feet wide and ten feet long, was divided by a party wall. In the inner
wall were two doors, and a third at the entrance of the casemate itself.
The window in the outer wall, which was seven feet thick, was so
situated, that though I had light, I could see neither heaven nor earth,
but only the roof of the magazine within, and outside this window were
iron bars, and in the space between, an iron grating, so narrow and with
such small interstices that it was impossible I should see any person
without the prison or that any person should see me. On the outside was
a wooden palisado six feet from the wall, by which the sentinels were
prevented conveying anything to me. I had a mattress, and a bedstead,
fastened to the floor by iron cramps so firmly that it was impossible to
move it up to the window. Beside the door was a small iron stove and a
table, in like manner fixed to the floor. I was not yet put in irons,
and my allowance was a pound and a half per day of ammunition bread, and
a jug of water. From my youth I always had a good appetite, and my bread
was so mouldy I could at first scarcely eat the half of it. This was
one result of the commandant’s avarice, who endeavoured to profit even
by the food supplies of the unfortunate prisoners. It is impossible for
me to describe to my reader the excess of tortures that during eleven
months I endured from ravenous hunger. I could easily have devoured six
pounds of bread every day; and every twenty-four hours, after having
received and swallowed my small portion I continued as hungry as before
I began, yet I was obliged to wait another twenty-four hours for a new
morsel. How willingly would I have signed a bill of exchange for a
thousand ducats, on my property at Vienna, only to have satiated my
hunger on dry bread. Scarcely had I dropped into a sweet sleep before I
dreamed I was feasting at some table, luxuriously loaded, where the
whole company were astonished to see me, eating like a glutton, to such
an extent was my imagination heated by the sensation of famine.
“Awakened by the pains of hunger, I used to find that the dishes had
vanished, and that nothing remained but the reality of my distress. The
cravings of nature were but inflamed, my tortures prevented sleep, and
looking into futurity, the cruelty of my fate seemed to me, if possible
to increase, for I imagined that the prolongation of pangs like these
was insupportable. God preserve every honest man from sufferings like
mine! They were not to be endured by the most obdurate villain. Many
have fasted three days, many have suffered want for a week or more, but
certainly no one beside myself ever endured it in the same excess for
eleven months; some have supposed that to eat little might become
habitual, but I have experienced the contrary. My hunger increased every
day, and of all the trials of fortitude my whole life has afforded, this
eleven months was the most bitter.
“My three doors were kept always shut, and I was left to such
meditations as such feelings and such hopes might inspire. Daily, about
noon, or once in twenty-four hours, my pittance of bread and water was
brought. The keys of all the doors were kept by the governor; the inner
door was not opened, but my bread and water were delivered through an
aperture. The prison was opened only once a week, on a Wednesday, when
the governor and town major paid their visit, after my den had been
cleaned.
“Having remained thus two months, and observed this method was
invariable, I began to execute a project I had formed, and of the
possibility of which I was convinced.
“Where the table and stove stood, the floor was bricked, and this paving
extended to the wall that separated my casemate from the adjoining one,
in which no one was confined. My window was only guarded by a single
sentinel. I therefore soon found among those who successively relieved
guard, two kind-hearted fellows, who described to me the situation of my
prison, whence I perceived I might effect my escape, could I but
penetrate into the adjoining casement (the door of which was not shut),
and find a friend and a boat waiting for me at the Elbe. Or could I swim
that river, the confines of Saxony were but a mile distant.
“To describe my plan at length would lead to prolixity, yet I must
enumerate some of its main features, as it was remarkably intricate and
it involved gigantic labour.
“I worked through the iron, eighteen inches long, by which the table was
fastened, and broke off the clinchings of the nails, but preserved their
heads, that I might put them again in their places, that all might
appear secure to my weekly visitors. This procured me tools to raise up
the brick floor, under which I found earth. My first attempt was to work
a hole through the wall, seven feet thick behind, and concealed by the
table. The first layer was of brick; I afterwards came to large hewn
stones. I endeavoured accurately to number and remember the bricks, both
of the flooring and the wall, so that I might replace them, that all
might appear safe. This having been accomplished, I awaited the day of
visitation. All was carefully replaced, and the intervening mortar as
carefully preserved. The cell had probably been whitewashed a hundred
times, and, that I might fill up all remaining interstices, I pounded
the white stuff from the walls, wetted it, made a brush of my hair,
washed it over, that the colour might be uniform, and afterwards
stripped myself, and sat, with my naked body against the place, by the
heat of which it was dried.
“While labouring, I placed the stones and bricks upon my bedstead; and
had they taken the precaution to come at any other time of the week, the
stated Wednesday excepted, I had inevitably been discovered; but as no
such ill accident befell me, in six months my Herculean labours gave me
a prospect of success.
“Means were to be found to remove the rubbish from my prison, all of
which, in so thick a wall, it was impossible to replace. Mortar and
stone could not be removed. I therefore took the earth, scattered it
about my chamber, and ground it under my feet the whole day, till I had
reduced it to dust, which I strewed in the aperture of my window, making
use of the loosened table to stand upon. I tied splinters from my
bedstead together, with the ravelled yarn of an old stocking, and to
this I affixed a tuft of my hair. I worked a large hole under the middle
grating, which could not be seen by any one standing on the ground, and
through this I pushed my dust with the tool I had prepared in the outer
window, then waiting till the wind rose, during the night I brushed it
away. It was blown off, and no appearance remained on the outside.
“By this single expedient, I rid myself of at least three hundredweight
of earth, and thus made room to continue my labours; yet this being
still insufficient, I had recourse to many other artifices, among them
that of kneading up the earth into little balls which, and when the
sentinel’s back was turned, I blew through a paper tube, out of the
window. Into the empty space I put my mortar and stones, and worked on
successfully.
“I cannot, however, describe my difficulties after having penetrated
about two feet into the hewn stone. My tools were the irons I had dug
out, which fastened my bedstead and table. A compassionate soldier also
gave me an old iron ramrod, and a soldier’s sheath knife, which did me
excellent service, more especially the latter, as I shall presently more
fully show. With the knife I cut splinters from my bedstead, which aided
me to pick the mortar from the interstices of the stone; yet the labour
of penetrating through this seven-feet wall was incredible. The building
was ancient, and the mortar occasionally quite petrified, so that the
whole stone was obliged to be reduced to dust. After continuing my work
unremittingly for six months, I at length approached the accomplishment
of my hopes, as I knew by coming to the facing of brick which alone
remained between me and the adjoining casemate.
“Meantime, I found opportunity to speak to some of the sentinels, among
whom was an old grenadier, called Gefhardt, whom I here name because he
displayed qualities of the greatest and most noble kind. From him I
learned the precise situation of my prison, and every circumstance that
might best conduce to my escape.
“Nothing was wanting but money to buy a boat, so crossing the Elbe with
Gefhardt, I might take refuge in Saxony. By Gefhardt’s means I became
acquainted with a kind-hearted girl, a Jewess, and a native of Dessau,
Esther Heymannin by name, whose father had been ten years in prison.
This good, compassionate maiden, whom I had never seen, won over two
grenadiers, who gave her an opportunity of speaking to me every time
they stood sentinel. By tying my splinters together, I made a stick long
enough to reach beyond the palisadoes that were before my window, and
thus obtained paper, another knife, and a file.
“I now wrote to my sister, the wife of the before-mentioned only son of
General Waldow, described my awful situation, and entreated her to remit
three hundred rix-dollars to the Jewess, hoping by this means I might
escape from my prison. I then wrote another affecting letter to Count
Puebla, the Austrian ambassador at Berlin, in which was enclosed a draft
for a thousand florins on my effects at Vienna, desiring him to remit
these to the Jewess, having promised her that sum as a reward for her
fidelity. She was to bring the three hundred rix-dollars my sister
should send me, and take measures with the grenadiers to facilitate my
flight, which nothing seemed able to prevent; I having the power either
to break into the casemate, or, aided by the grenadiers and the Jewess,
to cut the locks from the doors and that way escape my dungeon. The
letters were open, I being obliged to roll them round the stick to
convey them to Esther.
“The faithful girl diligently proceeded to Berlin, where she arrived
safely, and immediately spoke to Count Puebla. The Count gave her the
kindest reception, received the letter, with the letter of exchange, and
bade her go and speak to Weingarten, the secretary of the embassy, and
act entirely as he should direct. She was received by Weingarten in the
most friendly manner, and he, by his questions, drew from her the whole
secret, our intended plan of flight, and the names of the two grenadiers
who were to aid us. She told him also that she had a letter for my
sister, which she must carry to Hammer, near Custrin.
“He asked to see this letter, read it, told her to proceed on her
journey, gave her two ducats to bear her expenses, and ordered her to
come to him on her return; adding that during this interval he would
endeavour to obtain the thousand florins for my draft, and would then
give her further instructions.
“Esther cheerfully departed for Hammer, where my sister, then a widow,
and no longer, as in 1746, in dread of her husband, immediately gave her
a letter to me, with three hundred rix-dollars, exhorting her to exert
every possible means to obtain my deliverance. Having prospered so far,
Esther hastened back to Berlin, with the letter from my sister, and told
Weingarten all that passed, whom she allowed to read the letter. He told
her the two thousand florins from Vienna were not yet come, but gave her
twelve ducats, bade her hasten back to Magdeburg, to carry me all this
good news, and then return to Berlin, where he would pay her the
thousand florins. Esther came to Magdeburg, went immediately to the
citadel, and most luckily met the wife of one of the grenadiers, who
told her that her husband and his comrade had been taken and put in
irons the day before. Esther’s quickness of perception told her that we
had been betrayed: she, therefore, instantly again began her travels,
and happily came safe to Dessau.”
One of the grenadiers was hung, the other cruelly tortured. Trenck’s
sister was condemned to pay a heavy fine, and the expenses of building a
new cell for her brother. Trenck did not know at first what had
happened, but he was soon informed of it by Gefhardt, who told him that
his new prison would be finished in a month. Frederic, who had come to
Magdebourg to hold a review, himself designed the chains for the limbs
of his victim. Meanwhile Trenck was still in hopes of regaining his
liberty. As yet nothing had been discovered of his subterranean
operations. His preparations were at length finished, and he was getting
ready to fly during the night, when suddenly the doors were opened; he
was seized, and bound hand and foot; a bandage was placed over his eyes,
and he was dragged away to his new cell. His feelings are best described
in his own words:--
“The bandage was taken from my eyes. The dungeon was lighted by a few
torches. Great heaven! what were my feelings when I beheld the floor
covered with chains, a fire pan, and two grim men standing with their
smiths’ hammers.
“These engines of despotism went to work at once: enormous chains were
fixed to my ancles at one end, and at the other to a ring which was
fixed in the wall. This ring was three feet from the ground, and only
allowed me to move about two or three feet to the right and left. They
next riveted another huge iron ring of a hand’s breadth round my naked
body, to which hung a chain fixed into an iron bar as thick as a man’s
arm. This bar was two feet in length, and at each end of it was a
handcuff. The iron collar round my neck was not added till the year
1756.
“No soul bade me good-night. All retired in dreadful silence, and I
heard the horrible grating of four doors that were successively locked
and bolted upon me.
“Thus does man act by his fellow, knowing him to be innocent, in blind
obedience to the commands of another man.
“O God! Thou alone knowest how my heart, void as it was of guilt, beat
at this moment. There I sat, destitute, alone, in thick darkness, upon
the bare earth, with a weight of fetters insupportable to nature,
thanking Thee that these cruel men had not discovered my knife by which
my miseries might yet find an end. Death is a last certain refuge that
can indeed bid defiance to the rage of tyranny. What shall I say. How
shall I make the reader feel as I then felt? How describe my
despondency, and yet account for that latent impulse that withheld my
hand on this fatal, this miserable night?
“The misery I foresaw was not of short duration. I had heard of the wars
that were lately broken out between Austria and Prussia. To patiently
wait their termination amid sufferings and wretchedness such as mine,
appeared impossible, and freedom even then was doubtful. Sad experience
had I had of Vienna, and well I knew that those who had despoiled me of
my property would most anxiously endeavour to prevent my return. Such
were my meditations, such my night thoughts. Day at length returned,
but where was its splendour? I beheld it not, yet its glimmering
obscurity was sufficient to show me my dungeon.
“In breadth, the cell was about eight feet; in length, ten. Near me
stood a table; in a corner was a seat four bricks broad, on which I
might sit and recline against the wall opposite to the ring to which I
was fastened; the light was admitted through a semicircular aperture one
foot high, and two in diameter. This aperture ascended to the centre of
the wall, which was six feet thick, and at this central part was a close
iron grating from which outward the aperture descended, having its two
extremities again closely secured by strong iron bars. My dungeon was
built in the ditch of the fortification, and the aperture by which the
light entered was so covered by the wall of the rampart, that instead of
finding immediate passage, the light only gained admission by
reflection. This, considering the smallness of the aperture and the
impediments of grating and iron bars, made the obscurity very great, yet
my eyes in time became so accustomed to this gloom, that I could see a
mouse run. In winter, however, when the sun did not shine into the
ditch, it was dense night with me. Between the bars and the grating was
a glass window, most curiously formed, with a small central casement,
which might be opened to admit the air. The name of Trenck was built in
the wall in red brick, and under my feet was a tombstone with the name
of Trenck also cut on it, and carved with a death’s head. The doors to
my dungeon were double, of oak, two inches thick; without, there was an
open space in front of the cell, in which was a window. And this space
was likewise shut in by double doors. The ditch in which this dreadful
den was built was inclosed on both sides by palisadoes twelve feet high,
the key of the gate of which was intrusted to the officer of the guard,
it being the king’s intention to prevent all possibility of speech or
communication with the sentinel. The only motion I had the power to make
was that of jumping upward, or swinging my arms to procure myself
warmth. When more accustomed to the fetters, I became capable of moving
from side to side about four feet, but this pained my shin-bones.
“The cell had been finished with lime and plaster but eleven days, and
everybody supposed it impossible I should exist above a fortnight after
breathing the damp air. I remained six months, continually drenched with
very cold water, that trickled upon me from the thick arches above; and
I can safely affirm that for the first three months I was never dry, yet
I continued in health. I was visited daily at noon, after the relieving
of guard, and the doors were then obliged to be left open for some
minutes, otherwise the dampness of the air put out my gaolers’ candles.
“This was my situation. And here I sat, destitute of friends, helplessly
wretched, preyed on by all the tortures of an imagination that
continually suggested the most gloomy, the most horrid, the most
dreadful of images. My heart was not yet wholly turned to stone; my
fortitude was reduced to despondency; my dungeon was the very cave of
despair; yet was my arm restrained, and this excess of misery endured.
“How, then, may hope be wholly eradicated from the heart of man? My
fortitude, after some time, began to revive. I glowed with the desire of
convincing the world I was capable of suffering what man had never
suffered before, perhaps of, at last, emerging from beneath this load of
wretchedness triumphant over my enemies. So long and ardently did my
fancy dwell on this picture that my mind at length acquired a heroism
which Socrates himself certainly never possessed. Age had benumbed his
sense of pleasure, and he drank the poisonous draught with cool
indifference; but I was young, inured to high hopes, yet now beholding
deliverance impossible, or at an immense, a dreadful distance. Such,
too, were my other sufferings of soul and body that I could not hope and
live.
“About noon my door was opened. Sorrow and compassion were painted on
the countenances of my keepers; no one spoke, no one bade me ‘Good
morrow!’ Dreadful, indeed, was the sound of their arrival; for the
monstrous bolts and bars moved with difficulty, and the noise of their
removal would be resounding for a good half hour through the vaults of
the prison.
“But at length a camp bed, mattress, and blankets were brought me, and
beside it an ammunition loaf of six pounds’ weight. ‘That you may no
more complain of hunger,’ said the town major, when the loaf was laid
before me, ‘you shall have as much bread as you can eat.’ The door was
shut, and I again left to my thoughts.”
For eleven months Trenck had been dying of hunger, and he devoured the
bread so greedily that repletion nearly finished what starvation had
begun, and he became seriously ill. When he had somewhat recovered he
began anew to meditate a scheme of escape.
“I observed, as the four doors of my cell were opened, that they were
only of wood; I therefore considered whether I might not even cut off
the locks with the knife that I had so fortunately concealed; and should
this and every other means fail, then would be the time to die. I
likewise determined to make an attempt to free myself of my chains. I
happily forced my right hand through the handcuffs, though the blood
trickled from my nails. My attempts on the left were long ineffectual,
but by rubbing with a brick, which I got from my seat, on a rivet that
had been negligently closed, I effected this also.
“The chain was fastened to the ring round my body by a hook, the end of
which was not inserted in the ring; therefore, by setting my foot
against the wall, I had strength enough so far to bend this hook back,
and open it, as to force out the link of the chain. The remaining
difficulty was the chain that attached my foot to the wall; the links of
this I took, doubled, twisted, and wrenched, till at length, nature
having bestowed on me great strength, I made a desperate effort, sprang
forcibly up, and two links at once flew off. Fortunate indeed did I
think myself. I hastened to the door, groped in the dark to find the
clinchings of the nails by which the lock was fastened, and discovered
no very large piece of wood need be cut. Immediately I went to work with
my knife, and cut through the oak door to find its thickness, which
proved to be only one inch, therefore it was possible to open all the
four doors in four and twenty hours.
“Again hope revived in my heart. To prevent discovery I hastened to put
on my chains; but, O Heaven! what difficulties had I to surmount. After
much groping about, I at length found the link that had flown off, but
this I hid. It had hitherto been my good fortune to escape examination,
as the possibility of ridding myself of such chains was in no wise
suspected. The separated iron links I tied together with my hair ribbon;
but when I again endeavoured to force my hand into the ring, it was so
swelled that every effort was fruitless. The whole night was employed
upon the rivet, but all labour was in vain.
“It was near the hour of visitation, and necessity and danger again
obliged me to attempt forcing my hand through the ring, an operation at
length, after excruciating tortures, I effected. My visitors came, and
everything had the appearance of order. I found it, however, impossible
to again free my right hand while it continued swelled.
“I therefore remained quiet for the time; and on the fourth of July, the
day I had fixed for my attempt, the moment my visitors had left me, I
disencumbered myself of irons, took my knife and began my Herculean
labours on the doors. The first of them that opened inwards was
conquered in less than an hour. The other was a very different task. The
lock was soon cut round, but it opened outwards; there was, therefore,
no other means left but to cut the whole door away above the bar.
Incessant and incredible labour made this possible, though it was the
more difficult as everything was to be done by feeling, as I was totally
in the dark; the sweat dropped, or rather flowed from my body. My
fingers were clotted in my own blood, and my lacerated hands were one
continued wound.
“Daylight appeared. I clambered over the door that I had cut through,
and got up to the window in the space or cell that was between the
double doors as before described. Here I saw that my dungeon was in the
ditch of the first rampart; before me I saw the road from the rampart,
the guard but fifty paces distant, and the high palisades that were in
the ditch, and must be scaled before I could reach the rampart. Hope
grew stronger. My efforts were redoubled. The first of the next double
doors was attacked, which likewise opened inward, and was soon
conquered. The sun set before I had ended this, and the fourth was cut
away as the second had been. My strength failed, both my hands were raw.
I rested awhile, began again, and had made a cut of a foot long when my
knife snapped, and the broken blade dropped to the ground.”
Seeing all his dreams of liberty thus vanish in a moment, the
unfortunate prisoner, abandoning himself to despair, opened the veins of
his left arm and foot with the broken blade.
“I fainted, and I know not how long I remained in this state. Suddenly I
heard my own name, awoke, and again heard the words, ‘Baron Trenck!’
‘Who calls?’ was my answer. And who indeed was it to be but my loved
grenadier Gefhardt--my former faithful friend in the citadel. The good,
the kind fellow had got upon the rampart that he might see and comfort
me.
“‘In what state are you?’ said Gefhardt. ‘Weltering in my blood,’
answered I; ‘to-morrow you will find me dead.’ ‘Why should you die?’
replied he. ‘It is much easier for you to escape from this place than
from the citadel. There is no sentinel here, and I shall soon find means
to furnish you with tools. If you can only break out, leave the rest to
me. As often as I am on guard, I will seek an opportunity to speak to
you. In the whole of the Star Fort there are only two sentinels, the one
at the entrance and the other at the guard-house. Do not despair, God
will help you, trust to me.’ The good man’s kindness and his words
revived my hopes. I saw the possibility of my escape. A secret joy
diffused itself through my soul. I immediately tore my shirt, bound up
my wounds, and waited the approach of day; and the sun soon after shone
through my window with more than its accustomed brightness.
“Till noon I had time to consider what might further be done; yet what
could be done? What could be expected but that I should now be much more
cruelly treated, and even more insupportably ironed than before,
finding as they must the doors cut through and my fetters shaken off.
“After mature consideration I therefore made the following resolution,
which succeeded happily, and even beyond my hopes. Before I proceed,
however, I will speak a few words concerning my situation at this
moment. It is impossible to describe how much I was exhausted. The
prison swam with blood, and certainly but little was left in my body.
With painful wounds, swelled and torn hands, I stood shirtless in my
cell. I felt an almost irresistible inclination to sleep, scarcely had
strength to keep my legs out, and I was obliged to rouse myself that I
might execute my plan.