490 
ment was making in the Austrian camp, 
and gave orders to the hussars to unsad- 
dle their horses: Zieten contermanded 
the orders of his sovereign, and in half 
an hour afterwards had them re-saddled. 
The Prussians had been guilty of an 
oversight ; they had neglected to occupy 
the-heights that commanded the village 
of Hochkirchen. The Austrian troops 
set out at midnight, on a dark foggy 
night, took possession of the hill, and 
poured into the Prussian camp, where 
the carnage of sleeping and half naked 
soldiers was immense. Zieten’s corps 
was prepared for the attack, and the 
retreat of Frederick over slaughtered 
thousands has always been considered as 
a remarkably fine one. He pitched his 
camp within half a league of the enemy, 
who dared not attack him, but on the con- 
trary declined an action to which the king 
vainly endeavoured to provoke them. 
Madame de Blumenthal says, that I’'re- 
derick lost all his artillery. Other his- 
torians, however, assert, with greater 
plausibility, that he performed his re- 
treat under the fire of a part of his own 
artillery which was saved, and placed in 
the centre of his van. Frederick was 
stightly wounded in this affair: and the 
campaign had made such havock in 
Zieten’s corps, that he was under the 
necessity of requesting the king’s leave 
to select.such officers as he found in the 
several regiments of the army who were 
proper tor the hussarservice. But the 
loss of the gallant and accomplished 
Colonel de Seelen, who was mortally 
wounded in the surprize of Hochkir- 
chen, was irreparable. 
The military talent and genius of Zie- 
ten Was never more conspicuous than in 
his splendid retreat before Marshal 
Daun, from Soraw, in the campaign of 
1759: the marshal, who was a_ very 
competent judge in such cases, had anti- 
cipated the defeat of his enemy, and 
could not— he did not desire to wiih- 
hold his admiration at the courage and 
skill of a maneeuvre which utterly disap- 
pointed his most sanguine expectations. 
At the commencement of the cam- 
paign of 1760, the affairs of the king of 
Prussia’ were in a very critical state: 
80,000 Russians approached Glogaw to 
assist the operations cf the Austrians, 
and their junction seemed inevitable ; 
90,000. Austrians pressed. him closely, 
and Zieten’s march from the bank of the 
Elbe to the town of Lignitz, in opposi- 
tiun to the ,united forces. cf Daun and 
BIOGRAPHY. 
Laudohn, was one of the most painful 
and perilous that had been undertaken 
during the whole war. The king en- 
camped at Lignitz : and the night before 
the battle took place which extricated 
him from his desperate situation, he 
knew not that the Russians were in his 
neighbourhood, or that the Austrians in- 
tended anattack. The army lay at rest: 
Major de Hund with Lieutenant de 
Wolfrath at day-break discovered the 
columns of Laudohn. They flew to ap- 
prize the king and found him with the 
Margrave Charles and General Zieten, 
in a small wood, round a fire, fallen 
asleep. In the battle, Laudohn lost 
10,000 men; Frederick 6000 killed and 
12,000 wounded. Frederick and Zie- 
ten had passed the night together beside 
a watch-fire; “ uncertain,’ says our 
biographer, ‘ of the hazards they were 
going to incur, they had suddenly separ 
rated at the alarm given by Major de 
Hund. The one and the other shad 
fought for glory and their country, and 
they met again on the field of battle, 
crowned with victory. Zieten congra- 
tulated the king; the king embraced 
Zieten, and advanced him to the rank ot 
eneral of cavalry.” 
The last battie in which either Zieten 
or Frederick was personally engaged; 
was when they divided the command 
between them and stormed the heights 
of Siptitz at Torgau: it is remarkable 
too, that this was the only one in which 
‘Zieten stained his sabre with the blood 
of the enemy—in this action heiis said to 
have made very viclent and desperate 
use of it. 
In the campaign of 1761, Zieten was 
sent to prevent the junctton of the Rus- 
sian army with that of the Austrians: 
it had taken place however before his 
arrival. In this campaign he was ge- 
nerally near the king’s person, who in 
all cases of difficulty consulted him, and 
frequently in the. dead of night, over- 
whelmed with despair or chagrin, sobght 
his general’s quarters, and received from 
him consolation, hope, and assistance. 
The last time that General Zieten beheld 
the fire of an enemy was at Schweidnitz, 
which, with its garrison of 11,000 men, 
surrendered to the Russian arms on the 
19th of October, 1762: he frequently 
visited the trenches, expesed himself to 
the shells of the enemy, and saw them 
fall at his feet without any apparent con- 
cern. On the 16th of February follow- 
ing, the peace cf Hubertsbourg termi- 
