The grand running fight and the terrible
blows Napoleon dealt his adversaries, we
shall sketch in a future article; in the present
we must pass on rapidly to that moment of
reverse, when outnumbered and yet not
disheartened, Bonaparte stationed himself at
Rheims, hoping for an insurrection of the
peasants of Alsace, and waiting for Suchet's
arrival at Lyons from Catalonia. It does
not appear from the plan of the campaign
that Napoleon ever relied much on the
inhabitants of Paris, torn asunder, as they
were, by internal factions fomented by his
enemies. It is true he had embodied thirty
thousand National Guards, but he had not
armed more than a third of them, being no
doubt distrustful of their fidelity in the
hour of need. He had also ordered, it is
said, two hundred cannon for the defence
of the northern and eastern lines, but these
also were not all forthcoming. But his
presence was worth ten thousand cannon, and
he only needed that Paris should hold out
till he flew to cover her with his ægis. His
resolve was at once taken not to venture
between Blucher and Schwartzenberg, and
so on either flank be outweighted, but to
break through their line, strengthen his
army with the garrisons from the frontier
fortress and the sturdy peasantry of Alsace
and Franche-Comté, and so to strike them
swiftly from behind. Above all, he wished
to draw Schwartzenberg after him, till he
could turn upon him and rend him limb
from limb. If Paris only made stubborn
resistance, then Napoleon hoped to shut in
the Allies between the capital and the
bayonets of his army.

In the mean time, Marmont and Mortier
retreating to Paris, the Allies approached
the beautiful city of the Seine by three
routes, those of Meaux, Lagny, and Soissons.
On this the north-eastern front, even before
the fortifications of Louis Philippe, Paris
was naturally strong. The heights on the
east side of Paris rise abruptly from a
plain, and form a narrow ridge, like a wall,
sudden and steep. The south end of this
natural rampart rests upon the wood of
Vincennes, and extends southwards to the
banks of the Marne. This part of the
heights derives its name from the villages
of Belleville and Romainville, the first
being the nearest to Paris. The woods,
studded with villas, are dappled with gardens,
orchards, vineyards, and plantations,
great resorts of the strolling Parisians. In
advance of the heights is the village of
Pantin on the high road to Bondy. To
the left of Romainville is a projecting eminence
called the Butte de Saint Chaumont.
There the ridge sinks and admits an
aqueduct called the Canal de l'Ourcq. The
ground then rises to the hill of Montmartre,
that steep and quiet part of Paris well
known to all travellers.

The extreme right of the French force
held the wood of Vincennes and the village
of Charenton-on-the-Marne. The centre
occupied the half-finished Canal de l'Ourcq.
It was protected by the village of La Villette,
and a strong redoubt with eighteen guns on
the farm of Ronuvroi and on the canal
embankments, and also by clumps of guns in
the rear on the heights of Montmartre. The
left wing was thrown back from the
gardener's village of Monceaux, near the
north-west extremity of the heights, and stretched
to Neuilly-on-the-Seine, where the extreme
left lay. The French, therefore, rested on
the Seine and Marne in a strong semicircle,
posted on steep heights that could not be
turned, and guarded by well-flanked but
insufficient cannon.

The other side of Paris is low and helpless,
but then the Seine has to be crossed before
it can be attacked in that quarter. The
Allies, afraid of Napoleon, wanted to take
Paris at once before it could be relieved.
They therefore resolved on a storm, and not
on a slow and scientific blockade.

The citizens of Paris, who already since
the Allies crossed the Rhine had been three
times threatened, betrayed no alarm at hearing
that the Cossacks, who were to the Allies
what the Uhlans are in the present war to
the Germans, had been seen at Meaux.
Indeed the Parisians, thoughtless as children,
are not easily persuaded of danger in such
cases, and not easily comforted when the
danger arises; but the bandaged and groaning
sufferers of Marmont's and Mortier's
divisions soon convinced them that war with
all its horrors was approaching. Soon after
the wounded arrived, the country people
came crowding in, their carts full of bedding
and household goods, themselves pale and
paralysed with fear of the invaders.

In the mean time, Joseph Bonaparte,
Napoleon's regent, did his best to encourage
the people of Paris with lies. The city
was pronounced impregnable; the zeal and
patriotism of the bourgeois were to make
it another Saragossa. The assailants were
only a few Prussians, who had by accident
stumbled on Paris while the emperor was
breaking the back of the enemy at Vitry
and St. Dizier. Above all, a grand review
was held on the Sunday preceding the
assault to cheer the people. In the great