The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume I Part 3

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

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

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

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

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

Further, we had quarrelled during our first campaign, because he had beaten one of my servants; we even were proceeding to fight with pistols, had not Colonel Winterfield interfered, and amicably ended our quarrel.

The Lithuanian is, by nature, obstinate and revengeful; and, from that day, I have reason to believe he sought my destruction.

G.o.d only knows what were the means he took to excite the King's suspicious; for it is incredible that Frederic, considering his _well- known professions_ of public justice, should treat me in the manner he did, without a hearing, without examination, and without a court-martial.

This to me has ever remained a mystery, which the King alone was able to explain; he afterwards was convinced I was innocent: but my sufferings had been too cruel, and the miseries he had inflicted too horrible, for me ever to hope for compensation.

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

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

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

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

The day after the receipt of this letter I was, as I have before said, unheard, unaccused, unjudged, conducted like a criminal from the army, by fifty hussars, and imprisoned in the fortress of Glatz. I was allowed to take three horses, and my servants, but my whole equipage was left behind, which I never saw more, and which became the booty of Jaschinsky.

My commission was given to Cornet Schatzel, and I cas.h.i.+ered without knowing why. There were no legal inquiries made: all was done by the King's command.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At that time there was another prisoner at Glatz, whose name was Manget, by birth a Swiss, and captain of cavalry in the Natzmerschen hussars; he had been broken, and condemned by a court-martial to ten years'

imprisonment, with an allowance of only four rix-dollars per month.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My misfortune was the greater on this occasion, because that General Fouquet was then governor of Glatz. He was one of the cruellest of men.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At that instant I s.n.a.t.c.hed his sword from his side, on which my eyes had some time been fixed, sprang out of the door, tumbled the sentinel from the top to the bottom of the stairs, pa.s.sed the men who happened to be drawn up before the prison door to relieve the guard, attacked them sword in hand, threw them suddenly into surprise by the manner in which I laid about me, wounded four of them, made way through the rest, sprang over the breastwork of the ramparts, and, with my sword drawn in my hand, immediately leaped this astonis.h.i.+ng height without receiving the least injury. I leaped the second wall with equal safety and good fortune.

None of their pieces were loaded; no one durst leap after me, and in order to pursue, they must go round through the town and gate of the citadel; so that I had the start full half an hour.

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

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

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