215 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63north of the plateau, which we shall review presently, and to the
action of Zieten's wing from the south.
In the morning Zieten's troops had separated from the main army
beyond Audenhain. The corps had a much shorter distance to cover
than did Frederick's men, and because Zieten did not wish to declare
his presence to the Austrians needlessly early he marched his 18,000
troops slowly along the woodland paths and reached the open ground
towards 2 p.m. It came as a surprise to Zieten to discover that the
Austrian line on this side had been prolonged to the south-east by
Lacy's corps, which had arrived during the morning and was now
drawn up behind the Grosser-Teich.
There was a noisy clash between the advance troops of the two
corps (see p. 213), but Zieten held back his main force and was
content to exchange artilleiy fire with Lacy until, some time before
4 p.m., he marched against Daun's army. We shall never know what
impelled him to move - whether messages had reached him from the
king, urging him to attack, whether he was acting on his own
estimation of the course of the battle, or whether perhaps the timing
had been prearranged with Frederick. In any event Zieten managed
his shift to the left with some skill. He set the brides of Tettenborn and
Saldern in successive motion around the rear of his corps, like the
links in a caterpillar track, and he maintained the brigades of Zeuner
and Grumbkow in position facing Lacy until it was their turn to move
as well.
Zieten arrived in front of the position of the main Austrian army,
but his first attacks turned out as badly as did the assault by
Frederick's grenadiers north of the ridge. Tettenborn's brigade was
able to clear the village of Siiptitz only as far as the Rohr-Graben.
Further to the left, or west, the five battalions of Saldern's Garde
brigade suffered heavy casualties when they forced the passage of the
upper reaches of the same stream beyond Siiptitz, and while darkness
was falling they were repulsed by the point-blank canister fire of the
Austrian cannon on the plateau behind.
The inspiration for a new attack appears to have come from an
officer who was riding to Zieten's corps on some mission from the
king. On the way he noticed that there were no Austrian forces
guarding a route which led across the causeway between the two
Sheep Ponds and up to the heights on the western flank of Daun's
position. He reported his interesting discovery to Lieutenant-Colonel
Mollendorff of the Garde. Mollendorff in turn addressed himself to his
brigade commander and old friend Major-General Saldern, and the
two of them agreed that it was practicable to attack the plateau from
this direction. The scheme appeared all the more attractive since the
flames of the burning village of Zinna revealed that the Austrians