is father's estates,
according to the legal will, which I produced; that is to say, the three
lordships of Pakratz, Prestowacz, and Pleneritz, without chattels or
personal effects. Nothing could be more just or incontrovertible than
this claim. What was my astonishment, to be told, in open court, that
Her Majesty had declared I must either wholly perform the articles of the
will of Trenck, or be excluded the entire inheritance, and have nothing
further to hope. What could be done? I ventured to remonstrate, but the
will of the court was determined and absolute: I must become a Roman
Catholic.

In this extremity I bribed a priest, who gave me a signed attestation,
"That I had abjured the accursed heresy of Lutheranism." My religion,
however, remained what it had ever been. General Bernes about this time
returned from his embassy, and I related to him the lamentable state in
which I found my affairs. He spoke to the Empress in my behalf, and she
promised everything. He advised me to have patience, to perform all that
was required of me, and to make myself responsible for the depending
suits. Some family concerns obliged him, as he informed me, to make a
journey to Turin, but his return would be speedy: he would then take the
management of my affairs upon himself, and insure my good fortune in
Austria. Bernes loved me as his son, and I had reason to hope, from his
assurance, I should be largely remembered in his will, which was the more
probable, as he had neither child nor relations. He parted from me, like
a father, with tears in his eyes; but he had scarcely been absent six
weeks before the news arrived of his death, which, if report may be
credited, was effected by poison, administered by _a friend_. Ever the
sport of fortune, thus were my supporters snatched from me at the very
moment they became most necessary.

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