When he was thirteen years old, his parents provided him with a kind of tutor, a man whose irregularity of conduct ill fitted him for the task. Young Zieten soon perceived this and withdrew his esteem and confidence. The preceptor one day preparing to inflict a bodily correction upon his pupil, the youth repulsed him with disdain, impeached him to his father, and having supported his accusations with proper proof, the pedagogue was immediately dismissed.

At the age of fourteen he left Wustrau to enter into the service of Frederick William I. king of Prussia. His father procured him the post of standard bearer in the regiment of Schwendy (now Zenge) which after having been engaged in the siege of Stralsund, garrisoned at Spandau, Frankfort on the Oder, Cottbus, Treuenbrietzen and Belitz.

was

His relations were unable to furnish him either with letters of recommendation or money. He was low of stature and of a puny unhealthy appearance. Without patron, friend

or

or fortune, he felt himself in his new career in a strange city, as if he had just dropped from the clouds. His father, indeed, had some slight knowledge of general de Schwendy; they were neighbours and their estates bordered upon each other, but they had scarce any intercourse together. M. de Zieten strongly recommended to his son to take the first opportunity of paying his court to the general and of soliciting his patronage. He promised himself great advantage from this step, and we shall see in what manner it ended. The young man appears before his general, executes his father's commission and finishes with the usual phrase, that he was come to pay his devoirs to him. "Well, pay them then," said Schwendy with the most insulting coolness; and without adding a civil word either for the youth or his parents, he opened the window and looking out of it, turned his back upon his visiter, whom he left standing near the door. Zieten did not long remain in this awkward situation; deeply hurt at the rude reception he had met with, he flung out of the chamber without taking the least pains to dissemble his re

sentment

sentment. He was never able to forget this scene, and even in his old age could never speak of it without the keenest indignation.

Although unpatronized in his new career, and having entered it under the most unpromising auspices, his zeal for his profession remained uncooled, and his genius lost nothing of its original energy. On the contrary, it seemed as if oppression fortified his breast, and that the neglect in which he was vegetating nourished his ambition and imparted new elasticity and vigour to his mind. Thus situated he was not, however, the less alive to insult, nor less prone to avenge his wrongs. The first person he chastised was a veteran serjeant who had behaved improperly to him. He wounded him desperately in the face and escaped unhurt himself. Soon after this, he crippled one of his comrades. This early courage, though it bordered upon ferocity, acquired young Zieten that esteem for which his dimunitive stature and undignified appearance seemed at first to have disqualified him, and procured him a kind of relief.

After

After having passed some years in learning the detail of the military service, frequently mounting guard in the capacity of a common sentinel, and in acquitting himself of every duty his station imposed upon him, he was appointed enseign on the 7th of July, 1720. In a short time the regiment to which he belonged was given to count de Schwerin, afterwards field marshal - general of Prussia. The count, who was a native of the dutchy of Mecklenburg, had entered early into the army in the service of his own country, and after having retired for a while to his paternal estate, he again launched into the military life under the banners of the king of Prussia. He had many imitators among the young and wealthy part of his own countrymen, who were eager to serve in his regiment, into which he admitted them to the prejudice of the senior officiers, and of Zieten in particular, whom he disliked on account of his low stature and the shrillness of his voice, which he said was not formed to give the word of command. Zieten after finding himself, in four successive instances, supersceded to make way for others, de

manded

manded his dismission with reluctance, and immediately obtained it.

This first essay of the military life was ill calculated to soften the asperity of his manners. Of this I shall give the reader a single example. The Germans, it is well known, have always had the reputation of great drinkers. This vice which prevailed in the Prussian army was particularly in vogue in the regiment of Schwerin, and the following custom was always religiously observed. The officier of the day took care to provide the guard-house with a hogshead of beer, which he and his comrades never failed to empty. Each in his turn was obliged to swallow at one draft a full quartmug: He who could not perform this feat was derided, and none were allowed on any pretext whatever to be exempted from this Bacchanalian exercise. This proved no small embarrassment to young Zieten whose puny stomach was unable to contain such floods of beer, and who of course was extremely averse to the ceremony. He was at a loss how to act in order to avoid a thousand disagreeable contingencies