The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume 1

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Arrived at Vienna in the month of April, 1747.

And now another act of the tragedy is going to begin.

CHAPTER IX.

After having defrayed the expenses of travelling for me and my
friend Schell, for whose remarkable history I will endeavour to find
a few pages in due course, I divided the three hundred ducats which
remained with him, and, having stayed a month at Vienna, he went to
join the regiment of Pallavicini, in which he had obtained a
lieutenant-colonel's commission, and which was then in Italy.

Here I found my cousin, Baron Francis Trenck, the famous partisan
and colonel of pandours, imprisoned at the arsenal, and involved in
a most perplexing prosecution.

This Trenck was my father's brother's son. His father had been a
colonel and governor of Leitschau, and had possessed considerable
lordships in Sclavonia, those of Pleternitz, Prestowacz, and
Pakratz. After the siege of Vienna, in 1683, he had left the
Prussian service for that of Austria, in which he remained sixty
years.

That I may not here interrupt my story, I shall give some account of
the life of my cousin Baron Francis Trenck, so renowned in the war
of 1741, in another part, and who fell, at last, the shameful
sacrifice of envy and avarice, and received the reward of all his
great and faithful services in the prison of the Spielberg.

The vindication of the family of the Trencks requires I should speak
of him; nor will I, in this, suffer restraint from the fear of any
man, however powerful. Those indeed who sacrificed a man most
ardent in his country's service to their own private and selfish
views, are now in their graves.

I shall insert no more of his history here than what is interwoven
with my own, and relate the rest in its proper place.

A revision of his suit was at this time instituted. Scarcely was I
arrived in Vienna before his confidential agent, M. Leber, presented
me to Prince Charles and the Emperor; both knew the services of
Trenck, and the malice of his enemies; therefore, permission for me
to visit him in his prison, and procure him such assistance as he
might need, was readily granted. On my second audience, the Emperor
spoke so much in my persecuted cousin's favour that I became highly
interested; he commanded me to have recourse to him on all
occasions; and, moreover, owned the president of the council of war
was a man of a very wicked character, and a declared enemy of
Trenck. This president was the Count of Lowenwalde, who, with his
associates, had been purposely selected as men proper to oppress the
best of subjects.

The suit soon took another face; the good Empress Queen, who had
been deceived, was soon better informed, and Trenck's innocence
appeared, on the revision of the process most evidently. The trial,
which had cost them twenty-seven thousand florins, and the sentence
which followed, were proved to have been partial and unjust; and
that sixteen of Trenck's officers, who most of them had been broken
for different offences, had perjured themselves to insure his
destruction.

It is a most remarkable circumstance that public notice was given,
in the Vienna Gazette, to the following purport.

"All those who have any complaints to make against Trenck, let them
appear, and they shall receive a ducat per day, so long as the
prosecution continues."

It will readily be imagined how fast his accusers would increase,
and what kind of people they were. The pay of these witnesses alone
amounted to fifteen thousand florins. I now began the labour in
concurrence with Doctor Gerhauer, and the cause soon took another
turn; but such was the state of things, it would have been necessary
to have broken all the members of the council of war, as well as
counsellor Weber, a man of great power. Thus, unfortunately,
politics began to interfere with the course of justice.

The Empress Queen gave Trenck to understand she required he should
ask her pardon; and on that condition all proceedings should be
stopped, and he immediately set at liberty. Prince Charles, who
knew the court of Vienna, advised me also to persuade my cousin to
comply; but nothing could shake his resolution. Feeling his right
and innocence, he demanded strict justice; and this made ruin more
swift.

I soon learned Trenck must fall a sacrifice--he was rich--his
enemies already had divided among them more than eighty thousand
florins of his property, which was all sequestered, and in their
hands. They had treated him too cruelly, and knew him too well, not
to dread his vengeance the moment he should recover his freedom.

I was moved to the soul at his sufferings, and as he had vented
public threats, at the prospect of approaching victory over his
enemies, they gained over the Court Confessor: and, dreading him as
they did, put every wily art in practice to insure his destruction.
I therefore, in the fulness of my heart, made him the brotherly
proposition of escaping, and, having obtained his liberty, to prove
his innocence to the Empress Queen. I told him my plan, which might
easily have been put in execution, and which he seemed perfectly
decided to follow.

Some days after, I was ordered to wait on field-marshal Count
Konigseck, governor of Vienna. This respectable old gentleman,
whose memory I shall ever revere, behaved to me like a father and
the friend of humanity, advised me to abandon my cousin, who he gave
me clearly to understand had betrayed me by having revealed my
proposed plan of escape, willing to sacrifice me to his ambition in
order to justify the purity of his intentions to the court, and show
that, instead of wishing to escape, he only desired justice.

Confounded at the cowardly action of one for whom I would willingly
have sacrificed my life, and whom I only sought to deliver, I
resolved to leave him to his fate, and thought myself exceedingly
happy that the worthy field-marshal would, after a fatherly
admonition, smother all farther inquiry into this affair.

I related this black trait of ingratitude to Prince Charles of
Lorraine, who prevailed on me to again see my cousin, without
letting him know I knew what had passed, and still to render him
every service in my power.

Before I proceed I will here give the reader a per-'trait of this
Trenck.

He was a man of superior talents and unbounded ambition; devoted,
even fanatically, to his sovereign; his boldness approached
temerity; he was artful of mind, wicked of heart, vindictive and
unfeeling. His cupidity equalled the utmost excess of avarice, even
in his thirty-third year, in which he died. He was too proud to
receive favours or obligations from any man, and was capable of
ridding himself of his best friend if he thought he had any claims
on his gratitude or could get possession of his fortune.

He knew I had rendered him very important services, supposed his
cause already won, having bribed the judges, who were to revise the
sentence, with thirty thousand florins, which money I received from
his friend Baron Lopresti, and conveyed to these honest counsellors.
I knew all his secrets, and nothing more was necessary to prompt his
suspicious and bad heart to seek my destruction.

Scarcely had a fortnight elapsed, after his having first betrayed
me, before the following remarkable event happened.

I left him one evening to return home, taking under my coat a bag
with papers and documents relating to the prosecution, which I had
been examining for him, and transcribing. There were at this time
about five-and-twenty officers in Vienna who had laid complaints
against him, and who considered me as their greatest enemy because I
had laboured earnestly in his defence. I was therefore obliged, on
all occasions, to be upon my guard. A report had been propagated
through Vienna that I was secretly sent by the King of Prussia to
free my cousin from imprisonment; he, however, constantly denied, to
the hour of his death, his ever having written to me at Berlin;
hence also it will follow the letter I received had been forged by
Jaschinsky.

Leaving the Arsenal, I crossed the court, and perceived I was
closely followed by two men in grey roquelaures, who, pressing upon
my heels, held loud and insolent conversation concerning the runaway
Prussian Trenck. I found they sought a quarrel, which was a thing
of no great difficulty at that moment, for a man is never more
disposed to duelling than when he has nothing to lose, and is
discontented with his condition. I supposed they were two of the
accusing officers broken by Trenck, and endeavoured to avoid them,
and gain the Jew's place.

Scarcely had I turned down the street that leads thither before they
quickened their pace. I turned round, and in a moment received a
thrust with a sword in the left side, where I had put my bag of
papers, which accident alone saved my life; the sword pierced
through the papers and slightly grazed the skin. I instantly drew,
and the heroes ran. I pursued, one of them tripped and fell. I
seized him; the guard came up: he declared he was an officer of the
regiment of Kollowrat, showed his uniform, was released, and I was
taken to prison. The Town Major came the next day, and told me I
had intentionally sought a quarrel with two officers, Lieutenants F-
g and K-n. These kind gentlemen did not reveal their humane
intention of sending me to the other world.

I was alone, could produce no witness, they were two. I must
necessarily be in the wrong, and I remained six days in prison. No
sooner was I released, than these my good friends sent to demand
satisfaction for the said pretended insult. The proposal was
accepted, and I promised to be at the Scotch gate, the place
appointed by them, within an hour. Having heard their names, I
presently knew them to be two famous swaggerers, who were daily
exercising themselves in fencing at the Arsenal, and where they
often visited Trenck. I went to my cousin to ask his assistance,
related what had happened, and, as the consequences of this duel
might be very serious, desired him to give me a hundred ducats, that
I might be able to fly if either of them should fall.

Hitherto I had expended my own money on his account, and had asked
no reimbursement; but what was my astonishment when this wicked man
said to me, with a sneer, "Since, good cousin, you have got into a
quarrel without consulting me, you will also get out of it without
my aid!" As I left him, he called me back to tell me, "I will take
care and pay your undertaker;" for he certainly believed I should
never return alive.

I ran now, half-despairing, to Baron Lopresti, who gave me fifty
ducats and a pair of pistols, provided with which I cheerfully
repaired to the field of battle.

Here I found half a dozen officers of the garrison. As I had few
acquaintances in Vienna, I had no second, except an old Spanish
invalid captain, named Pereyra, who met me going in all haste, and,
having learned whither, would not leave me.

Lieutenant K-n was the first with whom I fought, and who received
satisfaction by a deep wound in the right arm. Hereupon I desired
the spectators to prevent farther mischief; for my own part I had
nothing more to demand. Lieutenant F-g next entered the lists, with
threats, which were soon quieted by a lunge in the belly. Hereupon
Lieutenant M-f, second to the first wounded man, told me very
angrily--"Had I been your man, you would have found a very different
reception." My old Spaniard of eighty proudly and immediately
advanced, with his long whiskers and tottering frame, and cried--
"Hold! Trenck has proved himself a brave fellow, and if any man
thinks proper to assault him further, he must first take a breathing
with me." Everybody laughed at this bravado from a man who scarcely
could stand or hold a sword. I replied--"Friend, I am safe, unhurt,
and want not aid; should I be disabled, you then, if you think
proper, may take my place; but, as long as I can hold a sword, I
shall take pleasure in satisfying all these gentlemen one after
another." I would have rested myself a moment, but the haughty M-f,
enraged at the defeat of his friend, would not give me time, but
furiously attacked me, and, having been wounded twice, once in the
hand and again in the groin, he wanted to close and sink me to the
grave with himself, but I disarmed and threw him.

None of the others had any desire to renew the contest. My three
enemies were sent bleeding to town; and, as M-f appeared to be
mortally wounded, and the Jesuits and Capuchins of Vienna refused me
an asylum, I fled to the convent of Keltenberg.

I wrote from the convent to Colonel Baron Lopresti, who came to me.
I told him all that had passed, and by his good offices had liberty,
in a week, to appear once more at Vienna.

The blood of Lieutenant F-g was in a corrupt state, and his wound,
though not in itself dangerous, made his life doubtful. He sent to
entreat I would visit him, and, when I went, having first requested
I would pardon him, gave me to understand I ought to beware of my
cousin. I afterwards learned the traitorous Trenck had promised
Lieutenant F-g a company and a thousand ducats if he would find
means to quarrel with me and rid the world of me. He was deeply in
debt, and sought the assistance of Lieutenant K-n; and had not the
papers luckily preserved me, I had undoubtedly been despatched by
his first lunge. To clear themselves of the infamy of such an act,
these two worthy gentlemen had pretended I had assaulted them in the
streets.

I could no more resolve to see my ungrateful and dangerous kinsman,
who wished to have me murdered because I knew all his secrets, and
thought he should be able to gain his cause without obligation to me
or my assistance. Notwithstanding all his great qualities, his
marked characteristic certainly was that of sacrificing everything
to his private views, and especially to his covetousness, which was
so great that, even at his time of life, though his fortune amounted
to a million and a half, he did not spend per day more than thirty
kreutzers.

No sooner was it known that I had forsaken Trenck than General Count
Lowenwalde, his most ardent enemy, and president of the first
council of war, by which he had been condemned, desired to speak to
me, promised every sort of good fortune and protection, if I would
discover what means had secretly been employed in the revision of
the process; and went so far as to offer me four thousand florins if
I would aid the prosecution against my cousin. Here I learned the
influence of villains in power, and the injustice of judges at
Vienna. The proposal I rejected with disdain, and rather determined
to seek my fortune in the East Indies than continue in a country
where, under the best of Queens, the most loyal of subjects, and
first of soldiers, might be rendered miserable by interested, angry,
and corrupt courtiers. Certain it is, as I now can prove, though
the bitterest of my enemies, and whose conduct towards me merited my
whole resentment, he was the best soldier in the Austrian army, had
been liberal of his blood and fortune in the Imperial service, and
would still so have continued had not his wealth, and his contempt
for Weber and Lowenwalde put him in the power of those wretches who
were the avowed enemies of courage and patriotism, and who only
could maintain their authority, and sate their thirst of gain, by
the base and wicked arts of courts. Had my cousin shared the
plunder of the war among these men, he had not fallen the martyr of
their intrigues, and died in the Spielberg. His accusers were,
generally, unprincipled men of ruined fortunes, and so insufficient
were their accusations that a useful member of society ought not,
for any or all of them, to have suffered an hour's imprisonment.
Being fully informed, both of all the circumstances of the
prosecution and the inmost secrets of his heart, justice requires I
should thus publicly declare this truth and vindicate his memory.
While living he was my bitterest enemy, and even though dead, was
the cause of all my future sufferings; therefore the account I shall
give of him will certainly be the less liable to suspicion, where I
shall show that he, as well as myself, deserved better of Austria.

I was resolved forever to forsake Vienna. The friends of Trenck all
became distrustful of him because of his ingratitude to me. Prince
Charles still endeavoured to persuade me to a reconciliation, and
gave me a letter of recommendation to General Brown, who then
commanded the Imperial army in Italy. But more anxious of going to
India, I left Vienna in August, 1748, desirous of owing no
obligation to that city or its inhabitants, and went for Holland.
Meantime, the enemies of Trenck found no one to oppose their
iniquitous proceedings, and obtained a sentence of imprisonment, in
the Spielberg, where he too late repented having betrayed his
faithful adviser, and prudent friend. I pitied him, and his judges
certainly deserved the punishment they inflicted: yet to his last
moments he showed his hatred towards me was rooted, and, even in the
grave, strove by his will to involve me in misfortune, as will
hereafter be seen.

I fled from Vienna, would to God it had been for ever; but fate by
strange ways, and unknown means, brought me back where Providence
thought proper I should become a vessel of wrath and persecution: I
was to enact my part in Europe, and not in Asia. At Nuremberg I met
with a body of Russians, commanded by General Lieuwen, my mother's
relation, who were marching to the Netherlands, and were the peace-
makers of Europe. Major Buschkow, whom I had known when Russian
resident at Vienna, prevailed on me to visit him, and presented me
to the General. I pleased him, and may say, with truth, he behaved
to me like a friend and a father. He advised me to enter into the
Russian service, and gave me a company of dragoons, in the regiment
of Tobolski, on condition I should not leave him, but employ myself
in his cabinet: and his confidence and esteem for me were
unbounded.

Peace followed; the army returned to Moravia, without firing a
musket, and the head-quarters were fixed at Prosnitz.

In this town a public entertainment was given, by General Lieuwen,
on the coronation day of the Empress Elizabeth; and here an
adventure happened to me, which I shall ever remember, as a warning
to myself, and insert as a memento to others.

The army physician, on this day, kept a Faro bank for the
entertainment of the guests. My stock of money consisted of two and
twenty ducats. Thirst of gain, or perhaps example, induced me to
venture two of these, which I immediately lost, and very soon, by
venturing again to regain them, the whole two and twenty. Chagrined
at my folly, I returned home: I had nothing but a pair of pistols
left, for which, because of their workmanship, General Woyekow had
offered me twenty ducats. These I took, intending by their aid to
attempt to retrieve my loss. Firing of guns and pistols was heard
throughout the town, because of the festival, and I, in imitation of
the rest, went to the window and fired mine. After a few
discharges, one of my pistols burst, and endangered my own hand, and
wounded my servant. I felt a momentary despondency, stronger than I
ever remember to have experienced before; insomuch that I was half
induced, with the remaining pistol, to shoot myself through the
head. I however, recovered my spirits, asked my servant what money
he had, and received from him three ducats. With these I repaired,
like a desperate gamester, once more to the Faro table, at the
General's, again began to play, and so extraordinary was my run of
luck, I won at every venture. Having recovered my principal, I
played on upon my winnings, till at last I had absolutely broke the
Doctor's bank: a new bank was set up, and I won the greatest part
of this likewise, so that I brought home about six hundred ducats.

Rejoiced at my good fortune, but recollecting my danger, I had the
prudence to make a solemn resolution never more to play at any game
of chance, to which I have ever strictly adhered.

It were to be wished young men would reflect upon the effects of
gaming, remembering that the love of play has made the most
promising and virtuous, miserable; the honest, knaves; and the
sincere, deceivers and liars. Officers, having first lost all their
own money, being entrusted with the soldiers' pay, have next lost
that also; and thus been cashiered, and eternally disgraced. I
might, at Prosnitz, have been equally rash and culpable. The first
venture, whether the gamester wins or loses, ensures a second; and,
with that, too often destruction. My good fortune was almost
miraculous, and my subsequent resolution very uncommon; and I
entreat and conjure my children, when I shall no longer be living to
advise and watch for their welfare, most determinedly to avoid play.
I seemed preserved by Providence from this evil but to endure much
greater.

General Lieuwen, my kind patron, sent me, from Crakow, to conduct a
hundred and forty sick men down the Vistula to Dantzic, where there
were Russian vessels to receive and transport them to Riga.

I requested permission of the General to proceed forward and visit
my mother and sister, whom I was very desirous to see: at Elbing,
therefore, I resigned the command to Lieutenant Platen, and,
attended by a servant, rode to the bishopric of Ermeland, where I
appointed an interview with them in a frontier village.

Here an incident happened that had nearly cost me my life. The
Prussians, some days before, had carried off a peasant's son from
this village, as a recruit. The people were all in commotion. I
wore leathern breeches, and the blue uniform of the Russian cavalry.
They took me for a Prussian, at the door, and fell upon me with
every kind of weapon. A chasseur, who happened to be there, and the
landlord, came to my assistance, while I, battling with the
peasants, had thrown two of them down. I was delivered, but not
till I had received two violent bruises, one on the left arm, and
another which broke the bridge of my nose. The landlord advised me
to escape as fast as possible, or that the village would rise and
certainly murder me; my servant, therefore, who had retired for
defence, with a pair of pistols, into the oven, got ready the horses
and we rode off.

I had my bruises dressed at the next village; my hand and eyes were
exceedingly swelled, but I was obliged to ride two miles farther, to
the town of Ressel, before I could find an able surgeon, and here I
so far recovered in a week, that I was able to return to Dantzic.
My brother visited me while at Ressel, but my good mother had the
misfortune, as she was coming to me, to be thrown out of her
carriage, by which her arm was broken, so that she and my sister
were obliged to return, and I never saw her more.

I was now at Dantzic, with my sick convoy, where another most
remarkable event happened, which I, with good reason, shall ever
remember.

I became acquainted with a Prussian officer, whose name I shall
conceal out of respect to his very worthy family; he visited me
daily, and we often rode out together in the neighbourhood of
Dantzic.

My faithful servant became acquainted with his, and my astonishment
was indeed great when he one day said to me, with anxiety, "Beware,
sir, of a snare laid for you by Lieutenant N-; he means to entice
you out of town and deliver you up to the Prussians." I asked him
where he learned this. "From the lieutenant's servant," answered
he, "who is my friend, and wishes to save me from misfortune."

I now, with the aid of a couple of ducats, discovered the whole
affair, and learned it was agreed, between the Prussian resident,
Reimer, and the lieutenant, that the latter should entice me into
the suburb of Langfuhr, where there was an inn on the Prussian
territories. Here eight recruiting under-officers were to wait
concealed, and seize me the moment I entered the house, hurry me
into a carriage, and drive away for Lauenberg in Pomerania. Two
under-officers were to escort me, on horseback, as far as the
frontiers, and the remainder to hold and prevent me from calling for
help, so long as we should remain on the territories of Dantzic.

I farther learned my enemies were only to be armed with sabres, and
that they were to wait behind the door. The two officers on
horseback were to secure my servant, and prevent him from riding off
and raising an alarm.

These preparations might easily have been rendered fruitless, by my
refusing to accept the proposal of the lieutenant, but vanity gave
me other advice, and resentment made me desirous of avenging myself
for such detestable treachery.

Lieutenant N- came, about noon, to dine with me as usual, was more
pensive and serious than I had ever observed him before, and left me
at four in the afternoon, after having made a promise to ride early
next day with him as far as Langfuhr. I observed my consent gave
him great pleasure, and my heart then pronounced sentence on the
traitor. The moment he had left me I went to the Russian resident,
M. Scheerer, an honest Swiss, related the whole conspiracy, and
asked whether I might not take six of the men under my command for
my own personal defence. I told him my plan, which he at first
opposed; but seeing me obstinate, he answered at last, "Do as you
please; I must know nothing of the matter, nor will I make myself
responsible."

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