A few days after the battle of Sorau, the usual camp postman brought me a
letter from my cousin Trenck, the colonel of pandours, antedated at Effek
four months, of which the following is a copy:--
"Your letter, of the 12th of February, from Berlin, informs me you desire
to have some Hungarian horses. On these you would come and attack me and
my pandours. I saw with pleasure, during the last campaign, that the
Prussian Trenck was a good soldier; and that I might give you some proofs
of my attachment, I then returned the horses which my men had taken. If,
however, you wish to have Hungarian horses, you must take mine in like
manner from me in the field of battle: or, should you so think fit, come
and join one who will receive you with open arms, like his friend and
son, and who will procure you every advantage you can desire," &c.
At first I was terrified at reading this letter, yet could not help
smiling. Cornet Wagenitz, now general in chief of the Hesse Cassel
forces, and Lieutenant Grotthausen, both now alive, and then present,
were my camp comrades. I gave them the letter to read, and they laughed
at its contents. It was determined to show it to our superior officer,
Jaschinsky, on a promise of secrecy, and it was accordingly shown him
within an hour after it was received.
The reader will be so kind as to recollect that, as I have before said,
it was this Colonel Jaschinsky who on the 12th of February, the same
year, at Berlin, prevailed on me to write to the Austrian Trenck, my
cousin; that he received the letter open, and undertook to send it
according to its address; also that, in this letter, I in jest had asked
him to send me some Hungarian horses, and, should they come, had promised
one to Jaschinsky. He read the letter with an air of some surprise; we
laughed, and, it being whispered through the army that, in consequence of
our late victory, detached corps would be sent into Hungary, Jaschinsky
said, "We shall now go and take Hungarian horses for ourselves." Here
the conversation ended, and I, little suspecting future consequences,
returned to my tent.
I must here remark the following observations:--
1st. I had not observed the date of the letter brought by the postman,
which, as I have said, was antedated four months: this, however, the
colonel did not fail to remark.
2ndly. The probability is that this was a net, spread for me by this
false and wicked man. The return of my horses, during the preceding
campaign, had been the subject of much conversation. It is possible he
had the King's orders to watch me; but more probably he only prevailed on
me to write that he might entrap me by a fictitious answer. Certain it
is, my cousin Trenck, at Vienna, affirmed to his death he never received
any letter from me, consequently never could send any answer. I must
therefore conclude this letter was forged.
Jaschinsky was at this time one of the King's favourites; his spy over
the army; a tale-bearer; an inventor of wicked lies and calumnies. Some
years after the event of which I am now speaking, the King was obliged to
break and banish him the country.
He was then also the paramour of the beauteous Madame Brossart, wife of
the Saxon resident at Berlin, and there can be little doubt but that this
false letter was, by her means, conveyed to some Saxon or Austrian post-
office, and thence, according to its address, sent to me. He had daily
opportunities of infusing suspicions into the King's mind concerning me;
and, unknown to me, of pursuing his diabolical plan.
I must likewise add he was four hundred ducats indebted to me. At that
time I had always a plentiful supply of money. This booty became his own
when I, unexamined, was arrested, and thrown into prison. In like manner
he seized on the greatest part of my camp equipage.
Further, we had quarrelled during our first campaign, because he had
beaten one of my servants; we even were proceeding to fight with pistols,
had not Colonel Winterfield interfered, and amicably ended our quarrel.
The Lithuanian is, by nature, obstinate and revengeful; and, from that
day, I have reason to believe he sought my destruction.
God only knows what were the means he took to excite the King's
suspicious; for it is incredible that Frederic, considering his _well-
known professions_ of public justice, should treat me in the manner he
did, without a hearing, without examination, and without a court-martial.
This to me has ever remained a mystery, which the King alone was able to
explain; he afterwards was convinced I was innocent: but my sufferings
had been too cruel, and the miseries he had inflicted too horrible, for
me ever to hope for compensation.
In an affair of this nature, which will soon he known to all Europe, as
it long has been in Prussia, the weakest is always guilty. I have been
made a terrible example to this our age, how true that maxim is in
despotic States.
A man of my rank, having once unjustly suffered, and not having the power
of making his sufferings known, must ever be highly rewarded or still
more unjustly punished. My name and injuries will ever stain the annals
of Frederic _the Great_; even those who read this book will perhaps
suppose that I, from political motives of hope or fear, have sometimes
concealed truth by endeavouring to palliate his conduct.
It must ever remain incomprehensible that a monarch so clear-sighted,
himself the daily witness of my demeanour, one well acquainted with
mankind, and conscious I wanted neither money, honour, nor hope of future
preferment; I say it is incomprehensible that he should really suppose me
guilty. I take God to witness, and all those who knew me in prosperity
and misfortune, I never harboured a thought of betraying my country. How
was it possible to suspect me? I was neither madman nor idiot. In my
eighteenth year I was a cornet of the body guard, adjutant to the King,
and possessed his favour and confidence in the highest degree. His
presents to me, in one year, amounted to fifteen hundred dollars. I kept
seven horses, four men in livery; I was valued, distinguished, and
beloved by the mistress of my soul. My relations held high offices, both
civil and military; I was even fanatically devoted to my King and
country, and had nothing to wish.
That I should become thus wretched, in consequence of this unfortunate
letter, is equally wonderful: it came by the public post. Had there been
any criminal correspondence, my kinsman certainly would not have chosen
this mode of conveyance; since, it is well known, all such letters are
opened; nor could I act more openly. My colonel read the letter I wrote;
and also that which I received, immediately after it was brought.
The day after the receipt of this letter I was, as I have before said,
unheard, unaccused, unjudged, conducted like a criminal from the army, by
fifty hussars, and imprisoned in the fortress of Glatz. I was allowed to
take three horses, and my servants, but my whole equipage was left
behind, which I never saw more, and which became the booty of Jaschinsky.
My commission was given to Cornet Schatzel, and I cashiered without
knowing why. There were no legal inquiries made: all was done by the
King's command.
Unhappy people! where power is superior to law, and where the innocent
and the virtuous meet punishment instead of reward. Unhappy land! where
the omnipotent "SUCH IS OUR WILL" supersedes all legal sentence, and robs
the subject of property, life, and honour.
I once more repeat I was brought to the citadel of Glatz; I was not,
however, thrown into a dungeon, but imprisoned in a chamber of the
officer of the guard; was allowed my servants to wait on me, and
permitted to walk on the ramparts.
I did not want money, and there was only a detachment from the garrison
regiment in the citadel of Glatz, the officers of which were all poor. I
soon had both friends and freedom, and the rich prisoner every day kept
open table.
He only who had known me in this the ardour of my youth, who had
witnessed how high I aspired, and the fortune that attended me at Berlin,
can imagine what my feelings were at finding myself thus suddenly cast
from my high hopes.
I wrote submissively to the King, requesting to be tried by a
court-martial, and not desiring any favour should I be found guilty. This
haughty tone, in a youth, was displeasing, and I received no answer,
which threw me into despair, and induced me to use every possible means
to obtain my liberty.
My first care was to establish, by the intervention of an officer, a
certain correspondence with the object of my heart. She answered, she
was far from supposing I had ever entertained the least thought
treacherous to my country; that she knew, too well, I was perfectly
incapable, of dissimulation. She blamed the precipitate anger and unjust
suspicions of the King; promised me speedy aid, and sent me a thousand
ducats.
Had I, at this critical moment, possessed a prudent and intelligent
friend, who could have calmed my impatience, nothing perhaps might have
been more easy than to have obtained pardon from the King, by proving my
innocence; or, it may be, than to have induced him to punish my enemies.
But the officers who then were at Glatz fed the flame of discontent. They
supposed the money I so freely distributed came all from Hungary,
furnished by the pandour chest; and advised me not to suffer my freedom
to depend upon the will of the King, but to enjoy it in his despite.
It was not more easy to give this advice than to persuade a man to take
it, who, till then, had never encountered anything but good fortune, and
who consequently supported the reverse with impatience. I was not yet,
however, determined; because I could not yet resolve to abandon my
country, and especially Berlin.
Five months soon passed away in prison: peace was concluded; the King was
returned to his capital; my commission in the guards was bestowed on
another, when Lieutenant Piaschky, of the regiment of Fouquet, and Ensign
Reitz, who often mounted guard over me, proposed that they and I should
escape together. I yielded; our plan was fixed, and every preparatory
step taken.
At that time there was another prisoner at Glatz, whose name was Manget,
by birth a Swiss, and captain of cavalry in the Natzmerschen hussars; he
had been broken, and condemned by a court-martial to ten years'
imprisonment, with an allowance of only four rix-dollars per month.
Having done this man kindness, I was resolved to rescue him from bondage,
at the same time that I obtained freedom for myself. I communicated my
design, and made the proposal, which was accepted by him, and measures
were taken; yet were we betrayed by this vile man, who thus purchased
pardon and liberty.
Piaschky, who had been informed that Reitz was arrested, saved himself by
deserting. I denied the fact in presence of Manget, with whom I was
confronted, and bribed the Auditor with a hundred ducats. By this means
Reitz only suffered a year's imprisonment, and the loss of his
commission. I was afterwards closely confined in a chamber, for having
endeavoured to corrupt the King's officers, and was guarded with greater
caution.
Here I will interrupt my narrative, for a moment, to relate an adventure
which happened between me and this Captain Manget, three years after he
had thus betrayed me--that is to say, in 1749, at Warsaw.
I there met him by chance, and it is not difficult to imagine what was
the salutation he received. I caned him; he took this ill, and
challenged me to fight with pistols. Captain Heucking, of the Polish
guards, was my second. We both fired together; I shot him through the
neck at the first shot, and he fell dead on the field.
He alone, of all my enemies, ever died by my own hand; and he well
merited his end, for his cowardly treachery towards the two brave fellows
of whom I have spoken; and still more so with respect to myself, who had
been his benefactor. I own, I have never reproached myself for this
duel, by which I sent a rascal out of the world.
I return to my tale. My destiny at Glatz was now become more untoward
and severe. The King's suspicions were increased, as likewise was his
anger, by this my late attempt to escape.
Left to myself, I considered my situation in the worst point of view, and
determined either on flight or death. The length and closeness of my
confinement became insupportable to my impatient temper.
I had always had the garrison on my side, nor was it possible to prevent
my making friends among them. They knew I had money, and, in a poor
garrison regiment, the officers of which are all dissatisfied, having
most of them been drafted from other corps, and sent thither as a
punishment, there was nothing that might not be undertaken.
My scheme was as follows:--My window looked towards the city, and was
ninety feet from the ground in the tower of the citadel, out of which I
could not get, without having found a place of refuge in the city.
This an officer undertook to procure me, and prevailed on an honest soap-
boiler to grant me a hiding place. I then notched my pen-knife, and
sawed through three iron bars; but this mode was too tedious, it being
necessary to file away eight bars from my window, before I could pass
through; another officer therefore procured me a file, which I was
obliged to use with caution, lest I should be overheard by the sentinels.
Having ended this labour, I cut my leather portmanteau into thongs, sewed
them end to end, added the sheets of my bed, and descended safely from
this astonishing height.
It rained, the night was dark, and all seemed fortunate, but I had to
wade through moats full of mud, before I could enter the city, a
circumstance I had never once considered. I sank up to the knees, and
after long struggling, and incredible efforts to extricate myself, I was
obliged to call the sentinel, and desire him to go and tell the governor,
Trenck was stuck fast in the moat.
My misfortune was the greater on this occasion, because that General
Fouquet was then governor of Glatz. He was one of the cruellest of men.
He had been wounded by my father in a duel; and the Austrian Trenck had
taken his baggage in 1744, and had also laid the country of Glatz under
contribution. He was, therefore, an enemy to the very name of Trenck;
nor did he lose any opportunity of giving proofs of his enmity, and
especially on the present occasion, when he left me standing in the mire
till noon, the sport of the soldiers. I was then drawn out, half dead,
only again to be imprisoned, and shut up the whole day, without water to
wash me. No one can imagine how I looked, exhausted and dirty, my long
hair having fallen into the mud, with which, by my struggling, it was
loaded.
I remained in this condition till the next day, when two fellow-prisoners
were sent to assist and clean me.
My imprisonment now became more intolerable. I had still eighty louis-
d'ors in my purse, which had not been taken from me at my removal into
another dungeon, and these afterwards did me good service.
The passions soon all assailed me at once, and impetuous, boiling,
youthful blood overpowered reason; hope disappeared; I thought myself the
most unfortunate of men, and my King an irreconcileable judge, more
wrathful and more fortified in suspicion by my own rashness. My nights
were sleepless, my days miserable; my soul was tortured by the desire of
fame; a consciousness of innocence was a continued stimulus inciting me
to end my misfortunes. Youth, inexperienced in woe and disastrous fate,
beholds every evil magnified, and desponds on every new disappointment,
more especially after having failed in attempting freedom. Education had
taught me to despise death, and these opinions had been confirmed by my
friend La Mettrie, author of the famous work, "L'Homme Machine," or "Man
a Machine."
I read much during my confinement at Glatz, where books were allowed me;
time was therefore less tedious; but when the love of liberty awoke, when
fame and affection called me to Berlin, and my baulked hopes painted the
wretchedness of my situation; when I remembered that my loved country,
judging by appearances, could not but pronounce me a traitor; then was I
hourly impelled to rush on the naked bayonets of my guards, by whom, to
me, the road of freedom was barred.
Big with such-like thoughts, eight days had not elapsed since my last
fruitless attempt to escape, when an event happened which would appear
incredible, were I, the principal actor in the scene, not alive to attest
its truth, and might not all Glatz and the Prussian garrison be produced
as eye and ear witnesses. This incident will prove that adventurous, and
even rash, daring will render the most improbable undertakings possible,
and that desperate attempts may often make a general more fortunate and
famous than the wisest and best concerted plans.
Major Doo {2} came to visit me, accompanied by an officer of the guard,
and an adjutant. After examining every corner of my chamber, he
addressed me, taxing me with a second crime in endeavouring to obtain my
liberty; adding this must certainly increase the anger of the King.
My blood boiled at the word crime; he talked of patience; I asked him how
long the King had condemned me to imprisonment; he answered, a traitor to
his country, who has correspondence with the enemy, cannot be condemned
for a certain time, but must depend for grace and pardon on the King.
At that instant I snatched his sword from his side, on which my eyes had
some time been fixed, sprang out of the door, tumbled the sentinel from
the top to the bottom of the stairs, passed the men who happened to be
drawn up before the prison door to relieve the guard, attacked them sword
in hand, threw them suddenly into surprise by the manner in which I laid
about me, wounded four of them, made way through the rest, sprang over
the breastwork of the ramparts, and, with my sword drawn in my hand,
immediately leaped this astonishing height without receiving the least
injury. I leaped the second wall with equal safety and good fortune.
None of their pieces were loaded; no one durst leap after me, and in
order to pursue, they must go round through the town and gate of the
citadel; so that I had the start full half an hour.
A sentinel, however, in a narrow passage, endeavoured to oppose my
flight, but I parried his fixed bayonet, and wounded him in the face. A
second sentinel, meantime, ran from the outworks, to seize me behind, and
I, to avoid him, made a spring at the palisadoes; there I was unluckily
caught by the foot, and received a bayonet wound in the upper lip; thus
entangled, they beat me with the butt-end of their muskets, and dragged
me back to prison, while I struggled and defended myself like a man grown
desperate.
Certain it is, had I more carefully jumped the palisadoes, and despatched
the sentinel who opposed me, I might have escaped, and gained the
mountains. Thus might I have fled to Bohemia, after having, at noonday,
broken from the fortress of Glatz, sprung past all its sentinels, over
all its walls, and passed with impunity, in despite of the guard, who
were under arms, ready to oppose me. I should not, having a sword, have
feared any single opponent, and was able to contend with the swiftest
runners.
That good fortune which had so far attended me forsook me at the
palisadoes, where hope was at an end. The severities of imprisonment
were increased; two sentinels and an under officer were locked in with
me, and were themselves guarded by sentinels without; I was beaten and
wounded by the butt-ends of their muskets, my right foot was sprained, I
spat blood, and my wounds were not cured in less than a month.