The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume 1
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Baron Trenck >> The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume 1
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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.
CHAPTER XIII.
Since accounts so various, contradictory, and dishonourable to the
name of Trenck, have been circulated in Vienna, concerning facts
which happened thirty-seven years ago, I will here give a short
abstract of them, and such as may he verified by the records of the
court. I pledge my honour to the truth of the statement, and were I
so allowed, would prove it, to the conviction of any unprejudiced
court of justice: but this I cannot hope, as princes are much more
disposed to bestow unmerited favours than to make retribution to
those whom they have unjustly punished.
Francis Baron Trenck died in the Spielberg, October 4th, 1749. It
has been erroneously believed in Vienna that his estates were
confiscated by the sentence which condemned him to the Spielberg.
He had committed no offence against the state, was accused of none,
much less convicted. The court sentence was that the administration
of his estate should be committed to Counsellor Kempf and Baron
Peyaczewitz, who were selected by himself, and the accounts of his
stewards and farmers were to be sent him yearly. He continued, till
his death, to have the free and entire disposal of his property.
Although, before his death, he sent for his advocate, Doctor Berger,
and by him petitioned the Empress she would issue the necessary
orders to the Governor of the Spielberg, to permit the entrance of
witnesses, and all things necessary to make a legal will, it by no
means follows that he petitioned her for permission to make this
will. The case is too clear to admit of doubt. The royal commands
were given, that he should enjoy all freedom of making his will.
Permission was also given that, during his sickness, he might be
removed to the capuchin convent, which was equal to liberty, but
this he refused to accept.
Neither was his ability to make a will questioned. The advocate was
only to request the Queen's permission to supply some formalities,
which had been neglected, when he purchased the lordships of Velika
and Nustar, which petition was likewise granted. The royal mandate
still exists, which commissioned the persons therein named as
trustees to the estate and effects of Trenck, and this mandate runs
thus: "Let the last will of Trenck be duly executed: let dispatch
be used, and the heir protected in all his rights." Confiscation,
therefore, had never been thought of, nor his power to make a will
questioned.
I will now show how I have been deprived of this valuable
inheritance, while I have been obliged to pay above sixty thousand
florins, to defray legacies he had left; and when this narrative is
read, it will no longer be affirmed at Vienna, that by the favours
of the court I inherited seventy-six thousand florins, or the
lordship of Zwerbach from Trenck, I shall proceed to my proofs.
The father of Baron Trenck, who died in the year 1743, governor of
Leitschau, in Hungary, named me in his will the successor of his
son, should he die without heirs male.
This will was sent to be proved, according to form, at Vienna, after
having been authenticated in the most legal manner in Hungary. The
court called Hofkriegsrath, at Vienna, neglected to provide a
curator for the security of the next heir; yet this could not annul
my right of succession. When Trenck succeeded his father, he
entered no protest to this, his father's will; therefore, dying
without children, in the year 1749, my claim was indisputable. I
was heir had he made no will: and even in case of confiscation, my
title to his father's estates still remained valid.
Trenck knew this but too well: he, as I have before related, was my
worst enemy, and even attempted my life. I will therefore proceed
to show the real intent of this his crafty testament.
Determined no longer to live in confinement, or to ask forgiveness,
by which, it is well known, he might have obtained his freedom,
having lost all hopes of reimbursing his losses, his avarice was
reduced to despair. His desire of fame was unbounded, and this
could no way be gratified but by having himself canonized for a
saint, after spending his life in committing all the ravages of a
pandour. Hence originated the following facts:-
He knew I was the legal claimant to his father's estates. His
father had bought with the family money, remitted from Prussia, the
lordships of Prestowacz and Pleternitz, in Sclavonia, and he
himself, during his father's life, and with his father's money, had
purchased the lordship of Pakratz, for forty thousand florins: this
must therefore descend also to me, he having no more power to will
this from me, than he had the remainder of his paternal inheritance.
The property he himself had gained was consigned to administrators,
but a hundred thousand florins had been expended in lawsuits, and
sixty-three suits continued actually pending against him in court;
the legacies he bequeathed amounted to eighty thousand florins.
These, he saw, could not be paid, should I claim nothing more than
the paternal inheritance; he, therefore, to render me unfortunate
after his death, craftily named me his universal heir, without
mentioning his father's will, but endeavoured, by his mysterious
death, and the following conditions, to enforce the execution of his
own will.
First,--I was to become a Catholic.
Secondly,--I was to serve only the house of Austria; and,
Lastly,--He made his whole estate, without excepting the paternal
inheritance, a Fidei commissum.
Hence arose all my misfortunes, as indeed was his intention; for,
but a short time before his death, he said to the Governor, Baron
Kottulinsky, "I shall now die contented, since I have been able to
trick my cousin, and render him wretched."
His death, believed in Vienna to be miraculous, happened after the
following manner; and by this he had induced many weak people, who
really believed him a saint, to further his views.
Three days before his death, while in perfect health, he desired the
governor of the Spielberg would send for his confessor, for that St.
Francis had revealed to him he should be removed into life
everlasting on his birth-day at twelve o'clock. The capuchin was
sent for, but the prediction laughed at.
The day, however, after the departure of his confessor, he said,
"Praise be to God, my end approaches; my confessor is dead, and has
appeared to me." Strange as it may seem; it was actually found to
be true that the priest was dead. He now had all the officers of
the garrison of Brunn assembled, tonsured his head like a capuchin,
took the habit of the order, publicly confessed himself in a sermon
of an hour's length, exhorted them all to holiness, acted the part
of a most exemplary penitent, embraced all present, spoke with a
smile of the insignificance of all earthly possessions, took his
leave, knelt down to prayers, slept calmly, rose, prayed again, and
about eleven in the forenoon, October 4th, taking his watch in his
hand, said, "Thanks be to my God, my last hour approaches." All
laughed at such a farce from a man of such a character; yet they
remarked that the left side of his face grew pale. He then leaned
his arm on the table, prayed, and remained motionless, with his eyes
closed. The clock struck twelve--no signs of life or motion could
be discovered; they spoke to him, and found he was really dead.
The word miracle was echoed through the whole country, and the
transmigration of the Pandour Trenck, from earth to heaven, by St.
Francis, proclaimed. The clue to this labyrinth of miracles, known
only to me, is truly as follows:- He possessed the secret of what is
called the aqua tofana, and had determined on death. His confessor
had been entrusted with all his secrets, and with promissory notes,
which he wished to invalidate. I am perfectly certain that he had
returned a promissory note of a great prince, given for two hundred
thousand florins, which has never been brought to account. The
confessor, therefore, was to be provided for, that Trenck might not
be betrayed, and a dose of poison was given him before he set off
for Vienna: his death was the consequence. He took similar means
with himself, and thus knew the hour of his exit; finding he could
not become the first on earth, he wished to be adored as a saint in
heaven. He knew he should work miracles when dead, because he
ordered a chapel to be built, willed a perpetual mass, and
bequeathed the capuchins sixty thousand florins.
Thus died this most extraordinary man, in the thirty-fourth year of
his age, to whom nature had denied none of her gifts; who had been
the scourge of Bavaria; the terror of France; and who had, with his
supposed contemptible pandours, taken above six thousand Prussian
prisoners. He lived a tyrant and enemy of men, and died a
sanctified impostor.
Such was the state of affairs, as willed by Trenck, when I came to
Vienna, in 1759, where I arrived with money and jewels to the amount
of twenty thousand florins.
Instead of profiting by the wealth Trenck had acquired, I expended a
hundred and twenty thousand florins of my own money, including what
devolved to me from my uncle, his father, in the prosecution of his
suits. Trenck had paid two hundred ducats to the tribunal of
Vienna, in the year 1743, to procure its very reprehensible silence
concerning a curator, to which I was sacrificed, as the new judges
of this court refused to correct the error of their predecessors.
Such are the proceedings of courts of justice in Vienna!
On my first audience, no one could be received more kindly than I
was, by the Empress Queen. She spoke of my deceased cousin with
much emotion and esteem, promised me all grace and favour, and
informed me of the particular recommendations she had received, on
my behalf, from Count Bernes. Finding sixty-three cases hang over
my head, in consequence of the inheritance of Trenck, to obtain
justice in any one of which in Vienna, would have employed the whole
life of an honest man, I determined to renounce this inheritance,
and claim only under the will and as the heir of my uncle.
With this view I applied for and obtained a copy of that will, with
which I personally appeared, and declared to the court that I
renounced the inheritance of Francis Trenck, would undertake none of
his suits, nor be responsible for his legacies, and required only
his father's estates, according to the legal will, which I produced;
that is to say, the three lordships of Pakratz, Prestowacz, and
Pleneritz, without chattels or personal effects. Nothing could be
more just or incontrovertible than this claim. What was my
astonishment, to be told, in open court, that Her Majesty had
declared I must either wholly perform the articles of the will of
Trenck, or be excluded the entire inheritance, and have nothing
further to hope. What could be done? I ventured to remonstrate,
but the will of the court was determined and absolute: I must
become a Roman Catholic.
In this extremity I bribed a priest, who gave me a signed
attestation, "That I had abjured the accursed heresy of
Lutheranism." My religion, however, remained what it had ever been.
General Bernes about this time returned from his embassy, and I
related to him the lamentable state in which I found my affairs. He
spoke to the Empress in my behalf, and she promised everything. He
advised me to have patience, to perform all that was required of me,
and to make myself responsible for the depending suits. Some family
concerns obliged him, as he informed me, to make a journey to Turin,
but his return would be speedy: he would then take the management
of my affairs upon himself, and insure my good fortune in Austria.
Bernes loved me as his son, and I had reason to hope, from his
assurance, I should be largely remembered in his will, which was the
more probable, as he had neither child nor relations. He parted
from me, like a father, with tears in his eyes; but he had scarcely
been absent six weeks before the news arrived of his death, which,
if report may be credited, was effected by poison, administered by A
FRIEND. Ever the sport of fortune, thus were my supporters snatched
from me at the very moment they became most necessary.
The same year was I, likewise, deprived by death of my friend and
protector, Field-marshal Konigseck, Governor of Vienna, when he had
determined to interest himself in my behalf. I have been beloved by
the greatest men Austria ever produced, but unfortunately have been
persecuted by the chicanery of pettifoggers, fools, fanatics, and
priests, who have deprived me of the favour of my Empress, guiltless
as I was of crime or deceit, and left my old age in poverty.
My ills were increased by a new accident. Soon after the departure
of Bernes, the Prussian minister, taking me aside, in the house of
the Palatine envoy, M. Becker, proposed my return to Berlin, assured
me the King had forgotten all that was past, was convinced of my
innocence, that my good fortune would there be certain, and be
pledged his honour to recover the inheritance of Trenck. I
answered, the favour came too late; I had suffered injustice too
flagrant, in my own country, and that I would trust no prince on
earth whose will might annihilate all the rights of men. My good
faith to the King had been too ill repaid; my talents might gain me
bread in any part of the world, and I would not again subject myself
to the danger of unmerited imprisonment.
His persuasions were strong, but ineffectual. "My dear Trenck,"
said he, "God is my judge that my intentions are honest; I will
pledge myself, that my sovereign will insure your fortune: you do
not know Vienna; you will lose all by the suits in which you are
involved, and will be persecuted because you do not carry a rosary."
How often have I repented I did not then return to Berlin! I should
have escaped ten years' imprisonment; should have recovered the
estates of Trenck: should not have wasted the prime of life in the
litigation of suits, and the writing of memorials; and should have
certainly been ranked among the first men in my native country.
Vienna was no place for a man who could not fawn and flatter: yet
here was I destined to remain six-and-thirty years, unrewarded,
unemployed; and through youth and age, to continue on the list of
invalid majors.
Having rejected the proposition of the Prussian envoy, all my hopes
in Vienna were ruined; for Frederic, by his residents and
emissaries, knew how to effect whatever he pleased in foreign
courts, and determined that the Trenck who would no longer serve or
confide in him should at least find no opportunity of serving
against him: I soon became painted to the Empress as an arch
heretic who never would be faithful to the house of Austria, and
only endeavoured to obtain the inheritance of Trenck that he might
devote himself to Prussia. This I shall hereafter prove; and
display a scene that shall be the disgrace of many, by whom the
Empress was induced to harbour unjust suspicions of an able and
honest man. I here stand erect and confident before the world;
publish the truth, and take everlasting shame to myself, if any man
on earth can prove me guilty of one treacherous thought. I owe no
thanks; but so far from having received favours, I have six and
thirty years remained unable to obtain justice, though I have all
the while been desirous of shedding my blood in defence of the
monarchy where I have thus been treated. Till the year 1746, I was
equally zealous and faithful to Prussia; yet my estates there,
though confiscated, were liable to recovery: in Hungary, on the
contrary, the sentence of confiscation is irrevocable. This is a
remarkable proof in favour of my honour, and my children's claims.
Surely no reader will be offended at these digressions; my mind is
agitated, my feelings roused, remembering that my age and grey hairs
deprive me of the sweet hope of at length vanquishing opposition,
either by patience, or forcing justice, by eminent services, or
noble efforts.
This my history will never reach a monarch's eye, consequently no
monarch, by perceiving, will be induced to protect truth. It may,
indeed, be criticised by literati; it will certainly be decried by
my persecutors, who, through life, have been my false accusers, and
will probably, therefore, be prohibited by the priests. All
Germany, however, will read, and posterity perhaps may pity, should
my book escape the misfortune of being classed among improbable
romances; to which it is the more liable, because that the
biographers of Frederic and Maria Theresa, for manifest reasons,
have never so much as mentioned the name of Trenck.
Once more to my story: I was now obliged to declare myself heir,
but always cum reservatione juris mei, not as simply claiming under
the will of Francis Trenck I was obliged to take upon myself the
management of the sixty-three suits, and the expenses attending any
one of these are well known in Vienna. My situation may be
imagined, when I inform the reader I only received, from the whole
estate of Trenck, 3,600 florins in three years, which were scarcely
sufficient to defray the expenses of new year's gifts to the
solicitors and masters in chancery. How did I labour in stating and
transcribing proofs for the court! The money I possessed soon
vanished. My Prussian relations supported me, and the Countess
Bestuchef sent me the four thousand roubles I had refused at
Petersburg. I had also remittances from my faithful mistress in
Prussia; and, in addition, was obliged to borrow money at the
usurious rate of sixty per cent. Bewildered as I was among lawyers
and knaves, my ambition still prompted me to proceed, and all things
are possible to labour and perseverance; but my property was
expended: and, at length, I could only obtain that the contested
estates should be made a Fidei commissum, or put under trust;
whereby, though they were protected from being the further prey of
others, I did not inherit them as mine. In this pursuit was my
prime of life wasted, which might have been profitably and
honourably spent.
In three years, however, I brought my sixty-three suits to a kind of
conclusion; the probabilities were this could not have been effected
in fifty. Exclusive of my assiduity, the means I took must not be
told; it is sufficient that I here learnt what judges were, and thus
am enabled to describe them to others.
For a few ducats, the president's servant used to admit me into a
closet where I could see everything as perfectly as if I had myself
been one of the council. This often was useful, and taught me to
prevent evil; and often was I scarcely able to refrain bursting in
upon this court.
Their appointed hour of meeting was nine in the morning, but they
seldom assembled before eleven. The president then told his beads,
and muttered his prayers. Someone got up and harangued, while the
remainder, in pairs, amused themselves with talking instead of
listening, after which the news of the day became the common topic
of conversation, and the council broke up, the court being first
adjourned some three weeks, without coming to any determination.
This was called judicium delegatum in causis Trenkiansis; and when
at last they came to a conclusion, the sentence was such as I shall
ever shudder at and abhor.
The real estates of Trenck consisted in the great Sclavonian manors,
called the lordships of Pakratz, Prestowatz, and Pleternitz, which
he had inherited from his father, and were the family property,
together with Velika and Nustak, which he himself had purchased:
the annual income of these was 60,000 florins, and they contained
more than two hundred villages and hamlets. The laws of Hungary
require -
1st. That those who purchase estates shall obtain the consensus
regius (royal consent).
2nd. That the seller shall possess, and make over the right of
property, together with that of transferring or alienating, and
3dly. That the purchaser shall be a native born, or have bought his
naturalisation.
In default of all, or any of these, the Fiscus, on the death of the
purchaser, takes possession, repaying the summa emptitia, or
purchase-money, together within what can be shown to have been laid
out in improvements, or the summa inscriptitia, the sum at which it
stands rated in the fiscal register.
Without form or notice, the Hungarian Fiscal President, Count
Grassalkowitz, took possession of all the Trenck estates on his
decease, in the name of the Fiscus. The prize was great, not so
much because of the estates themselves, as of the personal property
upon them. Trenck had sent loads of merchandise to his estates, of
linen, ingots of gold and silver from Bavaria, Alsatia, and Silesia.
He had a vast storehouse of arms, and of saddles; also the great
silver service of the Emperor Charles VII., which he had brought
from Munich, with the service of plate of the King of Prussia; and
the personal property on these estates was affirmed considerably to
exceed in value the estates themselves.
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