The same year was I, likewise, deprived by death of my friend and protector, Field-marshal Konigseck, Governor of Vienna, when he had determined to interest himself in my behalf. I have been beloved by the greatest men Austria ever produced, but unfortunately have been persecuted by the chicanery of pettifoggers, fools, fanatics, and priests, who have deprived me of the favour of my Empress, guiltless as I was of crime or deceit, and left my old age in poverty.
My ills were increased by a new accident. Soon after the departure of Bernes, the Prussian minister, taking me aside, in the house of the Palatine envoy, M. Becker, proposed my return to Berlin, assured me the King had forgotten all that was past, was convinced of my innocence, that my good fortune would there be certain, and be pledged his honour to recover the inheritance of Trenck. I answered, the favour came too late; I had suffered injustice too flagrant, in my own country, and that I would trust no prince on earth whose will might annihilate all the rights of men. My good faith to the King had been too ill repaid; my talents might gain me bread in any part of the world, and I would not again subject myself to the danger of unmerited imprisonment.
His persuasions were strong, but ineffectual. “My dear Trenck,” said he, “God is my judge that my intentions are honest; I will pledge myself, that my sovereign will insure your fortune: you do not know Vienna; you will lose all by the suits in which you are involved, and will be persecuted because you do not carry a rosary.”
How often have I repented I did not then return to Berlin! I should have escaped ten years’ imprisonment; should have recovered the estates of Trenck: should not have wasted the prime of life in the litigation of suits, and the writing of memorials; and should have certainly been ranked among the first men in my native country. Vienna was no place for a man who could not fawn and flatter: yet here was I destined to remain six-and-thirty years, unrewarded, unemployed; and through youth and age, to continue on the list of invalid majors.
Having rejected the proposition of the Prussian envoy, all my hopes in Vienna were ruined; for Frederic, by his residents and emissaries, knew how to effect whatever he pleased in foreign courts, and determined that the Trenck who would no longer serve or confide in him should at least find no opportunity of serving against him: I soon became painted to the Empress as an arch heretic who never would be faithful to the house of Austria, and only endeavoured to obtain the inheritance of Trenck that he might devote himself to Prussia. This I shall hereafter prove; and display a scene that shall be the disgrace of many, by whom the Empress was induced to harbour unjust suspicions of an able and honest man. I here stand erect and confident before the world; publish the truth, and take everlasting shame to myself, if any man on earth can prove me guilty of one treacherous thought. I owe no thanks; but so far from having received favours, I have six and thirty years remained unable to obtain justice, though I have all the while been desirous of shedding my blood in defence of the monarchy where I have thus been treated. Till the year 1746, I was equally zealous and faithful to Prussia; yet my estates there, though confiscated, were liable to recovery: in Hungary, on the contrary, the sentence of confiscation is irrevocable. This is a remarkable proof in favour of my honour, and my children’s claims.
Surely no reader will be offended at these digressions; my mind is agitated, my feelings roused, remembering that my age and grey hairs deprive me of the sweet hope of at length vanquishing opposition, either by patience, or forcing justice, by eminent services, or noble efforts.
This my history will never reach a monarch’s eye, consequently no monarch, by perceiving, will be induced to protect truth. It may, indeed, be criticised by literati; it will certainly be decried by my persecutors, who, through life, have been my false accusers, and will probably, therefore, be prohibited by the priests. All Germany, however, will read, and posterity perhaps may pity, should my book escape the misfortune of being classed among improbable romances; to which it is the more liable, because that the biographers of Frederic and Maria Theresa, for manifest reasons, have never so much as mentioned the name of Trenck.
Once more to my story: I was now obliged to declare myself heir, but always cum reservatione juris mei, not as simply claiming under the will of Francis Trenck I was obliged to take upon myself the management of the sixty-three suits, and the expenses attending any one of these are well known in Vienna. My situation may be imagined, when I inform the reader I only received, from the whole estate of Trenck, 3,600 florins in three years, which were scarcely sufficient to defray the expenses of new year’s gifts to the solicitors and masters in chancery. How did I labour in stating and transcribing proofs for the court! The money I possessed soon vanished. My Prussian relations supported me, and the Countess Bestuchef sent me the four thousand roubles I had refused at Petersburg. I had also remittances from my faithful mistress in Prussia; and, in addition, was obliged to borrow money at the usurious rate of sixty per cent. Bewildered as I was among lawyers and knaves, my ambition still prompted me to proceed, and all things are possible to labour and perseverance; but my property was expended: and, at length, I could only obtain that the contested estates should be made a Fidei commissum, or put under trust; whereby, though they were protected from being the further prey of others, I did not inherit them as mine. In this pursuit was my prime of life wasted, which might have been profitably and honourably spent.
In three years, however, I brought my sixty-three suits to a kind of conclusion; the probabilities were this could not have been effected in fifty. Exclusive of my assiduity, the means I took must not be told; it is sufficient that I here learnt what judges were, and thus am enabled to describe them to others.
For a few ducats, the president’s servant used to admit me into a closet where I could see everything as perfectly as if I had myself been one of the council. This often was useful, and taught me to prevent evil; and often was I scarcely able to refrain bursting in upon this court.