The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck-1 [8]
second and third battalions of guards. We had only four field pieces, and our squadron was stationed in one of the suburbs. Our advance posts, towards evening, were driven back into the town, and the hussars entered pell-mell: the enemy's light troops swarmed over the country, and my commanding officer sent me immediately to receive the King's orders. After much search, I found him at the top of a steeple, with a telescope in his hand. Never did I see him so disturbed or undecided as on this occasion. Orders were immediately given that we should retreat through the city, into the opposite suburb, where we were to halt, but not unsaddle.
We had not been here long before a most heavy rain fell, and the night became exceedingly dark. My cousin Trenck made his approach about nine in the evening, with his pandour and janissary music, and set fire to several houses. They found we were in the suburb, and began to fire upon us from the city windows. The tumult became extreme: the city was too full for us to re-enter: the gate was shut, and they fired from above at us with our field-pieces. Trenck had let in the waters upon us, and we were up to the girths by midnight, and almost in despair. We lost seven men, and my horse was wounded in the neck.
The King, and all of us, had certainly been made prisoners had my cousin, as he has since told me, been able to continue the assault he had begun: but a cannon ball having wounded him in the foot, he was carried off, and the pandours retired. The corps of Nassau arrived next day to our aid; we quitted Kollin, and during the march the King said to me, "Your cousin had nearly played us a malicious prank last night, but the deserters say he is killed." He then asked what our relationship was, and there our conversation ended.
CHAPTER III.
It was about the middle of December when we came to Berlin, where I was received with open arms. I became less cautious than formerly, and, perhaps, more narrowly observed. A lieutenant of the foot guards, who was a public Ganymede, and against whom I had that natural antipathy and abhorrence I have for all such wretches, having indulged himself in some very impertinent jokes on the secret of my amour, I bestowed on him the epithet he deserved: we drew our swords, and he was wounded. On the Sunday following I presented myself to pay my respects to his Majesty on the parade, who said to me as he passed, "The storm and the thunder shall rend your heart; beware!" {1} He added nothing more.
Some little time after I was a few minutes too late on the parade; the King remarked it, and sent me, under arrest, to the foot-guard at Potzdam. When I had been here a fortnight, Colonel Wartensleben came, and advised me to petition for pardon. I was then too much a novice in the modes of the court to follow his counsel, nor did I even remark the person who gave it me was himself a most subtle courtier. I complained bitterly that I had so long been deprived of liberty, for a fault which was usually punished by three, or, at most, six days' arrest. Here accordingly I remained.
Eight days after, the King being come to Potzdam, I was sent by General Bourke to Berlin, to carry some letters, but without having seen the King. On my return I presented myself to him on the parade; and as our squadron was garrisoned at Berlin, I asked, "Does it please your Majesty that I should go and join my corps?" "Whence came you?" answered he. "From Berlin." "And where were you before you went to Berlin?" "Under arrest." "Then under arrest you must remain!"
I did not recover my liberty till three days before our departure for Silesia, towards which we marched, with the utmost speed, in the beginning of May, to commence our second campaign.
Here I must recount an event which happened that winter, which became the source of all my misfortunes, and to which I must entreat my readers will pay the utmost attention; since this error, if innocence can be error, was the cause that the most faithful and the best of subjects became bewildered
We had not been here long before a most heavy rain fell, and the night became exceedingly dark. My cousin Trenck made his approach about nine in the evening, with his pandour and janissary music, and set fire to several houses. They found we were in the suburb, and began to fire upon us from the city windows. The tumult became extreme: the city was too full for us to re-enter: the gate was shut, and they fired from above at us with our field-pieces. Trenck had let in the waters upon us, and we were up to the girths by midnight, and almost in despair. We lost seven men, and my horse was wounded in the neck.
The King, and all of us, had certainly been made prisoners had my cousin, as he has since told me, been able to continue the assault he had begun: but a cannon ball having wounded him in the foot, he was carried off, and the pandours retired. The corps of Nassau arrived next day to our aid; we quitted Kollin, and during the march the King said to me, "Your cousin had nearly played us a malicious prank last night, but the deserters say he is killed." He then asked what our relationship was, and there our conversation ended.
CHAPTER III.
It was about the middle of December when we came to Berlin, where I was received with open arms. I became less cautious than formerly, and, perhaps, more narrowly observed. A lieutenant of the foot guards, who was a public Ganymede, and against whom I had that natural antipathy and abhorrence I have for all such wretches, having indulged himself in some very impertinent jokes on the secret of my amour, I bestowed on him the epithet he deserved: we drew our swords, and he was wounded. On the Sunday following I presented myself to pay my respects to his Majesty on the parade, who said to me as he passed, "The storm and the thunder shall rend your heart; beware!" {1} He added nothing more.
Some little time after I was a few minutes too late on the parade; the King remarked it, and sent me, under arrest, to the foot-guard at Potzdam. When I had been here a fortnight, Colonel Wartensleben came, and advised me to petition for pardon. I was then too much a novice in the modes of the court to follow his counsel, nor did I even remark the person who gave it me was himself a most subtle courtier. I complained bitterly that I had so long been deprived of liberty, for a fault which was usually punished by three, or, at most, six days' arrest. Here accordingly I remained.
Eight days after, the King being come to Potzdam, I was sent by General Bourke to Berlin, to carry some letters, but without having seen the King. On my return I presented myself to him on the parade; and as our squadron was garrisoned at Berlin, I asked, "Does it please your Majesty that I should go and join my corps?" "Whence came you?" answered he. "From Berlin." "And where were you before you went to Berlin?" "Under arrest." "Then under arrest you must remain!"
I did not recover my liberty till three days before our departure for Silesia, towards which we marched, with the utmost speed, in the beginning of May, to commence our second campaign.
Here I must recount an event which happened that winter, which became the source of all my misfortunes, and to which I must entreat my readers will pay the utmost attention; since this error, if innocence can be error, was the cause that the most faithful and the best of subjects became bewildered