Royal of Wurtemburg, with about thirty
thousand troops, was to pour through the
wood of Vincennes, on the barriers of
Charonne and the Trône; the third by the
north, in the plain of St. Denis, was to be
headed by grim old Blucher himself, and
to march on the right of Montmartre,
Clichy, and Etoile.

On the French side, Marmont had to
scale the escarpments of Charonne and
Montreuil, and establish himself on the
plateau of Romainville; while Mortier
traversed the exterior boulevard from
Charonne to Belleville, and descended by
Pantin, La Villette, and La Chapelle, and
reaching the plain of St. Denis, established
his right wing on the Canal of the Ourcq;
his left at Clignancourt, at the foot of
Montmartre.

Marmont, misled by an officer, was
mortified to find the Russians in possession
of Romainville. With twelve hundred men
of the Lagrange division, however, he
threw himself on the enemy's rear-guard,
and drove them hotly back on Pantin and
Noisy. At the same time the Ledru des
Essart division swarmed into the wood
of Romainville, which closes the flank by
the heights bordering the plain of St.
Denis. He then distributed his troops; he
posted the Duke of Padua and his division
on his right, at the extreme edge of the
plateau of Romainville in the tallest houses
of Bagnolet and Montreuil, where the
villas and gardens slope like the side of
an amphitheatre. At the centre of the
plateau he drew up the Lagrange division,
backed by the houses of Belleville; the
Ricard division he placed on the left in the
wood of Romainville, and at the northern
declivity the Ledru des Essart division.
At the foot in the plain at Prés St. Gervais
stood the Boyer de Rebeval division,
while the Michel division guarded Villette.
The cavalry was ready between Charonne
and Vincennes. About eight o'clock the
listener at the barriers heard the musketry
begin to rattle and the cannon to roar. Dull
Joseph, accompanied by the war minister,
the minister of police, the engineer, and
artillery officers, watched the conflict from
Montmartre as Jove watched the Trojan
battles from Olympus.

Barclay de Tolly, vexed at his repulse, now
resolved to retake Romainville, and called
up his reserve. General Paskiewitch, with
a brigade of grenadiers, was to scale the
plateau on the Rosny side, while Count
Pahlen's cavalry, and another brigade of
grenadiers, attacked it on the south by
Montreuil. Prince Eugène of Wurtemburg,
in the mean time, was to assail
Pantin. General Mezenzoff, who had been
repulsed in the morning, pushed forward
his stubborn grenadiers, forced back
Lagrange's division, and won the height. On
the right the Russian brigade also turned
the plateau by Montreuil and Bagnolet,
outflanked the Duke of Padua, and drove him
backwards after a hot fight. The Russian
cuirassiers, driving along the plateau, tried
to charge the French infantry, but were
repelled by the storm of fire from the hedges
of bayonets. As the French fell back to
Belleville, the narrower plateau gave them
more concentration. On the right the
tirailleurs threw themselves for cover
behind the houses of Bagnolet, on the left into
the wood of Romainville. The French
batteries, served by mere Polytechnique lads
with skill and devoted courage, kept up a
most determined and sustained plunging
fire, and the grey coats withered before it.
Ledru des Essart's Young Guard had also
reconquered, tree by tree, the wood of
Romainville, and thus outflanked the Russian
troops on the wider part of the plateau.
At the foot of the plateau, on the north
side, General Campin was still master of
Pantin, with the aid of the Boyer de Rebeval
division, and the Michel division still held
Prés St. Gervais, and the Prince of
Wurtemburg, who had tried to wrest back the
two villages, had been driven off.

Marshal Mortier had already taken up his
position on the plain of St. Denis. The
Curial and Charpentier divisions of the Old
Guard were at La Villette; the Christiani
division at La Chapelle, and the cavalry
at the foot of Montmartre. If the French
had now, they cried, only ten thousand
more men to take the offensive, they could
have given the Allies a severe check, and
Schwartzenberg, waiting for his two wings
still in the rear, confined himself to
cannonade and intermittent sharpshooting.

At this hour, Joseph, informed that the
soldiers would die to the last man, but that
it was almost certain the capital would
soon be surrendered, and seeing two more
masses of Russians pushing to fresh attacks,
fled to Paris, leaving his ministers to follow,
having already heard that some Cossacks
had been seen on the Revolte route, and
even on the borders of the Bois de Boulogne.

On the north, Blucher was already
advancing over the plain of St. Denis. General
Langeron had driven the weak French
vanguards from Aubervilliers and St. Denis,