herewith to
oppose him, was at length crowned with conquest, and came forth to the
world the martyr of suffering virtue.

Some of my oppressors now rot in dishonourable graves. Others, alas! in
Vienna, remain immured in houses of correction, as Krugel and Zeto, or
beg their bread, like Gravenitz and Doo. Nor are the wealthy possessors
of my estates more fortunate, but look down with shame wherever I and my
children appear. We stand erect, esteemed, and honoured, while their
injustice is manifest to the whole world.

Young man, be industrious: for without industry can none of the treasures
I have described be purchased. Thy labour will reward itself; then, when
assaulted by misfortune, or even misery, learn of me and smile; or,
shouldst thou escape such trials, still labour to acquire wisdom, that in
old age thou mayest find content and happiness.

The years in my dungeon passed away as days, those moments excepted when,
thinking on the great world, and the deeds of great men, my ambition was
roused: except when, contemplating the vileness of my chains, and the
wretchedness of my situation, I laboured for liberty, and found my
labours endless and ineffectual; except while I remembered the triumph of
my enemies, and the splendour in which those lived by whom I had been
plundered. Then, indeed, did I experience intervals that approached
madness, despair, and horror: beholding myself destitute of friend or
protector, the Empress herself, for whose sake I suffered, deserting me;
reflecting on past times and past prosperity; remembering how the good
and virtuous, from the cruel nature of my punishment, must be obliged to
conclude me a wretch and a villain, and that all means of justification
were cut off: O God! How did my heart beat! with what violence! What
would I not have undertaken, in these suffering moments, to have put my
enemies to shame! Vengeance and rage then rose rebellious against
patience; long-suffering philosophy vanished, and the poisoned cup of
Socrates would have been the nectar of the gods.

Man deprived of hope is man destroyed. I found but little probability in
all my plans and projects; yet did I trust that some of them should
succeed, yet did I confide in them and my honest Gelfhardt, and that I
should still free myself from my chains.

The greatest of all my incitements to patient endurance was love. I had
left behind me, in Vienna, a lady for whom the world still was dear to
me; her w