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much respect to Government as not to appear in public, it would be cruel to make any search after me; upon which it was decided, that if I remained concealed no further search should be made, but that if I appeared either in England or Scotland I should be secured.'

This scanty portion of kindness was of no benefit whatever to the countess. 'It was not,' says she, 'sufficient for me, unless I would submit to expose my son to beggary.' With her wonted spirit, she determined that, having already risked her life for the safety of the father, | she would once more hazard it for the fortune of the child. On first hearing of her husband's apprehension, she had thought it prudent to conceal many important family papers and other valuables; and having no person at hand with whom they could be safely entrusted, had hid them under-ground, in a place known only to the gardener, in whom she could entirely confide. It had proved a happy precaution; for after her departure the house had been searched, and as she expressed it, 'God only knows what might have transpired from those papers.' In addition to the danger of their being discovered, there was the imminent risk of their being destroyed by damp, so that no time must be lost in regaining them before too late. She therefore determined on another journey to the north, and, for greater secrecy, on

horseback, though this mode of travelling, which was new to her, was extremely fatiguing. She, however, with her maid Mrs. Evans, and a servant that could be depended on, set out from London, and reached Traquair in safety, and without any one being aware of her intentions. Here she ventured to rest two days, in the society of her sister-in-law and Lord Traquair, feeling security in the conviction, that as the lordlieutenant of the county was an old friend of her husband's, he would not allow any search to be made after her without first giving her warning to abscond. From thence she proceeded to Terregles, whither it was supposed she came with the permission of Government; and to keep up that opinion, she invited her neighbours to visit her. That same night she dug up the papers from their hidingplace, where happily they had sustained no injury, and sent them at once by safe hands to Traquair. This was accomplished just in time, for the magistrates of Dumfries began to entertain suspicions of her right to be there, and desired. to see her leave from Government. On hearing this, 'I expressed,' she says, 'my surprise that they had been so backward in paying their respects; "but," said I, "better late than never be sure to tell them that they shall be welcome whenever This they choose to come." was after dinner; but I lost

no time to put everything in I did whatever I pleased in despite of all his designs, and that I had given him more trouble than any woman in Europe.

readiness, yet with all possible secrecy; and the next morning,, before daybreak, I set off again for London, with the same attendants, and, as before, I put up at the smallest inns, and arrived safe once more.'

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kept myself as closely concealed as possible, till the heat of these rumours had abated. In the meanwhile, I took the opinion of a very famous lawyer, who

She met her husband and children at Paris, whither they had come from Bruges to meet her.

George 1. could not forgive Lady Nithsdale for the heroic, part she had acted. This was was a man of the strictest promanifested in various ways. bity; he advised me to go off When he was petitioned for, as soon as they had ceased I followed dower by the widows of the searching for me. peers who had been found his advice, and about a fortguilty of treason, he granted the night after I escaped, without request, with only one exception; any accident whatever.' that exception was the Countess of Nithsdale, whom he declared not to be entitled to the same privilege. He is even said to have forbidden her name to be uttered in his presence. Her visit to Scotland only served to increase his wrath. A lady informed me,' says Lady Nithsdale, 'that the king was extremely incensed at the news; that he had issued orders to have me arrested; adding, that

They soon afterwards joined the Pretender's Court at Avignon; but, finding the mode of life there little to their taste, shortly after returned to Italy, where they lived in great privacy. Lord Nithsdale died at Rome in 1744; his wife survived him five years.

CHAPTER III.

THE PRISON EXPLOITS OF BARON TRENCK.

AMONG those who have been at the age of thirteen, and in the victims of a despotic power, | 1743, when not quite eighteen, and who have struggled man-, found himself a cornet in the fully and perseveringly to defeat body-guards of the Prussian its cruelty, the name of Frede- sovereign, and high in favour rick, Baron Trenck, takes a fore- with that monarch, Frederick most place. Born of an eminent the Great. and noble family, he entered the University of Königsberg

But when, some time after, it came to Frederick's ears that Trenck had secret re

lations with a member of the royal family that cast a stain upon his kingly honour, he was treated with great harshness; and his enemies, of whom he had many, concocted a plan to effect his ruin.

In the Austrian service there was a first cousin and namesake of Trenck, Baron Francis Trenck, who commanded the Pandours, a heartless, godless man, and stained with innumerable vices. In the campaigns of 1744 and 1745 he had incessantly harassed the Prussian army, inflicting on it many severe blows, and on one occasion he narrowly missed making Frederick a prisoner. An intercourse between this obnoxious personage and one of the officers of the body-guards, was consequently not pleasing to the monarch. Francis had openly declared his intention to bequeath all his vast property to his cousin, and had sent back to him, with a friendly billet, two of his cousin's horses, which had been captured by the Pandours. In an evil hour Trenck was induced by his secret enemies to write a letter to his cousin, thanking him for his kindness, and asking for some of his fine Hungarian horses. The man who prompted him to ask for the horses, and offered to forward the letter, was his own captain. This officer was a favourite and spy of the king, and cherished an old grudge against Trenck, and was likewise considerably in his debt.

It is doubtful whether the letter was sent; but four months afterwards, an answer, purporting to be from the Austrian baron, was delivered to Trenck by the camp postman. The answer, which the receiver believes was a forgery, contained expressions on which a suspicious mind might put sinister constructions.

On the day after the receipt of this fatal letter, Trenck was arrested, deprived of his commission, and sent off from the army under an escort of fifty hussars, to be imprisoned in the fortress of Glatz. It was the intention of the king to limit to a year the period of confinement; but of this intention Trenck was unfortunately left in ignorance. Captivity for life was the dreary prospect which was ever before him. He petitioned for a trial by courtmartial, desiring no favour if he were found guilty. The petition remained unnoticed, and this confirmed him in his idea that he had nothing to hope. At the commencement of his imprisonment, his situation was as bearable as imprisonment can be to a young and high-spirited man, who knows that he is unjustly punished. He was placed in an apartment belonging to an officer of the guard, had his servants to wait on him, could obtain whatever books he wanted, and was allowed the privilege of walking on the ramparts. In one instance, still more indulgence underhand was

The first scheme was destroyed in its birth by the treachery of one of the parties taking an active share in it, and the result was, that Trenck was closely confined, and guarded with greater caution. This additional severity only made the prisoner more eager to recover his free

granted. He was permitted to go out hunting, while a friend lay in his bed to personate him; he pledged his honour not to attempt an escape, and he adhered to his pledge. Of money he had an abundance, for he had opened a correspondence with the Princess Amelia, and she supplied him with a lavishdom, and he determined that hand. Most of the officers in he would either regain it or die the garrison at Glatz were reck-in the attempt. The difficulty less, dissatisfied, needy men, of the undertaking had greatly destitute of principle, and ready increased since his failure, for to hazard everything for gold. he was now a captive in the Instead of counselling patience, tower of the citadel, in an ironthey laboured to irritate the barred room, ninety feet from prisoner against the monarch, the ground; but he was not a and to push him into desperate man to be discouraged by diffimeasures. They supposed that culties. the money he so freely distributed came all from Hungary, furnished by the Pandour chest, and they advised him not to let his freedom depend upon the will of Frederick, but to enjoy it in his despite.

During many months, though daily tempted and provoked by assertions that he was to be incarcerated for life, the prisoner turned a deaf ear to the rash advice of the unprincipled officers, many of whom were perpetually suggesting plans for his escape, and even offering to bear him company. He could not bring himself to give up his country and his hopes of advancement. But when peace was concluded, and his commission was given to another, and there appeared no signs of his regaining his liberty, he began to listen to his advisers.

He commenced by securing in the town of Glatz a hidingplace, to which he could resort after his escape from the fortress. This was effected for him by one of the dissatisfied officers. Having notched his knife, he then set to work to saw through the bars of his window; the progress, however, was so slow, there being no less than eight bars to remove, that he found it necessary to use a file. With this he was supplied by another officer. Having at length filed through the grating, he then proceeded to cut his portmanteau into thongs, and tearing his sheets into strips, which he sewed together so as to form a rope capable of supporting his weight, and long enough to reach the ground. He chose a dark and rainy night for quitting his prison,

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ATTEMPTED ESCAPE FROM PRISON.-Adventure and Peril, p. 36.

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