river, he might reach the Saxon confines, which were not far distant. that to eat little might become habitual, but I have experienced the contrary. My hunger increased every day; and of all the trials of fortitude my whole life has afforded, this of eleven months was the most bitter.' Far from obtaining redress by his remonstrances and requests to be allowed a sufficiency of food, Trenck only drew on himself from the governor a volley of brutal insult. His solitude was almost complete. It was only once a week, on Wednesday, that he saw a human being. On that day, after his den had been cleaned out, the governor and town major paid their visit of inspection. All the rest of the week no one came near him, his pittance of bread and water being thrust in, once in twenty-that I might replace them, and four hours, through an aperture in the door. Nearly two months passed away before the mind of Trenck recovered his balance sufficiently to admit the hope of escaping. Hope at length came, and roused him to exertion. He had succeeded in making himself heard by the sentinel who guarded his window, and, among the number to whom he spoke, had found two good-natured fellows, who described exactly the situation of his prison. From them he learned that the door of the adjoining casemate was always left open. Could he but make his way into that casemate, and have a boat ready on the Elbe, or swim over that 'I worked through the iron, eighteen inches long, by which the night - table was fastened, and broke off the clinchings of the nails, but preserved their heads, that I might put them again in their places, and all might appear secure to my weekly visitors. This procured me tools to raise up the brick floor, under which I found earth. My first attempt was to work a hole through the wall, seven feet thick, behind, and concealed by the night-table. lay was of brick. I afterwards came to large hewn stones. I endeavoured accurately to number and remember the bricks, both of the flooring and the wall, so The first all might appear safe. This having accomplished, I proceeded. The day preceding visitation, all was carefully replaced, and the intervening mortar as carefully preserved; the whole had probably been whitewashed a hundred times; and that I might fill up the remaining interstices, I pounded the white stuff this afforded, wetted it, made a brush of my hair, then applied this plaster, washed it over, that the colour might be uniform, and afterwards stripped myself, and sat with my naked body against the place, by the heat of which it was dried. While labouring, I placed the stones and bricks upon my bedstead; and had they taken the precaution to come at any other time in the week, the stated Wednesday excepted, I had inevitably been discovered; but as no such accident befell me, in six months my Herculean labours gave me a prospect of success. Means were to be found to remove the rubbish from my prison, all of which in a wall so thick it was impossible to replace. Mortar and stone could not be removed; I therefore took the earth, scattered it about my chamber, and ground it under my feet the whole day, till I had reduced it to dust; this dust I strewed in the aperture of my window, making use of the loosened night table to stand upon; I tied splinters from my bedstead together with the ravelled yarn of an old stocking, and to this affixed a tuft of my hair. I worked a large hole under the middle grating, which could not be seen when standing on the ground, and through this I pushed my dust with the tool I had prepared in the outer window; then, waiting till the wind should happen to rise during the night, I brushed it away, it was blown off, and no appearance remained on the outside. By this single expedient I rid myself of at least three hundredweight of earth, and thus made room to continue my labours; yet, this being still insufficient, I had recourse to another artifice. I made little balls, and when the sentinel was walking, blew them through a paper tube out of the window. Into the empty space I put my mortar and stones, and worked on successfully. 'I cannot, however, describe my difficulties after having penetrated about two feet into the hewn stone. My tools were the irons I had dug out, which fastened my bedstead and nighttable. A compassionate soldier also gave me an old iron ramrod and a soldier's sheath knife, which did me excellent service, more especially the latter, as I shall presently more fully show. With these, too, I cut splinters from my bedstead, which aided me to pick the mortar from the interstices of the stone; yet the labour of penetrating through this seven-feet wall was incredible. The building was ancient, and the mortar occasionally quite petrified, so that the whole stone was obliged to be reduced to dust. After continuing my work unremittingly for six months, I at length approached the accomplishment of my hopes, as I knew by coming to the facing of brick, which now was only between me and the adjoining casemate.' Meanwhile, Trenck did not neglect to try his powers of seduction upon the soldiers who guarded him, and he was no less successful than he had been at Glatz. An old grenadier, whose name was Gefhardt, seems to have contracted a warm friendship for him. Gefhardt introduced to him a good-natured Jewess, Esther Heymannen, whose father had been for ten years a prisoner; she could therefore feel for Trenck. She consented to be his agent, and she brought over to his interest two other grenadiers. They procured for him paper, another knife and file; of which he contrived to obtain possession, by cutting splinters from his bedstead, so as to make a stick long enough to reach beyond the palisades. He now wrote to his sister, requesting that she would send by the Jewess 300 rixdollars to assist him in effecting his flight. He also wrote to the Austrian ambassador at Berlin, and enclosed a draft for 1000 florins, payable from his property at Vienna, which sum he desired might be given to the bearer of the letter, as a reward for her faithful services. Unfortunately, the ambassador referred her to his secretary, Weingarten, who was a traitor, bribed by the Prussian court. Weingarten pocketed the 1000 florins, and betrayed the plan of escape. The sister of Trenck gladly advanced the 300 dollars, and entreated the Jewess to use every possible means for his deliverance. Esther brought the money safely to Magdeburg, and then, just in time to save herself, she learned from the wife of one of the grenadiers that the scheme was discovered. Upon hearing these tidings, she lost not a moment in hastening back to her abode at Dessau, in Saxony, where she was be yond the reach of the Prussian myrmidons. Her confederates were less fortunate. Her imprisoned father was punished with more than a hundred blows to extort a confession; one of the grenadiers was hanged; and the other was condemned to run the gauntlet for three successive days. Gefhardt was left untouched, it not being known he was concerned in the project. The monarch must have been excessively exasperated by this scheme of Trenck's; for on this occasion he outraged every feeling of humanity. He determined that the future life of the captive should be spent in constant torture, unmitigated even by a gleam of hope. To accomplish his purpose, he himself planned a dungeon, and what may be called a system of fetters, which he thought would set at defiance all attempts to escape. The sister of Trenck, as a punishment for having aided her brother, was compelled to pay the expense of building the dungeon, and was also heavily fined. Some days elapsed before Trenck was made acquainted with the calamitous circumstances which had occurred. The news was communicated to him by Gefhardt, who likewise informed him respecting the new dungeon, but assured him that it could not be ready in less than a month. 'I therefore determined as soon as possible to complete my breach in the wall, and escape without the aid of any one. The thing was possible; for I had twisted the hair of my mattress into a rope, which I meant to tie to a cannon, and descend the rampart, after which I might endeavour to swim across the Elbe, gain the Saxon frontier, and thus safely escape. On the 26th of May I had determined to break into the next casemate; but when I came to work at the bricks, I found them so hard and strongly cemented, that I was obliged to defer the labour till the following day. I left off, weary and spent, at daybreak; and should any one enter my dungeon, they must infallibly discover the breach. How dreadful is the destiny by which through life I have been persecuted, and which has continually plunged me headlong into calamity when I imagined happiness was at hand! 'The 27th of May was a cruel day in the history of my life. My cell in the Star Fort had been finished sooner than Gefhardt had supposed; and at night, when I was preparing to fly, I heard a carriage stop before my prison. O God! what was my terror, what were the horrors of this moment of despair! The locks and bolts resounded, the doors flew open, and the last of my poor remaining resources was to conceal my knife. The town-major, the major, of the day, and a captain entered; I saw them by the light of their two lanterns. The only words they spoke were, "Dress yourself;" which was immediately done. I still wore the uniform of the regiment of Cordova. Irons were given me, which I was obliged myself to fasten on my wrists and ankles : the town-major tied a bandage over my eyes, and taking me under the arm, they thus conducted me to the carriage. It was necessary to pass through the city to arrive at the Star Fort: all was silent, except the noise of the escort; but when we entered Magdeburg, I heard the people running, who were crowding together to obtain a sight of me. Their curiosity was raised by the report that I was going to be beheaded. That I was executed on this occasion in the Star Fort, after having been conducted blindfold through the city, has since been both affirmed and written; and the officers had then orders to propagate this error, that the world might remain in utter ignorance concerning me. indeed knew otherwise, though I affected not to have this knowledge; and as I was not gagged, I behaved as if I expected death,-reproached my conductors in language that even made them shudder, and painted their king in his true colours, as one who, unheard, had condemned an innocent subject by a despotic exercise of power. I "My fortitude was admired, at the moment when it was supposed I thought myself going D to execution. No one replied, but their sighs intimated their compassion certain it is, few Prussians willingly execute such commands. The carriage at length stopped, and I was brought into my new cell. The bandage was taken from my eyes. The dungeon was lighted by a few torches. What were my feelings when I beheld the whole floor covered with chains, a fire-pan, and two grim men standing with their smith-hammers ! "To work went these engines of despotism. Enormous chains were fixed to my ankle at one end, and at the other to a ring which was incorporated in the wall. This ring was three feet from the ground, and only allowed me to move about two or three feet to the right and left. They next riveted another huge iron ring, of a hand's breadth, round my naked body, to which hung a chain fixed into an iron bar as thick as a man's arm. This bar was two feet in length, and at each end of it was a handcuff. The iron collar round my neck was not added till the year 1756. No soul bade me good night. All retired in dreadful silence; and I heard the horrible grating of four doors, that were successively locked and bolted upon me. 'Day at length returned; but where was its splendour? Fled; I beheld it not; yet was its glimmering obscurity sufficient to show me what was my dun geon. In breadth it was about eight feet; in length, ten. Near me once more stood a nighttable; in a corner was a seat, four bricks broad, on which I might sit and recline against the wall. Opposite the ring to which I was fastened, the light was admitted through a semicircular aperture, one foot high, and two in diameter. This aperture ascended to the centre of the wall, which was six feet thick; and at this central part was a close iron grating, from which, outward, the aperture descended, and its two extremities were again secured by strong iron bars. My dungeon was built in the ditch of the fortification; and the aperture by which the light entered was so covered by the wall of the rampart, that, instead of finding immediate passage, the light only gained admission by reflection. This, considering the smallness of the aperture, and the impediments of grating and iron bars, must needs make the obscurity great; yet my eyes in time became so accustomed to this glimmering, that I could see a mouse run. In winter, however, when the sun did not shine into the ditch, it was eternal night with me. Between the bars and the grating was a glass window, most curiously formed, with a small central casement, which might be opened to admit the air. My night-table was daily removed, and beside me stood a jug of water. The name of TRENCK |