Page:Surprising adventures and sufferings of Frederick Baron Trenck.pdf/13

13 dangerously wounded in Bavaria in the year 1743, wrote to my mother to tell her it was his intention to make me his heir. This letter, to which I made no answer, was sent to me at Potzdam. The 12th of February 1744 I was at Berlin and went to pay a visit to Captain Isachinzki, commandant of the Life Guards, in company with Lieutenant Studnitz, and Cornet Wagnitz, who lived with me in the same apartment. The conversation turned on the Austrian Trenck, and Isachinzki asked me if I was related to him. I answered yes, and said that he had made me his heir. He asked me, what answer I had made, I told him none. On this the whole company observed that in such circumstances, I should be much in the wrong if I did not answer his letter. 'Write to him,' added our commandant, ‘and desire him to send you some handsome Hungarian horses for chargers. Give me your letter and I will have it delivered by M de Bossart, Secretary of Legation to the Saxon Ambassador, on condition that you give me one of the horses. This correspondence is a family concern, and not an affair of state; besides I will take the whole upon me, &c.’ I sat down to write immediately, in compliance with the advice of my commanding officer. I gave my letter open to Isachinzki; he sealed it himself and sent it away.

This letter, with the following incident, was the sole cause of all my misfortunes.

In the campaign of 1744, one of my grooms with two saddle horses was taken, as well as several others, by Trenck’s light troops. On my return to camp, I was ordered to accompany the King, who was going to reconnoitre. My horse being