The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck, vol 1 | Page 7

nights in acquiring knowledge. Pollnitz was my guide, and the
friend of my heart. My happiness was well worthy of being envied. In
1743, I was five feet eleven inches in height, and Nature had endowed
me with every requisite to please. I lived, as I vainly imagined, without
inciting enmity or malice, and my mind was wholly occupied by the
desire of earning well-founded fame.
I had hitherto remained ignorant of love, and had been terrified from
illicit commerce by beholding the dreadful objects of the hospital at
Potzdam. During the winter of 1743, the nuptials of his Majesty's sister
were celebrated, who was married to the King of Sweden, where she is
at present Queen Dowager, mother of the reigning Gustavus. I, as
officer of my corps, had the honour to mount guard and escort her as
far as Stettin. Here first did my heart feel a passion of which, in the
course of my history, I shall have frequent occasion to speak. The
object of my love was one whom I can only remember at present with
reverence; and, as I write not romance, but facts, I shall here briefly say,
ours were mutually the first-fruits of affection, and that to this hour I
regret no misfortune, no misery, with which, from a stock so noble, my
destiny was overshadowed.
Amid the tumult inseparable to occasions like these, on which it was
my duty to maintain order, a thief had the address to steal my watch,

and cut away part of the gold fringe which hung from the waistcoat of
my uniform, and afterwards to escape unperceived. This accident
brought on me the raillery of my comrades; and the lady alluded to
thence took occasion to console me, by saying it should be her care that
I should be no loser. Her words were accompanied by a look I could
not misunderstand, and a few days after I thought myself the happiest
of mortals. The name, however, of this high- born lady is a secret,
which must descend with me to the grave; and, though my silence
concerning this incident heaves a void in my life, and indeed throws
obscurity over a part of it, which might else be clear, I would much
rather incur this reproach than become ungrateful towards my best
friend and benefactress. To her conversation, to her prudence, to the
power by which she fixed my affections wholly on herself, am I
indebted for the improvement and polishing of my bodily and mental
qualities. She never despised, betrayed, or abandoned me, even in the
deepest of my distress; and my children alone, on my death-bed, shall
be taught the name of her to whom they owe the preservation of their
father, and consequently their own existence.
I lived at this time perfectly happy at Berlin, and highly esteemed. The
King took every opportunity to testify his approbation; my mistress
supplied me with more money than I could expend; and I was presently
the best equipped, and made the greatest figure, of any officer in the
whole corps. The style in which I lived was remarked, for I had only
received from my father's heritage the estate of Great Scharlach; the
rent of which was eight hundred dollars a year, which was far from
sufficient to supply my then expenses. My amour, in the meantime,
remained a secret from my best and most intimate friends. Twice was
my absence from Potzdam and Charlottenberg discovered, and I was
put under arrest; but the King seemed satisfied with the excuse I made,
under the pretext of having been hunting, and smiled as he granted my
pardon.
Never did the days of youth glide away with more apparent success and
pleasure than during these my first years at Berlin. This good fortune
was, alas, of short duration. Many are the incidents I might relate, but
which I shall omit. My other adventures are sufficiently numerous,
without mingling such as may any way seem foreign to the subject. In
this gloomy history of my life, I wish to paint myself such as I am; and,

by the recital of my sufferings, afford a memorable example to the
world, and interest the heart of sensibility. I would also show how my
fatal destiny has deprived my children of an immense fortune; and,
though I want a hundred thousand men to enforce and ensure my rights,
I will leave demonstration to my heirs that they are incontestable.

CHAPTER II
.

In the beginning of September, 1744, war again broke out between the
Houses of Austria and Prussia. We marched with all speed towards
Prague, traversing Saxony without opposition. I will not relate in this
place what the great Frederic said to us, with evident emotion, when
surrounded by all his