Year: 1869


ness, and chains by many thousands of
men. Nor shall We need to 90 far
back 10 history To find instances of
cruelty whose recital chills our very
bones.


The celebrated Baron Trenck was
born in Prussia, February 16, 1926
His ancestry was noble and ehivalric.
His father, eager to make great sold
iers of MS sons, gave them wooden
swords sheathed in leather, with which
he encouraged them to settle their
boyish disputes. What wonder they
grew up choleric, passionate and over
bearing


At the age of sixteen young Trenck
was appointed cadet in the kings
body-guard, and underwent a disCi-
Dline Of whose severity our boys have
no conception. Often the trumpet
would sound at midnight, aud woe to
the lad who was not dressed, armed
and mounted, and at the palace in
eight minutes. Dismissed to his bed
he would hardly fall asleep before the
same summons would arouse him again.
The Baron was a bright handsome,
mettlesome youth. The king took a
fancy to him, and called him his young
Hector. So rapidly did he advance
in the service that there seemed no
height to which he might not aspire.


But, alas he had the audacity to
love the kings sister, the beautiful
Princess Amelia, who In return loved
him. This ruined him. Spies dog
ged the footsteps of the favorite, and
reported his stolen interviews In the
palace garden. On some false pretext
he was thrown into prison, and when
released he repeated the imprudence
again and again, till the king determin-
ed to give him stern lesson In the
strong fortress of Glatz. Here he re-
mained nearly a year, chafing like a
Gagged lion. Once he cut his portman-
teau into strips and let himself down
the walls, only to get stuck in the mud
dy moat. Next he snatched the sword
of an officer, rushed past the sentinels
leaped down a wall eighty high, and
would have his liberty had not his foot
caught in some palisades. The next
attempt succeeded, and after incredible
hardships the bold young baron
reached st. Petersburg.


Here he lived at the splendid court
of Elizabeth for some time, and then
went to Vienna to receive a great es-
tate which had fallen to him through
a relative. But Frederic his king.
who was fully persuaded that his old
faYorite was cOnspiring against him,
had not once taken his eye off him
since he made that fearful leap at
GlatE. The first time the young man
the Prussian frontier he
was seized and carried to the gloomy
fortress of Magdeburg.


Now" thought the king, 'let US
see who Is master. I'll put the young
Hercules into a cell which will be
match for him, l think"


Let US look at it. A small, narrow
room, shut In by walls seven feet
thick; one little slit Of a window, CT
funnel rather, through the enormous
masonry, with heavy iron bars at each
end. The bedstead and stove are iron
ed to the floor. Allis dark, or bright
ems only to q dull twilight at midday
Not a speck of blue sky or green earth
is to be seen; not a sound but the dull
thud of the sentinel outside on the
pavement What a spot into which to
thrust a proud young noble who had
supped with queens and danced with



At first the young baron was quite
stupefed with his misfortune. Two
months passed before be could think
what to do. Then he reused and be-
gan work, The next cell to him was
empty and open; cOald he work pas
sage into ii he might escape. But the
wall was seven feet thick, and he had
no tool of any kind. He observed
that the floor under his stove was brick
instead of stone. After immense Ia
Dor he managed to wrench out the
irons that fastened down the stove,
and with these be loo ened tier after
tier of huge stones, whose mortar had
hardened by age into stone itself
Luckily his cell was entered but once
a week his bread and water being
thrust through hole in the door, so
that he could work several days with
out disturbance; then every thing
must be replaced and made ready for
the weekly inspection.


But here was a trouble. How should
he hide the loosened mortar which
could By no possibility be crammed
into its old chinks2 The least speck on
the floor would excite suspicion. Well
he would grind it into powder under
his heel, blow it along his funnel of a
window as far as he could, and then
whisk it out at night. To do this be
made pole By tying splinters from bis
bedstead together with raveled yarn
with a tuft of his hair at the end
Thus he got rid of about three hund-
red pounds of dirt. He numbered
every brick aud stone In his mind, so
rs to restore it to its exact place, aud
made sort of putty to FIJI up the seams.
This he dried by sitting against it with
his naked body.


After six months of fearful labor the
work was nearly done. A hair rope
bad been twisted from his mattress,
which he intended to fasten to a can
non In the wall, let himself down,
swim the Elbe, and SC cross over into
SaXony. Another day and he would
be free, when, o, horrors ! his bolts
we're withdrawn, his eyes bandaged, |
and he carried into another part OF
the fortress. He had been betrayed;
Frederic was there and know ALL
The king shut his teeth harder than
ever against the man who dehed the
dungeons. aud increased his tOrtures
tenfOld.


Within the new cell stood two grimy
with firepans aud TOOLS
a word they forged enor-
nous chains to the prisoners ankles,
which were fastened by stout staples TO
the wall Next they put a great iron
ring around his body, also heavily
chained to the wall. Their work done
they left him, silently boiling four
pOnderous doors betEeen him and the
world-left him in the dark, standing
there in horrible amaze, with these
fearful cold irons weighing him to the
ground. Gradually, as his eyes grew
used 10 the dim light sitting through
his grating at midday, he could read


Trenok" built into the wall in red
brick, and see his tombstone set in