for which I have often to thank him; since, by means of this art, which is easily learnt in childhood, I had on various occasions preserved my life, and was more bold in danger. Princes, who wish to make their subjects soldiers, should have them educated so as to fear neither fire nor water. How great would be the advantage of being able to cross with whole battalions, when it is necessary to attack or retreat before the enemy, and time will not permit to prepare bridges! The reader will easily suppose swimming in the midst of December, and remaining afterwards eighteen hours in the open air was a severe hardship.

About seven o'clock the hoar fog was succeeded by frost and moon light. The carrying of my friend kept me warm, it is true, but I began to be tired, while he suffered every thing that frost, the pain of a dislocated foot, which I in vain endeavoured to re-set, and the danger of death from a thousand hands, could inflict. We were somewhat more tranquil, however, having reached the opposite shore of the Neiss, since nobody would pursue us on the road to Silesia. I followed the course of the river for near half an hour, and having once passed the first villages that formed the line of desertion, with which Schell was perfectly acquainted, we, in a lucky moment, found a fisherman's boat moored to the shore: into this we Heaped, crossed the river again, and soon gained the mountain.

Here being come, we sat ourselves down a while on the snow; hope revived in our hearts, and we feheld council concerning how to act. I cut a stick to assist Schell in hopping forward, as well as he could, when I was tired of carrying him; and thus

we continued our route, the difficulties of which were increased on the mountain snows.

Thus passed the night, during which, up to the middle in snow, we made but little way. There were no paths to be traced in the mountains, and they were in many places impassable. Day at length appeared: we thought ourselves near the frontiers, which are twenty English miles from Glatz, when we suddenly to our great terror, heard the clock strike, Overwhelmed as we were by hunger, cold, fatigue, and pain, it was impossible we should hold out through the day. After some coideration, and another half hour's labour, we came to a village at the foot of the mountain, on the side of which about three hundred paces from us, we perceived two separate houses, which inspi red us with a stratagem that was successful. We lost our hats in leaping the ramparts; but Schell had preserved his scarf and gorget, which would give him authority among the peasants.

I then cut my finger, rubbed the blood over my face, my shirt, and my coat, and bound up my head, to give me the appearance of a man dangerously wounded:

In this condition I carried Schell to the end of the wood not far from these houses: here he tied my hands behind my back, but so that I could ea sily disengage them in case of need; and hobbled after me, by aid of his staff, calling for help.

Two old peasants appeared, and Schell com manded them to run to the village, tell a magistrate to come immediately with a cart., "I have seized this knave," added he, "who has killed my horse, and in the struggle, put out my ancle; how

ever, I have wounded and bound him; fly quickly, bring a cart, lest he should die before he is hanged.”

As for me I suffered myself to be led, as if half dead, into the house. A peasant was dispatched to the village. An old woman and a pretty girl seemed to take great pity on me, and gave me some bread and milk: but how great was our astonishment, when the aged peasant called Schell by his name, and told him he well knew we were deserters, having the night before been at a neighbouring ale-house, where the officer in pursuit of us came, named and described us, and related the whole history of our flight. The peasant knew Schell, because bis son served in his company, and had often spoke of him when he was quartered at Habelsebwert.

Presence of mind, and resolution, was all that were now left. I instantly ran to the stable, while Schell detained the peasant in the chamber. He however was a worthy man, and directed him the road towards Bohemia. We were still about seven miles from Glatz, having lost ourselves among the mountains, where we had wandered many miles. The daughter followed me; I found three horses in the stable, but no bridles. I conjured her in the most passionate manner to assist me: she was affected, seemed half willing to follow me, and gave me the two bridles. I led the horses to the door, called Schell, and helped him with his lame leg on horseback. The old peasant then began to weep, and beg I would not take his horses; but he, luckily, wanted courage, and perhaps the will, to impede us; for with a single dungfork, in our present enfeebled condition, he might have stopped D

us long enough to have called in assistance from

the village.

And now, behold us on horseback, without hat, or saddles; Schell with his uniform scarf and gorget, and I in my red body guard coat. Still were we in danger of seeing all our hopes vanished, for my horse would not stir from the stable; however, at last good horsemen like, I made him move : Schell led the way, and we had scarcely gone an hundred paces, before we perceived the peasants coming in crowds from the village.

As kind fortune would have it, the people were all at church, it being a festival; the peasants Schell had sent were obliged to call aid out of church. It was but nine in the morning: and, had the peasants been at home, we had been lost without hope.

We were obliged to take the road to Wunshelburg, and pass through the town where Schell bad been quartered a month before, and every body knew him. Our dress, without hats or saddies, sufficiently proclaimed we were deserters; our horses however continued to go tolerably well, and we had the good luck to get through the town, although there was a garrison of one hundred and eighty infantry, and twelve horse, purposely to arrest deserters. Schell knew the road to Brummen, where we arrived at eleven o'clock, after having met, as I before mentioned, captain Zerbst.

He alone, who has been in the same situation, can imagine, though not describe, all the joy we felt. An innocent man languishing in a dungeon, who by his own endeavours, has broken his chains, and regained his liberty, in despite of all the arbitrary power of princes, who vainly would oppose

him, conceives, in moments like these, such abhorrence of all despotism, that I could not well comprehend how I ever could resolve to live under governments where wealth, content, honour, liberty, and life, all depend upon a master's will, and who, were his intentions the most pure, could not be able, singly to do justice to a whole nation.

Never did I, during life, feel pleasure more exquisite than at this moment. My friend, for me, had risqued a shameful death, and now after having carried him at least twelve hours, I had saved both

him and myself. We certainly would not have suffered any man to carry us alive again to Glatz. Yet this was but the first act of the tragedy, of which I was doomed the hero, and the mournful in. cidents of which, all arose out of, and depended on each other.

And now, for the first time did I quit my country, and fly, like Joseph, from the pit into which his false brethren had cast him: and in this the present moment of joy for my escape, the loss even of friends and country appeared to me the excess of good fortune.

The estates which had been purchased by the blood of my forefathers were confiscated; and thus was a youth of one of the noblest families in the land, whose heart was all zeal for the service of his king and country, and who was among those most capable to render them service, banished by this unjust and misled king, and treated like the worst of miscreants, malefactors, and traitors.

I wrote to the king, and sent him indubious proofs of my innocence, and supplicated justice, but received no answer.

In this the monarch may be justified, at least