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.
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, aFidei 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 theaqua 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 bya 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 alwayscum 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 aFidei 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 calledjudicium 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 theconsensus 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 thesumma emptitia, or purchase-money, together within what can be shown to have been laid out in improvements, or thesumma 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 thesumma emptitia et inscriptitia, together with the money he can show to have been expended in improvements.”
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 summainscriptitia et emptitiafor 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.
“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 afidei 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 theGreat Fredericshould 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.
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 fæces: 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.