The monarch once really loved me; he meant my punishment should only be temporary, and as a trial of my fidelity. That I had been condemned to no more than a year’s imprisonment had never been told me, and was a fact I did not learn till long after.
Major Doo, who, as I have said, was the creature of Fouquet, a mean and covetous man, knowing I had money, had always acted the part of a protector as he pretended to me, and continually told me I was condemned for life. He perpetually turned the conversation on the great credit of his general with the King, and his own great credit with the general. For the present of a horse, on which I rode to Glatz, he gave me freedom of walking about the fortress; and for another, worth a hundred ducats, I rescued Ensign Reitz from death, who had been betrayed when endeavouring to effect our escape. I have been assured that on that very day on which I snatched his sword from his side, desperately passed through the garrison, and leaped the walls of the rampart, he was expressly come to tell me, after some prefatory threats, that by his general’s intercession, my punishment was only to be a year’s imprisonment, and that consequently I should be released in a few days.
How vile were means like these to wrest money from the unfortunate! The King, after this my mad flight, certainly was never informed of the major’s base cunning; he could only be told that, rather than wait a few days, I had chosen, in this desperate manner, to make my escape, and go over to the enemy.
Thus deceived and strengthened in his suspicion, must he not imagine my desire to forsake my country, and desert to the enemy, was unbounded? How could he do otherwise than imprison a subject who thus endeavoured to injure him and aid his foes? Thus, by the calumnies of wicked men, did my cruel destiny daily become more severe; and at length render the deceived monarch irreconcilable and cruel.
Yet how could it be supposed that I would not willingly have remained three weeks longer in prison, to have been honourably restored to liberty, to have prevented the confiscation of my estate, and to have once more returned to my beloved mistress at Berlin.
And now was I in Bohemia, a fugitive stranger without money, protector, or friend, and only twenty years of age.
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; I rather 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 Königsberg.
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.