The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume II Part 9

In London I was defrauded of eighteen hundred guineas by a swindler. The fault was my brother-in-law's, who parted with the wine before he had received the money. When I had been wronged, and asked my friends'

a.s.sistance, I was only laughed at, as if they were happy that an Englishman had the wit to cheat a German.

Finding myself defrauded, I hastened to Sir John Fielding. He told me he knew I had been swindled, and that his friends.h.i.+p would make him active in my behalf; that he also knew the houses where my wine was deposited, and that a party of his runners should go with me, sufficiently strong for its recovery. I was little aware that he had, at that time, two hundred bottles of my best Tokay in his cellar. His pretended kindness was a snare; he was in partners.h.i.+p with robbers, only the stupid among whom he hanged, and preserved the most adroit for the promotion of trade.

He sent a constable and six of his runners with me, commanding them to act under my orders. By good fortune I had a violent headache, and sent my brother-in-law, who spoke better English than I. Him they brought to the house of a Jew, and told him, "Your wine, sir, is here concealed."

Though it was broad day, the door was locked, that he might be induced to act illegally. The constable desired him to break the door open, which he did; the Jews came running, and asked--"What do you want, gentlemen?"--"I want my wine," answered my brother.--"Take what is your own," replied a Jew; "but beware of touching my property. I have bought the wine."

My brother attended the constable and runners into a cellar, and found a great part of my wine. He wrote to Sir John Fielding that he had found the wine, and desired to know how to act. Fielding answered: "It must be taken by the owner." My brother accordingly sent me the wine.

Next day came a constable with a warrant, saying, "He wanted to speak with my brother, and that he was to go to Sir John Fielding." When he was in the street, he told him--"Sir, you are my prisoner."

I went to Sir John Fielding, and asked him what it meant. This justice answered that my brother had been accused of felony. The Jews and swindlers had sworn the wine was a legal purchase. If I had not been paid, or was ignorant of the English laws, that was my fault. Six swindlers had sworn the wine was paid for, which circ.u.mstance he had not known, or he should not have granted me a warrant. My brother had also broken open the doors, and forcibly taken away wine which was not his own. They made oath of this, and he was charged with burglary and robbery.

He desired me to give bail in a thousand guineas for my brother for his appearance in the Court of King's Bench; otherwise his trial would immediately come on, and in a few days he would be hanged.

I hastened to a lawyer, who confirmed what had been told me, advised me to give bail, and he would then defend my cause. I applied to Lord Mansfield, and received the same answer. I told my story to all my friends, who laughed at me for attempting to trade in London without understanding the laws. My friend Lord Grosvenor said, "Send more wine to London, and we will pay you so well that you will soon recover your loss."

I went to my wine-merchants, who had a stock of mine worth upwards of a thousand guineas. They gave bail for my brother, and he was released.

Fielding, in the interim, sent his runners to my house, took back the wine, and restored it to the Jews. They threatened to prosecute me as a receiver of stolen goods. I fled from London to Paris, where I sold off my stock at half-price, honoured my bills, and so ended my merchandise.

My brother returned to London in November, to defend his cause in the Court of King's Bench; but the swindlers had disappeared, and the lawyer required a hundred pounds to proceed. The conclusion was that my brother returned with seventy pounds less in his pocket, spent as travelling expenses, and the stock in the hands of my wine-merchants was detained on pretence of paying the bail. They brought me an apothecary's bill, and all was lost.

The Swedish General Sprengporten came to Aix-la-Chapelle in 1776. He had planned and carried into execution the revolution so favourable to the King, but had left Sweden in discontent, and came to take the waters with a rooted hypochondria.

He was the most dangerous man in Sweden, and had told the King himself, after the revolution, in the presence of his guards, "While Sprengporten can hold a sword, the King has nothing to command."

It was feared he would go to Russia, and Prince Charles wrote to me in the name of the monarch, desiring I would exert myself to persuade him to return to Sweden. He was a man of pride, which rendered him either a fool or a madman. He despised everything that was not Swedish.

The Prussian Minister, Count Hertzberg, the same year came to Aix-la-Chapelle. I enjoyed his society for three months, and accompanied this great man. To his liberality am I indebted that I can return to my country with honour.

The time I had to spare was not spent in idleness; I attacked, in my weekly writings, those sharpers who attend at Aix-la-Chapelle and Spa to plunder both inhabitants and visitants, under the connivance of the magistracy; nor are there wanting foreign n.o.blemen who become the a.s.sociates of these pests of society. The publication of such truths endangered my life from the desperadoes, who, when detected, had nothing more to lose. How powerful is an innocent life, nothing can more fully prove than that I still exist, in despite of all the attempts of wicked monks and despicable sharpers.

Though my life was much disturbed, yet I do not repent of my manner of acting; many a youth, many a brave man, have I detained from the gaming- table, and pointed out to them the most notorious sharpers.

This was so injurious to Spa, that the Bishop of Liege himself, who enjoys a tax on all their winnings, and therefore protects such villains, offered me an annual pension of five hundred guineas if I would not come to Spa; or three per cent. on the winnings, would I but a.s.sociate myself with Colonel N---t, and raise recruits for the gaming-table. My answer may easily be imagined; yet for this was I threatened to be excommunicated by the Holy Catholic Church!

I and my family pa.s.sed sixteen summers in Spa. My house became the rendezvous of the most respectable part of the company, and I was known to some of the most respectable characters in Europe.

A contest arose between the town of Aix-la-Chapelle and Baron Blankart, the master of the hounds to the Elector Palatine: it originated in a dispute concerning precedence between the before-mentioned wife of the Recorder Geyer and the sister of the Burgomaster of Aix-la-Chapelle, Kahr, who governed that town with despotism.

This quarrel was detrimental to the town and to the Elector Palatine, but profitable to Kahr, whose office it was to protect the rights of the town, and those persons who defended the claims of the Elector; the latter kept a faro bank, the plunder of which had enriched the town; and the former Kahr, under pretence of defending their cause, embezzled the money of the people; so that both parties endeavoured with all their power to prolong the litigation.

It vexed me to see their proceedings. Those who suffered on each side were deceived; and I conceived the project of exposing the truth. For this purpose I journeyed to the court at Mannheim, related the facts to the Elector, produced a plan of accommodation, which he approved, and obtained power to act as arbitrator. The Minister of the Elector, Bekkers, pretended to approve my zeal, conducted me to an _auberge_, made me dine at his house, and said a commission was made out for my son, and forwarded to Aix-la-Chapelle--which was false; the moment he quitted me he sent to Aix-la-Chapelle to frustrate the attempt he pretended to applaud. He was himself in league with the parties. In fine, this silly interference brought me only trouble, expense, and chagrin. I made five journeys to Mannheim, till I became so dissatisfied that I determined to quit Aix-la-Chapelle, and purchase an estate in Austria.

The Bavarian contest was at this time in agitation; my own affairs brought me to Paris, and here I learned intelligence of great consequence; this I communicated to the Grand Duke of Florence, on my return to Vienna. The Duke departed to join the army in Bohemia, and I again wrote to him, and thought it my duty to send a courier. The Duke showed my letter to the Emperor; but I remained unnoticed.

I did not think myself safe in foreign countries during this time of war, and purchased the lords.h.i.+p of Zwerbach, with appurtenances, which, with the expenses, cost me sixty thousand florins.

To conclude this purchase, I was obliged to solicit the referendary, Zetto, and his friend whom he had appointed as my curator, for my new estate was likewise made a _fidei commissum_, as my referendaries and curators would not let me escape contribution. The six thousand florins of which they emptied my purse would have done my family much service.

In May, 1780, I went to Aix-la-Chapelle, where my wife's mother died in July; and in September my wife, myself, and family, all came to Vienna.

My wife solicited the mistress of the ceremonies to obtain an audience.

Her request was granted, and she gained the favour of the Empress. Her kindness was beyond expression: she introduced my wife to the Archd.u.c.h.ess, and commanded her mistress of the ceremonies to present her everywhere. "You were unwilling," said she, "to accompany your husband into my country, but I hope to convince you that you may live happier in Austria than at Aix-la-Chapelle."

She next day sent me her decree, a.s.suring me of a pension of four hundred florins.

My wife pet.i.tioned the Empress to grant me an audience: her request was complied with: and the Empress said to me: "This is the third time in which I would have made your fortune, had you been so disposed." She desired to see my children, and spoke of my writings. "How much good might you do," said she, "would you but write in the cause of religion!"

We departed for Zwerbach, where we lived contentedly, but when we were preparing to return to Vienna, and solicited the rest.i.tution of part of my lost fortune, during this favour of the court, Theresa died, and all my hopes were overcast.

I forgot to relate that the Archd.u.c.h.ess, Maria Anna, desired me to translate a religious work, written in French by the Abbe Baudrand, into German. I replied I would obey Her Majesty's commands. I began my work, took pa.s.sages from Baudrand, but inserted more of my own. The first volume was finished in six weeks; the Empress thought it admirable. The second soon followed, and I presented this myself.

She asked me if it equalled the first; I answered, I hoped it would be found more excellent. "No," said she; "I never in my life read a better book:" and added, "she wondered how I could write so well and so quickly." I promised another volume within a month. Before the third was ready, Theresa died. She gave orders on her death-bed to have the writings of Baron Trenck read to her; and though her confessor well knew the injustice that had been done me, yet in her last moments he kept silence, though he had given me his sacred promise to speak in my behalf.

After her death the censor commanded that I should print what I have stated in the preface to that third volume, and this was my only satisfaction.

For one-and-thirty years had I been soliciting my rights, which I never could obtain, because the Empress was deceived by wicked men, and believed me a heretic. In the thirty-second, my wife had the good fortune to convince her this was false; she had determined to make me rest.i.tution; just at this moment she died.

The pension granted my wife by the Empress in consequence of my misfortunes and our numerous family, we only enjoyed nine months.

Of this she was deprived by the new monarch. He perhaps knew nothing of the affair, as I never solicited. Yet much has it grieved me. Perhaps I may find relief when the sighs wrung from me shall reach the heart of the father of his people in this my last writing. At present, nothing for me remains but to live unknown in Zwerbach.

The Emperor thought proper to collect the moneys bestowed on hospitals into one fund. The system was a wise one. My cousin Trenck had bequeathed thirty-six thousand florins to a hospital for the poor of Bavaria. This act he had no right to do, having deducted the sum from the family estate. I pet.i.tioned the Emperor that these thirty-six thousand florins might be restored to me and my children, who were the people whom Trenck had indeed made poor, nothing of the property of his acquiring having been left to pay this legacy, but, on the contrary, the money having been exacted from mine.

In a few days it was determined I should be answered in the same tone in which, for six-and-thirty years past, all my pet.i.tions had been answered:--

"THE REQUEST OF THE PEt.i.tIONER CANNOT BE GRANTED."

Fortune persecuted me in my retreat. Within six years two hailstorms swept away my crops; one year was a misgrowth; there were seven floods; a rot among my sheep: all possible calamities befell me and my manor.

The estate had been ruined, the ponds were to drain, three farms were to be put into proper condition, and the whole newly stocked. This rendered me poor, especially as my wife's fortune had been sunk in lawsuits at Aix- la-Chapelle and Cologne.

The miserable peasants had nothing, therefore could not pay: I was obliged to advance them money. My sons a.s.sisted me, and we laboured with our own hands: my wife took care of eight children, without so much as the help of a maid. We lived in poverty, obliged to earn our daily bread.

The greatest of my misfortunes was my treatment in the military court, when Zetto and Krugel were my referendaries. Zetto had clogged me with a curator and when the cow had no more milk to give, they began to torture me with deputations, sequestrations, administrations, and executions.

Nineteen times was I obliged to attend in Vienna within two years, at my own expense. Every six years must I pay an attorney to dispute and quarrel with the curator. I, in conclusion, was obliged to pay. If any affair was to be expedited, I, by a third hand, was obliged to send the referendary some ducats. Did he give judgment, still that judgment lay fourteen months inefficient, and, when it then appeared, the copy was false, and so was sent to the upper courts, the high referendary of which said I "must be dislodged from Zwerbach."

They obliged me at last to purchase my naturalisation. I sent to Prussia for my pedigree; the attestation of this was sent me by Count Hertzberg.

Although the family of Trenck had a hundred years been landholders in Hungary, yet was my attorney obliged to solicit the instrument called ritter-diploma, for which, under pain of execution, I must pay two thousand florins.

By decree a Prussian n.o.bleman is not n.o.ble in Austria, where every lackey can purchase a diploma, making him a knight of the Empire, for twelve hundred wretched florins!--where such men as P--- and Gra.s.salkowitz have purchased the dignity of a prince!

Tortured by the courts, terrified by hailstorms, I determined to publish my works, in eight volumes, and this history of my life.

Fourteen months accomplished this purpose. My labours found a favourable reception through all Germany, procured me money, esteem, and honour. By my writings only will I seek the means of existence, and by trying to obtain the approbation and the love of men.