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I sent the officer on guard a present from Prague, and the remainder of my money I bestowed on the widow of the worthy Gelfhardt. He was no more, and she had entrusted the thousand florins to a young soldier, who, spending them too freely, was suspected, betrayed her, and she passed two years in prison. Gelfhardt never received any punishment; he was in the field.
Gelfhardt sent his wife to Gummern with the letter, and this silly woman told the post-master her husband had a lawsuit at Vienna, that therefore she begged he would take particular care of the letter, for which purpose she slipped ten rix-dollars into his hand.
Gelfhardt had been working with me, and was relieved in the morning. As I was replacing the window, which I was obliged to remove on these occasions, it fell out of my hand, and three of the glass panes were broken. Gelfhardt was not to return till guard was again relieved: I had therefore no opportunity of speaking with him, or concerting any mode of repair.
The wicked man fell a sacrifice to his crime, after having escaped a whole year, and the faithful, the benevolent-hearted Gelfhardt was thereby saved. The sentinels were now doubled, that any intercourse with them might be rendered more difficult.
The King came to a review at Magdeburg, when he visited Star-Fort, and commanded a new cell to be immediately made, prescribing himself the kind of irons by which I was to be secured. The honest Gelfhardt heard the officer say this cell was meant for me, and gave me notice of it, but assured me it could not be ready in less than a month.
Gelfhardt also brought me supplies of provisions, chiefly consisting of sausages and salt meats, ready dressed, which increased my strength, and when I was not digging, I wrote satires and verses: thus time was employed, and I contented even in prison. Lulled into security, an accident happened that will appear almost incredible, and by which every hope was nearly frustrated.
And who indeed was it who but my honest grenadier Gelfhardt my former faithful friend in the citadel! The good, the kind fellow had got upon the rampart, that he might comfort me. "How do you do?" said Gelfhardt. "Weltering in my blood," answered I; "to-morrow you will find me dead." "Why should you die?" replied he. "It is much easier for you to escape here than from the citadel!
Meantime I found opportunity to speak to some of the sentinels, among whom was an old grenadier called Gelfhardt, whom I here name because he displayed qualities of the greatest and most noble kind. From him I learned the precise situation of my prison, and every circumstance that might best conduce to my escape.
I sat myself down, began to write on my night-table, and was about to insert the name of Gelfhardt, but my blood thrilled, and shrank back to my heart. I shuddered, rose, went to the aperture of the window and called, "Is there no man who in compassion will tell me the name of him who has hanged himself, that I may deliver many others from destruction?"
Within these six days Gelfhardt would have found means, either in rotation, or by exchanging the guard, to have been with me. Alas! the sweet hope of again beholding the face of the sun, of once more obtaining my freedom, endured but three days: Providence thought proper otherwise to ordain.
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