Silesia through Guben, and appeared to have intentions to lay siege to Glogaw.

During all this time, Frederick had left the prince to act according to his own judgment. Satisfied with having saved the city of Berlin (which had been threatened by the Russians and the Swedes at the same instant), and with having detached some divisions into Saxony to check the army of the circles, he waited till Lower-Lusatia was clear, in order to traverse it; and having gained a march upon the Russians and arrived before them at Sagan, he at length joined his brother there.

Reinforced with a few battalions, with which the prince accommodated him, the king was able to cope with the Russians, as well as to prevent their undertaking any thing against Silesia, and after driving them from the banks of the Oder, he forced them to take up their winter-quarters in the above province. Vanquished as he had been in the plains of Frankfort, he now caused his defeat to be

doubt

doubted of, by thus chasing his conquerors in triumph before him.

While the king was approaching Sagan, prince Henry was preparing a feint march in Silesia. He ordered the bridges and highways to be repaired, and sent forward his baggage. His real plan was to return to Saxony, and to draw the Austrians after him, while the king was ridding himself of the Russians.

The project was attended with success. Marshal Daun was a second time deceived. While a few baggage - waggons, for the sake of appearance, repassed the Neisse in order to rejoin the army by a circuitous way, the corps of Zieten received orders to march upon Görlitz, where the prince himself arrived in another direction. Thus united, the army moved on the 23rd in two columns towards Saxony, and marched upon Torgaw. Zieten commanded the van-guard. The marshal, apprehensive of the danger with which Dresden was threatened, followed the prince closely, and thus favoured the principal object of

his motions.

Silesia was thereby delivered of its troublesome neighbour, and the king was at liberty to direct his whole force against the Russians.

Notwithstanding the checks which the Prussian arms had still to undergo in Saxony, the prince was able to sustain himself both against the Austrians and the forces of the German circles; and the issue of the campaign, in which Zieten gave new proofs of his indefatigable activity, was, upon the whole, glorious.

On the march from Görlitz to Torgaw, Zieten had the satisfaction of seeing his regiment united, which during the whole campaign had been parceled out into different divisions. In the month of February, five hundred of his hussars, under the command of major de Zettmar, had been sent into Poland for the purpose of destroying the Russian magazines upon the Warthe. This corps* remained in Silesia,

in

* Under the command of major de Reizenstein, M. de Zettmar having been named commandant of the regiment.

in the environs of Glogaw, till late in the spring. From thence having joined the army of count de Dohna, * it covered its retreat after the unfortunate battle of Kay. At length, in the battle of Frankfort or Kundersdorf, still more renowned and unfortunate, the detachment accompanied the king and sustained his right, when that prince, averse to give up the victory which he had so nearly gained, threw himself, at the head of a small party of infantry, into the thickest of the fray. His horse was killed under him, and his aide-de-camp, de Götz, immediately presented him with that on which he himself was mounted. At the same instant, Laudon's cavalry advanced upon him, and the king's peril was the more imminent as his majesty was determined not to retreat. In this critical moment, the hussars of Zieten rushed between the king and the enemy. They were at once stimulated by patriotism, honour, and vengeance; and falling with fury upon the Austrian troopers, they checked, and drove them from

• Commanded by general de Wedel.

from the regiment of Diericke, at the head of which the king had just put himself, and fought as they retreated with him. Lieutenant de Velten highly distinguished himself on this occasion, by repulsing a troop of horsegrenadiers who had already surrounded the king and were on the point of taking him prisoner. Captain de Prittwitz had the address to lay hold of his majesty, to bear him out of the fray, and conduct him through the defile of the mill as far as the bridge of Guritz, at which place the main body of the army had already rallied.

These hussars have ever since been called the preservers of Frederick, the preservers of their country. The merit of this service extended to their general, who on his part was fond of cherishing the remembrance of this glo

rious event.

The

Since that time, general of cavalry and chief of the regiment of gendarmes. "The king would have been taken by the Austrians, had not M, de Prittwitz attacked them with a hundred hussars, and gave him time to pass the defile," "Seven Years' War."