The Ely miner., 1929-11-29

@kOM MS own auloDlOSrapny-
IL one of the most remarkable hui
man documents, | think, that
ever was written-and from
contemporary accounts Of his incred-
ible achievements, we get graphic
likeness of Baron Trenck at the time
he falls into disfavOr with his auto
cratic overlOrd, the Great Frederick.
He is enormously wealthy. His cOur-
age is known in every military camp
in central Europe. He has brilliant
mind, a handsome face, a powerful
and graceful body. He is of noble de-
scent. He has friends in high places
and he had powerful enemies there,
too. You could search the continental
courts of the period and find nowhere
a more daShing figure than Baron
Trenck But it will be eleven years
later, when he has emerged from his
living tomb and has written down the
epic of his captivity. before the world
will know him for one of the most
resolute, the most resourceful, the
most indOmitable beings that ever
lived in any age.
First. for seventeen months, he is
kept in strict solitary confinement at
Glatz. Then under heavy guard he is
removed to Madgeburg, on the borders
of Saxony, and lodged in the citadel
of a medieval fOrtifcatiOn, gloomy
and dark His keepers think they'll
hold him fast here. If there is any
guarantee of security in StOne walls
seven feet thick, in massive iron bars,
in double gratings, in high palisades
outside, their confidence is justified.
Their charge is buried in lower case
matte, on bread and water-one jar
of water, one and one-half pounds of
coarse soldiers bread every twenty
four hours.
Trenck declines to be yanquished
either by the processes of slow star
walton or by the rigors of his prison
place. Promptly he sets to work to
dig out. With his bare hands he prizes
loose the iron strips which bolt his
bed to the solid masonry of the floor.
By persuasion and by promises of re-
ward he cOrrupts certain men among
the soldiers who have been told off TO
watch him. They agree to aid him
in escaping across the boundary into
SaxOny; but as for getting out of his
cell. that is his own job.
Using his bits of scrap iron for
tools, he removes the bricks of the
partition which stands between him
and an adjoining corridor. To do this
ne must first sCrape off the coatings
of lime from this wall, which, as he
says, had perhaps been whitewashed
a hundred times, and then, after each
bit of eXcavating. must replace the
powdered grit so as to defy detection
by his guards. Very simply he de-
scribes the process:
81 formed a brush with my hair,
then wetted the lime and rubbed it
on the wall. against which l applied
MY warm naked body until it was
quite dry and of piece with the rest"
Wasted Labor.
He hides the removed debris in his
bed and at night lies on it. with only
a thin mattress between him and its
rough irregularities.
In one brief casual paragraph he de-
scribes how, after persevering for six
months, he practically is ready for
his jail-break. He has tunneled
through many yards Of masonry. By
bribing his sentries he has secured
knife, a file, and writing paper. He
has smuggled out letters advising his
sister and certain of his friends of his
design and bidding them to be ready
to stand by when the hour comes.
On the very night of his intended
flight, disaster befalls. King Freder-
ick has visited Magdeburg, and by his
orders another prison has been pre-
pared in the Star-Fort, as it is called,
on the opposite side of the city. With
out warning. three officers enter his
casematte. Hearing them at the door
he has barely time to secrete his prec-
ious knife on his person. They shackle
him hand and foot, blindfold him. lead
him out, put him in a coach, and ride
with him across the town.
Let US quote the baron here-cer-
tainly his story is as graphic a one
as we could ask for.
AT length the coach halted; l was
conveyed from it into my new prison,
the cloth was loosened from my eyes.
Two black, misunderstanding smiths
armed with a fire-pan and hammers
presented themselves to my view and
I saw the floor covered with ponder
Gus chainsi
Immediately they began their
work my feet were bound with heavy
chains to an iron ring driven into the
wall; this ring was raised three feet