The Emperor thought proper to collect the moneys bestowed on hospitals into one fund. The system was a wise one. My cousin Trenck had bequeathed thirty-six thousand florins to a hospital for the poor of Bavaria. This act he had no right to do, having deducted the sum from the family estate. I petitioned the Emperor that these thirty-six thousand florins might be restored to me and my children, who were the people whom Trenck had indeed made poor, nothing of the property of his acquiring having been left to pay this legacy, but, on the contrary, the money having been exacted from mine.
In a few days it was determined I should be answered in the same tone in which, for six-and-thirty years past, all my petitions had been answered:-"THE REQUEST OF THE PETITIONER CANNOT BE GRANTED."Fortune persecuted me in my retreat. Within six years two hailstorms swept away my crops; one year was a misgrowth; there were seven floods; a rot among my sheep: all possible calamities befell me and my manor.
The estate had been ruined, the ponds were to drain, three farms were to be put into proper condition, and the whole newly stocked.
This rendered me poor, especially as my wife's fortune had been sunk in lawsuits at Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne.
The miserable peasants had nothing, therefore could not pay: I was obliged to advance them money. My sons assisted me, and we laboured with our own hands: my wife took care of eight children, without so much as the help of a maid. We lived in poverty, obliged to earn our daily bread.
The greatest of my misfortunes was my treatment in the military court, when Zetto and Krugel were my referendaries. Zetto had clogged me with a curator and when the cow had no more milk to give, they began to torture me with deputations, sequestrations, administrations, and executions. Nineteen times was I obliged to attend in Vienna within two years, at my own expense. Every six years must I pay an attorney to dispute and quarrel with the curator. I, in conclusion, was obliged to pay. If any affair was to be expedited, I, by a third hand, was obliged to send the referendary some ducats. Did he give judgment, still that judgment lay fourteen months inefficient, and, when it then appeared, the copy was false, and so was sent to the upper courts, the high referendary of which said I "must be dislodged from Zwerbach."They obliged me at last to purchase my naturalisation. I sent to Prussia for my pedigree; the attestation of this was sent me by Count Hertzberg. Although the family of Trenck had a hundred years been landholders in Hungary, yet was my attorney obliged to solicit the instrument called ritter-diploma, for which, under pain of execution, I must pay two thousand florins.
By decree a Prussian nobleman is not noble in Austria, where every lackey can purchase a diploma, making him a knight of the Empire, for twelve hundred wretched florins!--where such men as P- and Grassalkowitz have purchased the dignity of a prince!
Tortured by the courts, terrified by hailstorms, I determined to publish my works, in eight volumes, and this history of my life.
Fourteen months accomplished this purpose. My labours found a favourable reception through all Germany, procured me money, esteem, and honour. By my writings only will I seek the means of existence, and by trying to obtain the approbation and the love of men.
