“ The town was so full of people that we could not force an entrance; the gate was shut, and our field pieces kept firing from above. Trenk stopped the passage of the water; by midnight it was as high as our horses’ bellies, and we were almost entirely abandoned. We lost six men, and my horse was wounded in the neck—it is certain that the King as well as the rest of us, would have been made prisoners, if my cousin could have continued the attack. ”

“ This squadron consisted only of six officers, and an hundred and fifty-four men; but we had always fifty or sixty supernumeraries, and as many spare horses; for the King took all the handsome men he met with into his guards. The officer were the best in the army. The king instructed them himself, and afterwards ordered them to drill the rest of the Cavalry.
The duty of no other soldier in the world is so hard as was that of a Life Guardsman. ”

“ The campaign passed in marching and counter-marching: we were the most fatigued, because the Guards encamped round the King’s tent, which placed in the middle of the camp, always formed the van-guard.
The famous battle of Soran was fought on September 14th. The King had sent such large detachments into Saxony, Silesia, and Bohemia, that the grand army consisted at most of twenty-six thousand men, had surrounded the small number of Bradenburgh and Pomerian troops with more than eighty-six thousand men, and was in hopes of taking them all prisoners. ”

“ We immediately drew up in order of battle, and in less than ten minutes began the attack; notwithstanding our small number of men, (there were only five regiments of cavalry with our army,) and fell with the greatest rapidity on the enemy, at that moment employed in slowly forming their squadrons in the front of the defile. We drove them back into the defile, which was crowded full of men. The King immediately ordered the eight field pieces to be unmasked, and they made terrible havoc.
Nedaste Trenk, and the light troops that were to have attacked us in the rear, stopped to pillage our camp ”

“ A few days after the battle of Soran, the post-man brought me the following letter from my cousin Trenck, dated from Essex, and written four months before.
“I find by your letter from Berlin, of date Feb. 12th, that you desire me to send you some Hungarian horses, that you may employ them against my Hussars and Pandours, I perceived with pleasure in the last campaign, that the Prussian Trenck was a good soldier. As a proof of my attachment I sent you back your horses, which my people had taken. But if you want Hungarian horses, try next campaign to carry off mine by open force ”

“ The people of Vienna concerned in my cousin’s effects, by several base schemes and false insinuations, endeavoured to get me again into the hands of the Prussians, that they might quietly enjoy that fortune which was justly my due. ”

“ In our retreat from Bohemia, the King entered Kollin with his Horse Guards, the piquets Horses belonging to head quarters, and the second and third battalions of Guards: we had but four pieces of cannon and our squadron was posted in the suburbs. Towards the evening, our advanced guards were driven in; the Hussars entered with them mell into the suburbs, and the enemy’s light troops swarmed in all the environs. ”

“ An hour after we did as we had agreed, When he had read my letter with an appearance of astonishment, we all began to laugh; and as there was a report that a body of troops would be sent to Hungary, Iaschinzki said, “we will go ourselves and take Hungarian horses.” ”

“ The trumpet frequently sounded before we had scarcely got into bed, by way of giving the young men a habit of vigilance. The Life Guards lost more men and horses in a time of profound peace, than they would have done in two battles. ”

“ FREDERICK BARON TRENCK.
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I was born in the year 1726, at Koenigsberg, Prussia. My father, descended from an ancient family, was general of cavalry. He died in 1740, after having received eighteen wounds in the service of Prussia. My mother was daughter of the President of the Supreme Court of Koenigsberg; one of her brothers was Minister of State, and the two others generals of infantry. After my father’s death, she married Count Loftange, Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment of Cuirassiers of Kiow. I had two brothers and a sister. ”

“ Eighteen thousand men were made prisoners of war; the number of the garrison killed and wounded during the siege not exeeeding five hundred.
So far we met with no obstaele; however, the Imperial army, under the command of Prinee Charles, who had left the banks of the Rhine, advaneed to save Bohemia. His light armed troops being thriee as numerous as ours, prevented our foraging. Famine and want therefore obliged us to retreat, having no relief to hope for from the country behind us, which we had laid entirely waste on our march. ”

“ Nothing contributed so much to keep up my resolution, as the public praises I received, when I returned to head quarters from foraging with sixty or eighty waggons loaded, while others came back empty. ”

“ The Austrian Trenk is not at war with the Prussian Trenk, his cousin. On the contrary, he is very happy to have it in his power to send him back, his horses which he has recovered from the hands of his Hussars. ”