On the 22nd of August, 1786, the news arrived that Frederic the Great had
left this world!
* * * * *
The present monarch, the witness of my sufferings in my native country,
sent me a royal passport to Berlin. The confiscation of my estates was
annulled, and my deceased brother, in Prussia, had left my children his
heirs.
* * * * *
I journey, within the Imperial permission, back to my country, from which
I have been two-and-forty years expelled! I journey--not as a pardoned
malefactor, but as a man whose innocence has been established by his
actions, has been proved in his writings, and who is journeying to
receive his reward.
Here I shall once more encounter my old friends my relations, and those
who have known me in the days of my affliction. Here shall I appear, not
as my country's Traitor, but as my country's Martyr!
Possible, though little probable, are still future storms. For these
also I am prepared. Long had I reason daily to curse the rising sun,
and, setting, to behold it with horror. Death to me appears a great
benefit: a certain passage from agitation to peace, from motion to rest.
As for my children, they, jocund in youth, delight in present existence.
When I have fulfilled the duties of a father, to live or die will then be
as I shall please.
Thou, O God! my righteous Judge, didst ordain that I should be an example
of suffering to the world; Thou madest me what I am, gavest me these
strong passions, these quick nerves, this thrilling of the blood, when I
behold injustice. Strong was my mind, that deeply it might meditate on
deep subjects; strong my memory, that these meditations I might retain;
strong my body, that proudly it might support all it has pleased Thee to
inflict.
Should I continue to exist, should identity go with me, and should I know
what I was then, when I was called Trenck; when that combination of
particles which Nature commanded should compose this body shall be
decomposed, scattered, or in other bodies united; when I have no muscles
to act, no brain to think, no retina on which pictures can mechanically
be painted, my eyes wasted, and no tongue remaining to pronounce the
Creator's name, should I still behold a Creator--then, oh then, will my
spirit mount, and indubitably associate with spirits of the just who
expectant wait for their golden harps and glorious crowns from the Most
High God. For human weaknesses, human failings, arising from our nature,
springing from our temperament, which the Creator has ordained, shall be
even thus, and not otherwise; for these have I suffered enough on earth.
Such is my confession of faith; in this have I lived, in this will I die.
The duties of a man and of a Christian I have fulfilled; nay, often have
exceeded, often have been too benevolent, too generous; perhaps also too
proud, too vain. I could not bend, although liable to be broken.
That I have not served the world, in acts and employments where best I
might, is perhaps my own fault: the fault of my manner, which is now too
radical to be corrected in this, my sixtieth year. Yes, I acknowledge my
failing, acknowledge it unblushingly; nay, glory in the pride of a noble
nature.
For myself, I ask nothing of those who have read my history; to them do I
commit my wife and children. My eldest son is a lieutenant in the Tuscan
regiment of cavalry, under General Lasey, and does honour to his father's
principles. The second serves his present Prussian Majesty, as ensign in
the Posadowsky dragoons, with equal promise. The third is still a child.
My daughters will make worthy men happy, for they have imbibed virtue and
gentleness with their mother's milk. Monarchs may hereafter remember
what I have suffered, what I have lost, and what is due to my ashes.
Here do I declare--I will seek no other revenge against my enemies than
that of despising their evil deeds. It is my wish, and shall be my
endeavour, to forget the past; and having committed no offence, neither
will I solicit monarchs for posts of honour; as I have ever lived a free
man, a free man will I die.
I conclude this part of my history on the evening preceding my journey to
Berlin. God grant I may encounter no new afflictions, to be inserted in
the remainder of this history.
This journey I prepared to undertake, but my ever-envious fate threw me
on the bed of sickness, insomuch that small hope remained that I ever
should again behold the country of my forefathers. I seemed following
the Great Frederic to the mansions of the dead; then should I never have
concluded the history of my life, or obtained the victory by which I am
now crowned.
A variety of obstacles being overcome, I found it necessary to make a
journey into Hungary, which was one of the most pleasant of my whole
life.
I have no words to express my ardent wishes for the welfare of a nation
where I met with so many proofs of friendship. Wherever I appeared I was
welcomed with that love and enthusiasm which only await the fathers of
their country. The valour of my cousin Trenck, who died ingloriously in
the Spielberg, the loss of my great Hungarian estates, the fame of my
writings, and the cruelty of my sufferings, had gone before me. The
officers of the army, the nobles of the land, alike testified the warmth
of their esteem.
Such is the reward of the upright; such too are the proofs that this
nation knows the just value of fortitude and virtue. Have I not reason
to publish my gratitude, and to recommend my children to those who, when
I am no more, shall dare uprightly to determine concerning the rights
which have unjustly been snatched from me in Hungary?
Not a man in Hungary but will proclaim I have been unjustly dealt by; yet
I have good reason to suspect I never shall find redress. Sentence had
been already given; judges, more honest, cannot, without difficulty,
reverse old decrees; and the present possessors of my estates are too
powerful, too intimate with the governors of the earth, for me to hope I
shall hereafter be more happy. God knows my heart; I wish the present
possessors may render services to the state equal to those rendered by
the family of the Trencks.
There is little probability I shall ever behold my noble friends in
Hungary more. Here I bid them adieu, promising them to pass the
remainder of any life so as still to merit the approbation of a people
with whose ashes I would most willingly have mingled my own. May the God
of heaven preserve every Hungarian from a fate similar to mine!
The Croats have ever been reckoned uncultivated; yet, among this
uncultivated people I found more subscribers to my writings than among
all the learned men of Vienna; and in Hungary, more than in all the
Austrian dominions.
The Hungarians, the unlettered Croats, seek information. The people of
Vienna ask their confessors' permission to read instructive books.
Various subscribers, having read the first volume of my work, brought it
back, and re-demanded their money, because some monk had told them it was
a book dangerous to be read. The judges of their courts have re-sold
them to the booksellers for a few pence or given them to those who had
the care of their consciences to burn.
In Vienna alone was my life described as a romance; in Hungary I found
the compassion of men, their friendship, and effectual aid. Had my book
been the production of an Englishman, good wishes would not have been his
only reward.
We German writers have interested critics to encounter if we would unmask
injustice; and if a book finds a rapid sale, dishonest printers issue
spurious editions, defrauding the author of his labours.
The encouragement of the learned produces able teachers, and from their
seminaries men of genius occasionally come forth. The world is inundated
with books and pamphlets; the undiscerning reader knows not which to
select; the more intelligent are disgusted, or do not read at all, and
thus a work of merit becomes as little profitable to the author as to the
state.
I left Vienna on the 5th of January, and came to Prague. Here I found
nearly the same reception as in Hungary; my writings were read. Citizens,
noblemen, and ladies treated me with like favour. May the monarch know
how to value men of generous feelings and enlarged understandings!
I bade adieu to Prague, and continued my journey to Berlin. In Bohemia,
I took leave of my son, who saw his father and his two brothers, destined
for the Prussian service, depart. He felt the weight of this separation;
I reminded him of his duty to the state he served; I spoke of the fearful
fate of his uncle and father in Austria, and of the possessors of our
vast estates in Hungary. He shrank back--a look from his father pierced
him to the soul--tears stood in his eyes--his youthful blood flowed
quick, and the following expression burst suddenly from his lips:--"I
call God to witness that I will prove myself worthy of my father's name;
and that, while I live, his enemies shall be mine!"
At Peterswald, on the road to Dresden, my carriage broke down: my life
was endangered; and my son received a contusion in the arm. The
erysipelas broke out on him at Berlin, and I could not present him to the
King for a month after.
I had been but a short time at Berlin before the well-known minister,
Count Hertzberg, received me with kindness. Every man to whom his
private worth is known will congratulate the state that has the wisdom to
bestow on him so high an office. His scholastic and practical learning,
his knowledge of languages, his acquaintance with sciences, are indeed
wonderful. His zeal for his country is ardent, his love of his king
unprejudiced, his industry admirable, his firmness that of a man. He is
the most experienced man in the Prussian states. The enemies of his
country may rely on his word. The artful he can encounter with art;
those who menace, with fortitude; and with wise foresight can avert the
rising storm. He seeks not splendour in sumptuous and ostentatious
retinue; but if he can only enrich the state, and behold the poor happy,
he is himself willing to remain poor. His estate, Briess, near Berlin,
is no Chanteloup, but a model to those patriots who would study economy.
Here he, every Wednesday, enjoys recreation. The services he renders the
kingdom cost it only five thousand rix-dollars yearly; he, therefore,
lives without ostentation, yet becoming his state, and with splendour
when splendour is necessary. He does not plunder the public treasury
that he may preserve his own private property.
This man will live in the annals of Prussia: who was employed under the
Great Frederic; had so much influence in the cabinets of Europe; and was
a witness of the last actions, the last sensations, of his dying king;
yet who never asked, nor ever received, the least gratuity. This is the
minister whose conversation I had the happiness to partake at
Aix-la-Chapelle and Spa, whose welfare is the wish of my heart, and whose
memory I shall ever revere.
I was received with distinction at his table, and became acquainted with
those whose science had benefited the Prussian states; nor was anything
more flattering to my self-love than that men like these should think me
worthy their friendship.
Not many days after I was presented to the court by the Prussian
chamberlain, Prince Sacken, as it is not customary at Berlin for a
foreign subject to be presented by the minister of his own court. Though
a Prussian subject, I wore the Imperial uniform.
The King received me with condescension; all eyes were directed towards
me, each welcomed me to my country. This moved me the more as it was
remarked by the foreign ministers, who asked who that Austrian officer
could be who was received with so much affection and such evident joy in
Berlin. The gracious monarch himself gave tokens of pleasure at
beholding me thus surrounded. Among the rest came the worthy General
Prittwitz, who said aloud--
"This is the gentleman who might have ruined me to effect his own
deliverance."
Confused at so public a declaration, I desired him to expound this
riddle; and he added--
"I was obliged to be one of your guards on your unfortunate journey from
Dantzic to Magdeburg, in 1754, when I was a lieutenant. On the road I
continued alone with you in an open carriage. This gave you an
opportunity to escape, but you forbore. I afterwards saw the danger to
which I had exposed myself. Had you been less noble-minded, had such a
prisoner escaped through my negligence, I had certainly been ruined. The
King believed you alike dangerous and deserving of punishment. I here
acknowledge you as my saviour, and am in gratitude your friend." I knew
not that the generous man, who wished me so well, was the present General
Prittwitz. That he should himself remind me of this incident does him
the greater honour.
Having been introduced at court, I thought it necessary to observe
ceremonies, and was presented by the Imperial ambassador, Prince Reuss,
to all foreign ministers, and such families as are in the habit of
admitting such visits. I was received by the Prince Royal, the reigning
Queen, the Queen-Dowager, and the royal family in their various places,
with favour never to be forgotten. His Royal Highness Prince Henry
invited me to a private audience, continued long in conversation with me,
promised me his future protection, admitted me to his private concerts,
and sometimes made me sup at court.
A like reception I experienced in the palace of Prince Ferdinand of
Brunswick, where I frequently dined and supped. His princess took
delight in hearing my narratives, and loaded me with favour.
Prince Ferdinand's mode of educating children is exemplary. The sons are
instructed in the soldier's duties, their bodies are inured to the
inclemencies of weather; they are taught to ride, to swim, and are
steeled to all the fatigue of war. Their hearts are formed for
friendship, which they cannot fail to attain. Happy the nation in
defence of which they are to act!
How ridiculous these their _Royal Highnesses_ appear who, though born to
rule, are not deserving to be the lackeys to the least of those whom they
treat with contempt; and yet who swell, strut, stride, and contemplate
themselves as creatures essentially different by nature, and of a
superior rank in the scale of beings, though, in reality, their minds are
of the lowest, the meanest class.
Happy the state whose prince is impressed with a sense that the people
are not his property, but he the property of the people! A prince
beloved by his people will ever render a nation more happy those he whose
only wish is to inspire fear.
The pleasure I received at Berlin was great indeed. When I went to
court, the citizens crowded to see me, and when anyone among them said,
"That is Trenck," the rest would cry, "Welcome once more to your
country," while many would reach me their hands, with the tears standing
in their eyes. Frequent were the scenes I experienced of this kind. No
malefactor would have been so received. It was the reward of innocence;
this reward was bestowed throughout the Prussian territories.
Oh world, ill-judging world, deceived by show! Dost thou not blindly
follow the opinion of the prince, be he severe, arbitrary, or just? Thy
censure and thy praise equally originate in common report. In Magdeburg
I lay, chained to the wall, ten years, sighing in wretchedness, every
calamity of hunger, cold, nakedness, and contempt. And wherefore?
Because the King, deceived by slanderers, pronounced me worthy of
punishment. Because a wise King mistook me, and treated me with
barbarity. Because a prudent King knew he had done wrong, yet would not
have it so supposed. So was his heart turned to stone; nay, opposed by
manly fortitude, was enraged to cruelty. Most men were convinced I was
an innocent sufferer; "Yet did they all cry out the more, saying, let him
be crucified!" My relations were ashamed to hear my name. My sister was
barbarously treated because she assisted me in my misfortunes. No man
durst avow himself my friend, durst own I merited compassion; or, much
less, that the infallible King had erred. I was the most despised,
forlorn man on earth; and when thus put on the rack, had I there expired,
my epitaph would have been, "Here lies the traitor, Trenck."
Frederic is dead, and the scene is changed; another monarch has ascended
the throne, and the grub has changed to a beautiful butterfly! The
witnesses to all I have asserted are still living, loudly now proclaim
the truth, and embrace me with heart-felt affection.
Does the worth of a man depend upon his actions? his reward or punishment
upon his virtue? In arbitrary states, certainly not. They depend on the
breath of a king! Frederic was the most penetrating prince of his age,
but the most obstinate also. A vice dreadful to those whom he selected
as victims, who must be sacrificed to the promoting of his arbitrary
views.
How many perished, the sin offerings of Frederic's obstinate self-will,
whose orphan children now cry to God for vengeance! The dead, alas!
cannot plead. Trial began and ended with execution. The few words--IT
IS THE KING'S COMMAND--were words of horror to the poor condemned wretch
denied to plead his innocence! Yet what is the Ukase (Imperial order) in
Russia, _Tel est notre bon plaisir_ (Such is our pleasure) in France, or
the Allergnadigste Hofresolution (The all-gracious sentence of the
court), pronounced with the sweet tone of a Vienna matron? In what do
these differ from the arbitrary order of a military despot?
Every prayer of man should be consecrated to man's general good; for him
to obtain freedom and universal justice! Together should we cry with one
voice, and, if unable to shackle arbitrary power, still should we
endeavour to show how dangerous it is! The priests of liberty should
offer up their thanks to the monarch who declares "the word of power" a
nullity, and "the sentence" of justice omnipotent.
Who can name the court in Europe where Louis, Peter, or Frederic, each
and all surnamed The Great, have not been, and are not, imitated as
models of perfection? Lettres-de-cachet, the knout, and cabinet-orders,
superseding all right, are become law!
No reasoning, says the corporal to the poor grenadier, whom he canes!--No
reasoning! exclaim judges; the court has decided.--No reasoning, rash and
pertinacious Trenck, will the prudent reader echo. Throw thy pen in the
fire, and expose not thyself to become the martyr of a state inquisition.
My fate is, and must remain, critical and undecided. I have
six-and-thirty years been in the service of Austria, unrewarded, and
beholding the repeated and generous efforts I made effectually to serve
that state, unnoticed. The Emperor Joseph supposes me old, that the
fruit is wasted, and that the husk only remains. It is also supposed I
should not be satisfied with a little. To continue to oppress him who
has once been oppressed, and who possess qualities that may make
injustice manifest, is the policy of states. My journey to Berlin has
given the slanderer further opportunity of painting me as a suspicious
character: I smile at the ineffectual attempt.
I appeared in the Imperial uniform and belied such insinuations. To this
purpose it was written to court, in November, when I went into Hungary,
"The motions of Trenck ought to be observed in Hungary." Ye poor
malicious blood-suckers of the virtuous! Ye shall not be able to hurt a
hair of my head. Ye cannot injure the man who has sixty years lived in
honour. I will not, in my old age, bring upon myself the reproach of
inconstancy, treachery, or desire of revenge. I will betray no political
secrets: I wish not to injure those by whom I have been injured.--Such
acts I will never commit. I never yet descended to the office of spy,
nor will I die a rewarded villain.
Yes, I appeared in Berlin among the upright and the just. Instead of
being its supposed enemy, I was declared an honour to my country. I
appeared in the Imperial uniform and fulfilled the duties of my station:
and now must the Prussian Trenck return to Austria, there to perform a
father's duty.
Yet more of what happened in Berlin.
Some days after I had been presented to the King, I entreated a private
audience, and on the 12th of February received the following letter:--
"In answer to your letter of the 8th of this month, I inform you that,
if you will come to me to-morrow, at five o'clock in the afternoon, I
shall have the pleasure to speak with you; meantime, I pray God to
take you into his holy keeping.
"FREDERIC WILLIAM.
"Berlin, Feb. 12, 1787."
"P.S.--After signing the above, I find it more convenient to appoint
to-morrow, at nine in the morning, about which time you will come into
the apartment named the Marmor Kammer (marble chamber)."
The anxiety with which I expected this wished-for interview may well be
conceived. I found the Prussian Titus alone, and he continued in
conversation with me more than an hour.
How kind was the monarch! How great! How nobly did he console me for
the past! How entirely did his assurance of favour overpower my whole
soul! He had read the history of my life. When prince of Prussia, he
had been an eyewitness, in Magdeburg, of my martyrdom, and my attempts to
escape. His Majesty parted from me with tokens of esteem and
condescension.--My eyes bade adieu, but my heart remained in the marble
chamber, in company with a prince capable of sensations so dignified; and
my wishes for his welfare are eternal.
I have since travelled through the greater part of the Prussian states.
Where is the country in which the people are all satisfied? Many
complained of hard times, or industry unrewarded. My answer was:--
"Friends, kneel with the rising sun, and thank the God of heaven that you
are Prussians. I have seen and known much of this world, and I assure
you, you are among the happiest people of Europe. Causes of complaint
everywhere exist; but you have a king, neither obstinate, ambitious,
covetous, nor cruel: his will is that his people should have cause of
content, and should he err by chance, his heart is not to blame if the
subject suffers."
Prussia is neither wanting in able nor learned men. The warmth of
patriots glows in their veins. Everything remains with equal stability,
as under the reign of Frederic; and should the thunder burst, the ready
conductors will render the shock ineffectual.
Hertzberg still labours in the cabinet, still thinks, writes, and acts as
he has done for years. The king is desirous that justice shall be done
to his subjects, and will punish, perhaps, with more severity, whenever
he finds himself deceived, than from the goodness of his disposition,
might be supposed. The treasury is full, the army continues the same,
and there is little reason to doubt but that industry, population, and
wealth will increase. None but the vile and the wicked would leave the
kingdom; while the oppressed and best subjects of other states would fly
from their native country, certain of finding encouragement and security
in Prussia.
The personal qualities of Fredric William merit description. He is tall
and handsome, his mien is majestic, and his accomplishments of mind and
body would procure him the love of men, were he not a king. He is
affable without deceit, friendly and kind in conversation, and stately
when stateliness is necessary. He is bountiful, but not profuse; he
knows that without economy the Prussian must sink. He is not tormented
by the spirit of conquest, he wishes harm to no nation, yet he will
certainly not suffer other nations to make encroachments, nor will he be
terrified by menaces.
The wise Frederic, when living, though himself learned, and a lover of
the sciences, never encouraged them in his kingdom. Germany, under his
reign, might have forgotten her language: he preferred the literature of
France. Konigsberg, once the seminary of the North, contains, at
present, few professors, or students; the former are fallen into
disrepute, and are ill paid; the latter repair to Leipsic and Gottingen.
We have every reason to suppose the present monarch, though no studious
man himself, will encourage the academies of the literati, that men
learned in jurisprudence and the sciences may not be wanting: which want
is the more to be apprehended as the nobility must, without exception,
serve in the army, so that learning has but few adherents, and these are
deprived of the means of improvement.
Frederic William is also too much the friend of men to suffer them to
pine in prisons. He abhors the barbarity with which the soldiers are
beaten: his officers will not be fettered hand and foot; slavish
subordination will be banished, and the noble in heart will be the noble
of the land. May he, in his people, find perfect content! May his
people be ever worthy of such a prince! Long may he reign, and may his
ministers be ever enlightened and honourable men!
He sent for me a second time, conversed much with me, and confirmed those
ideas which my first interview had inspired.
On the 11th of March I presented my son at another audience, whom I
intended for the Prussian service. The King bestowed a commission on him
in the Posadowsky dragoons, at my request.
I saw him at the review at Velau, and his superior officers formed great
expectations from his zeal. Time will discover whether he who is in the
Austrian, or this in the Prussian service, will first obtain the rewards
due to their father. Should they both remain unnoticed, I will bestow
him on the Grand Turk, rather than on European courts, whence equity to
me and mine is banished.
To Austria I owe no thanks; all that could be taken from me was taken. I
was a captain before I entered those territories, and, after
six-and-thirty years' service, I find myself in the rank of invalid
major. The proof of all I have asserted, and of how little I am indebted
to this state is most incontestable, since the history of my life is
allowed by the royal censor to be publicly sold in Vienna.
It is remarkable that one only of all the eight officers, with whom I
served, in the body guard, in 1745, is dead. Lieutenant-colonel Count
Blumenthal lives in Berlin; Pannewitz is commander of the Knights of
Malta: both gave me a friendly reception. Wagnitz is lieutenant-general
in the service of Hesse-Cassel; he was my tent comrade, and was
acquainted with all that happened. Kalkreuter and Grethusen live on
their estates, and Jaschinsky is now alive at Konigsberg, but
superannuated, and tortured by sickness, and remorse. He, instead of
punishment, has forty years enjoyed a pension of a thousand rix-dollars.
I have seen my lands confiscated, of the income of which I have been
forty-two years deprived, and never yet received retribution.
Time must decide; the king is generous, and I have too much pride to
become a beggar. The name of Trenck shall be found in the history of the
acts of Frederic. A tyrant himself, he was the slave of his passions;
and even did not think an inquiry into my innocence worth the trouble. To
be ashamed of doing right, because he has done wrong, or to persist in
error, that fools, and fools only, can think him infallible, is a
dreadful principle in a ruler.
Since I have been at Berlin, and was received there with so many
testimonies of friendship, the newspapers of Germany have published
various articles concerning me, intending to contribute to my honour or
ease. They said my eldest daughter is appointed the governess of the
young Princess. This has been the joke of some witty correspondent; for
my eldest daughter is but fifteen, and stands in need of a governess
herself. Perhaps they may suppose me mean enough to circulate falsehood.
I daily receive letters from all parts of Germany, wherein the sensations
of the feeling heart are evident. Among these letters was one which I
received from Bahrdt, Professor at Halle, dated April 10, 1787 wherein he
says, "Receive, noble German, the thanks of one who, like you, has
encountered difficulties; yet, far inferior to those you have
encountered. You, with gigantic strength, have met a host of foes, and
conquered. The pests of men attacked me also. From town to town, from
land to land, I was pursued by priestcraft and persecution; yet I
acquired fame. I fled for refuge and repose to the states of Frederic,
but found them not. I have eight years laboured under affliction with
perseverance, but have found no reward. By industry have I made myself
what I am; by ministerial favour, never. Worn out and weak, the history
of your life, worthy sir, fell into my hands, and poured balsam into my
wounds. There I saw sufferings immeasurably greater; there, indeed,
beheld fortitude most worthy of admiration. Compared to you, of what
could I complain? Receive, noble German, my warmest thanks; while I live
they shall flow. And should you find a fortunate moment, in the presence
of your King, speak of me as one consigned to poverty; as one whose
talents are buried in oblivion. Say to him--'Mighty King! stretch forth
thy hand, and dry up his tears.' I know the nobleness of your mind, and
doubt not your good wishes."
To the Professor's letter I returned the following answer:--
"I was affected, sir, by your letter. I never yet was unmoved, when
the pen was obedient to the dictates of the heart. I feel for your
situation; and if my example can teach wisdom even to the wise, I have
cause to triumph. This is the sweetest of rewards. At Berlin I have
received much honour, but little more. Men are deaf to him who
confides only in his right. What have I gained? Shadowy fame for
myself, and the vapour of hope for my heirs!
"Truth and Trenck, my good friend, flourish not in courts. You
complain of priestcraft. He who would disturb their covetousness, he
who speaks against the false opinions they scatter, considers not
priests, and their aim, which is to dazzle the stupid and stupefy the
wise. Deprecate their wrath! avoid their poisoned shafts, or they
will infect tiny peace: will blast thy honour. And wherefore should
we incur this danger. To cure ignorance of error is impossible. Let
us then silently steal to our graves, and thus small we escape the
breath of envy. He who should enjoy all even thought could grasp,
should yet have but little. Having acquired this knowledge, the
passions of the soul are lulled to apathy. I behold error, and I
laugh; do thou, my friend, laugh also. If that can comfort us, men
will do our memory justice--when we are dead! Fame plants her laurels
over the grave, and there they flourish best.
"BARON TRENCK
"_Schangulach_, _near Konigsberg_,
_April_ 30_th_, 1787."
"P.S--I have spoken, worthy Professor, the feelings of my heart, in
answer to your kind panegyric. You will but do me justice, when you
believe I think and act as I write with respect to my influence at
court, it is as insignificant at Berlin as at Vienna or at
Constantinople"
Among the various letters I have received, as it may answer a good
purpose, I hope the reader will not think the insertion of the following
improper.
In a letter from an unknown correspondent, who desired me to speak for
this person at Berlin, eight others were enclosed. They came from the
above person in distress, to this correspondent: and I was requested to
let them appear in the Berlin Journal. I selected two of them, and here
present them to the world, as it can do me injury, while they describe an
unhappy victim of an extraordinary kind: and may perhaps obtain him some
relief.
Should this hope be verified, I am acquainted with him who wishes to
remain concealed, can introduce him to the knowledge of such as might
wish to interfere in his behalf. Should they not, the reader will still
find them well-written and affecting letters; such as may inspire
compassion. The following is the first of those I selected.
LETTER I
"_Neuland_, _Feb_ 12_th_, 1787.
"I thought I had so satisfactorily answered you by my last, that you
would have left me in peaceful possession of my sorrows! but your
remarks, entreaties, and remonstrances, succeed each other with such
rapidity, that I am induced to renew the contest. Cowardice, I
believe, you are convinced, is not a native in my heart, and should I
now yield, you might suppose that age and the miseries I have
suffered, had weakened my powers of mind as well as body; and that I
ought to have been classed among the unhappy multitudes whose
sufferings have sunk them to despondency.
"Baron Trenck, that man of many woes, once so despised, but who now is
held in admiration, where he was before so much the object of hatred;
who now speaks so loudly in his own defence, where, formerly, the man
who had but whispered his name would have lived suspected; Baron
Trenck you propose as an example of salvation for me. You are wrong.
Have you considered how dissimilar our past lives have been; how
different, too, are our circumstances? Or, omitting these, have you
considered to whom you would have me appeal?
"In 1767, I became acquainted, in Vienna, with this sufferer of
fortitude, this agreeable companion. We are taught that a noble
aspect bespeaks a corresponding mind; this I believe him to possess.
But what expectations can I form from Baron Trenck?
"I will briefly answer the questions you have put. Baron Trenck was a
man born to inherit great estates; this and the fire of his youth,
fanned by flattering hopes from his famous kinsman, rendered him too
haughty to his King; and this alone was the origin of all his future
sufferings. I, on the contrary, though the son of a Silesian nobleman
of property, did not inherit so much as the pay of a common soldier;
the family having been robbed by the hand of power, after being
accused by wickedness under the mask of virtue. You know my father's
fate, the esteem in which he was held by the Empress Theresa; and that
a pretended miracle was the occasion of his fall. Suddenly was he
plunged from the height to which industry, talents, and virtue had
raised him, to the depth of poverty. At length, at the beginning of
the seven years' war, one of the King of Prussia's subjects
represented him to the Austrian court as a dangerous correspondent of
Marshal Schwerin's. Then at sixty years of age, my father was seized
at Jagerndorf, and imprisoned in the fortress of Gratz, in Styria. He
had an allowance just sufficient to keep him alive in his dungeon;
but, for the space of seven years, never beheld the sun rise or set. I
was a boy when this happened, however, I was not heard. I only
received some pecuniary relief from the Empress, with permission to
shed my blood in her defence. In this situation we first vowed
eternal friendship; but from this I soon was snatched by my father's
enemies. What the Empress had bestowed, her ministers tore from me. I
was seized at midnight, and was brought, in company with two other
officers, to the fortress of Gratz. Here I remained immured six
years. My true name was concealed, and another given me.
"Peace being restored, Trenck, I, and my father were released; but the
mode of our release was very different. The first obtained his
freedom at the intercession of Theresa, she, too, afforded him a
provision. We, on the contrary, according to the amnesty, stipulated
in the treaty of peace, were led from our dungeons as state prisoners,
without inquiry concerning the verity or falsehood of our crimes.
Extreme poverty, wretchedness, and misery, were our reward for the
sufferings we had endured.
"Not only was my health destroyed, but my jawbone was lost, eaten away
by the scurvy. I laid before Frederic the Great the proofs of the
calamities I had undergone, and the dismal state to which I was
reduced, by his foe, and for his sake; entreated bread to preserve me
and my father from starving, but his ear was deaf to my prayer, his
heart insensible to my sighs.
"Providence, however, raised me up a saviour,--Count Gellhorn was the
man. After the taking of Breslau, he had been also sent a state
prisoner to Gratz. During his imprisonment, he had heard the report
of my sufferings and my innocence. No sooner did he learn I was
released, than he became my benefactor, my friend, and restored me to
the converse of men, to which I had so long been dead.
"I defer the continuance of my narrative to the next post. The
remembrance of past woes inflict new ones. I am eternally."
LETTER II.
"_February_ 24, 1787.
"Dear Friend,--After an interval of silence, remembering my promise, I
again continue my story.
"My personal sufferings have not been less than those of Trenck. His,
I am acquainted with only from the inaccurate relations I have heard:
my own I have felt. A colonel in the Prussian service, whose name was
Hallasch, was four years my companion; he was insane, and believed
himself the Christ that was to appear at the millennium: he persecuted
me with his reveries, which I was obliged to listen to, and approve,
or suffer violence from one stronger than myself.
"The society of men or books, everything that could console or amuse,
were forbidden me; and I considered it as wonderful that I did not
myself grow mad, in the company of this madman. Four hard winters I
existed without feeling the feeble emanation of a winter sun, much
less the warmth of fire. The madman felt more pity than my keeper,
and lent me his cloak to cover my body, though the other denied me a
truss of straw, notwithstanding I had lost the use of my hands and
feet. The place where we were confined was called a chamber; it
rather resembled the temple of Cloacina. The noxious damps and
vapours so poisoned my blood that an unskilful surgeon, who tortured
me during nine months, with insult as a Prussian traitor, and state
criminal, I lost the greatest part of my jaw.
"Schottendorf was our governor and tyrant; a man who repaid the
friendship he found in the mansion of my fathers--with cruelty. He
was ripe for the sickle, and Time cut him off. Tormentini and Galer
were his successors in office, by them we were carefully watched, but
we were treated with commiseration. Their precautions rendered
imprisonment less wretched. Ever shall I hold their memory sacred.
Yet, benevolent as they were, their goodness was exceeded by that of
Rottensteiner, the head gaoler. He considered his prisoners as his
children; and he was their benefactor. Of this I had experience,
during two years after the release of Hallasch.
"Here I but cursorily describe misery, at which the monarch shall
shudder, if the blood of a tyrant flow not in his veins. Theresa
could not wish these things. But she was fallible, and not
omniscient.
"From the above narrative, you will perceive how opposite the effects
must be which the histories of Baron Trenck and of myself must
produce.
"Trenck left his dungeon shielded from contempt; the day of freedom
was the day of triumph. I, on the contrary, was exposed to every
calamity. The spirit of Trenck again raised itself. I have laboured
many a night that I might neither beg nor perish the following day:
working for judges who neither knew law nor had powers of mind to
behold the beauty of justice: settling accounts that, item after item,
did not prove that the lord they were intended for, was an imbecile
dupe.
"Trenck remembers his calamities, but the remembrance is advantageous
to himself and his family; while with me, the past did but increase,
did but agonise, the present and the future. He was not like me,
obliged to crouch in presence of those vulgar, those incapable minds,
that do but consider the bent back as the footstool of pride. Every
man is too busy to act in behalf of others; pity me therefore, but
advise me not to hope assistance, by petitioning princes at second
hand. I know your good wishes, and, for these, I have nothing to
return but barren thanks.--I am, &c."
The reasons why I published the foregoing letters are already stated, and
will appear satisfactory to the reader. Once more to affairs that
concern myself.
I met at Berlin many old friends of both sexes; among others, an aged
invalid came to see me, who was at Glatz, in 1746, when I cut my way
through the guard. He was one of the sentinels before my door, whom I
had thrown down the stairs.
The hour of quitting Berlin, and continuing my journey into Prussia,
towards Konigsberg, approached. On the eve of my departure, I had the
happiness of conversing with her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia,
sister of Frederic the Great. She protected me in my hour of adversity;
heaped benefits upon me, and contributed to gain my deliverance. She
received me as a friend, as an aged patriot; and laid her commands upon
me to write to my wife, and request that she would come to Berlin, in the
month of June, with her two eldest daughters. I received her promise
that the happiness of the latter should be her care; nay, that she would
remember my wife in her will.
At this moment, when about to depart, she asked me if I had money
sufficient for my journey: "Yes, madam," was my reply; "I want nothing,
ask nothing; but may you remember my children!"
The deep feeling with which I pronounced these words moved the princess;
she showed me how she comprehended my meaning, and said, "Return, my
friend, quickly: I shall be most happy to see you."
I left the room: a kind of indecision came over me. I was inclined to
remain longer at Berlin. Had I done so, my presence would have been of
great advantage to my children. Alas! under the guidance of my evil
genius, I began my journey. The purpose for which I came to Berlin was
frustrated: for after my departure, the Princess Amelia died!
Peace be to thy ashes, noble princess! Thy will was good, and be that
sufficient. I shall not want materials to write a commentary on the
history of Frederic, when, in company with thee, I shall wander on the
banks of Styx; there the events that happened on this earth may be
written without danger.
So proceed we with our story.