The French had the better of a nocturnal skirmish with Schwarzen
berg's vanguard, but next day the entire 8o,ooo-strong Army of Bohemia
appeared. Having only z8,ooo to pit against them, Napoleon withdrew,
leaving Oudinot to cover the retreat. From 3-6 p.m. on the zrst a grim
battle raged around Arcis in which the French rearguard was badly
mauled before getting away. This time the French managed to complete
an evacuation by bridge and then blow it up. Losses at Arcis were 3,000
French and 4, 000 Austrians. Undaunted, Napoleon did not do the
obvious thing and march for Paris but made for St Dizier, hoping to cut
off Allied supply lines.
At first the Allies seemed likely to fall for this decoy and began pulling
their forces back from the advance on Paris. But then a letter from
Napoleon to Marie-Louise was intercepted. Talleyrand had for some
time been advising the Allie� that the Emperor was deeply unpopular in
Paris and there was a strong royalist party there, but the Russians,
particularly, were not convinced, suspecting machiavellianism on Met
ternich's part - for Talleyrand was Metternich's creature. Now in the
clearest possible terms they found Napoleon admitting to his wife the
truth of this and, incidentally, revealing his own strategy: 'I decided to
make for the Marne and his line of communication, in order to push him
back further from Paris and draw nearer to my fortress. I shall be at St
Dizier this evening.' After reading this, the Czar, on the advice of
Bonaparte's oldest enemy, Pozzo di Borgo, changed his mind and argued
strongly for an advance on Paris.
The Allies united both armies and, r8o,ooo-strong, advanced smoothly
down the Marne towards Paris. Marmont and Mortier tried to bar the
way but were swept aside at La Fere-Champenoise on 25 March.
Napoleon meanwhile spent four days in a fool's paradise at St Dizier,
vaguely wondering whether he dared call a 'people's war'. He was
aroused from his fantasy on the 27th by news that the enemy would be in
Paris before him. Marmont and Mortier fought the last battle at the foot
of Montmartre on 30 March, the National Guard defended courageously
at Belleville and the Charonne heights, as did Moncey at the Porte de
Clichy, and made the Allies take significant losses as they fought their
way into the suburbs. In the end, though, they were simply overwhelmed
by superior numbers, and on the evening of the 30th Marmont signed the
capitulation of Paris.
Elsewhere in France resistance had collapsed. Lyons, from which so
much had been expected, fell on 2r March, joining a long list of
important provincial cities that were in hostile hands. In mid-February
Wellington commenced his advance from the Pyrenees. He defeated
marcin
(Marcin)
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