Page:Surprising adventures and sufferings of Frederick Baron Trenck.pdf/2

 LIFE AND ADVENTURES

I was born in the year 1726, at Koenigsberg Prussia. My father, descended from an ancient family, was general of cavalry. He died in 1741 after having received eighteen wounds in the service of Prussia. My mother was daughter of the President of the Supreme Court of Koenigsberg; one of her brothers was Minister of State and two others, generals of infantry. After my father’s death, she married Count Loftang, Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment of Cuirassiers of Kiow. I had two brothers and a sister. One of my brothers remained with my mother, the other was Cornet in the regiment of Kiow; and my sister married the only son of old General Waldow, and settled in Brandenburgh.

My father sent me at the age of thirteen to the university of Koenigsberg, where I made a rapid progress in my education. At the end of 1740 I had a dispute with a gentleman named Wallenrod, who boarded in the same house. He was much taller and stronger than me ; and despising my weakness, thought proper to strike me. I demanded satisfaction, which he refusing contemptuously, I took a second, and attacked him in the open street. We fought; and I had the good fortune to wound him in the hand and arm.