nailed up till the
next day; I therefore wrapped five pistoles in a paper, threw them out,
called to the sentinel, and said, "Friend, take these, and save thy
comrades; or go and betray me, and bring down innocent blood upon thy
head!"

The paper was taken up; a pause of silence ensued: I heard sighs, and
presently after a low voice said, "his name is Schutz; he belonged to the
company of Ripps." I had never heard the name before, or known the man,
but I however immediately wrote SCHUTZ, instead of Gelfhardt. Having
finished the letter I called the lieutenant, who took that and the light
away, and again barred up the door of my dungeon. The Duke, however,
suspected there must be some evasion, and everything remained in the same
state: I obtained neither hearing nor court-martial. I learned, in the
sequel, the following circumstances, which will display the truth of this
apparently incredible story.

While I was imprisoned in the citadel, a sentinel came to the post under
my window, cursed and blasphemed, exclaiming aloud against the Prussian
service, and saying, if Trenck only knew my mind, he would not long
continue in his hole! I entered into discourse with him, and he told me,
if I could give him money to purchase a boat, in which he might cross the
Elbe, he would soon make my doors fly open, and set me free.

Money at that time I had none; but I gave him a diamond shirt-buckle,
worth five hundred ferns, which I had concealed. I never heard more from
this man; he spoke to me no more. He often stood sentinel over me, which
I knew by his Westphalian dialect, and I as often addressed myself to
him, but ineffectually; he would make no answer.

This Schutz must have sold my buckle, and let his riches be seen; for,
when the Duke left me, the lieutenant on guard said to him--"You must
certainly be the rascal who carried Trenck's letter; you have, for some
time past, spent much money, and we have seen you with louis-d'ors. How
came you by them?" Schutz was terrified, his conscience accused him, he
imagined I should betray him, knowing he had deceived me. He, therefore,
in the first agonies of despair, came to the pallisadoes, and hung
himself before the door of my dungeon.

CHAPTER III.

How wonderful is the hand of Providence! The wicked man fell a sacrifice
to his crime, after having escaped a whole year, and the faithful, the
benevolent-hearted Gelfhardt was thereby saved.

The sentinels were n