d to the war. The
officers brought me all the news, and my hopes rose as they approached.
What was my astonishment when the major informed me that three waggons
had entered the town in the night, had been sent back loaded with money,
and that the French were retreating. This, I can assure my readers, on
my honour, is literally truth, to the eternal disgrace of the French
general. The major, who informed me, was himself an eye-witness of the
fact. It was pretended the money was for the army of the King, but
everybody could guess whither it was going; it left the town without a
convoy, and the French were then in the neighbourhood. Such were the
allies of Maria Theresa; the receivers of this money are known in Paris.
Not only were my hopes this way frustrated, but in Russia likewise, where
the Countess of Bestuchef and the Chancellor had fallen into disgrace.

I now imagined another, and, indeed, a fearful and dangerous project. The
garrison of Magdeburg at this moment consisted but of nine hundred
militia, who were discontented men. Two majors and two lieutenants were
in my interest. The guard of the Star Fort amounted but to a hundred and
fifteen men. Fronting the gate of this fort was the town gate, guarded
only by twelve men and an inferior officer; beside these lay the
casemates, in which were seven thousand Croat prisoners. Baron K---y, a
captain, and prisoner of war, also was in our interest, and would hold
his comrades ready at a certain place and time to support my undertaking.
Another friend was, under some pretence, to hold his company ready, with
their muskets loaded, and the plan was such that I should have had four
hundred men in arms ready to carry it into execution.

The officer was to have placed the two men we most suspected and feared,
as sentinels over me; he was to command them to take away my bed, and
when encumbered, I was to spring out, and shut them in the prison.
Clothing and arms were to have been procured, and brought me into my
prison; the town-gate was to have been surprised; I was to have run to
the casemate, and called to the Croats, "Trenck to arms!" My friends, at
the same instant, were to break forth, and the plan was so well concerted
that it could not have failed. Magdeburg, the magazine of the army, the
royal treasury, arsenal, all would have been mine; and sixteen thousand
men, who were then prisoners of war, would have enabled me to keep
possession.

The most essential