Trenck attacked him and hewed him down. He was proceeding to continue the execution of the fourth man, but the whole regiment presented their arms. The revolt became general, and Trenck, still holding his drawn sabre, ran amidst them, hacking about him on all sides. The excess of his rage was terrific; the soldiers all called "Hold!" each fell on their knees, and promised obedience. After this he addressed them in language suitable to their character, and from that time they became invincible soldiers whenever they were headed by himself. Let the situation of Trenck be considered; he was the chief of a band of robbers who supposed they were authorised to take whatever they pleased in an enemy's country, a banditti that had so often defied the gallows, and had never known military subordination. Let such men be led to the field and opposed to regular troops. That they are never actuated by honour is evident: their leader is obliged to excite their avidity by the hope of plunder to engage them in action; for if they perceive no personal advantage, the interest of the sovereign is insufficient to make them act.
Trenck had need of a particular species of officers. They must be daring, yet cautious. They are partisans, and must be capable of supporting fatigue, desirous of daily seeking the enemy, and hazarding their lives. As he was himself never absent at the time of action, he soon became acquainted with those whom he called old women, and sent them from his regiment. These officers then repaired to Vienna, vented their complaints, and were heard. His avarice prevented him from making any division of his booty with those gentlemen who constituted the military courts, thus neglecting what was customary at Vienna: and in this originated the prosecution to which he fell a victim. Scarcely had he entered Austria with his troops before he found an opportunity of reaping laurels. The French army was defeated at Lintz. Trenck pursued them, treated his prisoners with barbarity; and, never granting quarter in battle, the very appearance of his pandours inspired terror.
Trenck was a great warrior, and knew how to profit by the slightest advantage. From this time he became renowned, gained the confidence of Prince Charles, and the esteem of the Field-marshal Count Kevenhuller, who discovered the worth of the man. No partisan had ever before obtained so much power as Trenck; he everywhere pursued the enemy as far as Bavaria, carrying fire and sword wherever he went. As it was known Trenck gave no quarter, the Bavarians and the French flew at the sight of a red mantle. Pillage and murder attended the pandours wherever they went, and their colonel bought up all the booty they acquired. Chamb, in particular, was a scene of a dreadful massacre. The city was set on fire and the people perished in the flames; women and children who endeavoured to fly, were obliged to pass over a bridge, where they were first stripped, and afterwards thrown into the water. This action was one of the accusations brought against Trenck when he was prosecuted, but he alleged his justification.
The banks of the Iser to this day reverberate groans for the barbarities of Trenck. Deckendorf and Filtzhofen felt all his fury.
In the first of these towns 600 French prisoners capitulated, although his forces were four miles distant; but he formed a kind of straw men, on which he put pandour caps and cloaks, and set them up as sentinels; and the garrison, deceived by this stratagem, signed the capitulation. The services he rendered the army during the Bavarian war are well known in the history of Maria Theresa. The good he has done has been passed over in silence, because he died under misfortunes, and did not leave his historian a legacy. He was informed that either at Deckendorf or Filtzhofen there was a barrel containing 20,000 florins, concealed at the house of an apothecary.
Impelled by the desire of booty, Trenck hastened to the place, with a candle in his hand, searching everywhere, and, in his hurry, dropped a spark into a quantity of gunpowder, by the explosion of which he was dreadfully scorched. They carried him off, but the scars and the gunpowder with which his skin was blackened rendered his countenance terrific.
The present Field-marshal Laudohn was at that time a lieutenant in his regiment, and happened to be at the door when his colonel was burnt. Scarcely was Trenck cured before his spies informed him that Laudohn had plenty of money. Immediately he suspected that Laudohn had found the barrel of florins, and from that moment he persecuted him by all imaginable arts. Wherever there was danger he sent him, at the head of 30 men, against 300, hoping to have him cut off, and to make himself his heir. This was so often repeated that Laudohn returned to Vienna, where, joining the crowd of the enemies of Trenck, he became instrumental in his destruction. Yet it is certain that, in the beginning, Trenck had shown a friendship for Laudohn, had given him a commission, and that this great man learned, under the command of Trenck, his military principles.
