The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-09-09
IN RUSSIAN PRISONS.
Baron Trenck's Indomitable VIII Gained
for Him His Freedom.

Baron Trenck, who, for a political
offence and out OF personal enmity,
was imprisoned by King Frederick
the Great in the fortress OF Glatz
The baron was hardly twenty years
old when his Imprisonment began.
The first time that he escaped he cut
the bars Of his cell with a knife of
which he had made a toothed saw,
and let himself down from a window
by rope made OF strips OF leather
from his travelling bas and pieces of
sheet. He fell into bog that sur
roun led the citadel When he had
sunk in the mud up to his lips be had
TO call the sentinel, and was taken
back to cell.
Eight days later he seized the sword
OF the prison inspector. fought his
way to rampant and jumped TO the
ground without injury: but in his
flight he was caught by the foot in a
palisade long enough To he recaptured.
He was dragged back to prison
pierced with bayonets and half dead,
but had hardly recovered from this
adventure before he made another
attempt
He and a companion eluded their
jailers and jumped from a rampant.
His companion broke his ankle. In
Trenck's delicate-looking figure were
the muscles Of an athlete. He took
the disabled man on his shoulders,
and ran with him for quarter Of an
hour. He crossed a stream and wan
dered about mountain in the snow
all night He thought he was far
from Glatz, and his heart sank when
he heard the Glatz clock strike 1.
However, he was not discouraged.
He seized two horses from peasant.
and with his companion rode away at
gallop until they reached Bohemia
and safety.
Eight years afterward Trenck was
imprudent enough TO 90 to Danzig on
business. He fell into the Kings
hands and was taken to Magdebourg
prison. This imprisonment was more
terrible than any Of the Others. His
cell was mere niche in the wall. II
was almost pitch dark. He was given
just enough bread and water to keep
him alive.
The horrors of this captivity de.
Ieloped his ingenuity and persever.
ance almost incredibly. He broke
one Of the bars of his cell, and made
OF 1t an instrument with which he
cut hole in the wall. He succeeded
in concealing the hole from the
jailers. The debris made by the
work he crumbled to dust beneath
his feet, or made into balls which he
blew out Of the loop-hole through
paper blowpipe. 1t was work OF in
finite care and patience.
AT the end OF six months the hole
in the wall was large enough for him
to escape through it. Then it was
discovered. The night on which
Trenck expected to escape he was
transferred to another cell. This
cell had been planned for him by the
King himself.
1t was horrible dungeon, only to
be reached through four heavy doors.
Trenck was bound hand and foot.
The King had had grave dug in the
cell, and on the stone was Trencks
ZANE and a deaths head
Now 1.-THE very idea Of escape
seemed insane, but Trenck's courage
was not exhausted. He had been
able to hide knife from the jailers.
With this he picked the locks of three
Of the dungeon doors In picking
the fourth his knife broke. That
was too much. With the broken
knife he opened veins in his arms
and legs, and lay down to bleed to
death.
After a little while he reused from
the lethargy into which he had sunk,
and in lit Of fierce anger demolished
the masonry of his CELL and made
barricade Of it. He determined to
die behind this like soldier. When
the jailers came he fought like one
demented, and they offered him terms.
Trenck surrendered his barricade as
if it had been a citadel.
Then followed another horrible
period Of Imprisonment Later new
warden was appointed, and Trenck
was treated less cruelty. Now he
secretly constructed a subterranean
gallery thirty-seven feet long. A
strange idea came to him. He de-
termined to test Frederick's gener-
osity.
11e pTODOSCu W luC WdluCH lIdl Ou
a certain day at certain hour he
and all the prison officials should
come to his cell He promised that
they should find the cell empty, and
that he would appear among them
from the outside of the prison. They
laughed at him.
Then before his astounded jailers
Trenck threw off his chains as il
they had been a garment, showed
them his tools lifted the pavement
OF the floor, showed them his subter-
ranean passage, as neatly built as IL
IL had been the work OF an engineer.
This time admiration accomplished
what pity had never been able TO do.
Frederick pardoned him, aud after
nearly twenty years OF cruel imprison-
ment Trenck was free man. In
1894. for some political offence, he