35} 



TRENCK, BAEON FREDERIC VON DER. 



TRENTOWSKI, BRONI3LAW FERDYNAND. 



160 



to a cornetcy in his body-guard, at that time considered the most 

 splendid and gallant regiment in Europe, in which the rank of every 

 officer was throe degrees higher than in other regiments. The king's 

 favour and his own amiable manners procured him many friends at 

 court, but at the same time excited envy and malice. The foundation 

 of his cruel fate is said to have been laid about two years afterwards at 

 a ball given at the royal castle at Stettin, in celebration of the marriage 

 of the Piincess Ulrike, the king's eldest sister, with the king of 

 Sweden. The youngest sister, the Princess Amalie, is said to have 

 noticed him, to have invited him to see her at her private apartments, 

 and to have cherished a violent passion for him ever afterwards. In 

 an unguarded moment he is said to have boasted of the favours shown 

 him by his royal mistress. This was reported to the king, who, 

 although he did not think proper to punish his indiscretion, took a 

 decided dislike to him, and watched every opportunity of visiting him 

 moat severely for trifling faults in military discipline. This story, 

 embellished with many romantic incidents, originates principally with 

 French writers, who in many instances contradict themselves as to 

 dates and other matters. That an imprudent attachment between 

 Treuck and the princess existed cannot be doubted ; but that Frederic, 

 violent and passionate as he was in all his private concerns, should 

 have pretended blindness in so important a matter, and should even 

 have continued to bestow favours upon the man who had dishonoured 

 his sister's name, is difficult to credit. 



During the war between Prussia and Austria he was placed on the 

 king's staff, and distinguished himself on several occasions, particularly 

 when his cousin, Franz Trenck, attempted to take the king prisoner 

 by surprise at Collin. A short time afterwards his cousin addressed 

 him a letter, returning him some of his horses which his Pandours had 

 taken upon one of their foraging expeditions. This circumstance he 

 mentioned in presence of a Colonel Jaschinsky, who owed him a 

 considerable sum of money, and who at Berlin was known to be his 

 secret enemy. This man artfully persuaded him to a correspondence 

 with his cousin, he himself undertaking to forward the letters by 

 means of his mistress, the wife of the Saxon resident, Madame de 

 Bro.ssat. Several letters passed in this way open through Jaschinsky's 

 hands, until he got possession of one in which some highly imprudent 

 expressions were found, which he immediately caused to be laid 

 before the king. The result was, that Trenck was cashiered and sent 

 prisoner to the fortification of Glatz, not by a formal sentence, but by 

 an order from the king, who expressed his intention at the same time 

 to keep him there for one year ; evidence enough it would seem, that 

 he only meant to punish bis correspondence with the enemy, and no 

 other or greater crime. At first he was treated according to his 

 rank, and with all possible indulgence; but when it was discovered 

 that he had several times, by bribes, attempted and nearly effected his 

 escape, he was placed in close confinement. On the 24th of December 

 1746, he nevertheless succeeded in making his escape, by the assistance 

 of and together with Major Schell. With great fatigue and danger he 

 reached his mother's residence in Brandenburg, whence he proceeded 

 to Vienna, amply furnished with money. A strict investigation was 

 ordered by the king, for the purpose of finding out how he had 

 effected his escape ; the result of which was the discovery that large 

 sums had been remitted to him by the Princess Amalie. It is highly 

 probable that this was the first time that Frederic knew of his sister's 

 attachment; and from this period must be dated his intense and obdu- 

 rate hatred of Trenck. In the mean time Trenck had got into fresh 

 troubles at Vienna, which he himself principally attributes to the intri- 

 gues of his cousin Franz, notwithstanding he was in prison at the time 

 on a criminal charge. He left Vienna in disgust, and went to Russia, 

 where, through the recommendation of the English ambassador (to 

 whom Frederic himself had introduced him at Berlin, under the 

 flattering title of ' Matador de ma jeunesse'), he was well received, and 

 appointed captain of a troop of hussara. Here he might have lived 

 peaceably and content, being in high favour with the empress, and 

 having acquired considerable wealth through a legacy of a Russian 

 princess; but the Prussian ambassador, Count Goltz, left nothing 

 undone to injure him, pretending that he acted thus in accordance 

 with instructions from the king his master. His cousin at Vienna, 

 who was now dead, had made him his heir. Upon this he determined 

 to leave Russia; and after having visited Sweden, Denmark, and Hol- 

 land, he returned to Vienna to take possession of his inheritance. Fresh 

 difficulties awaited him there. His cousin's estates were under seques- 

 tration, and after expensive and vexatious suits, he agreed to a com- 

 promise, by which he received 75,000 florins, and the appointment of 

 a captaincy in a regiment of hussars. In 1748 he went to Prussia to 

 visit his family ; and at Dantzig, when on the point of embarking for 

 Sweden, owing to some hints of impending danger which he had 

 received, he was arrested by a party of hussars, and taken prisoner to 

 Berlin. He was at first treated well, but his intemperate language, 

 and even threats against the king, hurried on his fate. He was taken 

 to Magdeburg, and confined in a cell under-ground, and almost with- 

 out light. Hia sufferings, and his bold, desperate, and almost success- 

 ful attempts to escape, may be read in his own Memoirs. After two 

 soldiers had suffered death for conniving at his attempts to regain his 

 liberty, and several other plots had been discovered, a prison was at 

 last built on purpose for him, in which he was chained to the walls 

 with fetters of sixty-seven pounds weight. Here he remained above four 



years more, till at last his relations succeeded in softening Frederic's 

 obduracy; and on the 24th December 1763, he was released upon con- 

 dition of leaving the kingdom. He went first to Vienna, where he 

 was again arrested on account of his violent language against Fre<leric. 

 The emperor however having convinced himself by a personal inter- 

 view that his words were the mere outbreak of unmeaning rage after 

 his dreadful sufferings, set him free, paid him the arrears of his sal.iry 

 as a captaiu, and advised him to retire in order to recover his health 

 and his spirits. He settled at Aix-la-Chapelle, married a daughter of 

 the burgomaster De Broe, and commenced business as a wiue-mer- 

 chant. He went several times to England upon commercial affairs, 

 but notwithstanding all his exertions his affairs did not prosper, and 

 he became a bankrupt. After this new misfortune he wrote articles 

 of rather a democratic tendency for several periodical publications; 

 and in 1787, after the death of Frederic the Great, he published his 

 Memoirs, for the copyright of which he received a very large sum. From 

 that time he became for a time a distinguished person in the world. 

 His book was translated into almost all European languages; the 

 ladies at Paris, Berlin, and Vienna wore rings, necklaces, bonnets, and 

 gowns a la Trenck, and not less than seven different theatrical pieces 

 in which he was the hero were brought out on the French stage. The 

 year following he onca more visited Berlin; but although he was 

 kindly received by the king, it seems that he was disappointed in his 

 expectations, and he returned to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he commenced 

 the publication of a weekly paper, under the title of ' L'Ami dcs 

 Horames," in which he proclaimed himself a champion of the new 

 French doctrines. Meeting with little encouragement, he went to 

 Paris iu 1792, joined a Jacobin club, and was afterwards a zealous adhe- 

 rent to the Mountain party, which nevertheless betrayed, accused 

 him, and brought him to the guillotine on the 25th July 1794. Yet 

 on the scaffold, and in hi.s sixty-eighth year, he gave proof of his 

 ungovernable passions. Ho harangued the surrounding multitude, 

 and when his head was on the block he once more attempted to give 

 utterance to his vehemence, and the executioner had to hold him by 

 his silver locks to meet the fatal stroke. 



(Friedrich Trenk's Merkwurdige Lebcnsgtschichle von ihm sclbsl 

 beschrieben, 2 vols. Svo, Berlin, 1787 ; Meditations du Baron dc Trenck 

 dans so, Prison a Maydeboury, avec un precis hittorique de set tiial- 

 heurs, 1 vol. 8vo, Paris, 1788; Denkwiirdigkeiten von Freyherru von 

 Dohm, Berlin, 1812 ; D. Thie"bault, Frdderic le Grand, ou Souvenirs de 

 vingt ans de scjour a Berlin, 2 vols, Svo, Paris, 1801 ; Leben und 

 Thaetcn der Trenlce von Watermann, 2 vols. Svo, Leipzig, 1837.) 



TRENTO, ANTONIO DA, supposed to be the same person as 

 Antonio Fantuzzi. He was born at Trente about the commencement 

 of the 16th century; and was, according to Vasari, the pupil of Par- 

 migiano at Parma, Parmigiano employed Antonio to engrave his 

 works in wood, and he was one of the first and most eminent of the 

 Italian wood-engravers ; he appears to have imitated the cuts of Hugo 

 da Carpi, Antonio Fautuzzi lived with Parmigiano, but apparently 

 unwillingly, for about 1530 he decamped from his master, taking with 

 him many of his drawings, plates, and wood-cuts, aud went, it is 

 supposed, to France, where he appeared again under the name of 

 Antonio da Treuto. He attached himself in France to Primaticcio, - 

 who employed him to engrave or etch some of his works in copper : 

 he executed also etchings after some other masters while in France. 

 Batsch describes thirty-seven etchings by him, but he is more cele- 

 brated for his wood-cuts which he engraved in chiaroscuro. The time 

 of his death is not known, but it happened probably about 1550 : the 

 dates on his prints reach to 1545. Some of the wood-cuts of Antonio 

 are printed with three, others with two blocks ; they are chielly after 

 Parmigiano, as The Twelve Apostles ; St. John in the Wilderness ; the 

 Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul ; St. Cecilia ; the Tiburtine Sibyl ; 

 and others. Among his etchings is one of Regulus in the Cask, after 

 Giulio Romano. 



(Vasari, Vite de 1 Pittorl, &e. ; Bartsch, Pcintre-Gravcur ; Nagler, 

 Allgemeines Kiinstler Lexicon.) 



* TRENTO WSKI, BRONISLAW FERDYNAND, a Polish philoso- 

 phical writer of high reputation, was born, in 1SOS, near Warsaw, 

 received his education at the Piarist College of Lukow and at the 

 University of Warsaw, and was appointed in 1829 teacher of tbu 

 Latin language, of history, aud of Polish literature, at the college, or 

 grammar-school, of Szczuczyn. Having taken part in the insurrection 

 of 1830, he was in consequence obliged to leave Poland, aud fixed 

 himself after one or two changes of residence at Freiburg in the 

 Breisgau, where he, in 1836, published an academical dissertation, 

 'De vita hominis roterna' (On human immortality), aud afterwards 

 wrote two works in German, 'Grundlage der universellen Philosophic' 

 Carlsruhe, 1S37 (Basis of universal Philosophy), and ' Vorstudien zur 

 Wissenschaft der Natur,' 2 vols, Leipzig, 1840 (Preliminary Studies to 

 the Science of Nature). In the preface to the ' Gruudlage ' he men- 

 tions that " five years before he understood hardly any German, nay, 

 he could not even dream that ever in his life he should be compelled 

 to speak and to write in German." " But thou, my beloved, my 

 unspeakably beloved country," he continues, "thou the Paradise 

 from which I am banished, be not indignant with thy son that he 

 writes not in thy language. Unhappy, oppressed, and weeping 

 orphan, I could be of more use to thee than to this foreign laud, so 

 rich in genius but who is master of his destiny ?" Some Poles who 



