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.
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 theVienna 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.
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.
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.