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

 Nassaw’s corps came to our assistance. We left Kolin, and while on the march the King said to me, “Your cousin might have played us an unlucky trick that night; but according to the report of the deserters, he was killed”.

About the middle of December we arrived at Berlin, where I was received with open arms. It was less prudent than in former years, and perhaps more observed. A Lieutenant of the Foot Guards jesting indecently on the secret of my amours, I drew upon him, and wounded him in he face. The Sunday after, I went to pay my court to the King: “Sir,” said he, the thunder roars: and, if you do not care, may fall upon your head.”

Some time after I came a few minutes too late to the parade; the King remarked it, and sent me under arrest to Potzdam, where I remained upwards of three weeks, owing to the artifices of Colonel Warteslaben.

I did not recover my liberty till three days before our departure for Silesia; towards which we marched only in May to begin our second campaign. I will here relate an incident that happened to me this winter, which became the source of all my misfortunes.

Francis Baron Trenk, who commanded the Pandours in the service of Austria having been 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 visit to Captain Isachinzki, commandant of the Life Guards, in company with Lieutenant Studnitz,