The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume I Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We marched for Silesia, to enter on our second campaign: which, to the Prussians, was as b.l.o.o.d.y and murderous as it was glorious.

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

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

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

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

I received a pistol shot in my right hand, my horse was desperately wounded, and I was obliged to change him on the third charge. The day after the battle all the officers were rewarded with the Order of Merit.

For my own part, I remained four weeks among the wounded, at Schweidnitz, where there were sixteen thousand men under the torture of the army surgeons, many of whom had not their wounds dressed till the third day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The campaign pa.s.sed in different manoeuvres, marches, and countermarches.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To this part of the prosecution I myself, an eye-witness, can answer: the thing was false and impossible. He was informed of the intended attack.

I accompanied the watchful King from midnight till four in the morning, which time he employed in riding through the camp, and making the necessary preparations to receive the enemy; and the action began at five. Trenck could not take the King in bed, for the battle was almost gained when he and his pandours entered the camp and plundered the head- quarters.

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER IV.

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

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

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

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

I must here remark the following observations:--