empts of
Trenck to escape; his courage and endurance made him an interesting and
admired martyr to the whole garrison at Magdeburg.

Frederick wished to give to this garrison, and to all his soldiers, a
terrible example of the relentless severity with which insubordination
should be punished, to prove to them that mortal daring and mortal
energy were vain to escape the avenging hand of royal justice.

Trenck, who, in the beginning, had only been condemned to arrest in
Glatz for six months, had, by his constant attempts at escape, and
the mad and eloquent expression of his rage, brought upon himself the
sentence of eternal imprisonment, in a subterranean cell, which, by
express command of the king, was so prepared, that neither guards nor
soldiers were necessary to his detention. A jailer only was needed, to
lock the four doors of the corridor which led to Trenck's cell. It was
as little dangerous to guard this poor prisoner as to approach the lion
bound by chains and hemmed in by iron bars.

Trenck was indeed manacled like a wild beast. A chain clanked upon his
feet, an iron girdle was around his waist, to which hung a heavy chain,
fastened to a thick iron bar built in the wall; manacles were made fast
to each end of an iron bar, to which his hands were bound. The most
cruel wild beast would not have been so tortured; some one would have
had pity on him, and mercifully ended his life. But this creature, thus
tortured, groaning and clanking his heavy chains--this creature was a
man, therefore there was no pity. It would have been considered a crime
to put an end to his life; but slowly, day by day, to murder him, was
only justice.

The king had made it the personal duty of the commandant, Bruckhausen,
to guard Trenck. He declared that if he allowed Trenck to escape, he
should not only lose his place and rank, but take Trenck's place in his
fearful cell. This was a frightful menace to the ambitious and harsh
commandant, Bruckhausen, and, of course, led him to take the severest
precautions. It was he, therefore, who had bound Trenck, and, whenever
he visited the poor prisoner in his cell, he rejoiced in the artistic
construction of his chains, and looked proudly upon his work. He saw
with delight that Trenck was scarcely able to drag his heavy chains two
feet to the right or left, or to raise the tin cup to his parched lips,
with his hands thus fastened to an iron bar; and as often as he left the
cell, he exclaimed, wi