were so much increased. The four lieutenants who successively
mounted guard over me were Bach, Schroeder, Lunitz, and Schell. The
first was the grand projector, and made all preparations; Schell was
to desert with me; and Schroeder and Lunitz three days after were to
follow.

No one ought to be surprised that officers of garrison regiments
should be so ready to desert. They are, in general, either men of
violent passions, quarrelsome, overwhelmed with debts, or unfit for
service. They are usually sent to the garrison as a punishment, and
are called the refuse of the army. Dissatisfied with their
situation, their pay much reduced, and despised by the troops, such
men, expecting advantage, may be brought to engage in the most
desperate undertaking. None of them can hope for their discharge,
and they live in the utmost poverty. They all hoped by my means to
better their fortune, I always having had money enough; and, with
money, nothing is more easy than to find friends, in places where
each individual is desirous of escaping from slavery.

The talents of Schell were of a superior order; he spoke and wrote
six languages, and was well acquainted with all the fine arts. He
had served in the regiment of Fouquet, had been injured by his
colonel, who was a Pomeranian; and Fouquet, who was no friend to
well-informed officers, had sent him to a garrison regiment. He had
twice demanded his dismissal, but the King sent him to this species
of imprisonment; he then determined to avenge himself by deserting,
and was ready to aid me in recovering my freedom, that he might, by
that means, spite Fouquet.

I shall speak more hereafter of this extraordinary man, that I must