The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume I Part 4

CHAPTER V.

I was now first informed that the King had only condemned me to a year's imprisonment, in order to learn whether his suspicions were well founded.

My mother had pet.i.tioned for me, and was answered, "Your son must remain a year imprisoned, as a punishment for his rash correspondence."

Of this I was ignorant, and it was reported in Glatz that my imprisonment was for life. I had only three weeks longer to repine for the loss of liberty, when I made this rash attempt. What must the King think? Was he not obliged to act with this severity? How could prudence excuse my impatience, thus to risk a confiscation, when I was certain of receiving freedom, justification, and honour, in three weeks? But, such was my adverse fate, circ.u.mstances all tended to injure and persecute me, till at length I gave reason to suppose I was a traitor, notwithstanding the purity of my intentions.

Once more, then, was I in a dungeon, and no sooner was I there than I formed new projects of flight. I first gained the intimacy of my guards.

I had money, and this, with the compa.s.sion I had inspired, might effect anything among discontented Prussian soldiers. Soon had I gained thirty- two men, who were ready to execute, on the first signal, whatever I should command. Two or three excepted, they were unacquainted with each other; they consequently could not all be betrayed at a time: had chosen the sub-officer Nicholai to head them.

The garrison consisted only of one hundred and twenty men from the garrison regiment, the rest being dispersed in the county of Glatz, and four officers, their commanders, three of whom were in my interest.

Everything was prepared; swords and pistols were concealed in the oven which was in my prison. We intended to give liberty to all the prisoners, and retire with drums beating into Bohemia.

Unfortunately, an Austrian deserter, to whom Nicholai had imparted our design, went and discovered our conspiracy. The governor instantly sent his adjutant to the citadel, with orders that the officer on guard should arrest Nicholai, and, with his men, take possession of the cas.e.m.e.nt.

Nicholai was on the guard, and the lieutenant was my friend, and being in the secret, gave the signal that all was discovered. Nicholai only knew all the conspirators, several of whom that day were on guard. He instantly formed his resolution, leaped into the cas.e.m.e.nt, crying, "Comrades, to arms, we are betrayed!" All followed to the guard-house, where they seized on the cartridges, the officer having only eight men, and threatening to fire on whoever should offer resistance, came to deliver me from prison; but the iron door was too strong, and the time too short for that to be demolished. Nicholai, calling to me, bid me aid them, but in vain: and perceiving nothing more could be done for me, this brave man, heading nineteen others, marched to the gate of the citadel, where there was a sub-officer and ten soldiers, obliged these to accompany him, and thus arrived safely at Braunau, in Bohemia; for, before the news was spread through the city, and men were collected for the pursuit, they were nearly half-way on their journey.

Two years after I met with this extraordinary man at Ofenbourg, where hue was a writer: he entered immediately into my service, and became my friend, but died some months after of a burning fever, at my quarters in Hungary, at which I was deeply grieved, for his memory will be ever dear to me.

Now was I exposed to all the storms of ill-fortune: a prosecution was entered against me as a conspirator, who wanted to corrupt the officers and soldiers of the King. They commanded me to name the remaining conspirators; but to these questions I made no answer, except by steadfastly declaring I was an innocent prisoner, an officer unjustly broken; unjustly, because I had never been brought to trial; that consequently I was released from all my engagements; nor could it be thought extraordinary that I should avail myself of that law of nature which gives every man a right to defend his honour defamed, and seek by every possible means to regain his liberty: that such had been my sole purpose in every enterprise I had formed, and such should still continue to be, for I was determined to persist, till I should either be crowned with success, or lose my life in the attempt.

Things thus remained: every precaution was taken except that I was not put in irons; it being a law in Prussia that no gentleman or officer can be loaded with chains, unless he has first for some crime been delivered over to the executioner; and certainly this had not been my case.

The soldiers were withdrawn from my chamber; but the greatest ill was I had expended all my money, and my kind mistress, at Berlin, with whom I had always corresponded, and which my persecutors could not prevent, at last wrote--

"My tears flow with yours; the evil is without remedy--I dare no more--escape if you can. My fidelity will ever be the same, when it shall be possible for me to serve you.--Adieu, unhappy friend: you merit a better fate."

This letter was a thunderbolt:--my comfort, however, still was that the officers were not suspected, and that it was their duty to visit my chamber several times a day, and examine what pa.s.sed: from which circ.u.mstance I felt my hopes somewhat revive. Hence an adventure happened which is almost unexampled in tales of knight-errantry.

A lieutenant, whose name was Bach, a Dane by nation, mounted guard every fourth day, and was the terror of the whole garrison; for, being a perfect master of arms, he was incessantly involved in quarrels, and generally left his marks behind him. He had served in two regiments, neither of which would a.s.sociate with him for this reason, and he had been sent to the garrison regiment at Glatz as punishment.

Bach one day, sitting beside me, related how, the evening before, he had wounded a lieutenant, of the name of Sch.e.l.l, in the arm. I replied, laughing, "Had I my liberty, I believe you would find some trouble in wounding me, for I have some skill in the sword." The blood instantly flew in his face; we split off a kind of pair of foils from an old door, which had served me as a table, and at the first lunge I hit him on the breast.

His rage became ungovernable, and he left the prison. What was my astonishment when, a moment after, I saw him return with two soldiers'

swords, which he had concealed under his coat.--"Now, then, boaster, prove," said he, giving me one of them, "what thou art able to do." I endeavoured to pacify him, by representing the danger, but ineffectually.

He attacked me with the utmost fury, and I wounded him in the arm.

Throwing his sword down, he fell upon my neck, kissed me, and wept. At length, after some convulsive emotions of pleasure, he said, "Friend, thou art my master; and thou must, thou shalt, by my aid, obtain thy liberty, as certainly as my name is Bach." We bound up his arm as well as we could. He left me, and secretly went to a surgeon, to have it properly dressed, and at night returned.

He now remarked, that it was humanly impossible I should escape, unless the officer on guard should desert with me;--that he wished nothing more ardently than to sacrifice his life in my behalf, but that he could not resolve so far to forget his honour and duty to desert, himself, while on guard: he notwithstanding gave me his word of honour he would find me such a person in a few days; and that, in the meantime, he would prepare everything for my flight.

He returned the same evening, bringing with him Lieutenant Sch.e.l.l, and as he entered said, "Here is your man." Sch.e.l.l embraced me, gave his word of honour, and thus was the affair settled, and as it proved, my liberty ascertained.

We soon began to deliberate on the means necessary to obtain our purpose.

Sch.e.l.l was just come from garrison at Habelchwert to the citadel of Glatz, and in two days was to mount guard over me, till when our attempt was suspended. I have before said, I received no more supplies from my beloved mistress, and my purse at that time only contained some six pistoles. It was therefore resolved that Bach should go to Schweidnitz, and obtain money of a sure friend of mine in that city.

Here must I inform the reader that at this period the officers and I all understood each other, Captain Roder alone excepted, who was exact, rigid, and gave trouble on all occasions.

Major Quaadt was my kinsman, by my mother's side, a good, friendly man, and ardently desirous I should escape, seeing my calamities were so much increased. The four lieutenants who successively mounted guard over me were Bach, Schroeder, Lunitz, and Sch.e.l.l. The first was the grand projector, and made all preparations; Sch.e.l.l was to desert with me; and Schroeder and Lunitz three days after were to follow.

No one ought to be surprised that officers of garrison regiments should be so ready to desert. They are, in general, either men of violent pa.s.sions, quarrelsome, overwhelmed with debts, or unfit for service. They are usually sent to the garrison as a punishment, and are called the refuse of the army. Dissatisfied with their situation, their pay much reduced, and despised by the troops, such men, expecting advantage, may be brought to engage in the most desperate undertaking. None of them can hope for their discharge, and they live in the utmost poverty. They all hoped by my means to better their fortune, I always having had money enough; and, with money, nothing is more easy than to find friends, in places where each individual is desirous of escaping from slavery.

The talents of Sch.e.l.l were of a superior order; he spoke and wrote six languages, and was well acquainted with all the fine arts. He had served in the regiment of Fouquet, had been injured by his colonel, who was a Pomeranian; and Fouquet, who was no friend to well-informed officers, had sent him to a garrison regiment. He had twice demanded his dismissal, but the King sent him to this species of imprisonment; he then determined to avenge himself by deserting, and was ready to aid me in recovering my freedom, that he might, by that means, spite Fouquet.

I shall speak more hereafter of this extraordinary man, that I must not in this place interrupt my story. We determined everything should be prepared against the first time Sch.e.l.l mounted guard, and that our project should be executed on our next. Thus, as he mounted guard every four days, the eighth was to be that of our flight.

The governor meantime had been informed how familiar I was become with the officers, at which taking offence, he sent orders that my door should no more be opened, but that I should receive my food through a small window that had been made for the purpose. The care of the prison was committed to the major, and he was forbidden to eat with me, under pain of being broken.

His precautions were ineffectual; the officers procured a false key, and remained with me half the day and night.

Captain d.a.m.nitz was imprisoned in an apartment by the side of mine. This man had deserted from the Prussian service, with the money belonging to his company, to Austria, where he obtained a commission in his cousin's regiment, who having prevailed on him to serve as a spy, during the campaign of 1744, he was taken in the Prussian territories, known, and condemned to be hanged.

Some Swedish volunteers, who were then in the army, interested themselves in his behalf, and his sentence was changed to perpetual imprisonment, with a sentence of infamy.

This wretch, who two years after, by the aid of his protectors, not only obtained his liberty but a lieutenant-colonel's commission, was the secret spy of the major over the prisoners; and he remarked that, notwithstanding the express prohibition laid on the officers, they still pa.s.sed the greater part of their time in my company.

The 24th of December came, and Sch.e.l.l mounted guard. He entered my prison immediately, where he continued a long time, and we made our arrangements for flight when he next should mount guard.

Lieutenant Schroeder that day dined with the governor, and heard orders given to the adjutant that Sch.e.l.l should be taken from the guard, and put under arrest.

Schroeder, who was in the secret, had no doubt but that we were betrayed, not knowing that the spy d.a.m.nitz had informed the governor that Sch.e.l.l was then in my chamber.

Schroeder, full of terror, came running to the citadel, and said to Sch.e.l.l, "Save thyself, friend; all is discovered, and thou wilt instantly be put under arrest."

Sch.e.l.l might easily have provided for his own safety, by flying singly, Schroeder having prepared horses, on one of which he himself offered to accompany him into Bohemia. How did this worthy man, in a moment so dangerous, act toward his friend?

Running suddenly into my prison, he drew a corporal's sabre from under his coat, and said, "Friend, we are betrayed; follow me, only do not suffer me to fall alive into the hands of my enemies."

I would have spoken: but interrupting me, and taking me by the hand, he added, "Follow me; we have not a moment to lose." I therefore slipped on my coat and boots, without having time to take the little money I had left; and, as we went out of the prison, Sch.e.l.l said to the sentinel, "I am taking the prisoner into the officer's apartment; stand where you are."

Into this room we really went, but pa.s.sed out at the other door. The design of Sch.e.l.l was to go under the a.r.s.enal, which was not far off, to gain the covered way, leap the palisadoes, and afterwards escape after the best manner we might.

We had scarcely gone a hundred paces before we met the adjutant and Major Quaadt.

Sch.e.l.l started back, sprang upon the rampart, and leaped from the wall, which was there not very high. I followed, and alighted unhurt, except having grazed my shoulder. My poor friend was not so fortunate; having put out his ankle. He immediately drew his sword, presented it to me, and begged me to despatch him, and fly. He was a small, weak man: but, far from complying with his request, I took him in my arms, threw him over the palisadoes, afterwards got him on my back, and began to run, without very well knowing which way I went.

CHAPTER VI.

It may not be unnecessary to remark those fortunate circ.u.mstances that favoured our enterprise.

The sun had just set as we took to flight; the h.o.a.r frost fell. No one would run the risk that we had done, by making so dangerous a leap. We heard a terrible noise behind us. Everybody knew us; but before they could go round the citadel, and through the town, in order to pursue us, we had got a full half league.