rseverance; 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.

Their appointed hour of meeting was nine in the morning, but they seldom
assembled before eleven. The president then told his beads, and muttered
his prayers. Someone got up and harangued, while the remainder, in
pairs, amused themselves with talking instead of listening, after which
the news of the day became the common topic of conversation, and the
council broke up, the court being first adjourned some three weeks,
without coming to any determination. This was called _judicium delegatum
in causis Trenkiansis_; and when at last they came to a conclusion, the
sentence was such as I shall ever shudder at and abhor.

The real estates of Trenck consisted in the great Sclavonian manors,
called the lordships of Pakratz, Prestowatz, and Pleternitz, which he had
inherited from his father, and were the family property, together with
Velika and Nustak, which he himself had purchased: the annual income of
these was 60,000 florins, and they contained more than two hundred
villages and hamlets. The laws of Hungary require--

1st. That those who purchase estates shall obtain the _consensus regius_
(royal consent).

2nd. That the seller shall possess, and make over the right of property,
together with that of transferring or alienating, and

3dly. That the purchaser shall be a native born, or have bought his
naturalisation.

In default of all, or any of these, the Fiscus, on the death of the
purchaser, takes possession, repaying the _summa emptitia_, or purchase-
mon