35 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-5

that he could comprehend letters that were written in simple lan-
guage and short sentences.
Moritz and the others came to Frederick as a legacy from the Old
Dessauer. However, in the spring of 1741 we can already discern the
rise of the first of a new generation of commanders, singled out by
Frederick from among the ranks of their comrades. This was a
lieutenant-colonel of hussars, Hans Joachim von Zieten, who on 17
May played the leading part in routing a force of Austrian cavalry at
Rothschloss.
Zieten was already in his forty-third year, and his slow promo-
tion owed as much to his poor performance as a peacetime soldier as
to the clogging of the senior ranks by venerable warriors. He was born
to a family of the poor squirarchy at Wustrau in Brandenburg. Eveiy
Sunday from the age of nine he travelled to nearby Ruppin, to have
his hair dressed and powdered in the militaiy style by a hired
musketeer, and he persevered in his military vocation, despite a series
of appalling disqualifications. His stature was slight, his voice on
parade was feeble, he maintained bad discipline among his men, he
was easily overcome by drink, and his sensitivity and quarrelsome
temperament led him into two duels, a period of fortress arrest, and a
temporaiy cashiering.
In 1741, however, the achievement of Zieten and his six squad-
rons of hussars wrung a compliment from the defeated Austrian
commander General Baranyay. In the next year Zieten was to spear-
head the advance of the army into southern Moravia, and his men
skirmished to within sight of the spires of Vienna. The hussars, under
Zieten, were by then an effective force in the field, and their prowess
was to be the seed of the regeneration of the whole of the Prussian
cavalry.

In the weeks after Mollwitz Frederick came to appreciate that

other powers regarded the friendship of Prussia as a desirable com-
modity. This sensation was all the more agreeable because the
Austrians were obstinate in refusing to recognise the Prussian gains in
Silesia. On 4 June representatives of Frederick and Louis XV signed a
secret fifteen-year alliance. The French gave Frederick a guarantee of
his possession of Breslau and Lower Silesia, and in return Frederick
promised his vote to the Elector of Bavaria or any other French
candidate for the throne of the Emperor of Germany. The main
burden of military operations was to be assumed by the French and
Bavarians who, Frederick hoped, would push straight down the
Danube on Vienna.
Operations in Silesia languished until August 1741, while
Frederick and Neipperg built up and trained their rival forces. Desir-
ing to have his hands free for possible joint action with his allies.