I lived here ten years, yet
never saw the town.

The duration of my imprisonment at Magdeburg was nearly ten years, and
with the term of my imprisonment at Glatz, the time is eleven years. Thus
was I robbed of time, my body weakened, my health impaired, so that in my
decline of life, a second time, I suffer the gloom and chains of the
dungeon at Magdeburg.

The reader would now hope that my calamities were at an end; yet, upon my
honour, I would prefer the suffering of the Star Fort to those I have
since endured in Austria, especially while Krugel and Zetto were my
referendaries and curators.

At this moment I am obliged to be guarded in my expressions. I have put
my enemies to shame; but the hope of justice or reward is vain. No
rewards are bestowed on him who, with the consciousness of integrity,
demands, and does not deplore. The facts I shall relate will seem
incredible, yet I have, in my own hands, the vouchers of their veracity.

"If my right hand is guilty of writing untruths in this book, may the
executioner sever it from my body, and, in the memory of posterity, may I
live a villain!"

I will proceed with my history.

On the 2nd of January I arrived, with Count Schlieben, at Prague; the
same day he delivered me to the governor, the Duke of Deuxponts. He
received me with kindness; we dined with him two days, and all Prague
were anxious to see a man who had surmounted ten years of suffering so
unheard of as mine. Here I received three thousand florins, and paid
General Reidt his three hundred ducats, which he had advanced Count
Schlieben, for my journey, the repayment of which he demanded in his
letter, although he had received ten thousand florins. The expense of
returning I also paid to Schlieben, made him a present, and provided
myself with some necessaries. After remaining a few days at Prague, a
courier arrived from Vienna, to whom I was obliged to pay forty florins,
with an order from government to bring me from Prague to Vienna. My
sword was demanded; Captain Count Wela, and two inferior officers,
entered the carriage, which I was obliged to purchase, in company with
me, and brought me to Vienna. I took up a thousand florins more, in
Prague, to defray these expenses, and was obliged, in Vienna, to pay the
captain fifty ducats for travelling charges back.

I was brought back like a criminal, was sent as a prisoner to the
barracks, there kept in the chamber of Lieutenant Blonket, with order