dded, "Desire him to send you some of his fine Hungarian horses
for your own use, and give me the letter; I will convey it to him, by
means of Mr. Bossart, legation counsellor of the Saxon embassy; but on
condition that you will give me one of the horses. This correspondence
is a family, and not a state affair; I will make myself responsible for
the consequences."

I immediately took my commander's advice, and began to write; and had
those who suspected me thought proper to make the least inquiry into
these circumstances, the four witnesses who read what I wrote could have
attested my innocence, and rendered it indubitable. I gave my letter
open to Jaschinsky, who sealed and sent it himself.

I must omit none of the incidents concerning this letter, it being the
sole cause of all my sufferings. I shall therefore here relate an event
which was the first occasion of the unjust suspicions entertained against
me.

One of my grooms, with two led horses, was, among many others, taken by
the pandours of Trenck. When I returned to the camp, I was to accompany
the King on a reconnoitring party. My horse was too tired, and I had no
other: I informed him of my embarrassment, and his Majesty immediately
made me a present of a fine English courser.

Some days after, I was exceedingly astonished to see my groom return,
with my two horses, and a pandour trumpeter, who brought me a letter,
containing nearly the following words:--

"The Austrian Trenck is not at war with the Prussian Trenck, but, on the
contrary, is happy to have recovered his horses from his hussars, and to
return them to whom they first belonged," &c.

I went the same day to pay my respects to the King, who, receiving me
with great coldness, said, "Since your cousin has returned your own
horses, you have no more need of mine."

There were too many who envied me to suppose these words would escape
repetition. The return of the horses seems infinitely to have increased
that suspicion Frederic entertained against me, and therefore became one
of the principal causes of my misfortunes: it is for this reason that I
dwell upon this and suchlike small incidents, they being necessary for my
own justification, and, were it possible, for that of the King. My
innocence is, indeed, at present universally acknowledged by the court,
the army, and the whole nation; who all mention the injustice I suffered
with pity, and the fortitude with which it was endured with surpr