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 petitioned 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, circumstances 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 compassion 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 casement.
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 casement, 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 passed: from which
circumstance 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 associate 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 Schell, 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 Schell, and as
he entered said, "Here is your man." Schell 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.
Schell 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 Schell. The first was the grand
projector, and made all preparations; Schell 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
passions, 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 Schell 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 Schell 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 Damnitz 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
passed the greater part of their time in my company.
The 24th of December came, and Schell 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 Schell 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 Damnitz had informed the governor that Schell
was then in my chamber.
Schroeder, full of terror, came running to the citadel, and said to
Schell, "Save thyself, friend; all is discovered, and thou wilt instantly
be put under arrest."
Schell 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, Schell 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 passed out at the other door. The
design of Schell was to go under the arsenal, 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.
Schell 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.