returned the same evening, bringing with him Lieutenant Schell, and as
he entered said, "Here is your man." Schell embraced me, gave his word
of honour, and thus was the affair settled, and as it proved, my liberty
ascertained.

We soon began to deliberate on the means necessary to obtain our purpose.
Schell was just come from garrison at Habelchwert to the citadel of
Glatz, and in two days was to mount guard over me, till when our attempt
was suspended. I have before said, I received no more supplies from my
beloved mistress, and my purse at that time only contained some six
pistoles. It was therefore resolved that Bach should go to Schweidnitz,
and obtain money of a sure friend of mine in that city.

Here must I inform the reader that at this period the officers and I all
understood each other, Captain Roder alone excepted, who was exact,
rigid, and gave trouble on all occasions.

Major Quaadt was my kinsman, by my mother's side, a good, friendly man,
and ardently desirous I should escape, seeing my calamities were so much
increased. The four lieutenants who successively mounted guard over me
were Bach, Schroeder, Lunitz, and Schell. The first was the grand
projector, and made all preparations; Schell was to desert with me; and
Schroeder and Lunitz three days after were to follow.

No one ought to be surprised that officers of garrison regiments should
be so ready to desert. They are, in general, either men of violent
passions, quarrelsome, overwhelmed with debts, or unfit for service. They
are usually sent to the garrison as a punishment, and are called the
refuse of the army. Dissatisfied with their situation, their pay much
reduced, and despised by the troops, such men, expecting advantage, may
be brought to engage in the most desperate undertaking. None of them can
hope for their discharge, and they live in the utmost poverty. They all
hoped by my means to better their fortune, I always having had money
enough; and, with money, nothing is more easy than to find friends, in
places where each individual is desirous of escaping from slavery.

The talents of Schell were of a superior order; he spoke and wrote six
languages, and was well acquainted with all the fine arts. He had served
in the regiment of Fouquet, had been injured by his colonel, who was a
Pomeranian; and Fouquet, who was no friend to well-informed officers, had
sent him to a garrison regiment. He had twice demanded his dismissal,
but t