History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 13Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 13
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
Czaslau hangs upon the English mind (were not the ignorance so total) by
another tie: it is the resting-place of Zisca, whose drum, or the fable
of whose drum, we saw in the citadel of Glatz. Zisca was buried IN his
skin, at Czaslau finally: in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul there;
with due epitaph; and his big mace or battle-club, mostly iron, hung
honorable on the wall close by. Kaiser Ferdinand, Karl V.'s brother, on
a Progress to Prag, came to lodge at Czaslau, one afternoon: "What is
that?" said the Kaiser, strolling over this Peter-and-Paul's Church, and
noticing the mace. "Ugh! Faugh!" growled he angrily, on hearing what;
and would not lodge in the Town, but harnessed again, and drove farther
that same night. The club is now gone; but Zisca's dust lies there
irremovable till Doomsday, in the land where his limbs were made. A
great behemoth of a war-captain; one of the fiercest, inflexiblest,
ruggedest creatures ever made in the form of man. Devoured Priests, with
appetite, wherever discoverable: Dishonorers of his Sister; murderers of
the God's-witness John Huss; them may all the Devils help! Beat Kaiser
Sigismund SUPRA-GRAMMATICAM again and ever again, scattering the Kitter
hosts in an extraordinary manner;--a Zisca conquerable only by Death,
and the Pest-Fever passing that way.
His birthplace, Troznow, is a village in the Budweis neighborhood, 100
miles to south. There, for three centuries after him, stood "Zisca's
Oak" (under shade of which, his mother, taken suddenly on the
harvest-field, had borne Zisca): a weird object, gate of Heaven and
of Orcus to the superstitious populations about. At midnight on the
Hallow-Eve, dark smiths would repair thither, to cut a twig of the Zisca
Oak: twig of it put, at the right moment, under your stithy, insures
good luck, lends pith to arm and heart, which is already good luck. So
that a Bishop of those parts, being of some culture, had to cut it down,
above a hundred years ago,--and build some Chapel in its stead; no Oak
there now, but an orthodox Inscription, not dated that I could see.
[Hormayr, _OEsterreichischer Plutarch,_ iii. (3tes), 110-145.]
Friedrich did not much pursue the Austrians after this Victory; having
cleared the Czaslau region of them, he continued there (at Kuttenberg
mainly); and directed all his industry to getting Peace made. His
experiences of Broglio, and of what help was likely to be had from
Broglio,--whom his Court, as Friedrich chanced to know, had ordered
"to keep well clear of the King of Prussia,"--had not been flattering.
Beaten in this Battle, Broglio's charity would have been a weak reed to
lean upon: he is happy to inform Broglio, that though kept well clear
of, he is not beaten.
[MAP GOES HERE---Book xiii, page 164----missing]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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