k me and
my pandours. I saw with pleasure, during the last campaign, that the
Prussian Trenck was a good soldier; and that I might give you some proofs
of my attachment, I then returned the horses which my men had taken. If,
however, you wish to have Hungarian horses, you must take mine in like
manner from me in the field of battle: or, should you so think fit, come
and join one who will receive you with open arms, like his friend and
son, and who will procure you every advantage you can desire," &c.

At first I was terrified at reading this letter, yet could not help
smiling. Cornet Wagenitz, now general in chief of the Hesse Cassel
forces, and Lieutenant Grotthausen, both now alive, and then present,
were my camp comrades. I gave them the letter to read, and they laughed
at its contents. It was determined to show it to our superior officer,
Jaschinsky, on a promise of secrecy, and it was accordingly shown him
within an hour after it was received.

The reader will be so kind as to recollect that, as I have before said,
it was this Colonel Jaschinsky who on the 12th of February, the same
year, at Berlin, prevailed on me to write to the Austrian Trenck, my
cousin; that he received the letter open, and undertook to send it
according to its address; also that, in this letter, I in jest had asked
him to send me some Hungarian horses, and, should they come, had promised
one to Jaschinsky. He read the letter with an air of some surprise; we
laughed, and, it being whispered through the army that, in consequence of
our late victory, detached corps would be sent into Hungary, Jaschinsky
said, "We shall now go and take Hungarian horses for ourselves." Here
the conversation ended, and I, little suspecting future consequences,
returned to my tent.

I must here remark the following observations:--

1st. I had not observed the date of the letter brought by the postman,
which, as I have said, was antedated four months: this, however, the
colonel did not fail to remark.

2ndly. The probability is that this was a net, spread for me by this
false and wicked man. The return of my horses, during the preceding
campaign, had been the subject of much conversation. It is possible he
had the King's orders to watch me; but more probably he only prevailed on
me to write that he might entrap me by a fictitious answer. Certain it
is, my cousin Trenck, at Vienna, affirmed to his death he never received
any letter from me, consequent