The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume II Part 6

While the smith was riveting my chains, I addressed the sub-governor. "Is this the fulfilment of the pledge of the Prince? Think not you deceive me, I am acquainted with the false reports that have been spread; the truth will soon come to light, and the unworthy be put to shame. Nay, I forewarn you that Trenck shall not be much longer in your power; for were you to build your dungeon of steel, it would be insufficient to contain me."

They smiled at me. Reichmann told me I might soon obtain my freedom in a proper manner. My firm reliance on my friend, the lieutenant, gave me a degree of confidence that amazed them all.

It is necessary to explain this affair. When I obtained my liberty, I visited Prince Ferdinand. He informed me the majors had not made a true report. Their story was, they had caught me at work, and, had it not been for their diligence, I should have made my escape. Prince Ferdinand heard the truth, and informed the King, who only waited an opportunity to restore me to liberty.

Once more I was immured. I waited in hope for the day when my deliverer was to mount guard. What again was my despair when I saw another lieutenant! I buoyed myself up with the hope that accident was the occasion of this; but I remained three weeks, and saw him no more. I heard at length that he had left the corps of grenadiers, and was no longer to mount guard at the Star Fort. He has my forgiveness, and I applaud myself for never having said anything by which he might be injured. He might have repented his promise, he might have trusted another friend with the enterprise, and have been himself betrayed; but, be it as it may, his absence cut off all hope.

I now repented my folly and vanity; I had brought my misfortunes on myself. I had myself rendered my dungeon impenetrable. Death would have followed but for the dependence I placed in the court of Vienna.

The officers remarked the loss of my fort.i.tude and thoughtfulness; the verses I wrote were desponding. The only comfort they could give was--"Patience, dear Trenck; your condition cannot be worse; the King may not live for ever." Were I sick, they told me I might hope my sufferings would soon have an end. If I recovered they pitied me, and lamented their continuance. What man of my rank and expectations ever endured what I did, ever was treated as I have been treated!

CHAPTER VI.

Peace had been concluded nine months. I was forgotten. At last, when I supposed all hope lost, the 25th of December, and the day of freedom, came. At the hour of parade, Count Schlieben, lieutenant of the guards, brought orders for my release!

The sub-governor supposed me weaker in intellect than I was, and would not too suddenly tell me these tidings. He knew not the presence of mind, the fort.i.tude, which the dangers I had seen had made habitual.

My doors for the LAST TIME resounded! Several people entered; their countenances were cheerful, and the sub-governor at their head at length said, "This time, my dear Trenck, I am the messenger of good news. Prince Ferdinand has prevailed on the King to let your irons be taken off."

Accordingly, to work went the smith. "You shall also," continued he, "have a better apartment." "I am free, then," said I. "Speak! fear not!

I can moderate my transports."

"Then you are free!" was the reply.

The sub-governor first embraced me, and afterwards his attendants.

He asked me what clothes I would wish. I answered, the uniform of my regiment. The tailor took my measure. Reichmann told him it must be made by the morning. The man excused himself because it was Christmas Eve. "So, then, this gentleman must remain in his dungeon because it is holiday with you." The tailor promised to be ready.

I was taken to the guard-room, congratulations were universal, and the town-major administered the oath customary to all state prisoners.

1st. That I should avenge myself on no man.

2nd. That I should neither enter the Prussian nor Saxon states.

3rd. That I should never relate by speech or in writing what had happened to me.

4th. And that, so long as the King lived, I should neither serve in a civil nor military capacity.

Count Schlieben delivered me a letter from the imperial minister, General Reidt, to the following purport:--That he rejoiced at having found an opportunity of obtaining my liberty from the King, and that I must obey the requisitions of Count Schlieben, whose orders were to accompany me to Prague.

"Yes, dear Trenck," said Schlieben, "I am to conduct you through Dresden to Prague, with orders not to suffer you to speak to any one on the road.

I have received three hundred ducats, to defray the expenses of travelling. As all things cannot be prepared today, the, sub-governor has determined we shall depart to-morrow night."

I acquiesced, and Count Schlieben remained with me; the others returned to town, and I dined with the major and officers on guard, with General Walrabe in his prison.

Once at liberty, I walked about the fortifications, to collect the money I had concealed in my dungeon. To every man on guard I gave a ducat, to the sentinels, each three, and ten ducats to be divided among the relief- guard. I sent the officer on guard a present from Prague, and the remainder of my money I bestowed on the widow of the worthy Gelfhardt. He was no more, and she had entrusted the thousand florins to a young soldier, who, spending them too freely, was suspected, betrayed her, and she pa.s.sed two years in prison. Gelfhardt never received any punishment; he was in the field. Had he left any children, I should have provided for them. To the widow of the man who hung himself before my prison door, in the year 1756, I gave thirty ducats, lent me by Schlieben.

The night was riotous, the guard made merry, and I pa.s.sed most of it in their company. I was visited by all the generals of the garrison on Christmas morning, for I was not allowed to enter the town. I dressed, viewed myself in the gla.s.s, and found pleasure; but the tumult of my pa.s.sions, the congratulations I received, and the vivacity round me, prevented my remembering incidents minutely.

Yet how wonderful an alteration in the countenances of those by whom I had been guarded! I was treated with friends.h.i.+p, attention, and flattery. And why? Because these fetters had dropped off which I had never justly borne.

Evening came, and with it Count Schlieben, a waggon, and four post-horses. After an affecting farewell, we departed. I shed tears at leaving Magdeburg. It seems strange that I lived here ten years, yet never saw the town.

The duration of my imprisonment at Magdeburg was nearly ten years, and with the term of my imprisonment at Glatz, the time is eleven years. Thus was I robbed of time, my body weakened, my health impaired, so that in my decline of life, a second time, I suffer the gloom and chains of the dungeon at Magdeburg.

The reader would now hope that my calamities were at an end; yet, upon my honour, I would prefer the suffering of the Star Fort to those I have since endured in Austria, especially while Krugel and Zetto were my referendaries and curators.

At this moment I am obliged to be guarded in my expressions. I have put my enemies to shame; but the hope of justice or reward is vain. No rewards are bestowed on him who, with the consciousness of integrity, demands, and does not deplore. The facts I shall relate will seem incredible, yet I have, in my own hands, the vouchers of their veracity.

"If my right hand is guilty of writing untruths in this book, may the executioner sever it from my body, and, in the memory of posterity, may I live a villain!"

I will proceed with my history.

On the 2nd of January I arrived, with Count Schlieben, at Prague; the same day he delivered me to the governor, the Duke of Deuxponts. He received me with kindness; we dined with him two days, and all Prague were anxious to see a man who had surmounted ten years of suffering so unheard of as mine. Here I received three thousand florins, and paid General Reidt his three hundred ducats, which he had advanced Count Schlieben, for my journey, the repayment of which he demanded in his letter, although he had received ten thousand florins. The expense of returning I also paid to Schlieben, made him a present, and provided myself with some necessaries. After remaining a few days at Prague, a courier arrived from Vienna, to whom I was obliged to pay forty florins, with an order from government to bring me from Prague to Vienna. My sword was demanded; Captain Count Wela, and two inferior officers, entered the carriage, which I was obliged to purchase, in company with me, and brought me to Vienna. I took up a thousand florins more, in Prague, to defray these expenses, and was obliged, in Vienna, to pay the captain fifty ducats for travelling charges back.

I was brought back like a criminal, was sent as a prisoner to the barracks, there kept in the chamber of Lieutenant Blonket, with orders that I should be suffered to write to no one, speak to no one, without a ticket from the counsellors Kempt or Huttner.

Thus I remained six weeks; at length, the colonel of the regiment of Poniatowsky, the present field-marshal, Count Alton, spoke to me. I related what I supposed were the reasons of my being kept a prisoner in Vienna; and to the exertions of this man am I indebted that the intentions of my enemies were frustrated, which were to have me imprisoned as insane in the fortress of Glatz. Had they once removed me from Vienna, I should certainly have pined away my life in a madhouse.

Yet I could never obtain justice against these men. The Empress was persuaded that my brain was affected, and that I uttered threats against the King of Prussia. The election of a king of the Romans was then in agitation, and the court was apprehensive lest I should offend the Prussian envoy. General Reidt had been obliged to promise Frederic that I should not appear in Vienna, and that they should hold a wary eye over me. The Empress-Queen felt compa.s.sion for my supposed disease, and asked if no a.s.sistance could be afforded me; to which they answered, I had several times let blood, but that I still was a dangerous man. They added, that I had squandered four thousand florins in six days at Prague; that it would be proper to appoint guardians to impede such extravagancies.

Count Alton spoke of me and my hard destiny to the Countess Parr, mistress of the ceremonies to the Empress-Queen. The late Emperor entered the chamber, and asked whether I ever had any lucid intervals.

"May it please your Majesty," answered Alton, "he has been seven weeks in my barracks, and I never met a more reasonable man. There is mystery in this affair, or he could not be treated as a madman. That he is not so in anywise I pledge my honour."

The next day the Emperor sent Count Thurn, grand-master of the Archduke Leopold, to speak to me. In him I found an enlightened philosopher, and a lover of his country. To him I related how I had twice been betrayed, twice sold at Vienna, during my imprisonment; to him showed that my administrators had acted in this vile manner that I might be imprisoned for life, and they remain in possession of my effects. We conversed for two hours, during which many things were said that prudence will not permit me to repeat. I gained his confidence, and he continued my friend till death. He promised me protection, and procured me an audience of the Emperor.

I spoke with freedom; the audience lasted an hour. At length the Emperor retired into the next apartment. I saw the tears drop from his eyes. I fell at his feet, and wished for the presence of a Rubens or Apelles, to preserve a scene so honourable to the memory of the monarch, and paint the sensations of an innocent man, imploring the protection of a compa.s.sionate prince. The Emperor tore himself from me, and I departed with sensations such as only those can know who, themselves being virtuous, have met with wicked men. I returned to the barracks with joy, and an order the next day came for my release. I went with Count Alton to the Countess Parr, and by her mediation I obtained an audience with the Empress.

I cannot describe how much she pitied my sufferings and admired my fort.i.tude. She told me she was informed of the artifices practised against me in Vienna; she required me to forgive my enemies, and pa.s.s all the accounts of my administrators. "Do not complain of anything," said she, "but act as I desire--I know all--you shall be recompensed by me; you deserve reward and repose, and these you shall enjoy."

I must either sign whatever was given to sign, or be sent to a madhouse.

I received orders to accompany M. Pistrich to Counsellor Ziegler; thither I went, and the next day was obliged to sign, in their presence, the following conditions:--

First--That I acknowledged the will of Trenck to be valid.

Secondly--That I renounced all claim to the Sclavonian estates, relying alone on her Majesty's favour.

Thirdly--That I solemnly acquitted my accountants and curators. And,

Lastly--That I would not continue in Vienna.

This I must sign, or languish in prison.

How did my blood boil while I signed! This confidence I had in myself a.s.sured me I could obtain employment in any country of Europe, by the labours of my mind, and the recital of all my woes. At that time I had no children; I little regretted what I had lost, or the poor portion that remained.

I determined to avoid Austria eternally. My pride would never suffer me, by insidious arts, to approach the throne. I knew no such mode of soliciting for justice, hence I was not a match for my enemies; hence my misfortunes. Appeals to justice were represented as the splenetic effusions of a man never to be satisfied. My too sensitive heart was corroded by the treatment I met at Vienna. I, who with so much fort.i.tude had suffered so much in the cause of Vienna, I, on whom the eyes of Germany were fixed, to behold what should be the reward of these sufferings, I was again, in this country, kept a prisoner, and delivered to those by whom I had been plundered as a man insane!