hus put on the rack, had I there expired,
my epitaph would have been, "Here lies the traitor, Trenck."

Frederic is dead, and the scene is changed; another monarch has ascended
the throne, and the grub has changed to a beautiful butterfly! The
witnesses to all I have asserted are still living, loudly now proclaim
the truth, and embrace me with heart-felt affection.

Does the worth of a man depend upon his actions? his reward or punishment
upon his virtue? In arbitrary states, certainly not. They depend on the
breath of a king! Frederic was the most penetrating prince of his age,
but the most obstinate also. A vice dreadful to those whom he selected
as victims, who must be sacrificed to the promoting of his arbitrary
views.

How many perished, the sin offerings of Frederic's obstinate self-will,
whose orphan children now cry to God for vengeance! The dead, alas!
cannot plead. Trial began and ended with execution. The few words--IT
IS THE KING'S COMMAND--were words of horror to the poor condemned wretch
denied to plead his innocence! Yet what is the Ukase (Imperial order) in
Russia, _Tel est notre bon plaisir_ (Such is our pleasure) in France, or
the Allergnadigste Hofresolution (The all-gracious sentence of the
court), pronounced with the sweet tone of a Vienna matron? In what do
these differ from the arbitrary order of a military despot?

Every prayer of man should be consecrated to man's general good; for him
to obtain freedom and universal justice! Together should we cry with one
voice, and, if unable to shackle arbitrary power, still should we
endeavour to show how dangerous it is! The priests of liberty should
offer up their thanks to the monarch who declares "the word of power" a
nullity, and "the sentence" of justice omnipotent.

Who can name the court in Europe where Louis, Peter, or Frederic, each
and all surnamed The Great, have not been, and are not, imitated as
models of perfection? Lettres-de-cachet, the knout, and cabinet-orders,
superseding all right, are become law!

No reasoning, says the corporal to the poor grenadier, whom he canes!--No
reasoning! exclaim judges; the court has decided.--No reasoning, rash and
pertinacious Trenck, will the prudent reader echo. Throw thy pen in the
fire, and expose not thyself to become the martyr of a state inquisition.

My fate is, and must remain, critical and undecided. I have
six-and-thirty years been in the service of Austria, unrewarded, and