The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck, vol 1 | Page 5

Wallenrodt, a fellow-student, much stronger than myself, and who, despising my weakness, thought proper to give me a blow. I demanded satisfaction. He came not to the appointed place, but treated my demand with contempt; and I, forgetting all further respect, procured a second, and attacked him in open day. We fought, and I had the fortune to wound him twice; the first time in the arm, the second in the hand.
This affair incited inquiry:- Doctor Kowalewsky, our tutor, laid complaints before the University, and I was condemned to three hours' confinement; but my grandfather and guardian, President Derschau, was so pleased with my courage, that he took me from this house and placed me under Professor Christiani.
Here I first began to enjoy full liberty, and from this worthy man I learnt all I know of experimental philosophy and science. He loved me as his own son, and continued instructing me till midnight. Under his auspices, in 1742, I maintained, with great success, two public theses, although I was then but sixteen; an effort and an honour till then unknown.
Three days after my last public exordium, a contemptible fellow sought a quarrel with me, and obliged me to draw in my own defence, whom, on this occasion, I wounded in the groin.
This success inflated my valour, and from that time I began to assume the air and appearance of a Hector.
Scarcely had a fortnight elapsed before I had another with a lieutenant of the garrison, whom I had insulted, who received two wounds in the contest.
I ought to remark, that at this time, the University of Konigsberg was still highly privileged. To send a challenge was held honourable; and this was not only permitted, but would have been difficult to prevent, considering the great number of proud, hot- headed, and turbulent nobility from Livonia, Courland, Sweden, Denmark, and Poland, who came thither to study, and of whom there were more than five hundred. This brought the University into disrepute, and endeavours have been made to remedy the abuse. Men have acquired a greater extent of true knowledge, and have begun to perceive that a University ought to be a place of instruction, and not a field of battle; and that blood cannot be honourably shed, except in defence of life or country.
In November, 1742, the King sent his adjutant-general, Baron Lottum, who was related to my mother, to Konigsberg, with whom I dined at my grandfather's. He conversed much with me, and, after putting various questions, purposely, to discover what my talents and inclinations were, he demanded, as if in joke, whether I had any inclination to go with him to Berlin, and serve my country, as my ancestors had ever done: adding that, in the army, I should find much better opportunities of sending challenges than at the University. Inflamed with the desire of distinguishing myself, I listened with rapture to the proposition, and in a few days we departed for Potzdam.
On the morrow after my arrival, I was presented to the King, as indeed I had before been in the year 1740, with the character of being, then, one of the most hopeful youths of the University. My reception was most flattering; the justness of my replies to the questions he asked, my height, figure, and confidence, pleased him; and I soon obtained permission to enter as a cadet in his body guards, with a promise of quick preferment.
The body guards formed, at this time, a model and school for the Prussian cavalry; they consisted of one single squadron of men selected from the whole army, and their uniform was the most splendid in all Europe. Two thousand rix-dollars were necessary to equip an officer: the cuirass was wholly plated with silver; and the horse, furniture, and accoutrements alone cost four hundred rix- dollars.
This squadron only contained six officers and a hundred and forty- four men; but there were always fifty or sixty supernumeraries, and as many horses, for the King incorporated all the most handsome men he found in the guards. The officers were the best taught of any the army contained; the King himself was their tutor, and he afterwards sent them to instruct the cavalry in the manoeuvres they had learnt. Their rise was rapid if they behaved well; but they were broken for the least fault, and punished by being sent to garrison regiments. It was likewise necessary they should be tolerably rich, as well as possess such talents as might be successfully employed, both at court and in the army.
There are no soldiers in the world who undergo so much as this body guard; and during the time I was in the service of Frederic, I often had not eight hours' sleep in eight days. Exercise began at four in the morning, and