The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume 1

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In a small garrison town, I lodged in the house of a captain of
cavalry, and continually was treated by him with every mark of
friendship. After dinner he rode at the head of his squadron to
water the horse, unsaddled. I remained alone in the house, entered
the stable, saw three remaining horses, with saddles and bridles; in
my chamber was my sword and a pair of pistols. I had but to mount
one of the horses and fly to the opposite gate. I meditated on the
project, and almost resolved to put it in execution, but presently
became undetermined by some secret impulse. The captain returned
some time after, and appeared surprised to find me still there. The
next day he accompanied me alone in his carriage; we came to a
forest, he saw some champignons, stopped, asked me to alight, and
help him to gather them; he strayed more than a hundred paces from
me, and gave me entire liberty to fly; yet notwithstanding all this,
I voluntarily returned, suffering myself to be led like a sheep to
the slaughter.

I was treated so well, during my stay at this place, and escorted
with so much negligence, that I fell into a gross error. Perceiving
they conveyed me straight to Berlin, I imagined the King wished to
question me concerning the plan formed for the war, which was then
on the point of breaking out. This plan I perfectly knew, the
secret correspondence of Bestuchef having all passed through my
hands, which circumstance was much better known at Berlin than at
Vienna. Confirmed in this opinion, and far from imagining the fate
that awaited me, I remained irresolute, insensible, and blind to
danger. Alas, how short was this hope! How quickly was it
succeeded by despair! when, after four days' march, I quitted the
district under the command of the Duke of Wirtemberg, and was
delivered up to the first garrison of infantry at Coslin! The last
of the Wirtemberg officers, when taking leave of me, appeared to be
greatly affected; and from this moment till I came to Berlin, I was
under a strong escort, and the given orders were rigorously
observed.

CHAPTER XV.

Arrived here, I was lodged over the grand guardhouse, with two
sentinels in my chamber, and one at the door. The King was at
Potzdam, and here I remained three days; on the third, some staff-
officers made their appearance, seated themselves at a table, and
put the following questions to me:-

First. What was my business at Dantzic?

Secondly. Whether I was acquainted with M. Goltz, Prussian
ambassador to Russia?

Thirdly. Who was concerned with me in the conspiracy at Dantzic?

When I perceived their intention, by these interrogations, I
absolutely refused to reply, only saying I had been imprisoned in
the fortress of Glatz, without hearing, or trial by court-martial;
that, availing myself of the laws of nature, I had by my own
exertions procured my liberty, and that I was now a captain of
cavalry in the imperial service; that I demanded a legal trial for
my first unknown offence, after which I engaged to answer all
interrogatories, and prove my innocence; but that at present, being
accused of new crimes, without a hearing concerning my former
punishment, the procedure was illegal. I was told they had no
orders concerning this, and I remained dumb to all further
questions.

They wrote some two hours, God knows what; a carriage came up; I was
strictly searched, to find whether I had any weapons; thirteen or
fourteen ducats, which I had concealed, were taken from me, and I
was conducted under a strong escort, through Spandau to Magdeburg.
The officer here delivered me to the captain of the guard at the
citadel; the town major came, and brought me to the dungeon,
expressly prepared for me; a small picture of the Countess of
Bestuchef, set with diamonds, which I had kept concealed in my
bosom, was now taken from me; the door was shut, and here was I
left.

My dungeon was in a casemate, the fore part of which, six feet wide
and ten feet long, was divided by a party wall. In the inner wall
were two doors, and a third at the entrance of the casemate itself.
The window in the seven-feet-thick wall was so situated that, though
I had light, I could see neither heaven nor earth; I could only see
the roof of the magazine; within and without this window were iron
bars, and in the space between an iron grating, so close and so
situated, by the rising of the walls, that it was impossible I
should see any parson without the prison, or that any person should
see me. On the outside was a wooden palisade, six feet from the
wall, by which the sentinels were prevented from conveying anything
to me. I had a mattress, and a bedstead, but which was immovably
ironed to the floor, so that it was impossible I should drag it, and
stand up to the window; beside the door was a small iron stove and a
night table, in like manner fixed to the floor. I was not yet put
in irons, and my allowance was a pound and a half per day of
ammunition bread, and a jug of water.

From my youth I had always had a good appetite, and my bread was so
mouldy I could scarcely at first eat the half of it. This was the
consequence of Major Reiding's avarice, who endeavoured to profit
even by this, so great was the number of unfortunate prisoners;
therefore, it is impossible I should describe to my readers the
excess of tortures that, during eleven months, I felt from ravenous
hunger. I could easily every day have devoured six pounds of bread;
and every twenty-four hours after having received and swallowed my
small portion, I continued as hungry as before I began, yet must
wait another twenty-four hours for a new morsel. How willingly
would I have signed a bill of exchange for a thousand ducats, on my
property at Vienna, only to have satiated my hunger on dry bread!
For, so extreme was it, that scarcely had I dropt into a sweet
sleep. Therefore I dreamed I was feasting at some table luxuriously
loaded, where, eating like a glutton, the whole company were
astonished to see me, while my imagination was heated by the
sensation of famine. Awakened by the pains of hunger, the dishes
vanished, and nothing remained but the reality of my distress; the
cravings of nature were but inflamed, my tortures prevented sleep,
and, looking into futurity, the cruelty of my fate suffered, if
possible, increase, from imagining that the prolongation of pangs
like these was insupportable. God preserve every honest man from
sufferings like mine! They were not to be endured by the villain
most obdurate. Many have fasted three days, many have suffered want
for a week, or more; but certainly no one, beside myself, ever
endured it in the same excess for eleven months. Some have supposed
that to eat little might become habitual, but I have experienced the
contrary. My hunger increased every day; and of all the trials of
fortitude my whole life has afforded, this, of eleven months, was
the most bitter.

Petitions, remonstrances, were of no avail; the answer was--"We must
give no more, such is the King's command." The Governor, General
Borck, born the enemy of man, replied, when I entreated, at least,
to have my fill of bread, "You have feasted often enough out of the
service of plate taken from the King, by Trenck, at the battle of
Sorau; you must now eat ammunition bread in your dirty kennel. Your
Empress makes no allowance for your maintenance, and you are
unworthy of the bread you eat, or the trouble taken about you."
Judge, reader, what pangs such insolence, added to such sufferings
must inflict. Judge what were my thoughts, foreseeing, as I did, an
endless duration to this imprisonment and these torments.

My three doors were kept ever shut, and I was left to such
meditations as such feelings and such hopes might inspire. Daily,
about noon, once in twenty-four hours, my pittance of bread and
water was brought. The keys of all the doors were kept by the
governor; the inner door was not opened, but my bread and water were
delivered through an aperture. The prison doors were opened only
once a week, on a Wednesday, when the governor and town major, my
hole having been first cleaned, paid their visit.

Having remained thus two months, and observed this method was
invariable, I began to execute a project I had formed, of the
possibility of which I was convinced.

Where the night-table and stove stood, the floor was bricked, and
this paving extended to the wall that separated my casemate from the
adjoining one, in which was no prisoner. My window was only guarded
by a single sentinel; I therefore soon found, among those who
successively relieved guard, two kind-hearted fellows, who described
to me the situation of my prison; hence I perceived I might effect
my escape, could I but penetrate into the adjoining casemate, the
door of which was not shut. Provided I had a friend and a boat
waiting for me at the Elbe, or could I swim across that river, the
confines of Saxony were but a mile distant.

To describe my plan at length would lead to prolixity, yet I must
enumerate some of its circumstances, as it was remarkably intricate
and of gigantic labour.

I worked through the iron, eighteen inches long, by which the night-
table was fastened, and broke off the clinchings of the nails, but
preserved their heads, that I might put them again in their places,
and all might appear secure to my weekly visitors. This procured me
tools to raise up the brick floor, under which I found earth. My
first attempt was to work a hole through the wall, seven feet thick
behind, and concealed by the night-table. The first layer was of
brick. I afterwards came to large hewn stones. I endeavoured
accurately to number and remember the bricks, both of the flooring
and the wall, so that I might replace them and all might appear
safe. This having accomplished, I proceeded.

The day preceding visitation all was carefully replaced, and the
intervening mortar as carefully preserved; the whole had, probably,
been whitewashed a hundred times; and, that I might fill up all
remaining interstices, I pounded the white stuff this afforded,
wetted it, made a brush of my hair, then applied this plaster,
washed it over, that the colour might be uniform, and afterwards
stripped myself, and sat with my naked body against the place, by
the heat of which it was dried.

While labouring, I placed the stones and bricks upon my bedstead,
and had they taken the precaution to come at any other time in the
week, the stated Wednesday excepted, I had inevitably been
discovered; but, as no such ill accident befell me, in six months my
Herculean labours gave me a prospect of success.

Means were to be found to remove the rubbish from my prison; all of
which, in a wall so thick, it was impossible to replace; mortar and
stone could not be removed. I therefore took the earth, scattered
it about my chamber, and ground it under my feet the whole day, till
I had reduced it to dust; this dust I strewed in the aperture of my
window, making use of the loosened night-table to stand upon, I tied
splinters from my bedstead together, with the ravelled yarn of an
old stocking, and to this I affixed a tuft of my hair. I worked a
large hole under the middle grating, which could not be seen when
standing on the ground, and through this I pushed my dust with the
tool I had prepared in the outer window, then, waiting till the wind
should happen to rise, during the night I brushed it away, it was
blown off, and no appearance remained on the outside. By this
simple expedient I rid myself of at least three hundred weight of
earth, and thus made room to continue my labours; yet, this being
still insufficient, I had recourse to another artifice, which was to
knead up the earth in the form of sausages, to resemble the human
faeces: these I dried, and when the prisoner came to clean my
dungeon, hastily tossed them into the night-table, and thus
disencumbered myself of a pound or two more of earth each week. I
further made little balls, and, when the sentinel was walking, blew
them, through a paper tube, out of the window. Into the empty space
I put my mortar and stones, and worked on successfully.

I cannot, however, describe my difficulties after having penetrated
about two feet into the hewn stone. My tools were the irons I had
dug out, which fastened may bedstead and night-table. A
compassionate soldier also gave me an old iron ramrod and a
soldier's sheath knife, which did me excellent service, more
especially the latter, as I shall presently more fully show. With
these two I cut splinters from my bedstead, which aided me to pick
the mortar from the interstices of the stone; yet the labour of
penetrating through this seven-feet wall was incredible; the
building was ancient, and the mortar occasionally quite petrified,
so that the whole stone was obliged to be reduced to dust. After
continuing my work unremittingly for six months, I at length
approached the accomplishment of my hopes, as I knew by coming to
the facing of brick, which now was only between me and the adjoining
casemate.

Meantime I found opportunity to speak to some of the sentinels,
among whom was an old grenadier called Gelfhardt, whom I here name
because he displayed qualities of the greatest and most noble kind.
From him I learned the precise situation of my prison, and every
circumstance that might best conduce to my escape.

Nothing was wanting but money to buy a boat, and crossing the Elbe
with Gelfhardt, to take refuge in Saxony. By Gelfhardt's means I
became acquainted with a kind-hearted girl, a Jewess, and a native
of Dessau, Esther Heymannin by name, and whose father had been ten
years in prison. This good, compassionate maiden, whom I had never
seen, won over two other grenadiers, who gave her an opportunity of
speaking to me every time they stood sentinel. By tying my
splinters together, I made a stick long enough to reach beyond the
palisades that were before my window, and thus obtained paper,
another knife, and a file.

I now wrote to my sister, the wife of the before-mentioned only son
of General Waldow; described my awful situation, and entreated her
to remit three hundred rix-dollars to the Jewess, hoping, by this
means, I might escape from my prison. I then wrote another
affecting letter to Count Puebla, the Austrian ambassador at Berlin,
in which was enclosed a draft for a thousand florins on my effects
at Vienna, desiring him to remit these to the Jewess, having
promised her that sum as a reward for her fidelity. She was to
bring the three hundred rix-dollars my sister should send to me, and
take measures with the grenadiers to facilitate my flight, which
nothing seemed able to prevent, I having the power either to break
into the casemate or, aided by the grenadiers and the Jewess' to cut
the locks from the doors and that way escape from my dungeon. The
letters were open, I being obliged to roll them round the stick to
convey them to Esther.

The faithful girl diligently proceeded to Berlin, where she arrived
safe, and immediately spoke to Count Puebla. The Count gave her the
kindest reception, received the letter, with the letter of exchange,
and bade her go and speak to Weingarten, the secretary of the
embassy, and act entirely as he should direct. She was received by
Weingarten in the most friendly manner, who, by his questions, drew
from her the whole secret, and our intended plan of flight, aided by
the two grenadiers, and also that she had a letter for my sister,
which she must carry to Hammer, near Custrin. He asked to see this
letter; read it, told her to proceed on her Journey, gave her two
ducats to bear her expenses, ordered her to come to him on her
return, said that during this interval he would endeavour to obtain
her the thousand florins for my draft, and would then give her
further instructions.

Esther cheerfully departed for Hammer, where my sister, then a
widow, and no longer, as in 1746, in dread of her husband, joyful to
hear I was still living, immediately gave her three hundred rix-
dollars, exhorting her to exert every possible means to obtain my
deliverance. Esther hastened back with the letter from my sister to
Berlin, and told all that passed to Weingarten, who read the letter,
and inquired the names of the two grenadiers. He told her the
thousand florins from Vienna were not yet come, but gave her twelve
ducats; bade her hasten back to Magdeburg, to carry me all this good
news, and then return to Berlin, where he would pay her the thousand
florins. Esther came to Magdeburg, went immediately to the citadel,
and, most luckily, met the wife of one of the grenadiers, who told
her that her husband and his comrade had been taken and put in irons
the day before. Esther had quickness of perception, and suspected
we had been betrayed; she therefore instantly again began her
travels, and happily came safe to Dessau.

Here I must interrupt my narrative, that I may explain this infernal
enigma to my readers, an account of which I received after I had
obtained my freedom, and still possess, in the handwriting of this
Jewess. Weingarten, as was afterwards discovered, was a traitor,
and too much trusted by Count Puebla, he being a spy in the pay of
Prussia, and one who had revealed, in the court of Berlin, not only
the secrets of the Imperial embassy, but also the whole plan of the
projected war. For this reason he afterwards, when war broke out,
remained at Berlin in the Prussian service. His reason for
betraying me was that he might secure the thousand florins which I
had drawn for on Vienna; for the receipt of the 24th of May, 1755,
attests that the sum was paid, by the administrators of my effects,
to Count Puebla, and has since been brought to account; nor can I
believe that Weingarten did not appropriate this sum to himself,
since I cannot be persuaded the ambassador would commit such an
action, although the receipt is in his handwriting, as may easily be
demonstrated, it being now in my possession. Thus did Weingarten,
that he might detain a thousand florins with impunity, bring new
evils upon me and upon my sister, which occasioned her premature
death; caused one grenadier to run the gauntlet three successive
days, and another to be hung.

Esther alone escaped, and since gave me an elucidation of the whole
affair. The report at Magdeburg was, that a Jewess had obtained
money from my sister and bribed two grenadiers, and that one of
these had trusted and been betrayed by his comrade. Indeed, what
other story could be told at Magdeburg, or how could it be known I
had been betrayed to the Prussian ministry by the Imperial
secretary? The truth, however, is as I have stated: my account-
book exists, and the Jewess is still alive.

Her poor imprisoned father was punished with more than a hundred
blows to make him declare whether his daughter had entrusted him
with the plot, or if he knew whither she was fled, and miserably
died in fetters. Such was the mischief occasioned by a rascal! And
who might be blamed but the imprudent Count Puebla?

In the year 1766, this said Jewess demanded of me a thousand
florins; and I wrote to Count Puebla, that, having his receipt for
the sum, which never had been repaid, I begged it might be restored.
He received my agent with rudeness, returned no answer, and seemed
to trouble himself little concerning my loss. Whether the heirs of
the Count be, or be not, indebted to me these thousand florins and
the interest, I leave the world to determine. Thrice have I been
betrayed at Vienna and sold to Berlin, like Joseph to the Egyptians.
My history proves the origin of my persuasion that residents,
envoys, and ambassadors must be men of known worth and honesty, and
not the vilest of rascals and miscreants. But, alas! the effects
and money they have robbed me of have never been restored; and for
the miseries they have brought upon me, they could not be
recompensed by the wealth of any or all the monarchs on earth.
Estates they may, but truth they cannot confiscate; and of the
villainy of Abramson and Weingarten I have documents and proofs that
no court of justice could disannul. Stop, reader, if thou hast a
heart, and in that heart compassion for the unfortunate! Stop and
imagine what my sensations are while I remember and recount a part
only of the injustice that has been done me, a part only of the
tyranny I have endured! By this last act of treachery of Weingarten
was I held in chains, the most horrible, for nine succeeding years!
By him was an innocent man brought to the gallows! By him, too, my
sister, my beloved, my unfortunate sister, was obliged to build a
dungeon at her own expense! besides being amerced in a fine, the
extent of which I never could learn. Her goods were plundered, her
estates made a desert, her children fell into extreme poverty, and
she herself expired in her thirty-third year, the victim of cruelty,
persecution, her brother's misfortunes, and the treachery of the
Imperial embassy!

Footnotes:

{1} A common expression with Frederic when he was angry, and which
has since become proverbial among the Prussian and other German
officers. See Critical Review, April, 1755.

{2} The same Doo who was governor of Glatz during the Seven Years'
war, and who, having been surprised by General Laudohu, was made
prisoner, which occasioned the loss of Glatz. The King broke him
with infamy, and banished him with contempt. In 1764 he came to
Vienna, where I gave him alms. He was, by birth, an Italian, a
selfish, wicked man; and, while major under the government of
Fouquet, at Glatz, brought many people to misery. He was the
creature of Fouquet, without birth or merit; crafty, malignant, but
handsome, and, having debauched his patron's daughter, afterwards
married her; whence at first his good, and at length his ill
fortune. He wanted knowledge to defend a fortress against the
enemy, and his covetousness rendered him easy to corrupt.

{3} The German mile contains from four to seven English miles, and
this variation appears to depend on the ignorance of the people and
on the roads being in some places but little frequented. It seems
probable the Baron and his friend might travel about 809 English
miles.--TRANSLATOR.

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