FREDERICK VON DER TRENCK, was born at Konigsberg, in 1726, and was the son of a maj.gen. in the Prussian service. He distinguished himself at the university. At 16 he became a cornet in the guards; and two years afterward the princess Amelia, who saw him at a ball, we are told, conceived a violent passion for him. To this he attributed the antipathy the king afterward entertained toward him. There was, however, a much better reason: he was detected in a correspondence with his Austrian cousin, not long before the attempt to capture the king, and arrested. Mr. Carlyle shows that the baron had been in prison three months, and was there when the battle of Sohr took place, although he vividly describes his own adventures in the fight. He was accused of this lie in his own time, and admitted that he must have made a mistake! He had nothing but Ids poor agitated memory to trust to." He was released on Dec. 24, 1731, and afterward settled at Aix-la-Chapelle, where lie married the burgomaster's datigh!cr, and went into business as a wine-merchant. He published his memoirs in 1787. The book was translated into all languages, and Trenck became the most famous personage of his time. The ladies at Paris, Berlin, and Vienn'a wore bonnets, dreises, and rings a la
Trench; and no less than seven plays, founded on his adventures, were brought out on the French stage. In 1792 he went to Paris, and became a zealous adherent of the mountain party. He was, however, suspected, and thrown into prison. Soon after, rumors in circulation among the prisoners that the Prussians were advancing on Paris, and carrying all before them, were traced to Trenck, who was in consequence con d3mned. He was guillotined near the Barriere du TrOne, July 26,1794. On the scaf fold, although 69 years of age, lie manifested the ungovernable passion which had char acterized him through life. He harangued the mob; and at length the executioner had by force to hold his head by the gray hair on the block, to meet the fatal stroke.—See Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 261; Carlyle's Frederick the Great, vol. iv.; Friedrich Trencks Herkwardige _Lebensgeschichte 'con Mel selbst beschrieben (2 vols. Berl. 1787); and Leben and T buten der Trenke, by Watermann (2 vols. Leip. 1837).