The Emperor spent part of the 24th of January in reviewing troops in the court-yard of the Tuileries, while the snow was falling, and at 3 o'clock in the morning of the 25th once more left his capital, after having burnt his most secret papers, and embraced his wife and son for the last time, to begin his fifteenth campaign. Thiers says of this farewell: "Napoleon, when he left, unconscious that he was embracing them for the last time, hugged tenderly his wife and son. His wife was in tears, and she feared she would never see him again. She was in fact fated never to see him, although the enemy's bullets were not to kill him. She would certainly have been much surprised if she had been told that this husband, then the object of all her care, was to die on a distant island, the prisoner of Europe, and forgotten by her. As for him, no prediction would have astonished him,—whether the cruelest desertion, the most ardent devotion,—for he expected anything from men; he knew them to the core, though he treated them as if he did not know what they really were."
The Emperor again appointed Marie Louise Empress-Regent, placed his brother Joseph at the head of her council, gave orders for raising military defenses around Paris, and for converting many public buildings into hospitals. He arrived at Chalons ere midnight and found that Schwartzenberg with 97,000 men, and Blucher with 40,000 men, were now occupying an almost complete line between the Marne and the Seine. Blucher was in his own neighborhood and he immediately resolved to attack the right of the Silesian army,—which was pushing down the valley of the Marne, while its centre kept the parallel course of the Aube,—ere the Prussian marshal could concentrate all his own strength or be supported by Schwartzenberg who was advancing down the Seine towards Bar.
On the 27th of January a sharp skirmish took place at St. Dizier; and Blucher, who had committed all sorts of excesses during the last two days, warned of Napoleon's arrival, at once called in his detachments and took a post of defense at Brienne—the same town where Bonaparte had received his military education.
The Emperor marched through a thick forest upon the scene of his youthful studies and appeared there on the 29th, having moved so rapidly that Blucher was at dinner in the chateau when the French thundered at his gates, and with difficulty escaped to the rear through a passage, on foot and at the head of his staff.
The invaders maintained their place in the town courageously, and some Cossacks, throwing themselves upon the rear of the French, the Emperor was involved in the mêlée; he quickly drew his sword and fought like a private dragoon and General Gourgaud shot a Cossack while in the act of thrusting a spear at Napoleon's back. The town of Brienne was burned to the ground by the Prussians in order to cover their retreat.
Alsusieff, the Russian commander, and Hardenberg, a nephew of the Chancellor of Prussia, were made prisoners and there was considerable slaughter on both sides. Blucher retired further up the Aube with a loss of 4,000 men and posted himself at La Rothiere, where Schwartzenberg, warned by the cannonade, hastened to co-operate with him.
While at St. Helena Napoleon said that during the charge of the Cossacks at Brienne defending himself, sword in hand, he recognized a particular tree under which, when a boy, he used to sit and read the "Jerusalem Delivered" of Tasso. The field had been in those days, part of the exercise-ground of the students, and the chateau, whence Blucher escaped so narrowly, their lodging.
Blucher now assumed the offensive, having joined Schwartzenberg, and on the 1st of February assaulted the rear-guard of the French army. Proud of their numerical superiority they reckoned upon an easy triumph. The battle lasted all day. At nightfall the French were left in possession of their original positions. A battery of guns had been taken, however, and Napoleon lost on this occasion seventy-three guns, and some hundred prisoners, besides a number of killed and wounded. The result of this action was equivalent to a defeat of the French army. The cannoniers saved themselves, with their baggage, by forming a squadron and fighting vigorously as soon as they perceived that there was no time to use their pieces.
The battle of Brienne and the defense of La Rothiere, Dienville and La Giberie, had gloriously opened the campaign, but Blucher and Schwartzenberg had such considerable forces at their disposal that Napoleon might fear being surrounded, or cut off from his capital, if he persisted in retaining his position in the environs of Brienne. The allies had now definitely resolved to march on Paris.
While the division of Marmont retired down the Aube before Blucher, Napoleon himself struck across the country to Troyes which he had reasons to fear must be immediately occupied by Schwartzenberg. Here he was joined by a considerable body of his Guard, in high order and spirits, whose appearance restored, in a great measure, the confidence of the troops who had been engaged in the defense of La Rothiere. On the 3rd of February the Emperor received a dispatch from Caulaincourt, informing him that Lord Castlereagh, the English Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, had arrived at the headquarters of the allies, that negotiations were to be resumed the morning after at Chatillon, and requesting him to intimate distinctly at what price he would be willing to purchase peace.