The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume I Part 11

The Russian alliance was at this time highly courted by foreign powers; the humbling of Prussia was the thing generally wished and planned: and n.o.body 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 s.p.a.ce 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 pa.s.sionately that to this pa.s.sion 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 ama.s.sed 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 amba.s.sadors.

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 s.h.i.+ps 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 nouris.h.i.+ng 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 amba.s.sador, 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 G.o.d'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 pa.s.sed. 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 amba.s.sador'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 rehea.r.s.ed 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 pa.s.sed, and the chancellor promised I should be recompensed; strictly, however, forbidding me to take any revenge on the Prussian amba.s.sador, 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 a.s.suage my boiling pa.s.sions. 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 pa.s.s over. Bernes, the crafty Piedmontese, a.s.sured 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 pa.s.sed in peace and pleasure: nor should I have entered the dungeon of Magdeburg.

CHAPTER XII.

How little did the Great Frederic know my heart. Without having offended, he had rendered me miserable, had condemned me to imprisonment at Glatz on mere suspicion, and on my flying thence, naked and dest.i.tute, 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, unt.i.tled 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 a.s.sistance, as his emba.s.sy 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, a.s.sured 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 emba.s.sy, 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 friends.h.i.+p. 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 a.s.sured 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 n.o.ble 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 s.h.i.+p, 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 amus.e.m.e.nt, by going daily in the s.h.i.+p's boat from rock to rock, attended by two of my servants, to shoot wild ducks, and catch sh.e.l.l-fish; whence I every evening returned with provisions, and sheep's milk, bought of the poor inhabitants, for the s.h.i.+p'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 a.s.sistance. 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 sh.o.r.e.

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 pa.s.sed some of his coa.r.s.e 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.