Scarcely had a fortnight elapsed, after his having first betrayed me, before the following remarkable event happened.
I left him one evening to return home, taking under my coat a bag with papers and documents relating to the prosecution, which I had been examining for him, and transcribing. There were at this time about five-and-twenty officers in Vienna who had laid complaints against him, and who considered me as their greatest enemy because I had laboured earnestly in his defence. I was therefore obliged, on all occasions, to be upon my guard. A report had been propagated through Vienna that I was secretly sent by the King of Prussia to free my cousin from imprisonment; he, however, constantly denied, to the hour of his death, his ever having written to me at Berlin; hence also it will follow the letter I received had been forged by Jaschinsky.
Leaving the Arsenal, I crossed the court, and perceived I was closely followed by two men in grey roquelaures, who, pressing upon my heels, held loud and insolent conversation concerning the runaway Prussian Trenck. I found they sought a quarrel, which was a thing of no great difficulty at that moment, for a man is never more disposed to duelling than when he has nothing to lose, and is discontented with his condition. I supposed they were two of the accusing officers broken by Trenck, and endeavoured to avoid them, and gain the Jew’s place.
Scarcely had I turned down the street that leads thither before they quickened their pace. I turned round, and in a moment received a thrust with a sword in the left side, where I had put my bag of papers, which accident alone saved my life; the sword pierced through the papers and slightly grazed the skin. I instantly drew, and the heroes ran. I pursued, one of them tripped and fell. I seized him; the guard came up: he declared he was an officer of the regiment of Kollowrat, showed his uniform, was released, and I was taken to prison. The Town Major came the next day, and told me I had intentionally sought a quarrel with two officers, Lieutenants F---g and K---n. These kind gentlemen did not reveal their humane intention of sending me to the other world.
I was alone, could produce no witness, they were two. I must necessarily be in the wrong, and I remained six days in prison. No sooner was I released, than these my good friends sent to demand satisfaction for the said pretended insult. The proposal was accepted, and I promised to be at the Scotch gate, the place appointed by them, within an hour. Having heard their names, I presently knew them to be two famous swaggerers, who were daily exercising themselves in fencing at the Arsenal, and where they often visited Trenck. I went to my cousin to ask his assistance, related what had happened, and, as the consequences of this duel might be very serious, desired him to give me a hundred ducats, that I might be able to fly if either of them should fall.
Hitherto I had expended my own money on his account, and had asked no reimbursement; but what was my astonishment when this wicked man said to me, with a sneer, “Since, good cousin, you have got into a quarrel without consulting me, you will also get out of it without my aid!” As I left him, he called me back to tell me, “I will take care and pay your undertaker;” for he certainly believed I should never return alive.
I ran now, half-despairing, to Baron Lopresti, who gave me fifty ducats and a pair of pistols, provided with which I cheerfully repaired to the field of battle.
Here I found half a dozen officers of the garrison. As I had few acquaintances in Vienna, I had no second, except an old Spanish invalid captain, named Pereyra, who met me going in all haste, and, having learned whither, would not leave me.
Lieutenant K---n was the first with whom I fought, and who received satisfaction by a deep wound in the right arm. Hereupon I desired the spectators to prevent farther mischief; for my own part I had nothing more to demand. Lieutenant F---g next entered the lists, with threats, which were soon quieted by a lunge in the belly. Hereupon Lieutenant M-f, second to the first wounded man, told me very angrily—“Had I been your man, you would have found a very different reception.” My old Spaniard of eighty proudly and immediately advanced, with his long whiskers and tottering frame, and cried—“Hold! Trenck has proved himself a brave fellow, and if any man thinks proper to assault him further, he must first take a breathing with me.” Everybody laughed at this bravado from a man who scarcely could stand or hold a sword. I replied—“Friend, I am safe, unhurt, and want not aid; should I be disabled, you then, if you think proper, may take my place; but, as long as I can hold a sword, I shall take pleasure in satisfying all these gentlemen one after another.” I would have rested myself a moment, but the haughty M-f, enraged at the defeat of his friend, would not give me time, but furiously attacked me, and, having been wounded twice, once in the hand and again in the groin, he wanted to close and sink me to the grave with himself, but I disarmed and threw him.
None of the others had any desire to renew the contest. My three enemies were sent bleeding to town; and, as M---f appeared to be mortally wounded, and the Jesuits and Capuchins of Vienna refused me an asylum, I fled to the convent of Keltenberg.