secret, by which all this was to have been effected, I
dare not reveal; suffice it to say, everything was provided for,
everything made secure; I shall only add that the garrison, in the
harvest months, was exceedingly weakened, because the farmers paid the
captains a florin per man each day, and the men for their labour
likewise, to obtain hands. The sub-governor connived at the practice.

One Lieutenant G--- procured a furlough to visit his friends; but,
supplied by me with money, he went to Vienna. I furnished him with a
letter, addressed to Counsellors Kempf and Huttner, including a draft for
two thousand ducats; wherein I said that, by these means, I should not
only soon be at liberty, but in possession of the fortress of Magdeburg;
and that the bearer was entrusted with the rest.

The lieutenant came safe to Vienna, underwent a thousand interrogatories,
and his name was repeatedly asked. This, fortunately, he concealed. They
advised him not to be concerned in so dangerous an undertaking; told him
I had not so much money due to me, and gave him, instead of two thousand
ducats, one thousand florins. With these he left Vienna, but with very
prudent suspicions which prevented him ever returning to Magdeburg. A
month had scarcely passed before the late Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, then
chief governor, entered my prison, showed me my letter, and demanded to
know who had carried the letter, and who were to free me and betray
Magdeburg. Whether the letter was sent immediately to the King or the
governor I know not; it is sufficient that I was once more betrayed at
Vienna. The truth was, the administrators of my effects had acted as if
I were deceased, and did not choose to refund two thousand ducats. They
wished not I should obtain my freedom, in a manner that would have
obliged the government to have rewarded me, and restore the effects they
had embezzled and the estates they had seized. What happened afterwards
at Vienna, which will be related in its place, will incontestably prove
this surmise to be well founded.

These bad men did not, it is true, die in the manner they ought, but they
are all dead, and I am still living, an honest, though poor man: they did
not die so. Be this read and remembered by their luxurious heirs, who
refuse to restore my children to their rights.

CHAPTER V.

My consternation on the appearance of the Landgrave, with my letter in
his hand, may well be supposed; I had the