The Life And Adventures Of Baron Trenck - free ebook by Friedrich Trenck

the LIFE AND ADVENTURES of BARON TRENCK

translated by THOMAS HOLCROFT. Vol. I. CASSELL &amp; COMPANY, Limited : london , paris &amp; melbourne . 1892....

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the LIFE AND ADVENTURES of BARON TRENCK

translated by THOMAS HOLCROFT. Vol. II. CASSELL &amp; COMPANY, Limited : london , paris , new york &amp; melbourne . 1886....

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INTRODUCTION.

Thomas Holcroft, the translator of these Memoirs of Baron Trenck, was the author of about thirty plays, among which one, The Road to Ruin , produced in 1792, has kept its place upon the stage. He was born in December, 1745, the son of a shoemaker who did also a little business in horse-dealing. After early struggles, during which he contrived to learn French, German, and Italian, Holcroft contributed to a newspaper, turned actor, and wrote plays, which appeared between the years 1791 and 1806.

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INTRODUCTION.

There were two cousins Von der Trenck, who were barons descended from an ancient house in East Prussia, and were adventurous soldiers, to whom, as to the adventurous, there were adventures that lost nothing in the telling, for they were told by the authors’ most admiring friends—themselves. Franz, the elder, was born in 1711, the son of an Austrian general; and Frederick, whose adventures are here told, was the son of a Prussian major-general. Franz, at the age of seventeen, fought duels, and

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CHAPTER I.

Blessed shade of a beloved sister! The sacrifice of my adverse and dreadful fate! Thee could I never avenge! Thee could the blood of Weingarten never appease! No asylum, however sacred, should have secured him, had he not sought that last of asylums for human wickedness and human woes—the grave! To thee do I dedicate these few pages, a tribute of thankfulness; and, if future rewards there are, may the brightest of these rewards be thine. For us, and not for ours, may rewards be expected fr

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CHAPTER I.

I was born at Königsberg in Prussia, February 16, 1726, of one of the most ancient families of the country. My father, who was lord of Great Scharlach, Schakulack, and Meichen, and major-general of cavalry, died in 1740, after receiving eighteen wounds in the Prussian service. My mother was daughter of the president of the high court at Königsberg. After my father’s death she married Count Lostange, lieutenant-colonel in the Kiow regiment of cuirassiers, with whom she went and resided at Bres

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CHAPTER II.

In the beginning of September, 1744, war again broke out between the Houses of Austria and Prussia. We marched with all speed towards Prague, traversing Saxony without opposition. I will not relate in this place what the great Frederic said to us, with evident emotion, when surrounded by all his officers, on the morning of our departure from Potzdam. Should any one be desirous of writing the lives of him and his opponent, Maria Theresa, without flattery and without fear, let him apply to me, a

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CHAPTER II.

In the following part of my history it will appear I often had much money concealed under the ground and in the walls of my den, yet would I have given a hundred ducats for a morsel of bread, it could not have been procured. Money was to me useless. In this I resembled the miser, who hoards, yet hives in wretchedness, having no joy in gentle acts of benevolence. As proudly might I delight myself with my hidden treasure as such misers; nay, more, for I was secure from robbers. Had fastidious p

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CHAPTER III.

How wonderful is the hand of Providence! The wicked man fell a sacrifice to his crime, after having escaped a whole year, and the faithful, the benevolent-hearted Gelfhardt was thereby saved. The sentinels were now doubled, that any intercourse with them might be rendered more difficult. Gelfhardt again stood guard, but he had scarcely opportunity, without danger, to speak a few words: he thanked me for having preserved him, wished me better fortune, and told me the garrison, in a few days, wo

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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 S

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CHAPTER IV.

My last undertaking had employed me more than twelve months, and so weakened me that I appeared little better than a skeleton. Notwithstanding the greatness of my spirit, I should have sunk into despondency, at seeing an end like this to all my labours, had I not still cherished a secret hope of escaping, founded on the friends I had gained among the officers. I soon felt the effects of the loss of my bed, and was a second time attacked by a violent fever, which would this time certainly have c

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CHAPTER IV.

A few days after the battle of Sorau, the usual camp postman brought me a letter from my cousin Trenck, the colonel of pandours, antedated at Effek four months, of which the following is a copy:— “Your letter, of the 12th of February, from Berlin, informs me you desire to have some Hungarian horses. On these you would come and attack me and my pandours. I saw with pleasure, during the last campaign, that the Prussian Trenck was a good soldier; and that I might give you some proofs of my attach

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CHAPTER V.

I was now first informed that the King had only condemned me to a year’s imprisonment, in order to learn whether his suspicions were well founded. My mother had petitioned for me, and was answered, “Your son must remain a year imprisoned, as a punishment for his rash correspondence.” Of this I was ignorant, and it was reported in Glatz that my imprisonment was for life. I had only three weeks longer to repine for the loss of liberty, when I made this rash attempt. What must the King think? W

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CHAPTER V.

My consternation on the appearance of the Landgrave, with my letter in his hand, may well be supposed; I had the presence of mind, however, to deny my handwriting, and affect astonishment at so crafty a trick. The Landgrave endeavoured to convict me, told me what Lieutenant Kemnitz had repeated at Vienna concerning my possessing myself of Magdeburg, and thereby showed me how fully I had been betrayed. But as no such person existed as Lieutenant Kemnitz, and as my friend had fortunately conceal

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CHAPTER VI.

It may not be unnecessary to remark those fortunate circumstances that favoured our enterprise. The sun had just set as we took to flight; the hoar frost fell. No one would run the risk that we had done, by making so dangerous a leap. We heard a terrible noise behind us. Everybody knew us; but before they could go round the citadel, and through the town, in order to pursue us, we had got a full half league. The alarm guns were fired before we were a hundred paces distant; at which my friend w

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CHAPTER VI.

Peace had been concluded nine months. I was forgotten. At last, when I supposed all hope lost, the 25th of December, and the day of freedom, came. At the hour of parade, Count Schlieben, lieutenant of the guards, brought orders for my release! The sub-governor supposed me weaker in intellect than I was, and would not too suddenly tell me these tidings. He knew not the presence of mind, the fortitude, which the dangers I had seen had made habitual. My doors for the last time resounded! Sever

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CHAPTER VII.

For some years I lived in peace; my house was the rendezvous of the first people, who came to take the waters. I began to be more known among the very first and best people. I visited Professor Gellert at Leipzig, and asked his advice concerning what branch of literature he thought it was probable I might succeed in. He most approved my fables and tales, and blamed the excessive freedom with which I spoke in political writings. I neglected his advice, and many of the ensuing calamities were

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JOURNAL OF TRAVELS ON FOOT.

From Braunau, in Bohemia, through Bielitz, in Poland, to Meseritsch, and from Meseritsch, by Thorn, to Ebling; in the whole 169 miles, [3] performed without begging or stealing. January 18th, 1747.—From Braunau, by Politz, to Nachod, three miles, we having three florins forty-five kreutzers in our purse. Jan. 19.—To Neustadt. Here Schell bartered his uniform for an old coat, and a Jew gave him two florins fifteen kreutzers in exchange; from hence we went to Reichenau; in all, three miles. Jan.

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CHAPTER VIII.

From the year 1774 to 1777, I journeyed through England and France. I was intimate with Dr. Franklin, the American Minister, and with the Counts St. Germain and de Vergennes, who made me proposals to go to America; but I was prevented by my affection for my wife and children. My friend the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, who had been Governor of Magdeburg during my imprisonment, offered me a commission among the troops going to America, but I answered—“Gracious prince, my heart beats in the cause of

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CHAPTER VIII.

A maidservant came to the door, whom I knew; her name was Mary, and she had been born and brought up in my father’s house. She was terrified at seeing a sturdy fellow in a beggar’s dress; which perceiving, I asked, “Molly, do not you know me?” She answered, “No;” and I then discovered myself to her. I asked whether my brother-in-law was at home. Mary replied, “Yes; but he is sick in bed.” “Tell my sister, then,” said I, “that I am here.” She showed me into a room, and my sister presently c

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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

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LETTER I

“ Neuland , Feb 12 th , 1787. “I thought I had so satisfactorily answered you by my last, that you would have left me in peaceful possession of my sorrows! but your remarks, entreaties, and remonstrances, succeed each other with such rapidity, that I am induced to renew the contest. Cowardice, I believe, you are convinced, is not a native in my heart, and should I now yield, you might suppose that age and the miseries I have suffered, had weakened my powers of mind as well as body; and that I o

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LETTER II.

“ February 24, 1787. “Dear Friend,—After an interval of silence, remembering my promise, I again continue my story. “My personal sufferings have not been less than those of Trenck. His, I am acquainted with only from the inaccurate relations I have heard: my own I have felt. A colonel in the Prussian service, whose name was Hallasch, was four years my companion; he was insane, and believed himself the Christ that was to appear at the millennium: he persecuted me with his reveries, which I was

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CHAPTER X.

And now behold me at sea, on my voyage to Riga. I had eaten heartily before I went on board; a storm came on; I worked half the night, to aid the crew, but at length became sea-sick, and went to lie down. Scarcely had I closed my eyes before the master came with the joyful tidings, as he thought, that we were running for the port of Pillau. Far from pleasing, this, to me, was dreadful intelligence. I ran on deck, saw the harbour right before me, and a pilot coming off. The sea must now be e

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CHAPTER X.

On the 22nd of March I pursued my journey to Königsberg, but remained two days at the court of the Margrave of Brandenburg, where I was received with kindness. The Margrave had bestowed favours on me, during my imprisonment at Magdeburg. I departed thence through Soldin to Schildberg, here to visit my relation Sidau, who had married the daughter of my sister, which daughter my sister had by her first husband, Waldow, of whom I have before spoken. I found my kinsman a worthy man, and one who ma

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CHAPTER XI.

Scarcely had I been six weeks in this city before I had an adventure which I shall here relate; for, myself excepted, all the persons concerned in it are now dead. Intrigues properly belong to novels. This book is intended for a more serious purpose, and they are therefore here usually suppressed. It cannot be supposed I was a woman-hater. Most of the good or bad fortune I experienced originated in love. I was not by nature inconstant, and was incapable of deceit even in amours. In the ver

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CHAPTER XII.

How little did the Great Frederic know my heart. Without having offended, he had rendered me miserable, had condemned me to imprisonment at Glatz on mere suspicion, and on my flying thence, naked and destitute, had confiscated my paternal inheritance. Not contented with inflicting all these calamities, he would not suffer me peaceably to seek my fortune in a foreign land. Few are the youths who, in so short a time, being expelled their native country with disgrace, by their own efforts, merits

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HISTORY OF FRANCIS BARON TRENCK. WRITTEN BY FREDERICK BARON TRENCK, AS A NECESSARY SUPPLEMENT TO HIS OWN HISTORY.

Francis Baron Trenck was born in 1714, in Calabria, a province of Sicily. His father was then a governor and lieutenant-colonel there, and died in 1743, at Leitschau, in Hungary, lord of the rich manors of Prestowacz, Pleternitz, and Pakratz, in Sclavonia, and other estates in Hungary. His christian name was John; he was my father’s brother, and born in Königsberg in Prussia. The name of his mother was Kettler; she was born in Courland. Trenck was a gentleman of ancient family; and his grandf

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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 favou

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EPILOGUE.

Thomas Carlyle’s opinion of the author of this History is expressed in the following passages from his History of Friedrich II. of Prussia : “‘Frederick Baron Trenck,’ loud sounding phantasm, once famous in the world, now gone to the nurseries as mythical, was of this carnival (1742-3.) . . . A tall actuality in that time, swaggering about in sumptuous Life Guard uniform in his mess-rooms and assembly-rooms; much in love with himself, the fool! And I rather think, in spite of his dog insinuatio

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CHAPTER XIV.

And herewith ended my pleadings and my hopes. I had sacrificed my property, laboured through sixty-three inferior suits, and lost this great cause without a trial. I could have remained satisfied with the loss of the personal property: the booty of a soldier, like the wealth amassed by a minister, appears to me little better than a public robbery; but the acquirements of my ancestors, my birth-right by descent, of these I could not be deprived without excessive cruelty. Oh patience! patience!

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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

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