answer to your kind panegyric. You will but do me justice, when you
believe I think and act as I write with respect to my influence at
court, it is as insignificant at Berlin as at Vienna or at
Constantinople"
Among the various letters I have received, as it may answer a good
purpose, I hope the reader will not think the insertion of the following
improper.
In a letter from an unknown correspondent, who desired me to speak for
this person at Berlin, eight others were enclosed. They came from the
above person in distress, to this correspondent: and I was requested to
let them appear in the Berlin Journal. I selected two of them, and here
present them to the world, as it can do me injury, while they describe an
unhappy victim of an extraordinary kind: and may perhaps obtain him some
relief.
Should this hope be verified, I am acquainted with him who wishes to
remain concealed, can introduce him to the knowledge of such as might
wish to interfere in his behalf. Should they not, the reader will still
find them well-written and affecting letters; such as may inspire
compassion. The following is the first of those I selected.
LETTER I
"_Neuland_, _Feb_ 12_th_, 1787.
"I thought I had so satisfactorily answered you by my last, that you
would have left me in peaceful possession of my sorrows! but your
remarks, entreaties, and remonstrances, succeed each other with such
rapidity, that I am induced to renew the contest. Cowardice, I
believe, you are convinced, is not a native in my heart, and should I
now yield, you might suppose that age and the miseries I have
suffered, had weakened my powers of mind as well as body; and that I
ought to have been classed among the unhappy multitudes whose
sufferings have sunk them to despondency.
"Baron Trenck, that man of many woes, once so despised, but who now is
held in admiration, where he was before so much the object of hatred;
who now speaks so loudly in his own defence, where, formerly, the man
who had but whispered his name would have lived suspected; Baron
Trenck you propose as an example of salvation for me. You are wrong.
Have you considered how dissimilar our past lives have been; how
different, too, are our circumstances? Or, omitting these, have you
considered to whom you would have me appeal?
"In 1767, I became acquainted, in Vienna, with this sufferer of
fortitude, this agree
|