The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck-1 [15]
guilty. This haughty tone, in a youth, was displeasing, and I received no answer, which threw me into despair, and induced me to use every possible means to obtain my liberty.
My first care was to establish, by the intervention of an officer, a certain correspondence with the object of my heart. She answered, she was far from supposing I had ever entertained the least thought treacherous to my country; that she knew, too well, I was perfectly incapable, of dissimulation. She blamed the precipitate anger and unjust suspicions of the King; promised me speedy aid, and sent me a thousand ducats.
Had I, at this critical moment, possessed a prudent and intelligent friend, who could have calmed my impatience, nothing perhaps might have been more easy than to have obtained pardon from the King, by proving my innocence; or, it may be, than to have induced him to punish my enemies.
But the officers who then were at Glatz fed the flame of discontent. They supposed the money I so freely distributed came all from Hungary, furnished by the pandour chest; and advised me not to suffer my freedom to depend upon the will of the King, but to enjoy it in his despite.
It was not more easy to give this advice than to persuade a man to take it, who, till then, had never encountered anything but good fortune, and who consequently supported the reverse with impatience. I was not yet, however, determined; because I could not yet resolve to abandon my country, and especially Berlin.
Five months soon passed away in prison: peace was concluded; the King was returned to his capital; my commission in the guards was bestowed on another, when Lieutenant Piaschky, of the regiment of Fouquet, and Ensign Reitz, who often mounted guard over me, proposed that they and I should escape together. I yielded; our plan was fixed, and every preparatory step taken.
At that time there was another prisoner at Glatz, whose name was Manget, by birth a Swiss, and captain of cavalry in the Natzmerschen hussars; he had been broken, and condemned by a court-martial to ten years' imprisonment, with an allowance of only four rix-dollars per month.
Having done this man kindness, I was resolved to rescue him from bondage, at the same time that I obtained freedom for myself. I communicated my design, and made the proposal, which was accepted by him, and measures were taken; yet were we betrayed by this vile man, who thus purchased pardon and liberty.
Piaschky, who had been informed that Reitz was arrested, saved himself by deserting. I denied the fact in presence of Manget, with whom I was confronted, and bribed the Auditor with a hundred ducats. By this means Reitz only suffered a year's imprisonment, and the loss of his commission. I was afterwards closely confined in a chamber, for having endeavoured to corrupt the King's officers, and was guarded with greater caution.
Here I will interrupt my narrative, for a moment, to relate an adventure which happened between me and this Captain Manget, three years after he had thus betrayed me--that is to say, in 1749, at Warsaw.
I there met him by chance, and it is not difficult to imagine what was the salutation he received. I caned him; he took this ill, and challenged me to fight with pistols. Captain Heucking, of the Polish guards, was my second. We both fired together; I shot him through the neck at the first shot, and he fell dead on the field.
He alone, of all my enemies, ever died by my own hand; and he well merited his end, for his cowardly treachery towards the two brave fellows of whom I have spoken; and still more so with respect to myself, who had been his benefactor. I own, I have never reproached myself for this duel, by which I sent a rascal out of the world.
I return to my tale. My destiny at Glatz was now become more untoward and severe. The King's suspicions were increased, as likewise was his anger, by this my late attempt to escape.
Left to myself, I considered my situation in the worst point of view, and determined either on flight or death. The length and closeness
My first care was to establish, by the intervention of an officer, a certain correspondence with the object of my heart. She answered, she was far from supposing I had ever entertained the least thought treacherous to my country; that she knew, too well, I was perfectly incapable, of dissimulation. She blamed the precipitate anger and unjust suspicions of the King; promised me speedy aid, and sent me a thousand ducats.
Had I, at this critical moment, possessed a prudent and intelligent friend, who could have calmed my impatience, nothing perhaps might have been more easy than to have obtained pardon from the King, by proving my innocence; or, it may be, than to have induced him to punish my enemies.
But the officers who then were at Glatz fed the flame of discontent. They supposed the money I so freely distributed came all from Hungary, furnished by the pandour chest; and advised me not to suffer my freedom to depend upon the will of the King, but to enjoy it in his despite.
It was not more easy to give this advice than to persuade a man to take it, who, till then, had never encountered anything but good fortune, and who consequently supported the reverse with impatience. I was not yet, however, determined; because I could not yet resolve to abandon my country, and especially Berlin.
Five months soon passed away in prison: peace was concluded; the King was returned to his capital; my commission in the guards was bestowed on another, when Lieutenant Piaschky, of the regiment of Fouquet, and Ensign Reitz, who often mounted guard over me, proposed that they and I should escape together. I yielded; our plan was fixed, and every preparatory step taken.
At that time there was another prisoner at Glatz, whose name was Manget, by birth a Swiss, and captain of cavalry in the Natzmerschen hussars; he had been broken, and condemned by a court-martial to ten years' imprisonment, with an allowance of only four rix-dollars per month.
Having done this man kindness, I was resolved to rescue him from bondage, at the same time that I obtained freedom for myself. I communicated my design, and made the proposal, which was accepted by him, and measures were taken; yet were we betrayed by this vile man, who thus purchased pardon and liberty.
Piaschky, who had been informed that Reitz was arrested, saved himself by deserting. I denied the fact in presence of Manget, with whom I was confronted, and bribed the Auditor with a hundred ducats. By this means Reitz only suffered a year's imprisonment, and the loss of his commission. I was afterwards closely confined in a chamber, for having endeavoured to corrupt the King's officers, and was guarded with greater caution.
Here I will interrupt my narrative, for a moment, to relate an adventure which happened between me and this Captain Manget, three years after he had thus betrayed me--that is to say, in 1749, at Warsaw.
I there met him by chance, and it is not difficult to imagine what was the salutation he received. I caned him; he took this ill, and challenged me to fight with pistols. Captain Heucking, of the Polish guards, was my second. We both fired together; I shot him through the neck at the first shot, and he fell dead on the field.
He alone, of all my enemies, ever died by my own hand; and he well merited his end, for his cowardly treachery towards the two brave fellows of whom I have spoken; and still more so with respect to myself, who had been his benefactor. I own, I have never reproached myself for this duel, by which I sent a rascal out of the world.
I return to my tale. My destiny at Glatz was now become more untoward and severe. The King's suspicions were increased, as likewise was his anger, by this my late attempt to escape.
Left to myself, I considered my situation in the worst point of view, and determined either on flight or death. The length and closeness