  These ambassadors, here again by
accident met, had before been witnesses of my prosperity when at
Berlin.  The talents I possessed, and the favour I then enjoyed,
attracted the notice of all foreign ministers.  They were bosom
friends, equally well read in the human heart, and equally
benevolent and noble-minded; their recommendation at court was
decisive; the nations they represented were in alliance with Russia,
and the confidence Bestuchef placed in them was unbounded.

I was now introduced into all companies, not as a foreigner who came
to entreat employment, but as the heir of the house of Trenck, and
its rich Hungarian possessions, and as the former favourite of the
Prussian monarch.

I was also admitted to the society of the first literati, and wrote
a poem on the anniversary of the coronation of the Empress
Elizabeth.  Hyndford took care she should see it, and, in
conjunction with the chancellor, presented me to the sovereign.  My
reception was most gracious.  She herself recommended me to the
chancellor, and presented me with a gold-hilted sword, worth a
thousand roubles.  This raised me highly in the esteem of all the
houses of the Bestuchef party.

Manners were at that time so rude in Russia, that every foreigner
who gave a dinner, or a ball, must send notice to the chancellor
Bestuchef, that he might return a list of the guests allowed to be
invited.  Faction governed everything; and wherever Bestuchef was,
no friend of Woranzow durst appear.  I was the intimate of the
Austrian and English ambassadors; consequently, was caressed and
esteemed in all companies.  I soon became the favourite of the
chancellor's lady, as I shall hereafter notice; and nothing more was
wanting to obtain all I could wish.

I was well acquainted with architectural design, had free access to
the house and cabinet of the chancellor, where I drew in company
with Colonel Oettinger, who was then the head architect of Russia,
and made the perspective view of the new palace, which the
chancellor intended to build at Moscow, by which I acquired
universal honour.  I had gained more acquaintance in, and knowledge
of, Russia in one month, than others, wanting my means, have done in
twelve.

As I was one day relating my progress to Lord Hyndford, he, like a
friend, grown grey in courts, kindly took the trouble to advise me.
From him I obtained a perfect knowledge of Russia; he was acquainted
with all the intrigues of European courts, their families, party
cabals, the foibles of the monarchs, the principles of their
government, the plots of the great Peter, and had also made the
peace of Breslau.  Thus, having been the confidential friend of
Frederic, he was intimately acquainted with his heart, as well as
the sources of his power.  Hyndford was penetrating, noble-minded,
had the greatness of the Briton, without his haughtiness; and the
principles, by which he combined the past, the present, and the
future, were so clear, that I, his scholar, by adhering to them,
have been enabled to foretell all the most remarkable revolutions
that have happened, during the space of six-and-thirty years, in
Europe.  By these I knew, when any minister was disgraced, who
should be his successor.  I daily passed some hours improving by his
kind conversation; and to him I am indebted for most of that
knowledge of the world I happen to possess.

He took various opportunities of cautioning me against the effects
of an ardent, sanguine temper; and my hatred of arbitrary power
warned me to beware of the determined persecution of Frederic, of
his irreconcilable anger, his intrigues and influence in the various
courts of Europe, which he would certainly exert to prevent my
promotion, lest I should impede his own projects, and lamented my
future sufferings, which he plainly foresaw.  "Despots," said he,
"always are suspicious, and abhor those who have a consciousness of
their own worth, of the rights of mankind, and hold the lash in
detestation.  The enlightened are by them called the restless
spirits, turbulent and dangerous; and virtue there, where virtue is
unnecessary for the humbling and trampling upon the suffering
subject, is accounted a crime, of all others the most to be
dreaded."

Hyndford taught me to know, and highly to value freedom:  to despise
tyrants, to endure the worst of miseries, to emulate true greatness
of mind, to despise danger, and to honour only those whose elevation
of soul had taught them equally to oppose bigotry and despotism.

Bernes was a philosopher; but with the penetration of an Italian,
more cautious than Hyndford, yet equally honest and worthy.  His
friendship for me was unbounded, and the time passed in their
company was esteemed by me most precious.  The liberality of my
sentiments, thirst after knowledge and scientific acquirements
gained their favour; our topics of conversation were inexhaustible,
and I acquired more real information at Moscow than at Berlin, under
the tuition of La Metri, Maupertuis, and Voltaire.



CHAPTER XI.



Scarcely had I been six weeks in this city before I had an adventure
which I shall here relate; for, myself excepted, all the persons
concerned in it are now dead.  Intrigues properly belong to novels.
This book is intended for a more serious purpose, and they are
therefore here usually suppressed.  It cannot be supposed I was a
woman-hater.  Most of the good or bad fortune I experienced
originated in love.  I was not by nature inconstant, and was
incapable of deceit even in amours.  In the very ardour of youth I
always shunned mere sensual pleasures.  I loved for more exalted
reasons, and for such sought to be beloved again.  Love and
friendship were with me always united; and these I was capable of
inciting, maintaining, and deserving.  The most difficult of access,
the noblest, and the fairest, were ever my choice:  and my
veneration for these always deterred me from grosser gratifications.
By woman I was formed; by the faith of woman supported under
misfortunes; in the company of woman enjoyed the few hours of
delight my life of sorrows has experienced.  Woman, beautiful and
well instructed, even now, lightens the burden of age, the world's
tediousness and its woes; and, when these are ended, I would rather
wish mine eyes might be closed by fair and virgin hands, than, when
expiring, fixed on a hypocritical priest.

My adventures with women would amply furnish a romance:  but enough
of this, I should not relate the present, were it not necessary to
my story.

Dining one public day with Lord Hyndford, I was seated beside a
charming young lady of one of the best families in Russia, who had
been promised in marriage, though only seventeen, to an old invalid
minister.  Her eyes soon told me she thought me preferable to her
intended bridegroom.  I understood them, lamented her hard fate, and
was surprised to hear her exclaim, "Oh, heavens! that it were
possible you could deliver me from my misfortune:  I would engage to
do whatever you would direct."

The impression such an appeal must make on a man of four and twenty,
of a temperament like mine, may easily be supposed.  The lady was
ravishingly beautiful; her soul was candour itself, and her rank
that of a princess; but the court commands had already been given in
favour of the marriage; and flight, with all its inseparable
dangers, was the only expedient.  A public table was no place for
long explanations.  Our hearts were already one.  I requested an
interview, and the next day was appointed, the place the Trotzer
garden, where I passed three rapturous hours in her company:  thanks
to her woman, who was a Georgian.

To escape, however, from Moscow, was impossible.  The distance
thence to any foreign country was too great.  The court was not to
remove to Petersburg till the next spring, and her marriage was
fixed for the first of August.  The misfortune was not to be
remedied, and nothing was left us but patience perforce.  We could
only resolve to fly from Petersburg when there, the soonest
possible, and to take refuge in some corner of the earth, where we
might remain unknown of all.  The marriage, therefore, was
celebrated with pomp, though I, in despite of forms, was the true
husband of the princess.  Such was the state of the husband imposed
upon her, that to describe it, and not give disgust, were
impossible.

The princess gave me her jewels, and several thousand roubles, which
she had received as a nuptial present, that I might purchase every
thing necessary for flight; my evil destiny, however, had otherwise
determined.  I was playing at ombre with her, one night, at the
house of the Countess of Bestuchef, when she complained of a violent
headache, appointed me to meet her on the morrow, in the Trotzer
gardens, clasped my hand with inexpressible emotion, and departed.
Alas!  I never beheld her more, till stretched upon the bier!

She grew delirious that very night, and so continued till her death,
which happened on the sixth day, when the small-pox began to appear.
During her delirium she discovered our love, and incessantly called
on me to deliver her from her tyrant.  Thus, in the flower of her
age, perished one of the most lovely women I ever knew, and with her
fled all I held most dear.

All my plans were now to be newly arranged.  Lord Hyndford alone was
in the secret, for I hid no secrets from him:  he strengthened me in
my first resolution, and owned that he himself, for such a mistress,
might perhaps have been weak enough to have acted as I had done.
Almost as much moved as myself, he sympathised with me as a friend,
and his advice deterred me from ending my miseries, and descending
with her, whom I have loved and lost, to the grave.  This was the
severest trial I had ever felt.  Our affection was unbounded, and
such only as noble hearts can feel.  She being gone, the whole world
became a desert.  There is not a man on earth, whose life affords
more various turns of fate than mine.  Swiftly raised to the highest
pinnacle of hope, as suddenly was I cast headlong down, and so
remarkable were these revolutions that he who has read my history
will at last find it difficult to say whether he envies or pities me
most.  And yet these were, in reality, but preparatory to the evils
that hovered over my devoted head.  Had not the remembrance of past
joys soothed and supported me under my sufferings, I certainly
should not have endured the ten years' torture of the Magdeburg
dungeon, with a fortitude that might have been worthy even of
Socrates.

Enough of this.  My blood again courses swifter through my veins as
I write!  Rest, gentle maiden, noble and lovely as thou wert!  For
thee ought Heaven to have united a form so fair, animated as it was,
by a soul so pure, to ever-blooming youth and immortality.

My love for this lady became well-known in Moscow; yet her corpulent
overgrown husband had not understanding enough to suppose there was
any meaning in her rhapsodies during her delirium.

Her gifts to me amounted in value to about seven thousand ducats.
Lord Hyndford and Count Bernes both adjudged them legally mine, and
well am I assured her heart had bequeathed me much more.

To this event succeeded another, by which my fortune was greatly
influenced.  The Countess of Bestuchef was then the most amiable and
witty woman at Court.  Her husband, cunning, selfish, and shallow,
had the name of minister, while she, in reality, governed with a
genius, at once daring and comprehensive.  The too pliant Elizabeth
carelessly left the most important things to the direction of
others.  Thus the Countess was the first person of the Empire, and
on whom the attention of the foreign ministers was fixed.

Haughty and majestic in her demeanour, she was supposed to be the
only woman at court who continued faithful to her husband; which
supposition probably originated in her art and education, she being
a German born:  for I afterwards found her virtue was only pride,
and a knowledge of the national character.  The Russian lover rules
despotic over his mistress:  requires money, submission, and should
he meet opposition, threatens her with blows, and the discovery of
her secret.

During Elizabeth's reign foreigners could neither appear at court,
nor in the best company, without the introduction of Bestuchef.  I
and Sievers, gentlemen of the chamber, were at that time the only
Germans who had free egress and regress in all houses of fashion; my
being protected by the English and Austrian ambassadors gave me very
peculiar advantages, and made my company everywhere courted.

Bestuchef had been resident, during the late reign, at Hamburg, in
which inferior station he married the countess, at that time, though
young and handsome, only the widow of the merchant Boettger.  Under
Elizabeth, Bestuchef rose to the summit of rank and power, and the
widow Boettger became the first lady of the empire.  When I knew her
she was eight and thirty, consequently no beauty, though a woman
highly endowed in mind and manners, of keen discernment, disliking
the Russians, protecting the Prussians, and at whose aversions all
trembled.

Her carriage towards the Russians was, what it must be in her
situation, lofty, cautious, and ironical, rather than kind.  To me
she showed the utmost esteem on all occasions, welcomed me at her
table, and often admitted me to drink coffee in company with herself
alone and Colonel Oettinger.  The countess never failed giving me to
understand she had perceived my love for the princess N- ; and,
though I constantly denied the fact, she related circumstances which
she could have known, as I thought, only from my mistress herself;
my silence pleased her; for the Russians, when a lady had a
partiality for them, never fail to vaunt of their good fortune.  She
wished to persuade me she had observed us in company, had read the
language of our eyes, and had long penetrated our secret.  I was
ignorant at that time that she had then, and long before,
entertained the maid of my mistress as a spy in her pay.

About a week after the death of the princess, the countess invited
me to take coffee with her, in her chamber; lamented my loss, and
the violence of that passion which had deprived me of all my
customary vivacity, and altered my very appearance.  She seemed so
interested in my behalf, and expressed so many wishes, and so ardent
to better my fate, that I could no longer doubt.  Another
opportunity soon happened, which confirmed these my suspicions:  her
mouth confessed her sentiments.  Discretion, secrecy, and fidelity,
were the laws she imposed, and never did I experience a more ardent
passion from woman.  Such was her understanding and penetration, she
knew how to rivet my affections.

Caution was the thing most necessary.  She contrived, however, to
make opportunity.  The chancellor valued, confided in me, and
employed me in his cabinet; so that I remained whole days in his
house.  My captainship of cavalry was now no longer thought of:  I
was destined to political employment.  My first was to be gentleman
of the chamber, which in Russia is an office of importance, and the
prospect of futurity became to me most resplendent.  Lord Hyndford,
ever the repository of my secrets, counselled me, formed plans for
my conduct, rejoiced at my success, and refused to be reimbursed the
expense he had been at, though now my circumstances were prosperous.

The degree of credit I enjoyed was soon noticed:  foreign ministers
began to pay their court to me:  Goltz, the Prussian minister, made
every effort to win me, but found me incorruptible.

The Russian alliance was at this time highly courted by foreign
powers; the humbling of Prussia was the thing generally wished and
planned:  and nobody was better informed than myself of ministerial
and family factions at this court.

My mistress, a year after my acquaintance with her, fell into her
enemies' power, and with her husband, was delivered over to the
executioner.  Chancellor Bestuchef, in the year 1756, was forced to
confession by the knout.  Apraxin, minister of war, had a similar
fate.  The wife of his brother, then envoy in Poland, was, by the
treachery of a certain Lieutenant Berger, with three others of the
first ladies of the court, knouted, branded, and had their tongues
cut out.  This happened in the year 1741, when Elizabeth ascended
the throne.  Her husband, however, faithfully served:  I knew him as
Russian envoy, at Vienna, 1751.  This may indeed be called the love
of our country, and thus does it happen to the first men of the
state:  what then can a foreigner hope for, if persecuted, and in
the power of those in authority?

No man, in so short a space of time, had greater opportunities than
I, to discover the secrets of state; especially when guided by
Hyndford and Bernes, under the reign of a well-meaning but short-
sighted Empress, whose first minister was a weak man, directed by
the will of an able and ambitious wife, and which wife loved me, a
stranger, an acquaintance of only a few months, so passionately that
to this passion she would have sacrificed every other object.  She
might, in fact, be considered as Empress of Russia, disposing of
peace or war, and had I been more prudent or less sincere, I might
in such a situation, have amassed treasures, and deposited them in
full security.  Her generosity was boundless; and, though obliged to
pay above a hundred thousand roubles, in one year, to discharge her
son's debts, yet might I have saved a still larger sum; but half of
the gifts she obliged me to receive, I lent to this son, and lost.
So far was I from selfish, and so negligent of wealth, that by
supplying the wants of others, I often, on a reverse of fortune,
suffered want myself.

This my splendid success in Russia displeased the great Frederic,
whose persecution everywhere attended me, and who supposed his
interest injured by my success in Russia.  The incident I am going
to relate was, at the time it happened, well known to, and caused
much agitation among all the foreign ambassadors.

Lord Hyndford desired I would make him a fair copy of a plan of
Cronstadt, for which he furnished the materials, with three
additional drawings of the various ships in the harbour, and their
names.  There was neither danger nor suspicion attending this; the
plan of Cronstadt being no secret, but publicly sold in the shops of
Petersburg.  England was likewise then in the closest alliance with
Russia.  Hyndford showed the drawing to Funk, the Saxon envoy, his
intimate friend, who asked his permission to copy it himself.
Hyndford gave him the plan signed with my name; and after Funk had
been some days employed copying it, the Prussian minister, Goltz,
who lived in his neighbourhood, came in, as he frequently paid him
friendly visits.  Funk, unsuspectingly, showed him my drawing, and
both lamented that Frederic had lost so useful a subject.  Goltz
asked to borrow it for a couple of days, in order to correct his
own; and Funk, one of the worthiest, most honest, and least
suspicious of men, who loved me like a brother, accordingly lent the
plan.

No sooner was Goltz in possession of it than he hurried to the
chancellor, with whose weakness he was well acquainted, told him his
intent in coming was to prove that a man, who had once been
unfaithful to his king and country, where he had been loaded with
favours, would certainly betray, for his own private interest, every
state where he was trusted.  He continued his preface, by speaking
of the rapid progress I had made in Russia, and the free entrance I
had found in the chancellor's house, where I was received as a son,
and initiated in the secrets of the cabinet.

The chancellor defended me:  Goltz then endeavoured to incite his
jealousy, and told him my private interviews with his wife,
especially in the palace-garden, were publicly spoken of.  This he
had learned from his spies, he having endeavoured, by the snares he
laid, to make my destruction certain.

He likewise led Bestuchef to suspect his secretary, S-n, was a party
in the intrigue; till at last the chancellor became very angry;
Goltz then took my plan of Cronstadt from his pocket, and added,
"Your excellency is nourishing a serpent in your bosom.  This
drawing have I received from Trenck, copied from your cabinet
designs, for two hundred ducats."  He knew I was employed there
sometimes with Oettinger, whose office it was to inspect the
buildings and repairs of the Russian fortifications.  Bestuchef was
astonished; his anger became violent, and Goltz added fuel to the
flame, by insinuating, I should not be so powerfully protected by
Bernes, the Austrian ambassador, were it not to favour the views of
his own court.  Bestuchef mentioned prosecution and the knout; Goltz
replied my friends were too powerful, my pardon would be procured,
and the evil this way increased.  They therefore determined to have
me secretly secured, and privately conveyed to Siberia.

Thus, while I unsuspectingly dreamed of nothing but happiness, the
gathering storm threatened destruction, which only was averted by
accident, or God's good providence.

Goltz had scarcely left the place triumphant, when the chancellor
entered, with bitterness and rancour in his heart, into his lady's
apartment, reproached her with my conduct, and while she endeavoured
to soothe him, related all that had passed.  Her penetration was
much deeper than her husband's:  she perceived there was a plot
against me:  she indeed knew my heart better than any other, and
particularly that I was not in want of a poor two hundred ducats.
She could not, however, appease him, and my arrest was determined.
She therefore instantly wrote me a line to the following purport.

"You are threatened, dear friend, by a very imminent danger.  Do not
sleep to-night at home, but secure yourself at Lord Hyndford's till
you hear farther from me."

Secretary S-n, her confidant (the same who, not long since, was
Russian envoy at Ratisbon) was sent with the note.  He found me,
after dinner, at the English ambassador's, and called me aside.  I
read the billet, was astonished at its contents, and showed it Lord
Hyndford.  My conscience was void of reproach, except that we
suspected my secret with the countess had been betrayed to the
chancellor, and fearing his jealousy, Hyndford commanded me to
remain in his house till we should make further discovery.

We placed spies round the house where I lived; I was inquired for
after midnight, and the lieutenant of the police came himself and
searched the house.

Lord Hyndford went, about ten in the morning, to visit the
chancellor, that he might obtain some intelligence, who immediately
reproached him for having granted an asylum to a traitor.  "What has
this traitor done?" said Hyndford.  "Faithlessly copied a plan of
Cronstadt, from my cabinet drawings," said the chancellor; "which he
has sold to the Prussian minister for two hundred ducats."

Hyndford was astonished; he knew me well, and also knew that he had
then in money and jewels, more than eight thousand ducats of mine in
his own hands:  nor was he less ignorant of the value I set on
money, or of the sources whence I could obtain it, when I pleased.
"Has your excellency actually seen this drawing of Trenck's?"--"Yes,
I have been shown it by Goltz."--"I wish I might likewise be
permitted to see it; I know Trenck's drawing, and make myself
responsible that he is no traitor.  Here is some mystery; be so kind
as to desire M. Goltz will come and bring his plan of Cronstadt.
Trenck is at my house, shall be forthcoming instantly, and I will
not protect him if he proves guilty."

The Chancellor wrote to Goltz; but he, artful as he was, had no
doubt taken care to be informed that the lieutenant of the police
had missed his prey.  He therefore sent an excuse, and did not
appear.  In the meantime I entered; Hyndford then addressed me, with
the openness of an Englishman, and asked, "Are you a traitor,
Trenck?  If so, you do not merit my protection, but stand here as a
state prisoner.  Have you sold a plan of Cronstadt to M. Goltz?"  My
answer may easily be supposed.  Hyndford rehearsed what the
chancellor had told him; I was desired to leave the room, and Funk
was sent for.  The moment he came in, Hyndford said, "Sir, where is
that plan of Cronstadt which Trenck copied?"  Funk, hesitating,
replied, "I will go for it."  "Have you it," continued Hyndford, "at
home?  Speak, upon your honour."--"No, my Lord, I have lent it, for
a few days, to M. Goltz, that he may take a copy."

Hyndford immediately then saw the whole affair, told the chancellor
the history of this plan, which belonged to him, and which he had
lent to Funk, and requested a trusty person might be sent with him
to make a proper search.  Bestuchef named his first secretary, and
to him were added Funk and the Dutch envoy, Schwart, who happened
then to enter.  All went together to the house of Goltz.  Funk
demanded his plan of Cronstadt; Goltz gave it him, and Funk returned
it to Lord Hyndford.

The secretary and Hyndford both then desired he would produce the
plan of Cronstadt which he had bought of Trenck for two hundred
ducats.  His confusion now was great, and Hyndford firmly insisted
this plan should be forthcoming, to vindicate the honour of Trenck,
whom he held to be an honest man.  On this, Goltz answered, "I have
received my king's commands to prevent the preferment of Trenck in
Russia, and I have only fulfilled the duty of a minister."

Hyndford spat on the ground, and said more than I choose to repeat;
after which the four gentlemen returned to the chancellor, and I was
again called.  Everybody complimented me, related to me what had
passed, and the chancellor promised I should be recompensed;
strictly, however, forbidding me to take any revenge on the Prussian
ambassador, I having sworn, in the first transports of anger, to
punish him wherever I should find him, even were it at the altar's
foot.

The chancellor soothed me, kept me to dine with him, and endeavoured
to assuage my boiling passions.  The countess affected indifference,
and asked me if suchlike actions characterised the Prussian nation.
Funk and Schwart were at table.  All present congratulated me on my
victory, but none knew to whom I was indebted for my deliverance
from the hasty and unjust condemnation of the chancellor, although
my protectress was one of the company.  I received a present of two
thousand roubles the next day from the chancellor, with orders to
thank the Empress for this mark of her bounty, and accept it as a
sign of her special favour.  I paid these my thanks some days after.
The money I disregarded, but the amiable Empress, by her enchanting
benevolence, made me forget the past.  The story became public, and
Goltz appeared neither in public, nor at court.  The manner in which
the countess personally reproached him, I shall out of respect pass
over.  Bernes, the crafty Piedmontese, assured me of revenge,
without my troubling myself in the matter, and--what happened after
I know not; Goltz appeared but little in company, fell ill when I
had left Russia, and died soon after of a consumption.

This vile man was, no doubt, the cause of all the calamities which
fell upon me.  I should have become one of the first men in Russia:
the misfortune that befel Bestuchef and his family some years
afterward might have been averted:  I should never have returned to
Vienna, a city so fatal to the name of Trenck:  by the mediation of
the Russian Court, I should have recovered my great Sclavonian
estates; my days of persecution at Vienna would have passed in peace
and pleasure:  nor should I have entered the dungeon of Magdeburg.



CHAPTER XII.



How little did the Great Frederic know my heart.  Without having
offended, he had rendered me miserable, had condemned me to
imprisonment at Glatz on mere suspicion, and on my flying thence,
naked and destitute, had confiscated my paternal inheritance.  Not
contented with inflicting all these calamities, he would not suffer
me peaceably to seek my fortune in a foreign land.

Few are the youths who, in so short a time, being expelled their
native country with disgrace, by their own efforts, merits, and
talents, have obtained honour and favour so great, acquired such
powerful friends, or been entrusted with confidence equally
unlimited in transactions so important.  Enraged as I was at the
treachery of Goltz, had opportunity offered, I might have been
tempted even to turn my native country into a desert; nor do I deny
that I afterwards promoted the views of the Austrian envoy, who knew
well how to cherish the flame that had been kindled, and turn it to
his own use.  Till this moment I never felt the least enmity either
to my country or king, nor did I suffer myself, on any occasion, to
be made the agent of their disadvantage.

No sooner was I entrusted more intimately with cabinet secrets, than
I discovered the state of factions, and that Bestuchef and Apraxin
were even then in Prussian pay; that a counterpoise, by their means,
might be formed to the prevalence of the Austrian party.

Hence we may date the change of Russian politics in the year 1762.
Here also we may find a clue to the contradictory orders, artifices,
positions, retreats and disappointments of the Russian army, in the
seven years' war, beginning in 1756.  The countess, who was obliged
to act with greater caution, foresaw the consequence of the various
intrigues in which her husband was engaged:  her love for me
naturally drew her from her former party; she confided every secret
to me, and ever remained till her fall, which happened in 1758,
during my imprisonment, my best friend and correspondent.  Hence was
I so well informed of all the plans against Prussia, to the years
1754 and 1756; much more so than many ministers of the interested
courts, who imagined they alone were in the secret.  How many after
events could I then have foretold!  Such was the perverseness of my
destiny, that where I should most have been sought for, and best
known, there was I least valued.

No man, in my youth, would have believed I should live to my
sixtieth year, untitled and obscure.  In Berlin, Petersburg, London,
and Paris, have I been esteemed by the greatest statesmen, and now
am I reduced to the invalid list.  How strange are the caprices of
fortune!  I ought never to have left Russia:  this was my great
error, which I still live to repent.

I have never been accustomed to sleep more than four or five hours,
so that through life I have allowed time for paying visits and
receiving company.  I have still had sufficient for study and
improvement.  Hyndford was my instructor in politics; Boerhaave,
then physician to the court, my bosom friend, my tutor in physic and
literary subjects.  Women formed me for court intrigues, though
these, as a philosopher, I despised.

The chancellor had greatly changed his carriage towards me since the
incident of the plan.  He observed my looks, showed he was
distrustful, and desirous of revenge.  His lady, as well as myself,
remarked this, and new measures became necessary.  I was obliged to
act an artful, but, at the same time, a very dangerous part.

My cousin, Baron Trenck, died in the Spielberg, October 4, 1749, and
left me his heir, on condition I should only serve the house of
Austria.  In March, 1750, Count Bernes received the citation sent me
to enter on this inheritance.  I would hear nothing of Vienna; the
abominable treatment of my cousin terrified me.  I well knew the
origin of his prosecution, the services he had rendered his country,
and had been an eye-witness of the injustice by which he was repaid.
Bernes represented to me that the property left me was worth much
above a million:  that the empress would support me in pursuit of
justice, and that I had no personal enemy at Vienna, that a million
of certain property in Hungary was much superior to the highest
expectations in Russia, where I myself had beheld so many changes of
fortune, and the effects of family cabals.  Russia he painted as
dangerous, Vienna as secure, and promised me himself effectual
assistance, as his embassy would end within the year.  Were I once
rich, I might reside in what country I pleased; nor could the
persecutions of Frederic anywhere pursue me so ineffectually as in
Austria.  Snares would be laid for me everywhere else, as I had
experienced in Russia.  "What," said he, "would have been the
consequence, had not the countess warned you of the impending
danger?  You, like many other honest and innocent men, would have
been sent to Siberia.  Your innocence must have remained untested,
and yourself, in the universal opinion, a villain and a traitor."

Hyndford spoke to me in the same tone, assured me of his eternal
protection, and described London as a certain asylum, should I not
find happiness at Vienna.  He spoke of slavery as a Briton ought to
speak, reminded me of the fate of Munich and Osterman, painted the
court such as I knew it to be, and asked me what were my
expectations, even were I fortunate enough to become general or
minister in such a country.

These reasonings at length determined me; but having plenty of
money, I thought proper to take Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Holland
in my way, and Barnes was in the meantime to prepare me a favourable
reception at Vienna.  He desired, also, I would give him authority
to get possession of the estates to which I was heir.  My mistress
strongly endeavoured to detain me, but yielded at length to the
force of reason.  I tore myself away, and promised, on my honour, to
return as soon as I had arranged my affairs at Vienna.  She made the
proposition of investing me within some foreign embassy, by which I
might render the most effectual services to the court at Vienna.  In
this hope we parted with heavy hearts:  she presented me with her
portrait, and a snuffbox set with diamonds; the first of these,
three years after was torn from my bosom by the officers in my first
dungeon at Magdeburg, as I shall hereafter relate.  The chancellor
embraced me, at parting, with friendship.  Apraxin wept, and clasped
me in his arms, prophesying at the same time, I should never be so
happy as in Russia.  I myself foreboded misfortune, and quitted
Russia with regret, but still followed the advice of Hyndford and
Bernes.

From Moscow I travelled to Petersburg, where I found a letter, at
the house of Baron Wolf, the banker, from the countess, which rent
my very heart, and almost determined me to return.  She endeavoured
to terrify me from proceeding to Vienna, yet inclosed a bill for
four thousand roubles, to aid me on my journey, were I absolutely
bent to turn my back on fortune.

My effects, in money and jewels, amounted to about thirty-six
thousand florins; I therefore returned the draft, intreated her
eternal remembrance, and that she would reserve her favour and
support to times in which they might become needful.  After
remaining a few days at Petersburg, I journeyed, by land, to
Stockholm; taking with me letters of recommendation from all the
foreign envoys

I forgot to mention that Funk was inconsolable for my departure; his
imprudence had nearly plunged me into misery, and destroyed all my
hopes in Russia.  Twenty-two years after this I met the worthy man,
once more in Dresden.  He, there, considered himself as the cause of
all the evils inflicted on me, and assured me the recital of my
sufferings had been so many bitter reproaches to his soul.  Our
recapitulation of former times gave us endless pleasure, and it was
the sweetest of joys to meet and renew my friendship with such a
man, after having weathered so many storms of fate.

At Stockholm I wanted for no recommendation; the Queen, sister to
the great Frederic, had known me at Berlin, when I had the honour,
as an officer of the body guard, of accompanying her to Stettin.  I
related my whole history to her without reserve.  She, from
political motives, advised me not to make any stay at Stockholm, and
to me continued till death, an ever-gracious lady.  I proceeded to
Copenhagen, where I had business to transact for M. Chaise, the
Danish envoy at Moscow:  from whom also I had letters of
recommendation.  Here I had the pleasure of meeting my old friend,
Lieutenant Bach, who had aided me in my escape from my imprisonment
at Glatz.  He was poor and in debt, and I procured him protection,
by relating the noble manner in which he behaved I also presented
him with five hundred ducats, by the aid of which he pushed his
fortune.  He wrote to me in the year 1776, a letter of sincere
thanks, and died a colonel of hussars in the Danish service in 1776.

I remained in Copenhagen but a fortnight, and then sailed in a Dutch
ship, from Elsineur to Amsterdam.  Scarcely had we put to sea,
before a storm arose, by which we lost a mast and bowsprit, had our
sails shattered, and were obliged to cast anchor among the rocks of
Gottenburg, where our deliverance was singularly fortunate.

Here we lay nine days before we could make the open sea, and here I
found a very pleasant amusement, by going daily in the ship's boat
from rock to rock, attended by two of my servants, to shoot wild
ducks, and catch shell-fish; whence I every evening returned with
provisions, and sheep's milk, bought of the poor inhabitants, for
the ship's crew.

There was a dearth among these poor people.  Our vessel was laden
with corn; some of this I purchased, to the amount of some hundreds
of Dutch florins, and distributed wherever I went.  I also gave one
of their ministers a hundred florins for his poor congregation, who
was himself in want of bread, and whose annual stipend amounted to
one hundred and fifty florins.

Here in the sweet pleasure of doing good, I left behind me much of
that money I had so easily acquired in Russia; and perhaps had we
stayed much longer should myself have left the place in poverty.  A
thousand blessings followed me, and the storm-driven Trenck was long
remembered and talked of at Gottenburg.

In this worthy employment, however, I had nearly lost my life.
Returning from carrying corn, the wind rose, and drove the boat to
sea.  I not understanding the management of the helm, and the
servants awkwardly handling the sails, the boat in tacking was
overset.  The benefit of learning to swim, I again experienced, and
my faithful servant, who had gained the rock, aided me when almost
spent.  The good people who had seen the shallop overset, came off
in their boats to my assistance.  An honest Calmuc, whom I had
brought from Russia, and another of my servants perished.  I saw the
first sink after I had reached the shore.

The kind Swedes brought me on board, and also righted and returned
with the shallop.  For some days I was sea-sick.  We weighed anchor,
and sailed for the Texel, the mouth of which we saw, and the pilots
coming off, when another storm arose, and drove us to the port of
Bahus, in Norway, into which we ran, without farther damage.  In
some few days we again set sail, with a fair wind, and at length
reached Amsterdam.

Here I made no long stay; for the day after my arrival, an
extraordinary adventure happened, in which I was engaged chiefly by
my own rashness.

I was a spectator while the harpooners belonging to the whale
fishery were exercising themselves in darting their harpoons, most
of whom were drunk.  One of them, Herman Rogaar by name, a hero
among these people, for his dexterity with his snickasnee, came up,
and passed some of his coarse jests upon my Turkish sabre, and
offered to fillip me on the nose.  I pushed him from me, and the
fellow threw down his cap, drew his snickasnee, challenged me,
called me monkey-tail, and asked whether I chose a straight, a
circular, or a cross cut.

Thus here was I, in this excellent company, with no choice but that
of either fighting or running away.  The robust, Herculean fellow
grew more insolent, and I, turning round to the bystanders, asked
them to lend me a snickasnee.  "No, no," said the challenger, "draw
your great knife from your side, and, long as it is, I will lay you
a dozen ducats you get a gash in the cheek."  I drew; he confidently
advanced with his snickasnee, and, at the first stroke of my sabre,
that, and the hand that held it, both dropped to the ground, and the
blood spouted in my face.

I now expected the people would, indubitably, tear me to pieces; but
my fear was changed into astonishment at hearing a universal shout
applauding the vanquisher of the redoubted Herman Rogaar who, so
lately feared for his strength and dexterity, became the object of
their ridicule.  A Jew spectator conducted me out of the crowd, and
the people clamorously followed me to my inn.  This kind of duel, by
which I gained honour, would anywhere else have brought me to the
highest disgrace.  A man who knew the use of the sabre, in a single
day, might certainly have disabled a hundred Herman Rogaars.  This
story may instruct and warn others.  He that is quarrelsome shall
never want an enemy.  My temerity often engaged me in disputes
which, by timely compliance and calmness, might easily have been
avoided; but my evil genius always impelled me into the paths of
perplexity, and I seldom saw danger till it was inevitable

I left Amsterdam for the Hague, where I had been recommended to Lord
Holderness, the English ambassador, by Lord Hyndford; to Baron
Reisbach, by Bernes; to the Grand Pensionary Fagel, by Schwart; and
from the chancellor I had a letter to the Prince of Orange himself I
could not, therefore, but be everywhere received with all possible
distinction.  Within these recommendations, and the knowledge I
possessed, had I had the good fortune to have avoided Vienna, and
gone to India, where my talents would have insured me wealth, how
many tears of affliction had I been spared!  My ill fortune,
however, had brought me letters from Count Bernes, assuring me that
heaven was at Vienna, and including a citation from the high court,
requiring me to give in my claim of inheritance.  Bernes further
informed me the Austrian court had assured him I should meet with
all justice and protection, and advised me to hasten my journey, as
the executorship of the estates of Trenck was conducted but little
to my advantage.

This advice I took, proceeded to Vienna, and from that moment all my
happiness had an end.  I became bewildered in lawsuits, and the arts
of wicked men, and all possible calamities assaulted me at once, the
recital of which would itself afford subject matter for a history.
They began by the following incidents:-

One M. Schenck sought my acquaintance at the Hague.  I met with him
at my hotel, where he intreated I would take him to Nuremberg,
whence he was to proceed to Saxony.  I complied, and bore his
expenses; but at Hanau, waking in the morning, I found my watch, set
with diamonds, a ring worth two thousand roubles, a diamond snuff-
box, with my mistress's picture, and my purse, containing about
eighty ducats, stolen from my bed-side, and Schenck become
invisible.  Little affected by the loss of money, at any time, I yet
was grieved for my snuff-box.  The rascal, however, had escaped, and
it was fortunate that the remainder of my ready money, with my bills
of exchange, were safely locked up.

I now pursued my journey without company, and arrived in Vienna.  I
cannot exactly recollect in what month, but I had been absent about
two years; and the reader will allow that it was barely possible for
any man, in so short a time, to have experienced more various
changes of fate, though many smaller incidents have been suppressed.
The places, where my pledged fidelity required discretion will be
easily supposed, as likewise will the concealment of court
intrigues, and artifices, the publication of which might even yet
subject me to more persecutions.  All writers are not permitted to
speak truth of monarchs and ministers.  I am the father of eight
children, and parental love and duty vanquish the inclination of the
author; and this duty, this affection, have made me particularly
cautious in relating what happened to me at Vienna, that I might,
thereby, serve them more effectually than by indulging the pride of
the writer, or the vengeance of the man.



CHAPTER XIII.



Since accounts so various, contradictory, and dishonourable to the
name of Trenck, have been circulated in Vienna, concerning facts
which happened thirty-seven years ago, I will here give a short
abstract of them, and such as may he verified by the records of the
court.  I pledge my honour to the truth of the statement, and were I
so allowed, would prove it, to the conviction of any unprejudiced
court of justice:  but this I cannot hope, as princes are much more
disposed to bestow unmerited favours than to make retribution to
those whom they have unjustly punished.

Francis Baron Trenck died in the Spielberg, October 4th, 1749.  It
has been erroneously believed in Vienna that his estates were
confiscated by the sentence which condemned him to the Spielberg.
He had committed no offence against the state, was accused of none,
much less convicted.  The court sentence was that the administration
of his estate should be committed to Counsellor Kempf and Baron
Peyaczewitz, who were selected by himself, and the accounts of his
stewards and farmers were to be sent him yearly.  He continued, till
his death, to have the free and entire disposal of his property.

Although, before his death, he sent for his advocate, Doctor Berger,
and by him petitioned the Empress she would issue the necessary
orders to the Governor of the Spielberg, to permit the entrance of
witnesses, and all things necessary to make a legal will, it by no
means follows that he petitioned her for permission to make this
will.  The case is too clear to admit of doubt.  The royal commands
were given, that he should enjoy all freedom of making his will.
Permission was also given that, during his sickness, he might be
removed to the capuchin convent, which was equal to liberty, but
this he refused to accept.

Neither was his ability to make a will questioned.  The advocate was
only to request the Queen's permission to supply some formalities,
which had been neglected, when he purchased the lordships of Velika
and Nustar, which petition was likewise granted.  The royal mandate
still exists, which commissioned the persons therein named as
trustees to the estate and effects of Trenck, and this mandate runs
thus:  "Let the last will of Trenck be duly executed:  let dispatch
be used, and the heir protected in all his rights."  Confiscation,
therefore, had never been thought of, nor his power to make a will
questioned.

I will now show how I have been deprived of this valuable
inheritance, while I have been obliged to pay above sixty thousand
florins, to defray legacies he had left; and when this narrative is
read, it will no longer be affirmed at Vienna, that by the favours
of the court I inherited seventy-six thousand florins, or the
lordship of Zwerbach from Trenck, I shall proceed to my proofs.

The father of Baron Trenck, who died in the year 1743, governor of
Leitschau, in Hungary, named me in his will the successor of his
son, should he die without heirs male.

This will was sent to be proved, according to form, at Vienna, after
having been authenticated in the most legal manner in Hungary.  The
court called Hofkriegsrath, at Vienna, neglected to provide a
curator for the security of the next heir; yet this could not annul
my right of succession.  When Trenck succeeded his father, he
entered no protest to this, his father's will; therefore, dying
without children, in the year 1749, my claim was indisputable.  I
was heir had he made no will:  and even in case of confiscation, my
title to his father's estates still remained valid.

Trenck knew this but too well:  he, as I have before related, was my
worst enemy, and even attempted my life.  I will therefore proceed
to show the real intent of this his crafty testament.

Determined no longer to live in confinement, or to ask forgiveness,
by which, it is well known, he might have obtained his freedom,
having lost all hopes of reimbursing his losses, his avarice was
reduced to despair.  His desire of fame was unbounded, and this
could no way be gratified but by having himself canonized for a
saint, after spending his life in committing all the ravages of a
pandour.  Hence originated the following facts:-

He knew I was the legal claimant to his father's estates.  His
father had bought with the family money, remitted from Prussia, the
lordships of Prestowacz and Pleternitz, in Sclavonia, and he
himself, during his father's life, and with his father's money, had
purchased the lordship of Pakratz, for forty thousand florins:  this
must therefore descend also to me, he having no more power to will
this from me, than he had the remainder of his paternal inheritance.
The property he himself had gained was consigned to administrators,
but a hundred thousand florins had been expended in lawsuits, and
sixty-three suits continued actually pending against him in court;
the legacies he bequeathed amounted to eighty thousand florins.
These, he saw, could not be paid, should I claim nothing more than
the paternal inheritance; he, therefore, to render me unfortunate
after his death, craftily named me his universal heir, without
mentioning his father's will, but endeavoured, by his mysterious
death, and the following conditions, to enforce the execution of his
own will.

First,--I was to become a Catholic.

Secondly,--I was to serve only the house of Austria; and,

Lastly,--He made his whole estate, without excepting the paternal
inheritance, a Fidei commissum.

Hence arose all my misfortunes, as indeed was his intention; for,
but a short time before his death, he said to the Governor, Baron
Kottulinsky, "I shall now die contented, since I have been able to
trick my cousin, and render him wretched."

His death, believed in Vienna to be miraculous, happened after the
following manner; and by this he had induced many weak people, who
really believed him a saint, to further his views.

Three days before his death, while in perfect health, he desired the
governor of the Spielberg would send for his confessor, for that St.
Francis had revealed to him he should be removed into life
everlasting on his birth-day at twelve o'clock.  The capuchin was
sent for, but the prediction laughed at.

The day, however, after the departure of his confessor, he said,
"Praise be to God, my end approaches; my confessor is dead, and has
appeared to me."  Strange as it may seem; it was actually found to
be true that the priest was dead.  He now had all the officers of
the garrison of Brunn assembled, tonsured his head like a capuchin,
took the habit of the order, publicly confessed himself in a sermon
of an hour's length, exhorted them all to holiness, acted the part
of a most exemplary penitent, embraced all present, spoke with a
smile of the insignificance of all earthly possessions, took his
leave, knelt down to prayers, slept calmly, rose, prayed again, and
about eleven in the forenoon, October 4th, taking his watch in his
hand, said, "Thanks be to my God, my last hour approaches."  All
laughed at such a farce from a man of such a character; yet they
remarked that the left side of his face grew pale.  He then leaned
his arm on the table, prayed, and remained motionless, with his eyes
closed.  The clock struck twelve--no signs of life or motion could
be discovered; they spoke to him, and found he was really dead.

The word miracle was echoed through the whole country, and the
transmigration of the Pandour Trenck, from earth to heaven, by St.
Francis, proclaimed.  The clue to this labyrinth of miracles, known
only to me, is truly as follows:- He possessed the secret of what is
called the aqua tofana, and had determined on death.  His confessor
had been entrusted with all his secrets, and with promissory notes,
which he wished to invalidate.  I am perfectly certain that he had
returned a promissory note of a great prince, given for two hundred
thousand florins, which has never been brought to account.  The
confessor, therefore, was to be provided for, that Trenck might not
be betrayed, and a dose of poison was given him before he set off
for Vienna:  his death was the consequence.  He took similar means
with himself, and thus knew the hour of his exit; finding he could
not become the first on earth, he wished to be adored as a saint in
heaven.  He knew he should work miracles when dead, because he
ordered a chapel to be built, willed a perpetual mass, and
bequeathed the capuchins sixty thousand florins.

Thus died this most extraordinary man, in the thirty-fourth year of
his age, to whom nature had denied none of her gifts; who had been
the scourge of Bavaria; the terror of France; and who had, with his
supposed contemptible pandours, taken above six thousand Prussian
prisoners.  He lived a tyrant and enemy of men, and died a
sanctified impostor.

Such was the state of affairs, as willed by Trenck, when I came to
Vienna, in 1759, where I arrived with money and jewels to the amount
of twenty thousand florins.

Instead of profiting by the wealth Trenck had acquired, I expended a
hundred and twenty thousand florins of my own money, including what
devolved to me from my uncle, his father, in the prosecution of his
suits.  Trenck had paid two hundred ducats to the tribunal of
Vienna, in the year 1743, to procure its very reprehensible silence
concerning a curator, to which I was sacrificed, as the new judges
of this court refused to correct the error of their predecessors.
Such are the proceedings of courts of justice in Vienna!

On my first audience, no one could be received more kindly than I
was, by the Empress Queen.  She spoke of my deceased cousin with
much emotion and esteem, promised me all grace and favour, and
informed me of the particular recommendations she had received, on
my behalf, from Count Bernes.  Finding sixty-three cases hang over
my head, in consequence of the inheritance of Trenck, to obtain
justice in any one of which in Vienna, would have employed the whole
life of an honest man, I determined to renounce this inheritance,
and claim only under the will and as the heir of my uncle.

With this view I applied for and obtained a copy of that will, with
which I personally appeared, and declared to the court that I
renounced the inheritance of Francis Trenck, would undertake none of
his suits, nor be responsible for his legacies, and required only
his father's estates, according to the legal will, which I produced;
that is to say, the three lordships of Pakratz, Prestowacz, and
Pleneritz, without chattels or personal effects.  Nothing could be
more just or incontrovertible than this claim.  What was my
astonishment, to be told, in open court, that Her Majesty had
declared I must either wholly perform the articles of the will of
Trenck, or be excluded the entire inheritance, and have nothing
further to hope.  What could be done?  I ventured to remonstrate,
but the will of the court was determined and absolute:  I must
become a Roman Catholic.

In this extremity I bribed a priest, who gave me a signed
attestation, "That I had abjured the accursed heresy of
Lutheranism."  My religion, however, remained what it had ever been.
General Bernes about this time returned from his embassy, and I
related to him the lamentable state in which I found my affairs.  He
spoke to the Empress in my behalf, and she promised everything.  He
advised me to have patience, to perform all that was required of me,
and to make myself responsible for the depending suits.  Some family
concerns obliged him, as he informed me, to make a journey to Turin,
but his return would be speedy:  he would then take the management
of my affairs upon himself, and insure my good fortune in Austria.
Bernes loved me as his son, and I had reason to hope, from his
assurance, I should be largely remembered in his will, which was the
more probable, as he had neither child nor relations.  He parted
from me, like a father, with tears in his eyes; but he had scarcely
been absent six weeks before the news arrived of his death, which,
if report may be credited, was effected by poison, administered by A
FRIEND.  Ever the sport of fortune, thus were my supporters snatched
from me at the very moment they became most necessary.

The same year was I, likewise, deprived by death of my friend and
protector, Field-marshal Konigseck, Governor of Vienna, when he had
determined to interest himself in my behalf.  I have been beloved by
the greatest men Austria ever produced, but unfortunately have been
persecuted by the chicanery of pettifoggers, fools, fanatics, and
priests, who have deprived me of the favour of my Empress, guiltless
as I was of crime or deceit, and left my old age in poverty.

My ills were increased by a new accident.  Soon after the departure
of Bernes, the Prussian minister, taking me aside, in the house of
the Palatine envoy, M. Becker, proposed my return to Berlin, assured
me the King had forgotten all that was past, was convinced of my
innocence, that my good fortune would there be certain, and be
pledged his honour to recover the inheritance of Trenck.  I
answered, the favour came too late; I had suffered injustice too
flagrant, in my own country, and that I would trust no prince on
earth whose will might annihilate all the rights of men.  My good
faith to the King had been too ill repaid; my talents might gain me
bread in any part of the world, and I would not again subject myself
to the danger of unmerited imprisonment.

His persuasions were strong, but ineffectual.  "My dear Trenck,"
said he, "God is my judge that my intentions are honest; I will
pledge myself, that my sovereign will insure your fortune:  you do
not know Vienna; you will lose all by the suits in which you are
involved, and will be persecuted because you do not carry a rosary."

How often have I repented I did not then return to Berlin!  I should
have escaped ten years' imprisonment; should have recovered the
estates of Trenck:  should not have wasted the prime of life in the
litigation of suits, and the writing of memorials; and should have
certainly been ranked among the first men in my native country.
Vienna was no place for a man who could not fawn and flatter:  yet
here was I destined to remain six-and-thirty years, unrewarded,
unemployed; and through youth and age, to continue on the list of
invalid majors.

Having rejected the proposition of the Prussian envoy, all my hopes
in Vienna were ruined; for Frederic, by his residents and
emissaries, knew how to effect whatever he pleased in foreign
courts, and determined that the Trenck who would no longer serve or
confide in him should at least find no opportunity of serving
against him:  I soon became painted to the Empress as an arch
heretic who never would be faithful to the house of Austria, and
only endeavoured to obtain the inheritance of Trenck that he might
devote himself to Prussia.  This I shall hereafter prove; and
display a scene that shall be the disgrace of many, by whom the
Empress was induced to harbour unjust suspicions of an able and
honest man.  I here stand erect and confident before the world;
publish the truth, and take everlasting shame to myself, if any man
on earth can prove me guilty of one treacherous thought.  I owe no
thanks; but so far from having received favours, I have six and
thirty years remained unable to obtain justice, though I have all
the while been desirous of shedding my blood in defence of the
monarchy where I have thus been treated.  Till the year 1746, I was
equally zealous and faithful to Prussia; yet my estates there,
though confiscated, were liable to recovery:  in Hungary, on the
contrary, the sentence of confiscation is irrevocable.  This is a
remarkable proof in favour of my honour, and my children's claims.

Surely no reader will be offended at these digressions; my mind is
agitated, my feelings roused, remembering that my age and grey hairs
deprive me of the sweet hope of at length vanquishing opposition,
either by patience, or forcing justice, by eminent services, or
noble efforts.

This my history will never reach a monarch's eye, consequently no
monarch, by perceiving, will be induced to protect truth.  It may,
indeed, be criticised by literati; it will certainly be decried by
my persecutors, who, through life, have been my false accusers, and
will probably, therefore, be prohibited by the priests.  All
Germany, however, will read, and posterity perhaps may pity, should
my book escape the misfortune of being classed among improbable
romances; to which it is the more liable, because that the
biographers of Frederic and Maria Theresa, for manifest reasons,
have never so much as mentioned the name of Trenck.

Once more to my story:  I was now obliged to declare myself heir,
but always cum reservatione juris mei, not as simply claiming under
the will of Francis Trenck I was obliged to take upon myself the
management of the sixty-three suits, and the expenses attending any
one of these are well known in Vienna.  My situation may be
imagined, when I inform the reader I only received, from the whole
estate of Trenck, 3,600 florins in three years, which were scarcely
sufficient to defray the expenses of new year's gifts to the
solicitors and masters in chancery.  How did I labour in stating and
transcribing proofs for the court!  The money I possessed soon
vanished.  My Prussian relations supported me, and the Countess
Bestuchef sent me the four thousand roubles I had refused at
Petersburg.  I had also remittances from my faithful mistress in
Prussia; and, in addition, was obliged to borrow money at the
usurious rate of sixty per cent.  Bewildered as I was among lawyers
and knaves, my ambition still prompted me to proceed, and all things
are possible to labour and perseverance; but my property was
expended:  and, at length, I could only obtain that the contested
estates should be made a Fidei commissum, or put under trust;
whereby, though they were protected from being the further prey of
others, I did not inherit them as mine.  In this pursuit was my
prime of life wasted, which might have been profitably and
honourably spent.

In three years, however, I brought my sixty-three suits to a kind of
conclusion; the probabilities were this could not have been effected
in fifty.  Exclusive of my assiduity, the means I took must not be
told; it is sufficient that I here learnt what judges were, and thus
am enabled to describe them to others.

For a few ducats, the president's servant used to admit me into a
closet where I could see everything as perfectly as if I had myself
been one of the council.  This often was useful, and taught me to
prevent evil; and often was I scarcely able to refrain bursting in
upon this court.

Their appointed hour of meeting was nine in the morning, but they
seldom assembled before eleven.  The president then told his beads,
and muttered his prayers.  Someone got up and harangued, while the
remainder, in pairs, amused themselves with talking instead of
listening, after which the news of the day became the common topic
of conversation, and the council broke up, the court being first
adjourned some three weeks, without coming to any determination.
This was called judicium delegatum in causis Trenkiansis; and when
at last they came to a conclusion, the sentence was such as I shall
ever shudder at and abhor.

The real estates of Trenck consisted in the great Sclavonian manors,
called the lordships of Pakratz, Prestowatz, and Pleternitz, which
he had inherited from his father, and were the family property,
together with Velika and Nustak, which he himself had purchased:
the annual income of these was 60,000 florins, and they contained
more than two hundred villages and hamlets.  The laws of Hungary
require -

1st.  That those who purchase estates shall obtain the consensus
regius (royal consent).

2nd.  That the seller shall possess, and make over the right of
property, together with that of transferring or alienating, and

3dly.  That the purchaser shall be a native born, or have bought his
naturalisation.

In default of all, or any of these, the Fiscus, on the death of the
purchaser, takes possession, repaying the summa emptitia, or
purchase-money, together within what can be shown to have been laid
out in improvements, or the summa inscriptitia, the sum at which it
stands rated in the fiscal register.

Without form or notice, the Hungarian Fiscal President, Count
Grassalkowitz, took possession of all the Trenck estates on his
decease, in the name of the Fiscus.  The prize was great, not so
much because of the estates themselves, as of the personal property
upon them.  Trenck had sent loads of merchandise to his estates, of
linen, ingots of gold and silver from Bavaria, Alsatia, and Silesia.
He had a vast storehouse of arms, and of saddles; also the great
silver service of the Emperor Charles VII., which he had brought
from Munich, with the service of plate of the King of Prussia; and
the personal property on these estates was affirmed considerably to
exceed in value the estates themselves.

I was not long since informed by one of the first generals, whose
honour is undoubted, that several waggons were laden with these rich
effects and sent to Mihalefze.  His testimony was indubitable; he
knew the two pandours, who were the confidants of Trenck, and the
keepers of his treasures; and these, during the general plunder,
each seized a bag of pearls, and fled to Turkey, where they became
wealthy merchants.  His rich stud of horses were taken, and the very
cows driven off the farms.  His stand of arms consisted of more than
three thousand rare pieces.  Trenck had affirmed he had sent linen
to the amount of fifty thousand florins, in chests from Dunnhausen
and Cersdorf, in the county of Glatz, to his estates.  The pillage
was general; and when orders came to send all the property of Trenck
and deliver it to his universal heir, nothing remained that any
person would accept.  I have myself seen, in a certain Hungarian
nobleman's house, some valuable arms, which I knew I had been robbed
of! and I bought at Esseck some silver plates on which were the arms
of Prussia, that had been sold by Counsellor D-n, who had been
empowered to take possession of these estates, and had thus rendered
himself rich.  Of this I procured an attestation, and proved the
theft:  I complained aloud at Vienna, but received an order from the
court to be silent, under pain of displeasure, and also to go no
more into Sclavonia.  The principal reason of my loss of the landed
property in Hungary was my having dared to make inquiries concerning
the personal, not one guinea of which was ever brought to account.
I then proved my right to the family estates, left by my uncle,
beyond all dispute, and also of those purchased by my cousin.  The
commissions appointed to inquire into these rights even confirmed
them; yet after they had been thus established, I received the
following order from the court, in the hand of the Empress herself:-
"The president, Count Grassalkowitz, takes it upon his conscience
that the Sclavonian estates do not descend to Trenck, in natura; he
must therefore receive the summa emptitia et inscriptitia, together
with the money he can show to have been expended in improvements."



CHAPTER XIV.



And herewith ended my pleadings and my hopes.  I had sacrificed my
property, laboured through sixty-three inferior suits, and lost this
great cause without a trial.  I could have remained satisfied with
the loss of the personal property:  the booty of a soldier, like the
wealth amassed by a minister, appears to me little better than a
public robbery; but the acquirements of my ancestors, my birth-right
by descent, of these I could not be deprived without excessive
cruelty.  Oh patience! patience!--Yet shall my children never become
the footmen, nor grooms, of those who have robbed them of their
inheritance; and to them I bequeathed my rights in all their power:
nor shall any man prevent my crying aloud, so long as justice shall
not be done.

The president, it is true, did not immediately possess himself of
the estates, but he took good care his friends should have them at
such rates that the sale of them did not bring the fiscal treasury
150,000 florins, while I, in real and personal property, lost a
million and a half; nay, probably a sum equal to this in personal
property alone.

The summa inscriptitia et emptitia for all these great estates only
amounted to 149,000 florins, and this was to be paid by the chamber,
but the president thought proper to deduct 10,000 on pretence the
cattle had been driven off the estate of Pakratz; and, further,
36,000 more, under the shameful pretence that Trenck, to recruit his
pandours, had drained the estates of 3,600 vassals, who had never
returned; the estates, therefore, must make them good at the rate of
thirty florins per head, which would have amounted to 108,000
florins; but, with much difficulty, this sum was reduced, as above
stated, to 36,000 florins, each vassal reckoned at ten florins per
head.  Thus was I obliged, from the property of my family, to pay
for 3,600 men who had gloriously died in war, in defence of the
contested rights of the great Maria Theresa; who had raised so many
millions of contributions for her in the countries of her enemies;
who, sword in hand, had stormed and taken so many towns, and
dispersed, or taken prisoners, so many thousands of her foes.  Would
this be believed by listening nations?

All deductions made for legacies, fees, and formalities, there
remained to me 63,000 florins, with which I purchased the lordship
of Zwerbach, and I was obliged to pay 6,000 florins for my
naturalisation.  Thus, when the sums are enumerated which I expended
on the suits of Trenck, received from my friends at Berlin and
Petersburg, it will be found that I cannot, at least, have been a
gainer by having been made the universal heir of the immensely rich
Trenck.  With regret I write these truths in support of my
children's claims, that they may not, in my grave, reproach me for
having neglected the duty of a father.

I will mere add a few particulars which may afford the reader matter
for meditation, cause him to commiserate my fate, and give a picture
of the manner in which the prosecution was carried on against
Trenck.

One Schygrai, a silly kind of beggarly baron, who was treated as a
buffoon, was invited in the year 1743 to dine with Baron
Pejaczewitz, when Trenck happened to be present.  The conversation
happened to turn on a kind of brandy made in this country, and
Trenck jocularly said he annually distilled this sort of brandy from
cow-dung to the value of thirty thousand florins.  Schygrai supposed
him serious, and wished to learn the art, which Trenck promised to
teach him Pejaczewitz told him he could give him thirty thousand
load of dung.

"But where shall I get the wood?" said Schygrai.  "I will give you
thirty thousand klafters," answered Trenck.  The credulous baron,
thinking himself very fortunate, desired written promises, which
they gave him; and that of Trenck ran thus:  "I hereby permit and
empower Baron Schygrai to sell gratis, in the forest of Tscherra
Horra, thirty thousand klafters of wood.

"Witness my hand,
"TRENCK."


Trenck was no sooner dead than the Baron brought his note, and made
application to the court.  His attorney was the noted Bussy, and the
court decreed the estates of Trenck should pay at the rate of one
form thirty kreutzers per klafter, or forty-five thousand florins,
with all costs, and an order was given to the administrators to pay
the money.

Just at this time I arrived at Vienna, from Petersburg.  Doctor
Berger, the advocate of Trenck, told me the affair would admit of no
delay.  I hastened to the Empress, and obtained an order to delay
payment.  An inquiry was instituted, and this forest of Tscherra
Horra was found to be situated in Turkey.  The absurdity and
injustice were flagrant, and it was revoked.  I cannot say how much
of these forty-five thousand florins the Baron had promised to the
noble judge and the attorney.  I only know that neither of them was
punished.  Had not some holidays luckily intervened, or had the
attorney expected my arrival, the money would have been paid, and an
ineffectual attempt to obtain retribution would have been the
consequence, as happened in many similar instances.

I have before mentioned the advertisement inviting all who had any
demands or complaints against Trenck to appear, with the promise of
a ducat a day; and it is mere proper to add that the sum of fifteen
thousand florins was brought to account, and paid out of the estates
of Trenck.  For this shameful purpose some thousand of florins were
paid besides to this species of claimants and though, after
examination, their pretensions all proved to be futile, and
themselves were cast in damages, yet was none of this money ever
refunded, or the false claimants punished.  Among these the
pretended daughter of General Schwerin received two thousand
florins, notorious as was her character.  Again, Trenck was accused
of having appropriated the money to his own use, and treated as if
convicted.  After his death a considerable demand was accordingly
made.  I happening, however, to meet with Ruckhardt, his quarter-
master, he with asseverations declared that, instead of being
indebted to the regiment, the regiment was more than a hundred
thousand florins indebted to him, advised me to get attestations
from the captains, and assured me he himself would give in a clear
statement of the regiment's accounts.

I followed his advice, hastened to the regiment, and obtained so
many proofs, that the quarter-master of the regiment, who, with the
major, had in reality pocketed the money, was imprisoned and put in
irons.  What became of the thief or the false witness afterward I
know not; I only know that nothing was refunded, that the quarter-
master found protectors, detained the money, and, some years after
this vile action, purchased a commission.  One instance more.

Trenck, to the corps of infantry he commanded, added a corps of
hussars, which he raised and provided with horses and accoutrements
sold by auction.  My demand on this account was upwards of sixty
thousand florins, to which I received neither money nor reply.  He
had also expended a hundred thousand florins for the raising and
equipping his three thousand pandours; in consequence of which a
signed agreement had been given by the Government that these hundred
thousand florins should be repaid to his heir, or he, the heir,
should receive the command of the regiment.  The regiment, however,
at his decease, was given to General Simschen; and as for the
agreement, care was taken it should never come into my hands.  Thus
these hundred thousand florins were lost.

Yet it has been wickedly affirmed he was imprisoned in the Spielberg
for having embezzled the regiment's money; whereas, I would to God I
only was in possession of the sums he expended on this regiment; for
he considered the regiment as his own; and great as was his avarice,
still greater was his desire of fame, and greater still his love for
his Empress, for whom he would gladly have yielded both property and
life.

Within respect to the money that was to have been repaid for
improvement of the estates, I must add, these estates were bought at
a time when the country had been left desolate by the Turks, and the
reinstalment of such places as had fallen into their hands, and the
erecting of farmhouses, mills, stocking them with horses, cattle,
and seed corn, according to my poor estimate, could not amount to
less than eighty thousand florins; but I was forbidden to go into
Sclavonia, and the president offered, as an indemnification, four
thousand florins.  Everybody was astonished, but he, within the
utmost coolness, told me I must either accept this or nothing.  The
hearers of this sentence cast their eyes up to heaven and pitied me.
I remonstrated, and thereby only made the matter worse.  Grief and
anxiety occasioned me to take a journey into Italy, passing through
Venice, Rome, and Florence.

On my return to Vienna, I, by a friendly interference in behalf of a
woman whose fears rather than guilt had brought her into danger,
became suspected myself; and the very officious officers of the
police had me imprisoned as a coiner without the least grounds for
any such accusation except their own surmises.  I was detained
unheard nine days, and when, having been heard, I had entirely
justified myself, was again restored to liberty; public declaration
was then made in the Gazette that the officers of the police had
acted too precipitately.

This was the satisfaction granted, but this did not content me.  I
threatened the counsellor by whom my character had been so aspersed,
and the Empress, condescending to mediate, bestowed on me a
captainship of cavalry in the Cordova cuirassiers.

Such was the recompense I received for wounds so deep, and such the
neglect into which I was thrown at Vienna.  Discontent led me to
join my regiment in Hungary.

Here I gained the applause of my colonel, Count Bettoni, who himself
told the Empress I, more than any other, had contributed to the
forming of the regiment.  It may well be imagined how a man like me,
accustomed, as I had been, to the first company of the first courts,
must pass my time among the Carpathian mountains, where neither
society nor good books were to be found, nor knowledge, of which I
was enamoured, improved.  The conversation of Count Bettoni, and the
chase, together with the love of the general of the regiment, old
Field-marshal Cordova, were my only resources; the persecutions,
neglect, and even contempt, I received at Vienna, were still the
same.

In the year 1754, in the month of March, my mother died in Prussia,
and I requested the permission of the court that held the
inheritance of Trenck, as a fidei commissum, to make a journey to
Dantzic to settle some family affairs with my brothers and sister,
my estates being confiscated.  This permission was granted, and
thither I went in May, where I once more fell into the hands of the
Prussians; which forms the second great and still more gloomy epoch
in my life.  All who read what follows will shudder, will
commiserate him who, feeling himself innocent, relates afflictions
he has miserably encountered and gloriously overcome.

I left Hungary, where I was in garrison, for Dantzic, where I had
desired my brothers and sister to meet me that we might settle our
affairs.  My principal intent, however, was a journey to Petersburg,
there to seek the advice and aid of my friends, for law and
persecution were not yet ended at Vienna; and my captain's pay and
small income scarcely sufficed to defray charges of attorneys and
counsellors.

It is here most worthy of remark that I was told by Prince Ferdinand
of Brunswick, governor of Magdeburg, he had received orders to
prepare my prison at Magdeburg before I set out from Hungary.

Nay, more; it had been written from Vienna to Berlin that the King
must beware of Trenck, for that he would be at Dantzic at the time
when the King was to visit his camp in Prussia

What thing more vile, what contrivance more abominable, could the
wickedest wretch on earth find to banish a man his country, that he
might securely enjoy the property of which the other had been
robbed?  That this was done I have living witnesses in his highness
Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick and the Berlin ministry, from whose
mouths I learned this artifice of villainy.  It is the more
necessary to establish this truth, because no one can comprehend why
the GREAT FREDERIC should have proceeded against me in a manner so
cruel that, when it comes to be related, must raise the indignation
of the just, and move hearts of iron to commiserate.

Men so vile, so wicked, as I have described them, in conjunction
with one Weingarten, secretary to Count Puebla, then Austrian
minister at Berlin, have brought on me these my misfortunes.

This was the Weingarten who, as is now well known, betrayed all the
secrets of the Austrian court to Frederic, who at length was
discovered in the year 1756, and who, when the war broke out,
remained in the service of Prussia.  This same Weingarten, also, not
only caused my wretchedness, but my sister's ruin and death, as he
likewise did the punishment and death of three innocent men, which
will hereafter be shown.

It is an incontrovertible truth that I was betrayed and sold by men
in Vienna whose interest it was that I should be eternally silenced.

I was immediately visited by my brothers and sister on my arrival at
Dantzic, where we lived happy in each other's company during a
fortnight, and an amicable partition was made of my mother's
effects; my sister perfectly justified herself concerning the manner
in which I was obliged to fly from her house an the year 1746:  our
parting was kind, and as brother and sister ought to part.

Our only acquaintance in Dantzic was the Austrian resident, M.
Abramson, to whom I brought letters of recommendation from Vicuna,
and whose reception of us was polite even to extravagance.

This Abramson was a Prussian born, and had never seen Vienna, but
obtained his then office by the recommendation of Count Bestuchef,
without security for his good conduct, or proof of his good morals,
heart, or head.  He was in close connection with the Prussian
resident, Reimer; and was made the instrument of my ruin.

Scarcely had my brothers and sister departed before I determined to
make a voyage by sea to Russia.  Abramson contrived a thousand
artifices, by which he detained me a week longer in Dantzic, that,
he in conjunction with Reimer, might make the necessary
preparations.

The King of Prussia had demanded that the magistrates of Dantzic
should deliver me up; but this could not be done without offending
the Imperial court, I being a commissioned officer in that service,
with proper passports; it was therefore probable that this
negotiation required letters should pass and repass; and for this
reason Abramson was employed to detain me some days longer, till, by
the last letters from Berlin, the magistrates of Dantzic were
induced to violate public safety and the laws of nations.  Abramson,
I considered as my best friend, and my person as in perfect
security; he had therefore no difficulty in persuading me to stay.

The day of supposed departure on board a Swedish ship for Riga
approached, and the deceitful Abramson promised me to send one of
his servants to the port to know the hour.  At four in the afternoon
he told me he had himself spoken to the captain, who said he would
not sail till the next day; adding that he, Abramson, would expect
me to breakfast, and would then accompany me to the vessel.  I felt
a secret inquietude which made me desirous of leaving Dantzic, and
immediately to send all my luggage, and to sleep on board.  Abramson
prevented me, dragging me almost forcibly along with him, telling me
he had much company, and that I must absolutely dine and sup at his
house; accordingly I did not return to my inn till eleven at night.

I was but just in bed when I heard a tremendous knocking at my
chamber door, which was not shut, and two of the city magistrates
with twenty grenadiers entered my chamber, and surrounded my bed so
suddenly that I had not time to take to my arms and defend myself.
My three servants had been secured and I was told that the most
worthy magistracy of Dantzic was obliged to deliver me up as a
delinquent to his majesty the King of Prussia.

What were my feelings at seeing myself thus betrayed!  They silently
conducted me to the city prison, where I remained twenty-four hours.
About noon Abramson came to visit me, affected to be infinitely
concerned and enraged, and affirmed he had strongly protested
against the illegality of this proceeding to the magistracy, as I
was actually in the Austrian service; but that they had answered him
the court of Vienna had afforded them a precedent, for that, in
1742, they had done the same by the two sons of the burgomaster
Rutenberg, of Dantzic, and that, therefore, they were justified in
making reprisal; and likewise, they durst not refuse the most
earnest request accompanied with threats, of the King of Prussia.

Their plea of retaliation originated as follows:- There was a kind
of club at Vienna, the members of which were seized for having
committed the utmost extravagance and debauchery, two of whom were
the sons of the burgomaster Rutenberg, and who were sentenced to the
pillory.  Great sums were offered by the father to avoid this public
disgrace, but ineffectually--they were punished, their punishment
was legal, and had no similarity whatever to my case, nor could it
any way justly give pretence of reprisal.

Abramson, who had in reality entered no protest whatever, but rather
excited the magistracy, and acted in concert with Reimer, advised me
to put my writings and other valuable effects into his hands,
otherwise they would be seized.  He knew I had received letters of
exchange from my brothers and sister, about seven thousand florins,
and these I gave him, but kept my ring, worth about four thousand,
and some sixty guineas, which I had in my purse.  He then embraced
me, declared nothing should be neglected to effect my immediate
deliverance; that even he would raise the populace for that purpose;
that I could not be given up to the Prussians in less than a week,
the magistracy being still undetermined in an affair so serious, and
he left me, shedding abundance of crocodile tears, like the most
affectionate of friends.

The next night two magistrates, with their posse, came to my prison,
attended by resident Reimer, a Prussian officer and under officers,
and into their hands I was delivered.  The pillage instantly began;
Reimer tore off my ring, seized my watch, snuff-box, and all I had,
not so much as sending me a coat or shirt from my effects; after
which, they put me into a close coach with three Prussians.  The
Dantzic guard accompanied the carriage to the city gate, that was
opened to let me pass; after which the Dantzic dragoons escorted me
as far as Lauenburg in Pomerania.

I have forgotten the date of this miserable day; but to the best of
my memory, it must have been in the beginning of June.  Thirty
Prussian hussars, commanded by a lieutenant, relieved the dragoons
at Lauenburg, and thus was I escorted from garrison to garrison,
till I arrived at Berlin.

Hence it was evidently falsely affirmed, by the magistracy of
Dantzic, and the conspirator Abramson, who wrote in his own excuse
to Vienna, that my seizure must be attributed wholly to my own
imprudence, and that I had exposed myself to this arrest by going
without the city gates, where I was taken and carried off; nor was
it less astonishing that the court of Vienna should not have
demanded satisfaction for the treachery of the Dantzickers toward an
Austrian officer.  I have incontrovertibly proved this treachery,
after I had regained my liberty Abramson indeed they could not
punish, for during my imprisonment he had quitted the Austrian for
the Prussian service, where he gradually became so contemptible,
that in the year 1764, when I was released from my imprisonment, he
was himself imprisoned in the house of correction; and his wife,
lately so rich, was obliged to beg her bread.  Thus have I generally
lived to see the fall of my betrayers; and thus have I found that,
without indulging personal revenge, virtue and fortitude must at
length triumph over the calumniator and the despot.

This truth will be further proved hereafter, nor can I behold,
unmoved, the open shame in which my persecutors live, and how they
tremble in my presence, their wicked deeds now being known to the
world Nay, monarchs may yet punish their perfidy:- Yet not so!--May
they rather die in possession of wealth they have torn from me!  I
only wish the pity and respect of the virtuous and the wise.

But, though Austria has never resented the affront commenced on the
person of an officer in its service, still have I a claim on the
city of Dantzic, where I was thus treacherously delivered up, for
the effects I there was robbed of, the amount of which is between
eleven and twelve thousand florins.  This is a case too clear to
require argument, and the publication of this history will make it
known to the world.  This claim also, among others, I leave to the
children of an unfortunate father.

Enough of digression; let us attend to the remarkable events which
happened on the dismal journey to Berlin.  I was escorted from
garrison to garrison, which were distant from each other two, three,
or at most five miles; wherever I came, I found compassion and
respect.  The detachment of hussars only attended me two days; it
consisted of twelve men and an officer, who rode with me in the
carriage.

The fourth day I arrived at -, where the Duke of Wirtemberg, father
of the present Grand Duchess of Russia, was commander, and where his
regiment was in quarters.  The Duke conversed with me, was much
moved, invited me to dine, and detained me all the day, where I was
not treated as a prisoner.  I so far gained his esteem that I was
allowed to remain there the next day; the chief persons of the place
were assembled, and the Duchess, whom he had lately married,
testified every mark of pity and consideration.  I dined with him
also on the third day, after which I departed in an open carriage,
without escort, attended only by a lieutenant of his regiment.

I must relate this, event circumstantially for it not only proves
the just and noble character of the Duke, but likewise that there
are moments in which the brave may appear cowards, the clear-sighted
blind, and the wise foolish; nay, one might almost be led to
conclude, from this, that my imprisonment at Magdeburg, was the
consequence of predestination, since I remained riveted in stupor,
in despite of suggestions, forebodings, and favourable
opportunities.  Who but must be astonished, having read the daring
efforts I made at Glatz, at this strange insensibility now in the
very crisis of my fate?  I afterwards was convinced it was the
intention of the noble-minded Duke that I should escape, and that he
must have given particular orders to the successive officers.  He
would probably have willingly subjected himself to the reprimands of
Frederic if I would have taken to fight.  The journey through the
places where his regiment was stationed continued five days, and I
everywhere passed the evenings in the company of the officers, the
kindness of whom was unbounded I slept in their quarters without
sentinel, and travelled in their carriages, without other guard than
a single officer in the carriage.  In various places the high road
was not more than two, and sometimes one mile from the frontier
road; therefore nothing could have been easier than to have escaped;
yet did the same Trenck, who in Glatz had cut his way through thirty
men to obtain his freedom, that Trenck, who had never been
acquainted with fear, now remain four days bewildered, and unable to
come to any determination.

In a small garrison town, I lodged in the house of a captain of
cavalry, and continually was treated by him with every mark of
friendship.  After dinner he rode at the head of his squadron to
water the horse, unsaddled.  I remained alone in the house, entered
the stable, saw three remaining horses, with saddles and bridles; in
my chamber was my sword and a pair of pistols.  I had but to mount
one of the horses and fly to the opposite gate.  I meditated on the
project, and almost resolved to put it in execution, but presently
became undetermined by some secret impulse.  The captain returned
some time after, and appeared surprised to find me still there.  The
next day he accompanied me alone in his carriage; we came to a
forest, he saw some champignons, stopped, asked me to alight, and
help him to gather them; he strayed more than a hundred paces from
me, and gave me entire liberty to fly; yet notwithstanding all this,
I voluntarily returned, suffering myself to be led like a sheep to
the slaughter.

I was treated so well, during my stay at this place, and escorted
with so much negligence, that I fell into a gross error.  Perceiving
they conveyed me straight to Berlin, I imagined the King wished to
question me concerning the plan formed for the war, which was then
on the point of breaking out.  This plan I perfectly knew, the
secret correspondence of Bestuchef having all passed through my
hands, which circumstance was much better known at Berlin than at
Vienna.  Confirmed in this opinion, and far from imagining the fate
that awaited me, I remained irresolute, insensible, and blind to
danger.  Alas, how short was this hope!  How quickly was it
succeeded by despair! when, after four days' march, I quitted the
district under the command of the Duke of Wirtemberg, and was
delivered up to the first garrison of infantry at Coslin!  The last
of the Wirtemberg officers, when taking leave of me, appeared to be
greatly affected; and from this moment till I came to Berlin, I was
under a strong escort, and the given orders were rigorously
observed.



CHAPTER XV.



Arrived here, I was lodged over the grand guardhouse, with two
sentinels in my chamber, and one at the door.  The King was at
Potzdam, and here I remained three days; on the third, some staff-
officers made their appearance, seated themselves at a table, and
put the following questions to me:-

First.  What was my business at Dantzic?

Secondly.  Whether I was acquainted with M. Goltz, Prussian
ambassador to Russia?

Thirdly.  Who was concerned with me in the conspiracy at Dantzic?

When I perceived their intention, by these interrogations, I
absolutely refused to reply, only saying I had been imprisoned in
the fortress of Glatz, without hearing, or trial by court-martial;
that, availing myself of the laws of nature, I had by my own
exertions procured my liberty, and that I was now a captain of
cavalry in the imperial service; that I demanded a legal trial for
my first unknown offence, after which I engaged to answer all
interrogatories, and prove my innocence; but that at present, being
accused of new crimes, without a hearing concerning my former
punishment, the procedure was illegal.  I was told they had no
orders concerning this, and I remained dumb to all further
questions.

They wrote some two hours, God knows what; a carriage came up; I was
strictly searched, to find whether I had any weapons; thirteen or
fourteen ducats, which I had concealed, were taken from me, and I
was conducted under a strong escort, through Spandau to Magdeburg.
The officer here delivered me to the captain of the guard at the
citadel; the town major came, and brought me to the dungeon,
expressly prepared for me; a small picture of the Countess of
Bestuchef, set with diamonds, which I had kept concealed in my
bosom, was now taken from me; the door was shut, and here was I
left.

My dungeon was in a casemate, the fore part of which, six feet wide
and ten feet long, was divided by a party wall.  In the inner wall
were two doors, and a third at the entrance of the casemate itself.
The window in the seven-feet-thick wall was so situated that, though
I had light, I could see neither heaven nor earth; I could only see
the roof of the magazine; within and without this window were iron
bars, and in the space between an iron grating, so close and so
situated, by the rising of the walls, that it was impossible I
should see any parson without the prison, or that any person should
see me.  On the outside was a wooden palisade, six feet from the
wall, by which the sentinels were prevented from conveying anything
to me.  I had a mattress, and a bedstead, but which was immovably
ironed to the floor, so that it was impossible I should drag it, and
stand up to the window; beside the door was a small iron stove and a
night table, in like manner fixed to the floor.  I was not yet put
in irons, and my allowance was a pound and a half per day of
ammunition bread, and a jug of water.

From my youth I had always had a good appetite, and my bread was so
mouldy I could scarcely at first eat the half of it.  This was the
consequence of Major Reiding's avarice, who endeavoured to profit
even by this, so great was the number of unfortunate prisoners;
therefore, it is impossible I should describe to my readers the
excess of tortures that, during eleven months, I felt from ravenous
hunger.  I could easily every day have devoured six pounds of bread;
and every twenty-four hours after having received and swallowed my
small portion, I continued as hungry as before I began, yet must
wait another twenty-four hours for a new morsel.  How willingly
would I have signed a bill of exchange for a thousand ducats, on my
property at Vienna, only to have satiated my hunger on dry bread!
For, so extreme was it, that scarcely had I dropt into a sweet
sleep.  Therefore I dreamed I was feasting at some table luxuriously
loaded, where, eating like a glutton, the whole company were
astonished to see me, while my imagination was heated by the
sensation of famine.  Awakened by the pains of hunger, the dishes
vanished, and nothing remained but the reality of my distress; the
cravings of nature were but inflamed, my tortures prevented sleep,
and, looking into futurity, the cruelty of my fate suffered, if
possible, increase, from imagining that the prolongation of pangs
like these was insupportable.  God preserve every honest man from
sufferings like mine!  They were not to be endured by the villain
most obdurate.  Many have fasted three days, many have suffered want
for a week, or more; but certainly no one, beside myself, ever
endured it in the same excess for eleven months.  Some have supposed
that to eat little might become habitual, but I have experienced the
contrary.  My hunger increased every day; and of all the trials of
fortitude my whole life has afforded, this, of eleven months, was
the most bitter.

Petitions, remonstrances, were of no avail; the answer was--"We must
give no more, such is the King's command."  The Governor, General
Borck, born the enemy of man, replied, when I entreated, at least,
to have my fill of bread, "You have feasted often enough out of the
service of plate taken from the King, by Trenck, at the battle of
Sorau; you must now eat ammunition bread in your dirty kennel.  Your
Empress makes no allowance for your maintenance, and you are
unworthy of the bread you eat, or the trouble taken about you."
Judge, reader, what pangs such insolence, added to such sufferings
must inflict.  Judge what were my thoughts, foreseeing, as I did, an
endless duration to this imprisonment and these torments.

My three doors were kept ever shut, and I was left to such
meditations as such feelings and such hopes might inspire.  Daily,
about noon, once in twenty-four hours, my pittance of bread and
water was brought.  The keys of all the doors were kept by the
governor; the inner door was not opened, but my bread and water were
delivered through an aperture.  The prison doors were opened only
once a week, on a Wednesday, when the governor and town major, my
hole having been first cleaned, paid their visit.

Having remained thus two months, and observed this method was
invariable, I began to execute a project I had formed, of the
possibility of which I was convinced.

Where the night-table and stove stood, the floor was bricked, and
this paving extended to the wall that separated my casemate from the
adjoining one, in which was no prisoner.  My window was only guarded
by a single sentinel; I therefore soon found, among those who
successively relieved guard, two kind-hearted fellows, who described
to me the situation of my prison; hence I perceived I might effect
my escape, could I but penetrate into the adjoining casemate, the
door of which was not shut.  Provided I had a friend and a boat
waiting for me at the Elbe, or could I swim across that river, the
confines of Saxony were but a mile distant.

To describe my plan at length would lead to prolixity, yet I must
enumerate some of its circumstances, as it was remarkably intricate
and of gigantic labour.

I worked through the iron, eighteen inches long, by which the night-
table was fastened, and broke off the clinchings of the nails, but
preserved their heads, that I might put them again in their places,
and all might appear secure to my weekly visitors.  This procured me
tools to raise up the brick floor, under which I found earth.  My
first attempt was to work a hole through the wall, seven feet thick
behind, and concealed by the night-table.  The first layer was of
brick.  I afterwards came to large hewn stones.  I endeavoured
accurately to number and remember the bricks, both of the flooring
and the wall, so that I might replace them and all might appear
safe.  This having accomplished, I proceeded.

The day preceding visitation all was carefully replaced, and the
intervening mortar as carefully preserved; the whole had, probably,
been whitewashed a hundred times; and, that I might fill up all
remaining interstices, I pounded the white stuff this afforded,
wetted it, made a brush of my hair, then applied this plaster,
washed it over, that the colour might be uniform, and afterwards
stripped myself, and sat with my naked body against the place, by
the heat of which it was dried.

While labouring, I placed the stones and bricks upon my bedstead,
and had they taken the precaution to come at any other time in the
week, the stated Wednesday excepted, I had inevitably been
discovered; but, as no such ill accident befell me, in six months my
Herculean labours gave me a prospect of success.

Means were to be found to remove the rubbish from my prison; all of
which, in a wall so thick, it was impossible to replace; mortar and
stone could not be removed.  I therefore took the earth, scattered
it about my chamber, and ground it under my feet the whole day, till
I had reduced it to dust; this dust I strewed in the aperture of my
window, making use of the loosened night-table to stand upon, I tied
splinters from my bedstead together, with the ravelled yarn of an
old stocking, and to this I affixed a tuft of my hair.  I worked a
large hole under the middle grating, which could not be seen when
standing on the ground, and through this I pushed my dust with the
tool I had prepared in the outer window, then, waiting till the wind
should happen to rise, during the night I brushed it away, it was
blown off, and no appearance remained on the outside.  By this
simple expedient I rid myself of at least three hundred weight of
earth, and thus made room to continue my labours; yet, this being
still insufficient, I had recourse to another artifice, which was to
knead up the earth in the form of sausages, to resemble the human
faeces:  these I dried, and when the prisoner came to clean my
dungeon, hastily tossed them into the night-table, and thus
disencumbered myself of a pound or two more of earth each week.  I
further made little balls, and, when the sentinel was walking, blew
them, through a paper tube, out of the window.  Into the empty space
I put my mortar and stones, and worked on successfully.

I cannot, however, describe my difficulties after having penetrated
about two feet into the hewn stone.  My tools were the irons I had
dug out, which fastened may bedstead and night-table.  A
compassionate soldier also gave me an old iron ramrod and a
soldier's sheath knife, which did me excellent service, more
especially the latter, as I shall presently more fully show.  With
these two I cut splinters from my bedstead, which aided me to pick
the mortar from the interstices of the stone; yet the labour of
penetrating through this seven-feet wall was incredible; the
building was ancient, and the mortar occasionally quite petrified,
so that the whole stone was obliged to be reduced to dust.  After
continuing my work unremittingly for six months, I at length
approached the accomplishment of my hopes, as I knew by coming to
the facing of brick, which now was only between me and the adjoining
casemate.

Meantime I found opportunity to speak to some of the sentinels,
among whom was an old grenadier called Gelfhardt, whom I here name
because he displayed qualities of the greatest and most noble kind.
From him I learned the precise situation of my prison, and every
circumstance that might best conduce to my escape.

Nothing was wanting but money to buy a boat, and crossing the Elbe
with Gelfhardt, to take refuge in Saxony.  By Gelfhardt's means I
became acquainted with a kind-hearted girl, a Jewess, and a native
of Dessau, Esther Heymannin by name, and whose father had been ten
years in prison.  This good, compassionate maiden, whom I had never
seen, won over two other grenadiers, who gave her an opportunity of
speaking to me every time they stood sentinel.  By tying my
splinters together, I made a stick long enough to reach beyond the
palisades that were before my window, and thus obtained paper,
another knife, and a file.

I now wrote to my sister, the wife of the before-mentioned only son
of General Waldow; described my awful situation, and entreated her
to remit three hundred rix-dollars to the Jewess, hoping, by this
means, I might escape from my prison.  I then wrote another
affecting letter to Count Puebla, the Austrian ambassador at Berlin,
in which was enclosed a draft for a thousand florins on my effects
at Vienna, desiring him to remit these to the Jewess, having
promised her that sum as a reward for her fidelity.  She was to
bring the three hundred rix-dollars my sister should send to me, and
take measures with the grenadiers to facilitate my flight, which
nothing seemed able to prevent, I having the power either to break
into the casemate or, aided by the grenadiers and the Jewess' to cut
the locks from the doors and that way escape from my dungeon.  The
letters were open, I being obliged to roll them round the stick to
convey them to Esther.

The faithful girl diligently proceeded to Berlin, where she arrived
safe, and immediately spoke to Count Puebla.  The Count gave her the
kindest reception, received the letter, with the letter of exchange,
and bade her go and speak to Weingarten, the secretary of the
embassy, and act entirely as he should direct.  She was received by
Weingarten in the most friendly manner, who, by his questions, drew
from her the whole secret, and our intended plan of flight, aided by
the two grenadiers, and also that she had a letter for my sister,
which she must carry to Hammer, near Custrin.  He asked to see this
letter; read it, told her to proceed on her Journey, gave her two
ducats to bear her expenses, ordered her to come to him on her
return, said that during this interval he would endeavour to obtain
her the thousand florins for my draft, and would then give her
further instructions.

Esther cheerfully departed for Hammer, where my sister, then a
widow, and no longer, as in 1746, in dread of her husband, joyful to
hear I was still living, immediately gave her three hundred rix-
dollars, exhorting her to exert every possible means to obtain my
deliverance.  Esther hastened back with the letter from my sister to
Berlin, and told all that passed to Weingarten, who read the letter,
and inquired the names of the two grenadiers.  He told her the
thousand florins from Vienna were not yet come, but gave her twelve
ducats; bade her hasten back to Magdeburg, to carry me all this good
news, and then return to Berlin, where he would pay her the thousand
florins.  Esther came to Magdeburg, went immediately to the citadel,
and, most luckily, met the wife of one of the grenadiers, who told
her that her husband and his comrade had been taken and put in irons
the day before.  Esther had quickness of perception, and suspected
we had been betrayed; she therefore instantly again began her
travels, and happily came safe to Dessau.

Here I must interrupt my narrative, that I may explain this infernal
enigma to my readers, an account of which I received after I had
obtained my freedom, and still possess, in the handwriting of this
Jewess.  Weingarten, as was afterwards discovered, was a traitor,
and too much trusted by Count Puebla, he being a spy in the pay of
Prussia, and one who had revealed, in the court of Berlin, not only
the secrets of the Imperial embassy, but also the whole plan of the
projected war.  For this reason he afterwards, when war broke out,
remained at Berlin in the Prussian service.  His reason for
betraying me was that he might secure the thousand florins which I
had drawn for on Vienna; for the receipt of the 24th of May, 1755,
attests that the sum was paid, by the administrators of my effects,
to Count Puebla, and has since been brought to account; nor can I
believe that Weingarten did not appropriate this sum to himself,
since I cannot be persuaded the ambassador would commit such an
action, although the receipt is in his handwriting, as may easily be
demonstrated, it being now in my possession.  Thus did Weingarten,
that he might detain a thousand florins with impunity, bring new
evils upon me and upon my sister, which occasioned her premature
death; caused one grenadier to run the gauntlet three successive
days, and another to be hung.

Esther alone escaped, and since gave me an elucidation of the whole
affair.  The report at Magdeburg was, that a Jewess had obtained
money from my sister and bribed two grenadiers, and that one of
these had trusted and been betrayed by his comrade.  Indeed, what
other story could be told at Magdeburg, or how could it be known I
had been betrayed to the Prussian ministry by the Imperial
secretary?  The truth, however, is as I have stated:  my account-
book exists, and the Jewess is still alive.

Her poor imprisoned father was punished with more than a hundred
blows to make him declare whether his daughter had entrusted him
with the plot, or if he knew whither she was fled, and miserably
died in fetters.  Such was the mischief occasioned by a rascal!  And
who might be blamed but the imprudent Count Puebla?

In the year 1766, this said Jewess demanded of me a thousand
florins; and I wrote to Count Puebla, that, having his receipt for
the sum, which never had been repaid, I begged it might be restored.
He received my agent with rudeness, returned no answer, and seemed
to trouble himself little concerning my loss.  Whether the heirs of
the Count be, or be not, indebted to me these thousand florins and
the interest, I leave the world to determine.  Thrice have I been
betrayed at Vienna and sold to Berlin, like Joseph to the Egyptians.
My history proves the origin of my persuasion that residents,
envoys, and ambassadors must be men of known worth and honesty, and
not the vilest of rascals and miscreants.  But, alas! the effects
and money they have robbed me of have never been restored; and for
the miseries they have brought upon me, they could not be
recompensed by the wealth of any or all the monarchs on earth.
Estates they may, but truth they cannot confiscate; and of the
villainy of Abramson and Weingarten I have documents and proofs that
no court of justice could disannul.  Stop, reader, if thou hast a
heart, and in that heart compassion for the unfortunate!  Stop and
imagine what my sensations are while I remember and recount a part
only of the injustice that has been done me, a part only of the
tyranny I have endured!  By this last act of treachery of Weingarten
was I held in chains, the most horrible, for nine succeeding years!
By him was an innocent man brought to the gallows!  By him, too, my
sister, my beloved, my unfortunate sister, was obliged to build a
dungeon at her own expense! besides being amerced in a fine, the
extent of which I never could learn.  Her goods were plundered, her
estates made a desert, her children fell into extreme poverty, and
she herself expired in her thirty-third year, the victim of cruelty,
persecution, her brother's misfortunes, and the treachery of the
Imperial embassy!



Footnotes:

{1}  A common expression with Frederic when he was angry, and which
has since become proverbial among the Prussian and other German
officers.  See Critical Review, April, 1755.

{2}  The same Doo who was governor of Glatz during the Seven Years'
war, and who, having been surprised by General Laudohu, was made
prisoner, which occasioned the loss of Glatz.  The King broke him
with infamy, and banished him with contempt.  In 1764 he came to
Vienna, where I gave him alms.  He was, by birth, an Italian, a
selfish, wicked man; and, while major under the government of
Fouquet, at Glatz, brought many people to misery.  He was the
creature of Fouquet, without birth or merit; crafty, malignant, but
handsome, and, having debauched his patron's daughter, afterwards
married her; whence at first his good, and at length his ill
fortune.  He wanted knowledge to defend a fortress against the
enemy, and his covetousness rendered him easy to corrupt.

{3}  The German mile contains from four to seven English miles, and
this variation appears to depend on the ignorance of the people and
on the roads being in some places but little frequented.  It seems
probable the Baron and his friend might travel about 809 English
miles.--TRANSLATOR.





End of the Project Gutenberg eText Life and Adventures of Baron
Trenck - Vol. 1

