第56章 CHAPTER XV.(1)

Arrived here, I was lodged over the grand guardhouse, with two sentinels in my chamber, and one at the door. The King was at Potzdam, and here I remained three days; on the third, some staff-officers made their appearance, seated themselves at a table, and put the following questions to me:-First. What was my business at Dantzic?

Secondly. Whether I was acquainted with M. Goltz, Prussian ambassador to Russia?

Thirdly. Who was concerned with me in the conspiracy at Dantzic?

When I perceived their intention, by these interrogations, Iabsolutely refused to reply, only saying I had been imprisoned in the fortress of Glatz, without hearing, or trial by court-martial;that, availing myself of the laws of nature, I had by my own exertions procured my liberty, and that I was now a captain of cavalry in the imperial service; that I demanded a legal trial for my first unknown offence, after which I engaged to answer all interrogatories, and prove my innocence; but that at present, being accused of new crimes, without a hearing concerning my former punishment, the procedure was illegal. I was told they had no orders concerning this, and I remained dumb to all further questions.

They wrote some two hours, God knows what; a carriage came up; I was strictly searched, to find whether I had any weapons; thirteen or fourteen ducats, which I had concealed, were taken from me, and Iwas conducted under a strong escort, through Spandau to Magdeburg.

The officer here delivered me to the captain of the guard at the citadel; the town major came, and brought me to the dungeon, expressly prepared for me; a small picture of the Countess of Bestuchef, set with diamonds, which I had kept concealed in my bosom, was now taken from me; the door was shut, and here was Ileft.

My dungeon was in a casemate, the fore part of which, six feet wide and ten feet long, was divided by a party wall. In the inner wall were two doors, and a third at the entrance of the casemate itself.

The window in the seven-feet-thick wall was so situated that, though I had light, I could see neither heaven nor earth; I could only see the roof of the magazine; within and without this window were iron bars, and in the space between an iron grating, so close and so situated, by the rising of the walls, that it was impossible Ishould see any parson without the prison, or that any person should see me. On the outside was a wooden palisade, six feet from the wall, by which the sentinels were prevented from conveying anything to me. I had a mattress, and a bedstead, but which was immovably ironed to the floor, so that it was impossible I should drag it, and stand up to the window; beside the door was a small iron stove and a night table, in like manner fixed to the floor. I was not yet put in irons, and my allowance was a pound and a half per day of ammunition bread, and a jug of water.

From my youth I had always had a good appetite, and my bread was so mouldy I could scarcely at first eat the half of it. This was the consequence of Major Reiding's avarice, who endeavoured to profit even by this, so great was the number of unfortunate prisoners;therefore, it is impossible I should describe to my readers the excess of tortures that, during eleven months, I felt from ravenous hunger. I could easily every day have devoured six pounds of bread;and every twenty-four hours after having received and swallowed my small portion, I continued as hungry as before I began, yet must wait another twenty-four hours for a new morsel. How willingly would I have signed a bill of exchange for a thousand ducats, on my property at Vienna, only to have satiated my hunger on dry bread!

For, so extreme was it, that scarcely had I dropt into a sweet sleep. Therefore I dreamed I was feasting at some table luxuriously loaded, where, eating like a glutton, the whole company were astonished to see me, while my imagination was heated by the sensation of famine. Awakened by the pains of hunger, the dishes vanished, and nothing remained but the reality of my distress; the cravings of nature were but inflamed, my tortures prevented sleep, and, looking into futurity, the cruelty of my fate suffered, if possible, increase, from imagining that the prolongation of pangs like these was insupportable. God preserve every honest man from sufferings like mine! They were not to be endured by the villain most obdurate. Many have fasted three days, many have suffered want for a week, or more; but certainly no one, beside myself, ever endured it in the same excess for eleven months. Some have supposed that to eat little might become habitual, but I have experienced the contrary. My hunger increased every day; and of all the trials of fortitude my whole life has afforded, this, of eleven months, was the most bitter.

Petitions, remonstrances, were of no avail; the answer was--"We must give no more, such is the King's command." The Governor, General Borck, born the enemy of man, replied, when I entreated, at least, to have my fill of bread, "You have feasted often enough out of the service of plate taken from the King, by Trenck, at the battle of Sorau; you must now eat ammunition bread in your dirty kennel. Your Empress makes no allowance for your maintenance, and you are unworthy of the bread you eat, or the trouble taken about you."Judge, reader, what pangs such insolence, added to such sufferings must inflict. Judge what were my thoughts, foreseeing, as I did, an endless duration to this imprisonment and these torments.

My three doors were kept ever shut, and I was left to such meditations as such feelings and such hopes might inspire. Daily, about noon, once in twenty-four hours, my pittance of bread and water was brought. The keys of all the doors were kept by the governor; the inner door was not opened, but my bread and water were delivered through an aperture. The prison doors were opened only once a week, on a Wednesday, when the governor and town major, my hole having been first cleaned, paid their visit.