In the campaign of 1744 I had been quartered at Braunau with a weaver, whom I advised and assisted to bury his effects, and preserve them from being plundered. The worthy man received us with joy and gratitude. I had lived in this same house but two years before as absolute master of him and his fate. I had then nine horses and five servants, with the highest and most favourable hopes of futurity; but now I came a fugitive, seeking protection, and having lost all a youth like me had to lose.
I had but a single louis-d'or in my purse, and Schell forty kreutzers, or some three shillings; with this small sum, in a strange country, we had to cure his sprain, and provide for all our wants.
I was determined not to go to my cousin Trenck at Vienna, fearful this should seem a justification of all my imputed treasons; Irather wished to embark for the East Indies, than to have recourse to this expedient. The greater my delicacy was the greater became my distress. I wrote to my mistress at Berlin, but received no answer; possibly because I could not indicate any certain mode of conveyance. My mother believed me guilty, and abandoned me; my brothers were still minors, and my friend at Schweidnitz could not aid me, being gone to Konigsberg.
After three weeks' abode at Braunau, my friend recovered of his lameness. We had been obliged to sell my watch, with his scarf and gorget, to supply our necessities, and had only four florins remaining.
From the public papers I learned my cousin, the Austrian Trenck, was at this time closely confined, and under criminal prosecution. It will easily be imagined what effect this news had upon me.
Never till now had I felt any inconvenience from poverty; my wants had all been amply supplied, and I had ever lived among, and been highly loved and esteemed by, the first people of the land. I was destitute, without aid, and undetermined how to seek employment, or obtain fame.
At length I determined to travel on foot to Prussia to my mother, and obtain money from her, and afterwards enter into the Russian service. Schell, whose destiny was linked to mine, would not forsake me. We assumed false names: I called myself Knert, and Schell, Lesch; then, obtaining passports, like common deserters, we left Braunau on the 21st of January, in the evening, unseen of any person, and proceeded towards Bielitz in Poland. A friend I had at Neurode gave me a pair of pocket pistols, a musket, and three ducats; the money was spent at Braunau. Here let me take occasion to remark I had lent this friend, in urgent necessity, a hundred ducats, which he still owed me; and when I sent to request payment, he returned me three, as if I had asked charity.
Though a circumstantial description of our travels alone would fill a volume, I shall only relate the most singular accidents which happened to us; I shall also insert the journal of our route, which Schell had preserved, and gave me in 1776, when he came to see me at Aix-la-Chapelle, after an absence of thirty years.
This may be called the first scene in which I appeared as an adventurer, and perhaps my good fortune may even have overbalanced the bad, since I have escaped death full thirty times when the chances were a hundred to one against me; certain it is I undertook many things in which I seemed to have owed my preservation to the very rashness of the action, and in which others equally brave would have found death.
JOURNAL OF TRAVELS ON FOOT.
From Braunau, in Bohemia, through Bielitz, in Poland, to Meseritsch, and from Meseritsch, by Thorn, to Ebling; in the whole 169 miles, {3}({3} The German mile contains from four to seven English miles, and this variation appears to depend on the ignorance of the people and on the roads being in some places but little frequented. It seems probable the Baron and his friend might travel about 809 English miles.--TRANSLATOR.) performed without begging or stealing.
January 18th, 1747.--From Braunau, by Politz, to Nachod, three miles, we having three florins forty-five kreutzers in our purse.
Jan. 19.--To Neustadt. Here Schell bartered his uniform for an old coat, and a Jew gave him two florins fifteen kreutzers in exchange;from hence we went to Reichenau; in all, three miles.
Jan. 20.--We went to Leitomischl, five miles. Here I bought a loaf hot out of the oven, which eating greedily, had nearly caused my death. This obliged us to rest a day, and the extravagant charge of the landlord almost emptied our purse.
Jan. 22.--From Trubau, to Zwittau, in Moravia, four miles.
Jan. 23.--To Sternberg, six miles. This day's journey excessively fatigued poor Schell, his sprained ankle being still extremely weak.
Jan. 24.--To Leipnik, four miles, in a deep snow, and with empty stomachs. Here I sold my stock-buckle for four florins.
Jan. 25.--To Freiberg, by Weiskirch, to Drahotusch, five miles.
Early in the morning we found a violin and case on the road; the innkeeper in Weiskirch gave us two florins for it, on condition that he should return it to the owner on proving his right, it being worth at least twenty.
Jan. 26.--To Friedek, in Upper Silesia, two miles.
Jan. 27.--To a village, four miles and a half.
Jan. 28.--Through Skotschau, to Bielitz, three miles. This was the last Austrian town on the frontiers of Poland, and Captain Capi, of the regiment of Marischall, who commanded the garrison, demanded our passports. We had false names, and called ourselves common Prussian deserters; but a drummer, who had deserted from Glatz, knew us, and betrayed us to the captain, who immediately arrested us very rudely, and sent us on foot to Teschin (refusing us a hearing), four miles distant.
