'Money was the first thing necessary. Gefhardt was relieved during his guard, and returned, bringing with him a sheet of paper rolled on a wire, which he passed through my grating, as he also did a piece of small wax candle, some burning amadone (a kind of tinder), a match, and a pen. I now had light, and I pricked my could tie it at last with one hand. My beard, which had so long remained unshaven, gave me a grim appearance, and I began to pluck it up by the roots. The pain at first was considerable, especially about the lips; but this also custom conquered, and I performed this operation in the following years once in six weeks or two months; as the hair thus plucked up re-finger, and wrote with my blood quired that length of time before to my faithful friend, Captain the nails could again get hold. Ruckhardt, at Vienna; described Vermin did not molest me; the my situation in a few words; dampness of my den was inimi- sent him an acquittance for cal to them. My limbs never three thousand florins on my swelled, because of the exercise revenues; and requested he I took, as before described. would dispose of a thousand The greatest pain I found, was florins to defray the expenses in the continued unvivifying of his journey to Gummern, dimness in which I lived. only two miles from Magdeburg. Here he was positively to be on the 15th of August. About noon, on this same day, he was to walk with a letter in his hand, and a man should be there to meet him, carrying a roll of smoking tobacco, to whom he must remit the two thousand florins, and return to Vienna. I returned the written paper to Gefhardt by the same means it had been received, gave him. my instructions, and he sent his wife with it to Gummern, by whom it was safely put in the post. 'About three weeks after my attempt to escape, the good Gefhardt first came to stand sentinel over me; and the sentinel they had so carefully set was indeed the only hope I could have of escape; for help must be had from without, or this was impossible. 'Gefhardt scarcely had taken his post, before we had free opportunity of conversing together; for when I stood with one foot on my bedstead, I could reach the aperture through which light was admitted. Gefhardt described the situation of my dungeon, and our first plan was to break under the foundation, which he had seen laid, and which he affirmed to be only two feet deep. 'My hopes daily rose, and as often as Gefhardt mounted guard, so often did we continue our projects. The 15th of August came, but it was some days before Gefhardt was again on guard; and oh! how did my heart palpitate when he came, and exclaimed," All is right! we have succeeded." He returned in the evening, and we began to consider by what means he could convey the money to me. I could not, with my hands chained to an iron bar, reach the aperture of the window that admitted air; besides that, it was too small. It was therefore agreed that Gefhardt should, on the next guard, perform the office of cleaning my dungeon, and that he then should convey the money to me in the waterjug. This, luckily, was done. How great was my astonishment when, instead of one, I found two thousand florins! for I had permitted him to reserve half to himself as a reward for his fidelity. He, however, had kept but five pistoles, which he persisted was enough. Having money to carry on my designs, I began to put my plan of burrowing under the foundation into execution. The first thing necessary was to free myself from my fetters. To accomplish this, Gefhardt supplied me with two small files, and by the aid of these, this labour, though great, was effected. 'The cap or staple of the foot-ring was made so wide that I could draw it forward a quarter of an inch. I filed the iron which passed through it on the inside; and the more I filed this away, the further I could draw the cap down, till at last the whole inside iron, through which the chains passed, was quite cut through. By this means I could slip off the ring, while the cap on the outside continued whole; and it was impossible to discover any cut, as only the outside could be examined. My hands, by continued efforts, I so compressed as to be able to draw them out of the handcuffs. I then filed the hinge, and made a screw-driver of one of the foot-long flooring nails, by which I could take out the screws at pleasure, so that at the time of examination no proofs would appear. The iron round my body was but a small impediment, except the chain which passed from my hand-bar; and this I removed by filing an aperture in one of the links, which at the necessary hour I closed with bread rubbed over with rusty iron, first drying it with the heat of my body; and would wager any sum that, without striking the chain link by link with a hammer, no one not in the secret would have discovered the fracture. The window was never strictly examined; I therefore drew the two staples by which the iron bars were fixed to the wall, and which I daily replaced, carefully plastering them over. I procured wire from Gefhardt, and tried how well I could imitate the inner grating. Finding I succeeded tolerably, I cut the real grating totally away, and substituted an artificial one of my own fabricating, by which I obtained a free communica tion with the outside, additional fresh air, together with all necessary implements, tinder, and candles. That the light might not be seen, I hung the coverlid of my bed before the window, so that I could work fearless and undetected. Everything prepared, I went to work. The floor of my dungeon was not of stone, but oak plank three inches thick; three beds of which were laid crossways, and were fastened to each other by nails half an inch in diameter and a foot long. Having worked round the head of a nail, I made use of the hole at the end of the bar which separated my hands, to draw it out, and this nail sharpened upon my tombstone made an excellent chisel. 'I now cut through the board more than an inch in width, that I might work downward, and having drawn away a piece of board which was inserted two inches under the wall, I cut this so as exactly to fit; the small crevice it occasioned I stopped up with bread, and strewed over with dust, so as to prevent all suspicious appearance. My labour under this was continued with less precaution, and I had soon worked through my nine-inch planks. Under them I came to a fine white sand, on which the Star Fort was built. My chips I carefully distributed beneath the boards. If I had not help from without, I could proceed no further; for to dig were useless, unless I could rid myself of the rubbish. Gefhardt supplied me with some ells of cloth, of which I made long narrow bags, stuffed them with earth, and passed them between the iron bars to Gefhardt, who, as he was on guard, scattered or conveyed away their contents. Furnished with room to secrete them under the floor, I obtained more instruments, together with a pair of pistols, powder, ball, and a bayonet. 'I now discovered that the foundation of my prison, instead of two, was sunken four feet deep. Time, labour, and patience were all necessary to break out, unheard and undiscovered; but few things are impossible where resolution is not wanting. The hole I made was obliged to be four feet deep, corresponding with the foundation, and wide enough to kneel and stoop in; the lying down on the floor to work, the continual stooping to throw out the earth, the narrow space in which all must be performed,-these made the labour incredible; and after this daily labour, all things were to be replaced, and my chains again resumed, which alone required some hours to effect. My greatest aid was in the wax candles and light I had procured; but as Gefhardt stood sentinel only once a fortnight, my work was much delayed. The sentinels were forbidden to speak to me under pain of death; and I was too fearful of being betrayed to dare to seek new assistance. 'Being without a stove, I suf-mediately counted thirty pisfered much this winter from toles, and threw them through cold; yet my heart was cheer- the window. He asked to know ful as I saw the probability of what he was to do; I told my freedom, and all were aston- difficulty, and gave him the size ished to find me in such good of the panes in paper. The spirits. Lulled with security, man fortunately was bold and an accident happened that will prudent. The door of the paliappear almost incredible, and sades, through the negligence by which every hope was nearly of the officer, had not been shut frustrated. Gefhardt had been that day. He prevailed on one working with me, and was re- of his comrades to stand senlieved in the morning. As I tinel for him during half an was replacing the window, which hour, while he meantime ran I was obliged to remove on into the town and procured the these occasions, it fell out of glass, on the receipt of which my hands, and three of the I instantly threw him out ten glass panes were broken. Gef- more pistoles. Before the hour hardt was not to return until of noon and visitation came, guard was again relieved; I everything was once more reinhad therefore no opportunity of stated, my glaziery performed speaking to him, or concerting to a miracle, and the life of any mode of repair. I remained my worthy Gefhardt preserved. nearly an hour conjecturing and Such is the power of money in hesitating; for certainly, had the this world! This is a very rebroken window been seen, as markable incident, for I never it was impossible I should reach spoke after to the man who did it when fettered, I should imme- me this signal service. diately have been more rigidly examined, and the false grating must have been discovered. 'Gefhardt's alarm may easily be imagined. He some days after returned to his post; and was the more astonished as he knew the sentinel who had done me this good office,- that he had five children, and a man most to be depended on by his officers, of any one in the whole grenadier company. 'I therefore came to a resolution, and spoke to the sentinel (who was amusing himself with whistling) thus: "My good fellow, have pity, not upon me, but upon your comrades, who, should you refuse, will certainly be executed: I will throw you thirty pistoles through the window if you will do me a small favour." He remained some moments silent, and at last an-ribly frightened by the late acswered in a low voice, "What! cident, that he started a thouhave you money then?" I im- sand difficulties in proportion 'I now continued my labour, and found it very possible to break out under the foundation; but Gefhardt had been so ter as my end was more nearly accomplished; and at the moment when I wished to concert with him the means of flight, he persisted it was necessary to find additional help to escape in safety, and not bring both him and myself to destruction. At length we came to the following determination, which, however, after eight months' incessant labour passed, rendered my whole project abortive. I wrote once more to Ruckhardt at Vienna; sent him a new assignment for money; and desired he would again repair to Gummern, where he would wait six several nights, with two spare horses, on the glacis of Klosterbergen; at the time appointed, everything would be prepared for flight. Within these six days Gefhardt would have found means, either in rotation or by exchanging the guard, to have been with me. Gefhardt sent his wife to Gummern with the letter, and this silly woman told the postmaster her husband had a lawsuit at Vienna; that therefore she begged he would take particular care of the letter, for which purpose she slipped ten rixdollars into his hand. "This unexpected liberality raised the suspicions of the Saxon postmaster, who therefore opened the letter, read the contents, and instead of sending it to Vienna, he preferred the traitorous act of taking it himself to the governor of Magdeburg, who then was Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. What were my terrors, what my despair, when I beheld the Prince himself, about three o'clock in the afternoon, enter my prison, with his attendants, present my letter, and ask in an authoritative voice who had carried it to Gummern. My answer was, "I know not." "The Prince began to threaten. I persisted I had never seen the sentinel who had rendered me this service, nor asked his name. Seeing his attempts all ineffectual, the governor in a milder tone said, "You have ever complained, Baron Trenck, of not having hitherto been legally sentenced, or heard in your own defence; I give you my word of honour this you shall be, and also that you shall be released from your fetters, if you will only tell me who took your letter." To this I replied, with all the fortitude of innocence, "Everybody knows, my lord, I have never deserved the treatment I have met with in my country. My heart is irreproachable. I seek to recover my liberty by every means in my power; but were I capable of betraying the man whose compassion has induced him to succour my distress, were I the coward that could purchase happiness at his expense, I then should indeed deserve to wear these chains with which I am loaded. For myself, do with me what you please; yet remember I am not wholly destitute; I am still a |