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our memory justicewhen we are dead! Fame plants her laurels over the grave; and there they flourish best。

〃BARON TRENCK

〃Schangulach; near Konigsberg; April 30th; 1787。〃

〃P。SI have spoken; worthy Professor; the feelings of my heart; in answer to your kind panegyric。  You will but do me justice; when you believe I think and act as I write with respect to my influence at court; it is as insignificant at Berlin as at Vienna or at Constantinople〃


Among the various letters I have received; as it may answer a good purpose; I hope the reader will not think the insertion of the following improper。

In a letter from an unknown correspondent; who desired me to speak for this person at Berlin; eight others were enclosed。  They came from the above person in distress; to this correspondent:  and I was requested to let them appear in the Berlin Journal。  I selected two of them; and here present them to the world; as it can do me injury; while they describe an unhappy victim of an extraordinary kind:  and may perhaps obtain him some relief。

Should this hope be verified; I am acquainted with him who wishes to remain concealed; can introduce him to the knowledge of such as might wish to interfere in his behalf。  Should they not; the reader will still find them well…written and affecting letters; such as may inspire compassion。  The following is the first of those I selected。


LETTER I

〃Neuland; Feb 12th; 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 ought to have been classed among the unhappy multitudes whose sufferings have sunk them to despondency。

〃Baron Trenck; that man of many woes; once so despised; but who now is held in admiration; where he was before so much the object of hatred; who now speaks so loudly in his own defence; where; formerly; the man who had but whispered his name would have lived suspected; Baron Trenck you propose as an example of salvation for me。  You are wrong。  Have you considered how dissimilar our past lives have been; how different; too; are our circumstances?  Or; omitting these; have you considered to whom you would have me appeal?

〃In 1767; I became acquainted; in Vienna; with this sufferer of fortitude; this agreeable companion。  We are taught that a noble aspect bespeaks a corresponding mind; this I believe him to possess。 But what expectations can I form from Baron Trenck?

〃I will briefly answer the questions you have put。  Baron Trenck was a man born to inherit great estates; this and the fire of his youth; fanned by flattering hopes from his famous kinsman; rendered him too haughty to his King; and this alone was the origin of all his future sufferings。  I; on the contrary; though the son of a Silesian nobleman of property; did not inherit so much as the pay of a common soldier; the family having been robbed by the hand of power; after being accused by wickedness under the mask of virtue。  You know my father's fate; the esteem in which he was held by the Empress Theresa; and that a pretended miracle was the occasion of his fall。 Suddenly was he plunged from the height to which industry; talents; and virtue had raised him; to the depth of poverty。  At length; at the beginning of the seven years' war; one of the King of Prussia's subjects represented him to the Austrian court as a dangerous correspondent of Marshal Schwerin's。  Then at sixty years of age; my father was seized at Jagerndorf; and imprisoned in the fortress of Gratz; in Styria。  He had an allowance just sufficient to keep him alive in his dungeon; but; for the space of seven years; never beheld the sun rise or set。  I was a boy when this happened; however; I was not heard。  I only received some pecuniary relief from the Empress; with permission to shed my blood in her defence。 In this situation we first vowed eternal friendship; but from this I soon was snatched by my father's enemies。  What the Empress had bestowed; her ministers tore from me。  I was seized at midnight; and was brought; in company with two other officers; to the fortress of Gratz。  Here I remained immured six years。  My true name was concealed; and another given me。

〃Peace being restored; Trenck; I; and my father were released; but the mode of our release was very different。  The first obtained his freedom at the intercession of Theresa; she; too; afforded him a provision。  We; on the contrary; according to the amnesty; stipulated in the treaty of peace; were led from our dungeons as state prisoners; without inquiry concerning the verity or falsehood of our crimes。  Extreme poverty; wretchedness; and misery; were our reward for the sufferings we had endured。

〃Not only was my health destroyed; but my jawbone was lost; eaten away by the scurvy。  I laid before Frederic the Great the proofs of the calamities I had undergone; and the dismal state to which I was reduced; by his foe; and for his sake; entreated bread to preserve me and my father from starving; but his ear was deaf to my prayer; his heart insensible to my sighs。

〃Providence; however; raised me up a saviour;Count Gellhorn was the man。  After the taking of Breslau; he had been also sent a state prisoner to Gratz。  During his imprisonment; he had heard the report of my sufferings and my innocence。  No sooner did he learn I was released; than he became my benefactor; my friend; and restored me to the converse of men; to which I had so long been dead。

〃I defer the continuance of my narrative to the next post。  The remembrance of past woes inflict new ones。  I am eternally。〃


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 obliged to listen to; and approve; or suffer violence from one stronger than myself。

〃The society of men or books; everything that could console or amuse; were forbidden me; and I considered it as wonderful that I did not myself grow mad; in the company of this madman。  Four hard winters I existed without feeling the feeble emanation of a winter sun; much less the warmth of fire。  The madman felt more pity than my keeper; and lent me his cloak to cover my body; though the other denied me a truss of straw; notwithstanding I had lost the use of my hands and feet。  The place where we were confined was called a chamber; it rather resembled the temple of Cloacina。  The noxious damps and vapours so poisoned my blood that an unskilful surgeon; who tortured me during nine months; with insult as a Prussian traitor; and state criminal; I lost the greatest part of my jaw。

〃Schottendorf was our governor and tyrant; a man who repaid the friendship he found in the mansion of my fatherswith cruelty。  He was ripe for the sickle; and Time cut him off。  Tormentini and Galer were his successors in office; by them we were carefully watched; but we were treated with commiseration。  Their precautions rendered imprisonment less wretched。  Ever shall I hold their memory sacred。 Yet; benevolent as they were; their goodness was exceeded by that of Rottensteiner; the head gaoler。  He considered his prisoners as his children; and he was their benefactor。  Of this I had experience; during two years after the release of Hallasch。

〃Here I but cursorily describe misery; at which the monarch shall shudder; if the blood of a tyrant flow not in his veins。  Theresa could not wish these things。  But she was fallible; and not omniscient。

〃From the above narrative; you will perceive how opposite the effects must be which the histories of Baron Trenck and of myself must produce。

〃Trenck left his dungeon shielded from contempt; the day of freedom was the day of triumph。  I; on the contrary; was exposed to every calamity。  The spirit of Trenck again raised itself。  I have laboured many a night that I might neither beg nor perish the following day:  working for judges who neither knew law nor had powers of mind to behold the beauty of justice:  settling accounts that; item after item; did not prove that the lord they were intended for; was an imbecile dupe。

〃Trenck remembers his calamities; but the remembrance is advantageous to himself and his family; while with me; the past did but increase; did but agonise; the present and the future。  He was not like me; obliged to crouch in presence of those vulgar; those incapable minds; that do but consider the bent back as the footstool of pride。  Every man is too busy to act in behalf of others; pity me therefore; but advise me not to hope assistance; by pet

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