ot despair. I must go, the sun is rising, and I may be
seen. Do not despair! God will help you--trust fully in me." [Footnote:
"Frederick von Trenck' Important Memoire."]

The voice had long since died away, but Trenck listened still for those
tones, which seemed like the greeting of one of God's angels; they
illuminated his prison and gave strength to his soul. No, no, now he
would not die! He felt his courage revive. He would defy fate, and
oppose its stern decrees by the mighty power of his will.

CHAPTER VI. THE PRISON BARRICADE.

No, he would not die! With trembling hands he tore his coarse shirt into
strips, and bound with it his bleeding veins. When he had thus closed
the portals upon death, he seated himself to meditate upon the means
of avoiding still severer punishment. He soon arose from his bed, much
strengthened by the short rest he had had. With an iron bar that he had
forced from his bed he hammered into the wall until the stones, around
which the mortar had become loosened owing to the dampness of the cell,
fell at his feet. He piled them together in the centre of his ceil, and
then hastened to barricade the second door he had attempted to force.
The lower part of it was still held on by the lock; over the opening at
the top he passed the chains several times that he had forced from his
limbs, forming a sort of trellis-work, which rendered entrance from
without impossible.

When all his preparations were made, when he was ready for the contest,
he seated himself upon his strange barricade, and there, wearied out by
suffering and anxiety, he fell into a sweet sleep. He was awakened by
the sound of many loud voices. Through the iron lattice of the second
door he saw the wondering, terrified countenances of the city guard, who
were endeavoring to unloose the chains. With one bound Trenck was beside
his door, balancing in his right hand a large stone, and in the left his
broken knife. He cried out, in a furious voice:

"Back! back!--let no one dare to enter here. My stones shall have good
aim; I will kill any one who ventures to enter this room. Major, tell
his excellency, the commandant, that I will remain no longer in chains.
I wish him to have me shot down at once! I will thank him for my death,
but I will curse him if he forces me to become a murderer. For I swear,
before God, I will stone any one who seeks to overpower me. I will
die--yes, die!"

It was a fearful sight--this man, thin, wan