days, and when,
having been heard, I had entirely justified myself, was again restored to
liberty; public declaration was then made in the Gazette that the
officers of the police had acted too precipitately.

This was the satisfaction granted, but this did not content me. I
threatened the counsellor by whom my character had been so aspersed, and
the Empress, condescending to mediate, bestowed on me a captainship of
cavalry in the Cordova cuirassiers.

Such was the recompense I received for wounds so deep, and such the
neglect into which I was thrown at Vienna. Discontent led me to join my
regiment in Hungary.

Here I gained the applause of my colonel, Count Bettoni, who himself told
the Empress I, more than any other, had contributed to the forming of the
regiment. It may well be imagined how a man like me, accustomed, as I
had been, to the first company of the first courts, must pass my time
among the Carpathian mountains, where neither society nor good books were
to be found, nor knowledge, of which I was enamoured, improved. The
conversation of Count Bettoni, and the chase, together with the love of
the general of the regiment, old Field-marshal Cordova, were my only
resources; the persecutions, neglect, and even contempt, I received at
Vienna, were still the same.

In the year 1754, in the month of March, my mother died in Prussia, and I
requested the permission of the court that held the inheritance of
Trenck, as a _fidei commissum_, to make a journey to Dantzic to settle
some family affairs with my brothers and sister, my estates being
confiscated. This permission was granted, and thither I went in May,
where I once more fell into the hands of the Prussians; which forms the
second great and still more gloomy epoch in my life. All who read what
follows will shudder, will commiserate him who, feeling himself innocent,
relates afflictions he has miserably encountered and gloriously overcome.

I left Hungary, where I was in garrison, for Dantzic, where I had desired
my brothers and sister to meet me that we might settle our affairs. My
principal intent, however, was a journey to Petersburg, there to seek the
advice and aid of my friends, for law and persecution were not yet ended
at Vienna; and my captain's pay and small income scarcely sufficed to
defray charges of attorneys and counsellors.

It is here most worthy of remark that I was told by Prince Ferdinand of
Brunswick, governor of Magdeburg, he had