of
ammunition bread, and a jug of water.

From my youth I had always had a good appetite, and my bread was so
mouldy I could scarcely at first eat the half of it. This was the
consequence of Major Reiding's avarice, who endeavoured to profit even by
this, so great was the number of unfortunate prisoners; therefore, it is
impossible I should describe to my readers the excess of tortures that,
during eleven months, I felt from ravenous hunger. I could easily every
day have devoured six pounds of bread; and every twenty-four hours after
having received and swallowed my small portion, I continued as hungry as
before I began, yet must wait another twenty-four hours for a new morsel.
How willingly would I have signed a bill of exchange for a thousand
ducats, on my property at Vienna, only to have satiated my hunger on dry
bread! For, so extreme was it, that scarcely had I dropt into a sweet
sleep. Therefore I dreamed I was feasting at some table luxuriously
loaded, where, eating like a glutton, the whole company were astonished
to see me, while my imagination was heated by the sensation of famine.
Awakened by the pains of hunger, the dishes vanished, and nothing
remained but the reality of my distress; the cravings of nature were but
inflamed, my tortures prevented sleep, and, looking into futurity, the
cruelty of my fate suffered, if possible, increase, from imagining that
the prolongation of pangs like these was insupportable. God preserve
every honest man from sufferings like mine! They were not to be endured
by the villain most obdurate. Many have fasted three days, many have
suffered want for a week, or more; but certainly no one, beside myself,
ever endured it in the same excess for eleven months. Some have supposed
that to eat little might become habitual, but I have experienced the
contrary. My hunger increased every day; and of all the trials of
fortitude my whole life has afforded, this, of eleven months, was the
most bitter.

Petitions, remonstrances, were of no avail; the answer was--"We must give
no more, such is the King's command." The Governor, General Borck, born
the enemy of man, replied, when I entreated, at least, to have my fill of
bread, "You have feasted often enough out of the service of plate taken
from the King, by Trenck, at the battle of Sorau; you must now eat
ammunition bread in your dirty kennel. Your Empress makes no allowance
for your maintenance, and you are unworthy of the bread