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Rosenfeld was suffered to go on thus for twenty years, with occasionally a short imprisonment, and he still continued to find dupes. He might, perhaps, have gone to his grave without receiving any serious check, had he not been overthrown, though unintentionally, by one of his own partisans. This man, who had resigned three of his daughters to the impostor, was tired of waiting so long for his promised share of the good things which the pseudo-Messiah was to dispense; it was not his faith, it was only his patience, that was exhausted. To quicken the movements of Rosenfeld, he hit upon a rare expedient. As, according to his creed, the king was the devil, he went to him for the purpose of provoking the monarch to play the devil, by acting in such a manner as should compel the impostor to exert immediately his supernatural powers. On this provocation, Frederick did act, and with effect. Rosenfeld was ordered to be tried; the trial took place in 1782, and the tribunal sentenced him to be whipped, and imprisoned for life at Spandau. Against this sentence he twice appealed, but it was finally executed.