o
cut the locks from the doors and that way escape from my dungeon. The
letters were open, I being obliged to roll them round the stick to convey
them to Esther.

The faithful girl diligently proceeded to Berlin, where she arrived safe,
and immediately spoke to Count Puebla. The Count gave her the kindest
reception, received the letter, with the letter of exchange, and bade her
go and speak to Weingarten, the secretary of the embassy, and act
entirely as he should direct. She was received by Weingarten in the most
friendly manner, who, by his questions, drew from her the whole secret,
and our intended plan of flight, aided by the two grenadiers, and also
that she had a letter for my sister, which she must carry to Hammer, near
Custrin. He asked to see this letter; read it, told her to proceed on
her Journey, gave her two ducats to bear her expenses, ordered her to
come to him on her return, said that during this interval he would
endeavour to obtain her the thousand florins for my draft, and would then
give her further instructions.

Esther cheerfully departed for Hammer, where my sister, then a widow, and
no longer, as in 1746, in dread of her husband, joyful to hear I was
still living, immediately gave her three hundred rix-dollars, exhorting
her to exert every possible means to obtain my deliverance. Esther
hastened back with the letter from my sister to Berlin, and told all that
passed to Weingarten, who read the letter, and inquired the names of the
two grenadiers. He told her the thousand florins from Vienna were not
yet come, but gave her twelve ducats; bade her hasten back to Magdeburg,
to carry me all this good news, and then return to Berlin, where he would
pay her the thousand florins. Esther came to Magdeburg, went immediately
to the citadel, and, most luckily, met the wife of one of the grenadiers,
who told her that her husband and his comrade had been taken and put in
irons the day before. Esther had quickness of perception, and suspected
we had been betrayed; she therefore instantly again began her travels,
and happily came safe to Dessau.

Here I must interrupt my narrative, that I may explain this infernal
enigma to my readers, an account of which I received after I had obtained
my freedom, and still possess, in the handwriting of this Jewess.
Weingarten, as was afterwards discovered, was a traitor, and too much
trusted by Count Puebla, he being a spy in the pay of Prussia, and one
who had re