men; but numbers were with them, if
genius was wanting.

As an historian of the epoch says: " He
who so lately had led half a million of men
to the Vistula, and three hundred thousand
to the banks of the Elbe, could not now
muster for the protection of the capital of his
own empire a disposable force of more than
seventy thousand men." Napoleon arrived
at the great plain of Chalons on the 26th of
January, concentrating from the frontier
the troops of his marshals, Victor,
Marmont, Macdonald, and Ney. His first swift
blow was at his stubborn old enemy,
Blucher. He wanted to surprise the grim
hussar, who never knew when he was
beaten, before Schwartzenberg could send
him help. Blucher hearing of this, began
to concentrate at Brienne, that hill on the
Aube which Napoleon knew so well,
because there, thirty-five years ago, he had
gone as an obscure Corsican boy to study
war. Blucher was nearly ready, but the
emperor was too quick for him, and the
French grenadiers all but surprised him
while dining at the château. It was a hot,
yet not very successful skirmish. The two
thousand Russian cavalry were driven into
the town headlong, but the Russian general,
Alsusieff, who held Brienne with the
infantry, kept the town against Ney till
Blucher could advance to his succour.

It was a day of surprises; Blucher and
his staff only escaped by leading their
horses down a postern-stair. By a singular
chance Napoleon himself was, soon after, all
but surrounded in the park which he was
entering as a victor. Some Cossacks made
a dash, fell on the rear of the French, and
men were killed by the emperor's side.
General Dejean, shouting " The Cossacks,"
raised his sabre to pierce one of the wild
horsemen, but the fellow slipped forward
and rushed at the calm general in the grey
great-coat. Corbineau and Gourgaud
instantly rushed forward, and the latter shot
the daring Russian dead at Napoleon's
feet. Lefebvre Desnouettes fell dangerously
wounded while charging at the head of the
Guards. The town was burnt down, but it
was not till eleven at night that obstinate
Blucher sullenly gave up his hold on the
ruins, fell back and took up a position in
the rear of the town, on the road leading
to La Rothière. Blucher had only fought
with part of his forty thousand men, and
after all Napoleon had failed to sever him
from the main body of the Allies.

On the 1st of February Blucher was ready
again to attack. This time, however, Napoleon
was unwilling to fight, dreading a
retreat across the deep and scarcely fordable
river Aube by the one bridge of Lesmont.
The war was rolling nearer Paris. Blucher,
with superior force, could afford to force
his adversary's hand, and he did so with
his usual rough-and-ready courage. He
attacked the French lines at three points,
the villages of La Rothière, Dienville, and
Chaumont. The Prince Royal of Wurtemburg
was present at this attack, which
raged all day. It ended at dusk, by the
French yielding at all points, and Napoleon,
losing four thousand prisoners and no less
than seventy-three guns, retreated across
the Aube. Ney closed the gates after him
by blowing up the bridge of Lesmont.
Fortune had turned, but the Allies, unconscious
of their advantage, which might have
been pushed to a final victory, suffered the
French to escape quietly. Still it was evident
that Napoleon's star was setting.

At a general council of the Allies, held at
the Chateau of Brienne, on February the
2nd, it was agreed to divide the two
armies. Blucher was to start north, and
mass the D'York and Kleist divisions,
already near Chalons, at St. Dizier and
Vitry, and to march by the Marne, while
Prince Schwartzenberg and the Allied
Army should descend on the doomed city
by the course of the Seine. This was the
plan of Dresden and Leipzig. The want of
provisions partly produced a necessity for
the division, and it was calculated that
with such superior forces, Napoleon could
scarcely attack the Allied Army without
laying himself open on one side or the other.
With a larger army Napoleon would have
struck them to the earth with alternate
blows; but Time at last had clipped his
talons.

He reached Troyes, on the left bank of the
Seine. This is a strong military position,
the centre of various roads, and in the
midst of a plain cut up by streams and
woody morasses. It was the capital of old
Champagne. The arrival of the Old Guard
there reviving the spirits of the beaten
French, and restoring their confidence,
Bonaparte instantly resolved on striking at
Blucher, and to disguise his pui'pose sent a
small division to Bar-sur-Seine to alarm
the Austrians by a feigned attack on their
right wing. Schwartzenberg at once fell
into the trap. He feared that his left flank
might be turned or forced, and therefore
strengthened it, thus suspending his march
on Paris, and widening the distance between
himself and Blucher, although the road to
the capital was now left temptingly open
by the emperor. Having thus deceived