handkerchief, which the good woman of Thorn had made me a present
of, and to depart without a single holler.

March 16.--I set off for Marienburg, but it was impossible I should
reach this place, and not fall into the hands of the Prussians, if I
did not cross the Vistula, and, unfortunately, I had no money to pay
the ferry, which would cost two Polish schellings.

Full of anxiety, not knowing how to act, I saw two fishermen in a
boat, went to them, drew my sabre, and obliged them to land me on
the other side; when there, I took the oars from these timid people,
jumped out of the boat, pushed it off the shore, and left it to
drive with the stream.

To what dangers does not poverty expose man! These two Polish
schellings were not worth more than half a kreutzer, or some
halfpenny, yet was I driven by necessity to commit violence on two
poor men, who, had they been as desperate in their defence as I was
obliged to be in my attack, blood must have been spilled and lives
lost; hence it is evident that the degrees of guilt ought to be
strictly and minutely inquired into, and the degree of punishment
proportioned. Had I hewn them down with my sabre, I should surely
have been a murderer; but I should likewise surely have been one of
the most innocent of murderers. Thus we see the value of money is
not to be estimated by any specific sum, small or great, but
according to its necessity and use. How little did I imagine when
at Berlin, and money was treated by me with luxurious neglect, I may
say, with contempt, I should be driven to the hard necessity, for a
sum so apparently despicable, of committing a violence which might
have had consequences so dreadful, and have led to the commission of