Esther alone escaped, and since gave me an elucidation of the whole affair. The report at Magdeburg was, that a Jewess had obtained money from my sister and bribed two grenadiers, and that one of these had trusted and been betrayed by his comrade. Indeed, what other story could be told at Magdeburg, or how could it be known Ihad been betrayed to the Prussian ministry by the Imperial secretary? The truth, however, is as I have stated: my account-book exists, and the Jewess is still alive.
Her poor imprisoned father was punished with more than a hundred blows to make him declare whether his daughter had entrusted him with the plot, or if he knew whither she was fled, and miserably died in fetters. Such was the mischief occasioned by a rascal! And who might be blamed but the imprudent Count Puebla?
In the year 1766, this said Jewess demanded of me a thousand florins; and I wrote to Count Puebla, that, having his receipt for the sum, which never had been repaid, I begged it might be restored.
He received my agent with rudeness, returned no answer, and seemed to trouble himself little concerning my loss. Whether the heirs of the Count be, or be not, indebted to me these thousand florins and the interest, I leave the world to determine. Thrice have I been betrayed at Vienna and sold to Berlin, like Joseph to the Egyptians.
My history proves the origin of my persuasion that residents, envoys, and ambassadors must be men of known worth and honesty, and not the vilest of rascals and miscreants. But, alas! the effects and money they have robbed me of have never been restored; and for the miseries they have brought upon me, they could not be recompensed by the wealth of any or all the monarchs on earth.
Estates they may, but truth they cannot confiscate; and of the villainy of Abramson and Weingarten I have documents and proofs that no court of justice could disannul. Stop, reader, if thou hast a heart, and in that heart compassion for the unfortunate! Stop and imagine what my sensations are while I remember and recount a part only of the injustice that has been done me, a part only of the tyranny I have endured! By this last act of treachery of Weingarten was I held in chains, the most horrible, for nine succeeding years!
By him was an innocent man brought to the gallows! By him, too, my sister, my beloved, my unfortunate sister, was obliged to build a dungeon at her own expense! besides being amerced in a fine, the extent of which I never could learn. Her goods were plundered, her estates made a desert, her children fell into extreme poverty, and she herself expired in her thirty-third year, the victim of cruelty, persecution, her brother's misfortunes, and the treachery of the Imperial embassy!
End Volume 1
The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck - Volume 2by Baron Trenck Translator: Thomas Holcroft 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. He produced also four novels, the first in 1780, the last in 1807. He was three times married, and lost his first wife in 1790. In 1794, his sympathy with ideals of the French revolutionists caused him to be involved with Hardy, Horne Tooke, and Thelwall, in a charge of high treason; but when these were acquitted, Holcroft and eight others were discharged without trial.
Holcroft earned also by translation. He translated, besides these Memoirs of Baron Trenck, Mirabeau's Secret History of the Court of Berlin, Les Veillees du Chateau of Madame de Genlis, and the posthumous works of Frederick II., King of Prussia, in thirteen volumes.
The Memoirs of Baron Trenck were first published at Berlin as his Merkwurdige Lebensbeschreibung, in three volumes octavo, in 1786 and 1787. They were first translated into French by Baron Bock (Metz, 1787); more fully by Letourneur (Paris, 1788); and again by himself (Strasbourg, 1788), with considerable additions. Holcroft translated from the French versions.
H.M.
THE LIFE OF BARON TRENCK.
