ve 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
pe