next day,
when the guards came to open the door, they found Trenck ready to meet
them, armed with a brick in one hand, and a knife, doubtless obtained
from Gefhardt, in the other. The first man that approached him, he
stretched wounded at his feet, and thinking it dangerous to irritate
further a desperate man, they made a compromise with him. The governor
took off his chains for a time, and gave him strong soup and fresh
linen. Then, after a while, new doors were put to his cell, the inner
door being lined with plates of iron, and he himself was fastened with
stronger chains than those he had burst through.

For all this the watch must have been very lax, as Gefhardt soon
contrived to open communications with him again, and letters were passed
through the window (to which the prisoner had made a false and movable
frame) and forwarded to Trenck's rich friends. His appeal was always
answered promptly and amply. More valuable than money were two files,
also procured from Gefhardt, and by their means the new chains were
speedily cut through, though, as before, without any apparent break.
Having freed his limbs, he began to saw through the floor of his cell,
which was of wood. Underneath, instead of hard rock, there was sand,
which Trenck scooped out with his hands. This earth was passed through
the window to Gefhardt, who removed it when he was on guard, and gave
his friend pistols, a bayonet and knives to assist him when he had
finally made his escape.

All seemed going smoothly. The foundations of the prison were only four
feet deep, and Trenck's tunnel had reached a considerable distance when
everything was again spoilt. A letter written by Trenck to Vienna fell
into the hands of the governor, owing to some stupidity on the part of
Gefhardt's wife, who had been entrusted to deliver it. The letter does
not seem to have contained any special disclosure of his plan of escape,
as the governor, who was still Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, could find
nothing wrong in Trenck's cell except the false window frame. The cut
chains, though examined, somehow escaped detection, from which we gather
either that the officials were very careless, or the carpenter very
stupid. Perhaps both may have been the case, for as the Seven Years' War
(against Austria) was at this time raging, sentinels and officers were
frequently changed, and prison discipline insensibly relaxed. Had this
not been so, Trenck could never have been able to labour uns