upon them. 1 XII. 1814. Olsoofief was soon forced into a retreat, CHAP. which, as the road to Vertus was occupied by the French horse, he could only direct across country towards Montmirail, where Sacken lay. Enveloped by superior forces, Koch, i. however, it soon turned into flight, in the course of which 208; Dan. Olsoofief himself, and all his staff, 24 guns, and 3000 Fain, ii. 92, prisoners, were taken, and his whole division, with exception of a small body under General Udom, escaped to Pont-à-Binson, was destroyed.1 95, 96; 93; Marm. the vi. 378; who 306, 307. Thiers, xvii. 70. sanguine at this Napoleon was highly elated, as well he might be, with this glorious success, which first broke through the long Napoleon's and dismal catalogue of disasters which had afflicted his joy and empire ever since the battle of Dresden in the preceding expectations year. Sitting at supper at Champaubert, on the evening victory. of his victory, with his marshals, in a little inn, he indulged without reserve in the brilliant prospects which this first success opened to him. "If," said he, "to-morrow I am as fortunate as I have been to-day, in fifteen days I shall have driven the enemy beyond the Rhine, and from the Rhine to the Vistula is but a step." He was as good as his word, at least in the first instance; and by vigorously following up this first success, he brought the enemy into such straits, and inspired them with such apprehension, that nothing but the indomitable firmness of Lord Castlereagh at the decisive moment, prevented their xvii. 306, fortunes being entirely wrecked, and the visions of the vi. 52. Emperor realised to the letter.2 2 Thiers, 307; Marm. Montmir Feb. 11. Setting out at daybreak on the following morning, Na- 71. poleon directed his steps towards Montmirail, beyond Victory of which Sacken lay with 16,000 men, a force wholly in-ail. adequate to resist that with which he was now threatened. For the French Emperor, having been joined by Leval's division from Spain, was able, after leaving Marmont with half his corps at Etoges to watch Blucher, to set out along the great road with 28,000 men. On debouching from Montmirail, he came in sight of the Russian general, who was returning, in the full confidence of victory, to the CHAP. 1814. encounter. The action soon became extremely warm, especially at the village of Marchais, where the Russian right projected forward towards Montmirail, which was taken and retaken several times, and finally remained in the hands of the French. No decisive advantage was gained, however, on either side, till two o'clock in the afternoon, when, the Old Guard having come up, Napoleon prepared to strike the decisive blow. With this view, he ordered Ricard, who had won and still held Marchais, to evacuate that village and retire in apparent disorder on the road towards Montmirail. Sacken fell into the snare. Hastily leaving, with great part of his centre, his position at L'Epine-aux-Bois, he re-occupied Marchais, and pursued the retiring French on the great road. Meanwhile, the Emperor despatched Friant with the Old Guard to L'Epine-aux-Bois, now occupied only by a small detachment, of which the steady veterans made themselves masters by a bayonet charge, without firing a shot. Having thus become master of the enemy's line of retreat,—for as he held Montmirail, they could only escape by filing to their left on Chateau-Thierry, where D'York was,-Napoleon ordered Ricard to halt and face about, and sent two battalions of the Young Guard to aid him in retaking Marchais and driving Sacken back on L'Epine-aux-Bois, strongly occupied by the Old Guard. These movements were entirely successful. After a sharp conflict, Marchais was retaken, and the Russians driven out, who, seeing their retreat by L'Epine-aux-Bois intercepted, drew off through the fields, where they were closely pursued with great slaughter by the cavalry of the Imperial Guard. In a few minutes 3000 prisoners were taken, with 30 guns, besides 2500 slain; and in the course of the retreat, which they made by a long circuit across country to their 311: Plotho, left towards Fontenelle, where the head of D'York's corps Koch, 1.252; lay, 1000 men were made prisoners, and 3 more guns taken. The whole French loss did not exceed 1000 men.1 1 Thiers, xvii. 309 iii. 183, 184; Clausewitz, vii. 424. 1814. 72. Thierry. Napoleon had now completely succeeded in his object. CHAP He had broken into the midst of the scattered columns of XII. the Army of Silesia, surprised Blucher in flagrante delicto, and already defeated, and partially destroyed, two of them. Battle of This great success, however, was but the prelude to still Chateaugreater triumphs. On the day after the battle of Mont- Feb. 12. mirail, he marched with his whole disposable force in hand towards Chateau-Thierry, where the third corps under D'York, joined to the remains of Sacken, lay; the advanced-posts were speedily driven into that town by the charges of the French Gardes d'Honneur. Finding himself assailed by the Emperor in person, at the head of greatly superior forces, D'York began to withdraw from ChateauThierry, but he was not permitted to do so without molestation. The rearguard, consisting of four Russian and three Prussian battalions, was assailed while still outside the town; sword in hand the French cuirassiers fell on, and entered the place along with them, where 500 men were speedily slain, and 2000 prisoners, with 7 guns, taken. The destruction of the whole rearguard would have been complete, if the enemy had not, in the middle of the conflict in the streets, broken down the bridge over the Marne behind the town, which prevented further pursuit. The success was great and important, but not so considerable as it would have been if Macdonald had followed out the Emperor's instructions, which were to have halted at Meaux, and retraced his steps by the right bank of the Marne without delay, in which case he would have come upon D'York's men after they xvii. 315, crossed at Chateau-Thierry, and made several thousand 115.' prisoners.1 1 Thiers, 316; Dan. Vauchamps. Three of Blucher's detached corps had now been de- 73. feated, and there remained only the fourth, under the Battle of field-marshal in person, to be disposed of. Against it, Feb. 14. accordingly, Napoleon now bent all the forces he could command, consisting of the corps of Marmont; Leval's division, just arrived from Spain; Musnier and Curial's CHAP. XII. divisions of the Young, and Friant's of the Old Guard; and all the cavalry of the Guard, under Ney. At the 1814. same time, Mortier, with the second division of the Guard and a large body of cavalry, was detached towards Soissons, with orders to pursue, without intermission, the remains of the defeated corps of Sacken and D'York, who were retiring in that direction, in order to prevent them from rendering any assistance to Blucher; and Victor was reinforced so as to enable him, in the valley of the Seine, to impede, if he could not prevent, the advance of the Grand Army under Schwartzenberg. Meanwhile Blucher, who had been boiling with indignation at the intelligence successively received of the defeat of his lieutenants, but had hitherto been prevented from moving by the want of force, as the main body of Kleist's and Kaptsevich's corps had not yet come up, at length, on their arrival, deemed himself strong enough to resume the offensive with the column under his immediate command, which now amounted to 20,000 men. Marmont, who, with his weak half corps, had alone been left to watch him at Etoges, fell back before him till he was joined, on the morning of the 14th, by Napoleon, between Montmirail and Vauchamps. The offensive was immediately resumed. The advanced-guard of the French, under Ricard, encountered that of the Allies, consisting of Ziethen's Prussians, in the village of Vauchamps, when a furious combat ensued. The village was taken and retaken several times; and meanwhile Napoleon detached Grouchy with the whole cavalry to gain, by a long circuit through the fields, the rear of the combatants on the road from Vauchamps to Etoges. Blucher, suspecting, from seeing the uniforms of the Guard in the enemy's ranks, that the Emperor was there in person, and seeing he was outnumbered, took the resolution to retreat, and it was conducted at first to Champaubert in good order, and with great resolution. But what was the astonishment of the Russians when, on emerging from that village into the open country, they beheld the dense XII. squadrons of Grouchy emerge from the woods on the side CHAP. of the road, and, uniting and forming across it, present a barrier of steel against any further retreat; while the 1814. Emperor himself, at the head of the infantry of the Guard, was thundering in close pursuit, and throwing in volleys at every step! Then, indeed, the mighty soul of the German hero sank within him; and, turning to Prince Augustus of Prussia, he said, "Nothing remains but to die here." With mournful resolution he took post in front of the retreating column, awaiting the cannon-shot which it was fondly hoped would prove the last. "If you are killed here," said his aide-de-camp Nostitz, "do you really think history will praise you for it?" Struck with these words, the brave Prussian recovered his presence of mind, and made dispositions to force his way through. The guns not dismounted were all drawn to the front, the men arranged in close column, flanked by the cavalry, and, thus disposed, the weighty mass bore down with unshrinking step on the glittering line before it. The loss was severe; and the long column, like a huge snake mortally wounded, wound its way through the hostile squadrons, bleeding at every pore. But the onset, headed by Blucher and Prince Augustus, proved successful: the passage was forced, and the weary Allies reached Etoges. Hardly had they lain down to rest, however, when Marmont's men, issuing from the darkness, rushed into the town with fixed bayonets. Amidst the confusion of a night-surprise the retreat had to be resumed, and the moving fight continued till midnight, when the Prussians reached Bergeres, and at length found a few hours of repose. But they lost in this dis-1 Thiers, astrous day eight thousand men in killed, wounded, and xvii. 320prisoners, with fifteen guns and eight standards. Few pri- v. 239-242; soners were taken, the action being so desperate that scarce Koch, i.264; Plotho, iii. any quarter was either asked or given; and the entire loss 190. of the French did not exceed twelve hundred men.1* * Such was Napoleon's joy at these glorious successes, that he exclaimed to Maret and Berthier, when he heard of the offer of the Allies to conclude an armis 325; Marm. Dan. 119; VOL. II. T |