Since accounts so various, contradictory, and dishonourable to the name of Trenck, have been circulated in Vienna, concerning facts which happened thirty-seven years ago, I will here give a short abstract of them, and such as may he verified by the records of the court. I pledge my honour to the truth of the statement, and were I so allowed, would prove it, to the conviction of any unprejudiced court of justice: but this I cannot hope, as princes are much more disposed to bestow unmerited favours than to make retribution to those whom they have unjustly punished.

Francis Baron Trenck died in the Spielberg, October 4th, 1749. It has been erroneously believed in Vienna that his estates were confiscated by the sentence which condemned him to the Spielberg. He had committed no offence against the state, was accused of none, much less convicted. The court sentence was that the administration of his estate should be committed to Counsellor Kempf and Baron Peyaczewitz, who were selected by himself, and the accounts of his stewards and farmers were to be sent him yearly. He continued, till his death, to have the free and entire disposal of his property.

Although, before his death, he sent for his advocate, Doctor Berger, and by him petitioned the Empress she would issue the necessary orders to the Governor of the Spielberg, to permit the entrance of witnesses, and all things necessary to make a legal will, it by no means follows that he petitioned her for permission to make this will. The case is too clear to admit of doubt. The royal commands were given, that he should enjoy all freedom of making his will. Permission was also given that, during his sickness, he might be removed to the capuchin convent, which was equal to liberty, but this he refused to accept.

Neither was his ability to make a will questioned. The advocate was only to request the Queen’s permission to supply some formalities, which had been neglected, when he purchased the lordships of Velika and Nustar, which petition was likewise granted. The royal mandate still exists, which commissioned the persons therein named as trustees to the estate and effects of Trenck, and this mandate runs thus: “Let the last will of Trenck be duly executed: let dispatch be used, and the heir protected in all his rights.” Confiscation, therefore, had never been thought of, nor his power to make a will questioned.

I will now show how I have been deprived of this valuable inheritance, while I have been obliged to pay above sixty thousand florins, to defray legacies he had left; and when this narrative is read, it will no longer be affirmed at Vienna, that by the favours of the court I inherited seventy-six thousand florins, or the lordship of Zwerbach from Trenck, I shall proceed to my proofs.

The father of Baron Trenck, who died in the year 1743, governor of Leitschau, in Hungary, named me in his will the successor of his son, should he die without heirs male.

This will was sent to be proved, according to form, at Vienna, after having been authenticated in the most legal manner in Hungary. The court called Hofkriegsrath, at Vienna, neglected to provide a curator for the security of the next heir; yet this could not annul my right of succession. When Trenck succeeded his father, he entered no protest to this, his father’s will; therefore, dying without children, in the year 1749, my claim was indisputable. I was heir had he made no will: and even in case of confiscation, my title to his father’s estates still remained valid.

Trenck knew this but too well: he, as I have before related, was my worst enemy, and even attempted my life. I will therefore proceed to show the real intent of this his crafty testament.

Determined no longer to live in confinement, or to ask forgiveness, by which, it is well known, he might have obtained his freedom, having lost all hopes of reimbursing his losses, his avarice was reduced to despair. His desire of fame was unbounded, and this could no way be gratified but by having himself canonized for a saint, after spending his life in committing all the ravages of a pandour. Hence originated the following facts:—

He knew I was the legal claimant to his father’s estates. His father had bought with the family money, remitted from Prussia, the lordships of Prestowacz and Pleternitz, in Sclavonia, and he himself, during his father’s life, and with his father’s money, had purchased the lordship of Pakratz, for forty thousand florins: this must therefore descend also to me, he having no more power to will this from me, than he had the remainder of his paternal inheritance. The property he himself had gained was consigned to administrators, but a hundred thousand florins had been expended in lawsuits, and sixty-three suits continued actually pending against him in court; the legacies he bequeathed amounted to eighty thousand florins. These, he saw, could not be paid, should I claim nothing more than the paternal inheritance; he, therefore, to render me unfortunate after his death, craftily named me his universal heir, without mentioning his father’s will, but endeavoured, by his mysterious death, and the following conditions, to enforce the execution of his own will.

First,—I was to become a Catholic.

Secondly,—I was to serve only the house of Austria; and,

Lastly,—He made his whole estate, without excepting the paternal inheritance, a Fidei commissum.

Hence arose all my misfortunes, as indeed was his intention; for, but a short time before his death, he said to the Governor, Baron Kottulinsky, “I shall now die contented, since I have been able to trick my cousin, and render him wretched.”

His death, believed in Vienna to be miraculous, happened after the following manner; and by this he had induced many weak people, who really believed him a saint, to further his views.

Three days before his death, while in perfect health, he desired the governor of the Spielberg would send for his confessor, for that St. Francis had revealed to him he should be removed into life everlasting on his birth-day at twelve o’clock. The capuchin was sent for, but the prediction laughed at.

The day, however, after the departure of his confessor, he said, “Praise be to God, my end approaches; my confessor is dead, and has appeared to me.” Strange as it may seem; it was actually found to be true that the priest was dead. He now had all the officers of the garrison of Brunn assembled, tonsured his head like a capuchin, took the habit of the order, publicly confessed himself in a sermon of an hour’s length, exhorted them all to holiness, acted the part of a most exemplary penitent, embraced all present, spoke with a smile of the insignificance of all earthly possessions, took his leave, knelt down to prayers, slept calmly, rose, prayed again, and about eleven in the forenoon, October 4th, taking his watch in his hand, said, “Thanks be to my God, my last hour approaches.” All laughed at such a farce from a man of such a character; yet they remarked that the left side of his face grew pale. He then leaned his arm on the table, prayed, and remained motionless, with his eyes closed. The clock struck twelve—no signs of life or motion could be discovered; they spoke to him, and found he was really dead.

The word miracle was echoed through the whole country, and the transmigration of the Pandour Trenck, from earth to heaven, by St. Francis, proclaimed. The clue to this labyrinth of miracles, known only to me, is truly as follows:—He possessed the secret of what is called the aqua tofana, and had determined on death. His confessor had been entrusted with all his secrets, and with promissory notes, which he wished to invalidate. I am perfectly certain that he had returned a promissory note of a great prince, given for two hundred thousand florins, which has never been brought to account. The confessor, therefore, was to be provided for, that Trenck might not be betrayed, and a dose of poison was given him before he set off for Vienna: his death was the consequence. He took similar means with himself, and thus knew the hour of his exit; finding he could not become the first on earth, he wished to be adored as a saint in heaven. He knew he should work miracles when dead, because he ordered a chapel to be built, willed a perpetual mass, and bequeathed the capuchins sixty thousand florins.

Thus died this most extraordinary man, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, to whom nature had denied none of her gifts; who had been the scourge of Bavaria; the terror of France; and who had, with his supposed contemptible pandours, taken above six thousand Prussian prisoners. He lived a tyrant and enemy of men, and died a sanctified impostor.

Such was the state of affairs, as willed by Trenck, when I came to Vienna, in 1759, where I arrived with money and jewels to the amount of twenty thousand florins.

Instead of profiting by the wealth Trenck had acquired, I expended a hundred and twenty thousand florins of my own money, including what devolved to me from my uncle, his father, in the prosecution of his suits. Trenck had paid two hundred ducats to the tribunal of Vienna, in the year 1743, to procure its very reprehensible silence concerning a curator, to which I was sacrificed, as the new judges of this court refused to correct the error of their predecessors. Such are the proceedings of courts of justice in Vienna!

On my first audience, no one could be received more kindly than I was, by the Empress Queen. She spoke of my deceased cousin with much emotion and esteem, promised me all grace and favour, and informed me of the particular recommendations she had received, on my behalf, from Count Bernes. Finding sixty-three cases hang over my head, in consequence of the inheritance of Trenck, to obtain justice in any one of which in Vienna, would have employed the whole life of an honest man, I determined to renounce this inheritance, and claim only under the will and as the heir of my uncle.

With this view I applied for and obtained a copy of that will, with which I personally appeared, and declared to the court that I renounced the inheritance of Francis Trenck, would undertake none of his suits, nor be responsible for his legacies, and required only his father’s estates, according to the legal will, which I produced; that is to say, the three lordships of Pakratz, Prestowacz, and Pleneritz, without chattels or personal effects. Nothing could be more just or incontrovertible than this claim. What was my astonishment, to be told, in open court, that Her Majesty had declared I must either wholly perform the articles of the will of Trenck, or be excluded the entire inheritance, and have nothing further to hope. What could be done? I ventured to remonstrate, but the will of the court was determined and absolute: I must become a Roman Catholic.

In this extremity I bribed a priest, who gave me a signed attestation, “That I had abjured the accursed heresy of Lutheranism.” My religion, however, remained what it had ever been. General Bernes about this time returned from his embassy, and I related to him the lamentable state in which I found my affairs. He spoke to the Empress in my behalf, and she promised everything. He advised me to have patience, to perform all that was required of me, and to make myself responsible for the depending suits. Some family concerns obliged him, as he informed me, to make a journey to Turin, but his return would be speedy: he would then take the management of my affairs upon himself, and insure my good fortune in Austria. Bernes loved me as his son, and I had reason to hope, from his assurance, I should be largely remembered in his will, which was the more probable, as he had neither child nor relations. He parted from me, like a father, with tears in his eyes; but he had scarcely been absent six weeks before the news arrived of his death, which, if report may be credited, was effected by poison, administered by a friend. Ever the sport of fortune, thus were my supporters snatched from me at the very moment they became most necessary.

The same year was I, likewise, deprived by death of my friend and protector, Field-marshal Konigseck, Governor of Vienna, when he had determined to interest himself in my behalf. I have been beloved by the greatest men Austria ever produced, but unfortunately have been persecuted by the chicanery of pettifoggers, fools, fanatics, and priests, who have deprived me of the favour of my Empress, guiltless as I was of crime or deceit, and left my old age in poverty.

My ills were increased by a new accident. Soon after the departure of Bernes, the Prussian minister, taking me aside, in the house of the Palatine envoy, M. Becker, proposed my return to Berlin, assured me the King had forgotten all that was past, was convinced of my innocence, that my good fortune would there be certain, and be pledged his honour to recover the inheritance of Trenck. I answered, the favour came too late; I had suffered injustice too flagrant, in my own country, and that I would trust no prince on earth whose will might annihilate all the rights of men. My good faith to the King had been too ill repaid; my talents might gain me bread in any part of the world, and I would not again subject myself to the danger of unmerited imprisonment.

His persuasions were strong, but ineffectual. “My dear Trenck,” said he, “God is my judge that my intentions are honest; I will pledge myself, that my sovereign will insure your fortune: you do not know Vienna; you will lose all by the suits in which you are involved, and will be persecuted because you do not carry a rosary.”

How often have I repented I did not then return to Berlin! I should have escaped ten years’ imprisonment; should have recovered the estates of Trenck: should not have wasted the prime of life in the litigation of suits, and the writing of memorials; and should have certainly been ranked among the first men in my native country. Vienna was no place for a man who could not fawn and flatter: yet here was I destined to remain six-and-thirty years, unrewarded, unemployed; and through youth and age, to continue on the list of invalid majors.

Having rejected the proposition of the Prussian envoy, all my hopes in Vienna were ruined; for Frederic, by his residents and emissaries, knew how to effect whatever he pleased in foreign courts, and determined that the Trenck who would no longer serve or confide in him should at least find no opportunity of serving against him: I soon became painted to the Empress as an arch heretic who never would be faithful to the house of Austria, and only endeavoured to obtain the inheritance of Trenck that he might devote himself to Prussia. This I shall hereafter prove; and display a scene that shall be the disgrace of many, by whom the Empress was induced to harbour unjust suspicions of an able and honest man. I here stand erect and confident before the world; publish the truth, and take everlasting shame to myself, if any man on earth can prove me guilty of one treacherous thought. I owe no thanks; but so far from having received favours, I have six and thirty years remained unable to obtain justice, though I have all the while been desirous of shedding my blood in defence of the monarchy where I have thus been treated. Till the year 1746, I was equally zealous and faithful to Prussia; yet my estates there, though confiscated, were liable to recovery: in Hungary, on the contrary, the sentence of confiscation is irrevocable. This is a remarkable proof in favour of my honour, and my children’s claims.

Surely no reader will be offended at these digressions; my mind is agitated, my feelings roused, remembering that my age and grey hairs deprive me of the sweet hope of at length vanquishing opposition, either by patience, or forcing justice, by eminent services, or noble efforts.

This my history will never reach a monarch’s eye, consequently no monarch, by perceiving, will be induced to protect truth. It may, indeed, be criticised by literati; it will certainly be decried by my persecutors, who, through life, have been my false accusers, and will probably, therefore, be prohibited by the priests. All Germany, however, will read, and posterity perhaps may pity, should my book escape the misfortune of being classed among improbable romances; to which it is the more liable, because that the biographers of Frederic and Maria Theresa, for manifest reasons, have never so much as mentioned the name of Trenck.

Once more to my story: I was now obliged to declare myself heir, but always cum reservatione juris mei, not as simply claiming under the will of Francis Trenck I was obliged to take upon myself the management of the sixty-three suits, and the expenses attending any one of these are well known in Vienna. My situation may be imagined, when I inform the reader I only received, from the whole estate of Trenck, 3,600 florins in three years, which were scarcely sufficient to defray the expenses of new year’s gifts to the solicitors and masters in chancery. How did I labour in stating and transcribing proofs for the court! The money I possessed soon vanished. My Prussian relations supported me, and the Countess Bestuchef sent me the four thousand roubles I had refused at Petersburg. I had also remittances from my faithful mistress in Prussia; and, in addition, was obliged to borrow money at the usurious rate of sixty per cent. Bewildered as I was among lawyers and knaves, my ambition still prompted me to proceed, and all things are possible to labour and perseverance; but my property was expended: and, at length, I could only obtain that the contested estates should be made a Fidei commissum, or put under trust; whereby, though they were protected from being the further prey of others, I did not inherit them as mine. In this pursuit was my prime of life wasted, which might have been profitably and honourably spent.

In three years, however, I brought my sixty-three suits to a kind of conclusion; the probabilities were this could not have been effected in fifty. Exclusive of my assiduity, the means I took must not be told; it is sufficient that I here learnt what judges were, and thus am enabled to describe them to others.

For a few ducats, the president’s servant used to admit me into a closet where I could see everything as perfectly as if I had myself been one of the council. This often was useful, and taught me to prevent evil; and often was I scarcely able to refrain bursting in upon this court.

Their appointed hour of meeting was nine in the morning, but they seldom assembled before eleven. The president then told his beads, and muttered his prayers. Someone got up and harangued, while the remainder, in pairs, amused themselves with talking instead of listening, after which the news of the day became the common topic of conversation, and the council broke up, the court being first adjourned some three weeks, without coming to any determination. This was called judicium delegatum in causis Trenkiansis; and when at last they came to a conclusion, the sentence was such as I shall ever shudder at and abhor.

The real estates of Trenck consisted in the great Sclavonian manors, called the lordships of Pakratz, Prestowatz, and Pleternitz, which he had inherited from his father, and were the family property, together with Velika and Nustak, which he himself had purchased: the annual income of these was 60,000 florins, and they contained more than two hundred villages and hamlets. The laws of Hungary require—

1st. That those who purchase estates shall obtain the consensus regius (royal consent).

2nd. That the seller shall possess, and make over the right of property, together with that of transferring or alienating, and

3dly. That the purchaser shall be a native born, or have bought his naturalisation.

In default of all, or any of these, the Fiscus, on the death of the purchaser, takes possession, repaying the summa emptitia, or purchase-money, together within what can be shown to have been laid out in improvements, or the summa inscriptitia, the sum at which it stands rated in the fiscal register.

Without form or notice, the Hungarian Fiscal President, Count Grassalkowitz, took possession of all the Trenck estates on his decease, in the name of the Fiscus. The prize was great, not so much because of the estates themselves, as of the personal property upon them. Trenck had sent loads of merchandise to his estates, of linen, ingots of gold and silver from Bavaria, Alsatia, and Silesia. He had a vast storehouse of arms, and of saddles; also the great silver service of the Emperor Charles VII., which he had brought from Munich, with the service of plate of the King of Prussia; and the personal property on these estates was affirmed considerably to exceed in value the estates themselves.

I was not long since informed by one of the first generals, whose honour is undoubted, that several waggons were laden with these rich effects and sent to Mihalefze. His testimony was indubitable; he knew the two pandours, who were the confidants of Trenck, and the keepers of his treasures; and these, during the general plunder, each seized a bag of pearls, and fled to Turkey, where they became wealthy merchants. His rich stud of horses were taken, and the very cows driven off the farms. His stand of arms consisted of more than three thousand rare pieces. Trenck had affirmed he had sent linen to the amount of fifty thousand florins, in chests from Dunnhausen and Cersdorf, in the county of Glatz, to his estates. The pillage was general; and when orders came to send all the property of Trenck and deliver it to his universal heir, nothing remained that any person would accept. I have myself seen, in a certain Hungarian nobleman’s house, some valuable arms, which I knew I had been robbed of! and I bought at Esseck some silver plates on which were the arms of Prussia, that had been sold by Counsellor D-n, who had been empowered to take possession of these estates, and had thus rendered himself rich. Of this I procured an attestation, and proved the theft: I complained aloud at Vienna, but received an order from the court to be silent, under pain of displeasure, and also to go no more into Sclavonia. The principal reason of my loss of the landed property in Hungary was my having dared to make inquiries concerning the personal, not one guinea of which was ever brought to account. I then proved my right to the family estates, left by my uncle, beyond all dispute, and also of those purchased by my cousin. The commissions appointed to inquire into these rights even confirmed them; yet after they had been thus established, I received the following order from the court, in the hand of the Empress herself:—“The president, Count Grassalkowitz, takes it upon his conscience that the Sclavonian estates do not descend to Trenck, in natura; he must therefore receive the summa emptitia et inscriptitia, together with the money he can show to have been expended in improvements.”