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Count Schlieben delivered me a letter from the imperial minister, General Reidt, to the following purport: That he rejoiced at having found an opportunity of obtaining my liberty from the King, and that I must obey the requisitions of Count Schlieben, whose orders were to accompany me to Prague.
I have to thank these ten thousand florins for my freedom, which I obtained nine months after. My vouchers show the six thousand florins were paid in April, 1763, to the order of General Reidt. The other four thousand I repaid, when at liberty, to my friend. I received intelligence before the garrison departed that no stipulation had been made on my behalf at the peace of Hubertsberg.
The Empress was persuaded that my brain was affected, and that I uttered threats against the King of Prussia. The election of a king of the Romans was then in agitation, and the court was apprehensive lest I should offend the Prussian envoy. General Reidt had been obliged to promise Frederic that I should not appear in Vienna, and that they should hold a wary eye over me.
Several weeks elapsed before they departed and I learnt that General Reidt was appointed ambassador from Vienna to Berlin. I had seen the world; I knew this General was not averse to a bribe: I wrote him a letter, conjuring him to act with ardour in my behalf. I enclosed a draft for six thousand florins on my effects at Vienna, and he received four thousand from one of my relations.
The same friend, in the year 1763, paid four thousand florins to the imperial envoy, Baron Reidt, at Berlin, for the furthering of my freedom, as I shall presently more fully show. Thus I had once more money. About this time the French army advanced to within five miles of Magdeburg. This important fortress was, at that time, the key of the whole Prussian power.
Here I received three thousand florins, and paid General Reidt his three hundred ducats, which he had advanced Count Schlieben, for my journey, the repayment of which he demanded in his letter, although he had received ten thousand florins. The expense of returning I also paid to Schlieben, made him a present, and provided myself with some necessaries.
The affair happened as follows, as I received it from Prince Henry, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and the Minister, Count Hertzberg: General Reidt had received my ten thousand florins full six months, and seemed to remember me no more.
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