How little did the Great Frederic know my heart. Without having
offended, he had rendered me miserable, had condemned me to imprisonment
at Glatz on mere suspicion, and on my flying thence, naked and destitute,
had confiscated my paternal inheritance. Not contented with inflicting
all these calamities, he would not suffer me peaceably to seek my fortune
in a foreign land.
Few are the youths who, in so short a time, being expelled their native
country with disgrace, by their own efforts, merits, and talents, have
obtained honour and favour so great, acquired such powerful friends, or
been entrusted with confidence equally unlimited in transactions so
important. Enraged as I was at the treachery of Goltz, had opportunity
offered, I might have been tempted even to turn my native country into a
desert; nor do I deny that I afterwards promoted the views of the
Austrian envoy, who knew well how to cherish the flame that had been
kindled, and turn it to his own use. Till this moment I never felt the
least enmity either to my country or king, nor did I suffer myself, on
any occasion, to be made the agent of their disadvantage.
No sooner was I entrusted more intimately with cabinet secrets, than I
discovered the state of factions, and that Bestuchef and Apraxin were
even then in Prussian pay; that a counterpoise, by their means, might be
formed to the prevalence of the Austrian party.
Hence we may date the change of Russian politics in the year 1762. Here
also we may find a clue to the contradictory orders, artifices,
positions, retreats and disappointments of the Russian army, in the seven
years' war, beginning in 1756. The countess, who was obliged to act with
greater caution, foresaw the consequence of the various intrigues in
which her husband was engaged: her love for me naturally drew her from
her former party; she confided every secret to me, and ever remained till
her fall, which happened in 1758, during my imprisonment, my best friend
and correspondent. Hence was I so well informed of all the plans against
Prussia, to the years 1754 and 1756; much more so than many ministers of
the interested courts, who imagined they alone were in the secret. How
many after events could I then have foretold! Such was the perverseness
of my destiny, that where I should most have been sought for, and best
known, there was I least valued.
No man, in my youth, would have believed I should live to my sixtieth
year, untitled and obscure. In Berlin, Petersburg, London, and Paris,
have I been esteemed by the greatest statesmen, and now am I reduced to
the invalid list. How strange are the caprices of fortune! I ought
never to have left Russia: this was my great error, which I still live to
repent.
I have never been accustomed to sleep more than four or five hours, so
that through life I have allowed time for paying visits and receiving
company. I have still had sufficient for study and improvement. Hyndford
was my instructor in politics; Boerhaave, then physician to the court, my
bosom friend, my tutor in physic and literary subjects. Women formed me
for court intrigues, though these, as a philosopher, I despised.
The chancellor had greatly changed his carriage towards me since the
incident of the plan. He observed my looks, showed he was distrustful,
and desirous of revenge. His lady, as well as myself, remarked this, and
new measures became necessary. I was obliged to act an artful, but, at
the same time, a very dangerous part.
My cousin, Baron Trenck, died in the Spielberg, October 4, 1749, and left
me his heir, on condition I should only serve the house of Austria. In
March, 1750, Count Bernes received the citation sent me to enter on this
inheritance. I would hear nothing of Vienna; the abominable treatment of
my cousin terrified me. I well knew the origin of his prosecution, the
services he had rendered his country, and had been an eye-witness of the
injustice by which he was repaid. Bernes represented to me that the
property left me was worth much above a million: that the empress would
support me in pursuit of justice, and that I had no personal enemy at
Vienna, that a million of certain property in Hungary was much superior
to the highest expectations in Russia, where I myself had beheld so many
changes of fortune, and the effects of family cabals. Russia he painted
as dangerous, Vienna as secure, and promised me himself effectual
assistance, as his embassy would end within the year. Were I once rich,
I might reside in what country I pleased; nor could the persecutions of
Frederic anywhere pursue me so ineffectually as in Austria. Snares would
be laid for me everywhere else, as I had experienced in Russia. "What,"
said he, "would have been the consequence, had not the countess warned
you of the impending danger? You, like many other honest and innocent
men, would have been sent to Siberia. Your innocence must have remained
untested, and yourself, in the universal opinion, a villain and a
traitor."
Hyndford spoke to me in the same tone, assured me of his eternal
protection, and described London as a certain asylum, should I not find
happiness at Vienna. He spoke of slavery as a Briton ought to speak,
reminded me of the fate of Munich and Osterman, painted the court such as
I knew it to be, and asked me what were my expectations, even were I
fortunate enough to become general or minister in such a country.
These reasonings at length determined me; but having plenty of money, I
thought proper to take Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Holland in my way, and
Barnes was in the meantime to prepare me a favourable reception at
Vienna. He desired, also, I would give him authority to get possession
of the estates to which I was heir. My mistress strongly endeavoured to
detain me, but yielded at length to the force of reason. I tore myself
away, and promised, on my honour, to return as soon as I had arranged my
affairs at Vienna. She made the proposition of investing me within some
foreign embassy, by which I might render the most effectual services to
the court at Vienna. In this hope we parted with heavy hearts: she
presented me with her portrait, and a snuffbox set with diamonds; the
first of these, three years after was torn from my bosom by the officers
in my first dungeon at Magdeburg, as I shall hereafter relate. The
chancellor embraced me, at parting, with friendship. Apraxin wept, and
clasped me in his arms, prophesying at the same time, I should never be
so happy as in Russia. I myself foreboded misfortune, and quitted Russia
with regret, but still followed the advice of Hyndford and Bernes.
From Moscow I travelled to Petersburg, where I found a letter, at the
house of Baron Wolf, the banker, from the countess, which rent my very
heart, and almost determined me to return. She endeavoured to terrify me
from proceeding to Vienna, yet inclosed a bill for four thousand roubles,
to aid me on my journey, were I absolutely bent to turn my back on
fortune.
My effects, in money and jewels, amounted to about thirty-six thousand
florins; I therefore returned the draft, intreated her eternal
remembrance, and that she would reserve her favour and support to times
in which they might become needful. After remaining a few days at
Petersburg, I journeyed, by land, to Stockholm; taking with me letters of
recommendation from all the foreign envoys.
I forgot to mention that Funk was inconsolable for my departure; his
imprudence had nearly plunged me into misery, and destroyed all my hopes
in Russia. Twenty-two years after this I met the worthy man, once more
in Dresden. He, there, considered himself as the cause of all the evils
inflicted on me, and assured me the recital of my sufferings had been so
many bitter reproaches to his soul. Our recapitulation of former times
gave us endless pleasure, and it was the sweetest of joys to meet and
renew my friendship with such a man, after having weathered so many
storms of fate.
At Stockholm I wanted for no recommendation; the Queen, sister to the
great Frederic, had known me at Berlin, when I had the honour, as an
officer of the body guard, of accompanying her to Stettin. I related my
whole history to her without reserve. She, from political motives,
advised me not to make any stay at Stockholm, and to me continued till
death, an ever-gracious lady. I proceeded to Copenhagen, where I had
business to transact for M. Chaise, the Danish envoy at Moscow: from whom
also I had letters of recommendation. Here I had the pleasure of meeting
my old friend, Lieutenant Bach, who had aided me in my escape from my
imprisonment at Glatz. He was poor and in debt, and I procured him
protection, by relating the noble manner in which he behaved I also
presented him with five hundred ducats, by the aid of which he pushed his
fortune. He wrote to me in the year 1776, a letter of sincere thanks,
and died a colonel of hussars in the Danish service in 1776.
I remained in Copenhagen but a fortnight, and then sailed in a Dutch
ship, from Elsineur to Amsterdam. Scarcely had we put to sea, before a
storm arose, by which we lost a mast and bowsprit, had our sails
shattered, and were obliged to cast anchor among the rocks of Gottenburg,
where our deliverance was singularly fortunate.
Here we lay nine days before we could make the open sea, and here I found
a very pleasant amusement, by going daily in the ship's boat from rock to
rock, attended by two of my servants, to shoot wild ducks, and catch
shell-fish; whence I every evening returned with provisions, and sheep's
milk, bought of the poor inhabitants, for the ship's crew.
There was a dearth among these poor people. Our vessel was laden with
corn; some of this I purchased, to the amount of some hundreds of Dutch
florins, and distributed wherever I went. I also gave one of their
ministers a hundred florins for his poor congregation, who was himself in
want of bread, and whose annual stipend amounted to one hundred and fifty
florins.
Here in the sweet pleasure of doing good, I left behind me much of that
money I had so easily acquired in Russia; and perhaps had we stayed much
longer should myself have left the place in poverty. A thousand
blessings followed me, and the storm-driven Trenck was long remembered
and talked of at Gottenburg.
In this worthy employment, however, I had nearly lost my life. Returning
from carrying corn, the wind rose, and drove the boat to sea. I not
understanding the management of the helm, and the servants awkwardly
handling the sails, the boat in tacking was overset. The benefit of
learning to swim, I again experienced, and my faithful servant, who had
gained the rock, aided me when almost spent. The good people who had
seen the shallop overset, came off in their boats to my assistance. An
honest Calmuc, whom I had brought from Russia, and another of my servants
perished. I saw the first sink after I had reached the shore.
The kind Swedes brought me on board, and also righted and returned with
the shallop. For some days I was sea-sick. We weighed anchor, and
sailed for the Texel, the mouth of which we saw, and the pilots coming
off, when another storm arose, and drove us to the port of Bahus, in
Norway, into which we ran, without farther damage. In some few days we
again set sail, with a fair wind, and at length reached Amsterdam.
Here I made no long stay; for the day after my arrival, an extraordinary
adventure happened, in which I was engaged chiefly by my own rashness.
I was a spectator while the harpooners belonging to the whale fishery
were exercising themselves in darting their harpoons, most of whom were
drunk. One of them, Herman Rogaar by name, a hero among these people,
for his dexterity with his snickasnee, came up, and passed some of his
coarse jests upon my Turkish sabre, and offered to fillip me on the nose.
I pushed him from me, and the fellow threw down his cap, drew his
snickasnee, challenged me, called me monkey-tail, and asked whether I
chose a straight, a circular, or a cross cut.
Thus here was I, in this excellent company, with no choice but that of
either fighting or running away. The robust, Herculean fellow grew more
insolent, and I, turning round to the bystanders, asked them to lend me a
snickasnee. "No, no," said the challenger, "draw your great knife from
your side, and, long as it is, I will lay you a dozen ducats you get a
gash in the cheek." I drew; he confidently advanced with his snickasnee,
and, at the first stroke of my sabre, that, and the hand that held it,
both dropped to the ground, and the blood spouted in my face.
I now expected the people would, indubitably, tear me to pieces; but my
fear was changed into astonishment at hearing a universal shout
applauding the vanquisher of the redoubted Herman Rogaar who, so lately
feared for his strength and dexterity, became the object of their
ridicule. A Jew spectator conducted me out of the crowd, and the people
clamorously followed me to my inn. This kind of duel, by which I gained
honour, would anywhere else have brought me to the highest disgrace. A
man who knew the use of the sabre, in a single day, might certainly have
disabled a hundred Herman Rogaars. This story may instruct and warn
others. He that is quarrelsome shall never want an enemy. My temerity
often engaged me in disputes which, by timely compliance and calmness,
might easily have been avoided; but my evil genius always impelled me
into the paths of perplexity, and I seldom saw danger till it was
inevitable
I left Amsterdam for the Hague, where I had been recommended to Lord
Holderness, the English ambassador, by Lord Hyndford; to Baron Reisbach,
by Bernes; to the Grand Pensionary Fagel, by Schwart; and from the
chancellor I had a letter to the Prince of Orange himself I could not,
therefore, but be everywhere received with all possible distinction.
Within these recommendations, and the knowledge I possessed, had I had
the good fortune to have avoided Vienna, and gone to India, where my
talents would have insured me wealth, how many tears of affliction had I
been spared! My ill fortune, however, had brought me letters from Count
Bernes, assuring me that heaven was at Vienna, and including a citation
from the high court, requiring me to give in my claim of inheritance.
Bernes further informed me the Austrian court had assured him I should
meet with all justice and protection, and advised me to hasten my
journey, as the executorship of the estates of Trenck was conducted but
little to my advantage.
This advice I took, proceeded to Vienna, and from that moment all my
happiness had an end. I became bewildered in lawsuits, and the arts of
wicked men, and all possible calamities assaulted me at once, the recital
of which would itself afford subject matter for a history. They began by
the following incidents:--
One M. Schenck sought my acquaintance at the Hague. I met with him at my
hotel, where he intreated I would take him to Nuremberg, whence he was to
proceed to Saxony. I complied, and bore his expenses; but at Hanau,
waking in the morning, I found my watch, set with diamonds, a ring worth
two thousand roubles, a diamond snuff-box, with my mistress's picture,
and my purse, containing about eighty ducats, stolen from my bed-side,
and Schenck become invisible. Little affected by the loss of money, at
any time, I yet was grieved for my snuff-box. The rascal, however, had
escaped, and it was fortunate that the remainder of my ready money, with
my bills of exchange, were safely locked up.
I now pursued my journey without company, and arrived in Vienna. I
cannot exactly recollect in what month, but I had been absent about two
years; and the reader will allow that it was barely possible for any man,
in so short a time, to have experienced more various changes of fate,
though many smaller incidents have been suppressed. The places, where my
pledged fidelity required discretion will be easily supposed, as likewise
will the concealment of court intrigues, and artifices, the publication
of which might even yet subject me to more persecutions. All writers are
not permitted to speak truth of monarchs and ministers. I am the father
of eight children, and parental love and duty vanquish the inclination of
the author; and this duty, this affection, have made me particularly
cautious in relating what happened to me at Vienna, that I might,
thereby, serve them more effectually than by indulging the pride of the
writer, or the vengeance of the man.