History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12

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Apart from Official Anson, the Spanish War fell mainly, we may say,
into the hands of--of Mr. Jenkins himself, and such Friends of his,
at Wapping, Bristol and the Seaports, as might be disposed to go
privateering. In which course, after some crosses at first, and
great complaints of losses to Spanish Privateers, Wapping and
Bristol did at length eminently get the upper hand; and thus
carried on this Spanish War (or Spanish-French, Spain and France
having got into one boat), for long years coming; in an entirely
inarticulate, but by no means quite ineffectual manner,--indeed, to
the ultimate clearance of the Seas from both French and Spaniard,
within the next twenty years. Readers shall take this little
Excerpt, dated Three Years hence, and set it twinkling in the night
of their imaginations:--

BRISTOL, MONDAY, 21st (10th) SEPTEMBER, 1744. ... "Nothing is to be
seen here but rejoicings for the number of French prizes brought
into this port. Our Sailors are in high spirits, and full of money;
and while on shore, spend their whole time in carousing, visiting
their mistresses, going to plays, serenading, &c., dressed out with
laced hats, tossels (SIC), swords with sword-knots, and every other
way of spending their money." [Extract of a Letter from Bristol, in
Gentleman's Magazine, xiv. 504.]

Carthagena, Walpole, Viners: here are Sorrows for a Britannic
Majesty;--and these are nothing like all. But poor readers should
have some respite; brief breathing-time, were it only to use their
pocket-handkerchiefs, and summon new courage!

Chapter XIII.

SMALL-WAR: FIRST EMERGENCE OF ZIETHEN THE HUSSAR GENERAL INTO NOTICE.

After Brieg, Friedrich undertook nothing military, except strict
vigilance of Neipperg, for a couple of months or more. Military,
especially offensive operations, are not the methods just now.
Rest on your oars; see how this seething Ocean of European
Politics, and Peace or War, will settle itself into currents, into
set winds; by which of them a man may steer, who happens to have a
fixed port in view. Neipperg, too, is glad to be quiescent;
"my Infantry hopelessly inferior," he writes to head-quarters:
"Could not one hire 10,000 Saxons, think you,"--or do several other
chimerical things, for help? Except with his Pandour people,
working what mischief they can, Neipperg does nothing. But this
Hungarian rabble is extensively industrious, scouring the country
far and wide; and gives a great deal of trouble both to Friedrich
and the peaceable inhabitants. So that there is plenty of Small War
always going on:--not mentionable here, any passage of it, except
perhaps one, at a place called Rothschloss; which concerns a
remarkable Prussian Hussar Major, their famed Ziethen, and is still
remembered by the Prussian public.

We have heard of Captain, now Major Ziethen, how Friedrich Wilhelm
sent him to the Rhine Campaign, six years ago, to learn the Hussar
Art from the Austrians there. One Baronay (BARONIAY, or even
BARANYAI, as others write him), an excellent hand, taught him the
Art;--and how well he has learned, Baronay now sadly experiences.
The affair of Rothschloss (in abridged form) befell as follows:--

"In these Small-War businesses, Baronay, Austrian Major-General of
Hussars, had been exceedingly mischievous hitherto. It was but the
other day, a Prussian regular party had to go out upon him, just in
time; and to RE-wrench 'sixty cart-loads of meal,' wrenched by him
from suffering individuals; with which he was making off to Neisse,
when the Prussians [from their Camp of Mollwitz, where they still
are] came in sight.

"And now again (May 16th) news is, That Baronay, and 1,400 Hussars
with him, has another considerable set of meal-carts,--in the
Village of Rothschloss, about twenty miles southward, Frankenstein
way; and means to march with them Neisse-ward to-morrow.
Two marches or so will bring him home; if Prussian diligence
prevent not. 'Go instantly,' orders Friedrich,--appointing
Winterfeld to do it: Winterfeld with 300 dragoons, with Ziethen and
Hussars to the amount of 600; which is more than one to two
of Austrians.

"Winterfeld and Ziethen march that same day; are in the
neighborhood of Rothschloss by nightfall; and take their measures,
--block the road to Neisse, and do other necessary things. And go
in upon Baronay next morning, at the due rate, fiery men both of
them; sweep poor Baronay away, MINUS the meal; who finds even his
road blocked (bridge bursting into cannon-shot upon him, at one
point), instead of bridge, a stream, or slow current of quagmire
for him,--and is in imminent hazard. Ziethen's behavior was
superlative (details of it unintelligible off the ground);
and Baronay fled totally in wreck;--his own horse shot, and at the
moment no other to be had; swam the quagmire, or swashed through
it, 'by help of a tree;" and had a near miss of capture.
Recovering himself on the other side, Baronay, we can fancy, gave a
grin of various expression, as he got into saddle again: 'The arrow
so near killing was feathered from one's own wing, too!'--And
indeed, a day or two after, he wrote Ziethen a handsome Letter to
that effect." [ Helden-Geschichte, i. 927;
Orlich, i. 120. The Life of General de Zieten
(English Translation, very ill printed, Berlin, 1803), BY FRAU VON
BLUMENTHAL (a vaguish eloquent Lady, but with access to
information, being a connection of Z.'s), p. 84.]

Ziethen, for minor good feats, had been made Lieutenant-Colonel,
the very day he marched; his Commission dates May 16th, 1741;
and on the morrow he handsels it in this pretty manner. He is now
forty-two; much held down hitherto; being a man of inarticulate
turn, hot and abrupt in his ways,--liable always to multifarious
obstruction, and unjust contradiction from his fellow-creatures.
But Winterfeld's report on this occasion was emphatic; and Ziethen
shoots rapidly up henceforth; Colonel within the year, General in
1744; and more and more esteemed by Friedrich during their
subsequent long life together.

Though perhaps the two most opposite men in Nature, and standing so
far apart, they fully recognized one another in their several
spheres. For Ziethen too had good eyesight, though in abstruse
sort:--rugged simple son of the moorlands; nourished, body and
soul, on orthodox frugal oatmeal (so to speak), with a large
sprinkling of fire and iron thrown in! A man born poor: son of some
poor Squirelet in the Ruppin Country;--"used to walk five miles
into Ruppin on Saturday nights," in early life, "and have his hair
done into club, which had to last him till the week following."
[ Militair-Lexikon, iv. 310.] A big-headed,
thick-lipped, decidedly ugly little man. And yet so beautiful in
his ugliness: wise, resolute, true, with a dash of high
uncomplaining sorrow in him;--not the "bleached nigger" at all, as
Print-Collectors sometimes call him! No; but (on those oatmeal
terms) the Socrates-Odysseus, the valiant pious Stoic, and much-
enduring man. One of the best Hussar Captains ever built.
By degrees King Friedrich and he grew to be,--with considerable
tiffs now and then, and intervals of gloom and eclipse,--what we
might call sworn friends. On which and on general grounds, Ziethen
has become, like Friedrich himself, a kind of mythical person with
the soldiery and common people; more of a demi-god than any other
of Friedrich's Captains.

Friedrich is always eagerly in quest of men like Ziethen;
specially so at this time. He has meditated much on the bad figure
his Cavalry made at Mollwitz; and is already drilling them anew in
multiplex ways, during those leisure days he now has,--with evident
success on the next trial, this very Summer. And, as his wont is,
will not rest satisfied there. But strives incessantly, for a
series of summers and years to come, till he bring them to
perfection; or to the likeness of his own thought, which probably
was not far from that. Till at length it can be said his success
became world-famous; and he had such Seidlitzes and Ziethens as
were not seen before or since.

MAP FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND SILESIAN WAR HERE---------

END OF BOOK 12-------

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