Page:Surprising adventures of Frederick Baron Trenck.pdf/22

 weight. They went immediately to work; my feet were fastened to a ring sunk in the wall, at about three feet from the ground, so that I could only take two or three steps on each side. They then girt my naked body with a broad iron girdle, from which descended a chain, fastened at the other extremity to a bar of iron two feet long. At each end of this bar was a handcuff that confined my hands; and a collar was added in 1756. As soon as the work was completed, every body retired in silence; and I heard the dreadful creaking of four doors, which shut close upon one another.

The name of Trenck was incrusted on the wall with red brick; and under my feet was a tomb intended for me, on which also was my name and a Death’s head. There were two oaken doors to the dungeon; and in the way to it a kind of lobby, into which a window had been opened, which was likewise secured by two doors of the same kind. It was the King’s intention that this dungeon should be built in such a manner, as to put it out of my power to have the least communication with the centinel; it was surrounded with pallisades twelve feet high, forming a kind of park; and the key was deposited with the guard-officer. I had tamed a mouse so perfectly, that the little animal was continually playing with me, and used to eat out of my mouth. One night it skipped about so much, that the centinels hearing a noise, made their report to the officer of the guard. The Town Major arrived early in the morning accompanied by locksmiths and masons. The floor, the walls, my chains, and my body were strictly examined: