The attack then commenced with fury and the bridge and town of Montereau were carried. The defense was long and stern, however, and Napoleon was occasionally seen pointing cannon with his own hand, under the heaviest of the fire. The artillerymen protested at the exposure of his person and entreated him to withdraw. He persisted in his work, answering gaily, "My children! the bullet that shall kill me is not yet cast." The inhabitants of Montereau associated themselves with this triumph by firing from their windows on the Austrians as they passed through the town.
After distributing praises and rewards to the generals who had contributed to gaining this battle, Napoleon thought of those who had delayed their march, or exhibited negligence in their command, and among those reprimanded were Generals Guyot, Digeon and Montbrun, the latter for having abandoned the forest of Fontainebleau to the Cossacks, without resistance.
Pursuing his advantage Napoleon saw the grand army of the invaders continue their retreat in the direction of Troyes, and on the morning of the 22d arrived before Mery. This town he found occupied, much to his astonishment, not by a feeble rear-guard of Schwartzenberg but by a powerful division of Russians, commanded by Sacken and therefore belonging to the apparently indestructible army of Blucher. These unexpected enemies were charged in the streets, and at length retired out of the town,—which was burnt to the ground in the struggle,—and thence beyond the Aube. The Emperor then halted, and spent the night of the 22d of February in a charcoal burner's cottage at Chatres.
Meanwhile negotiations were still pending at Chatillon. Caulaincourt, receiving no answer to his second dispatch sent to Napoleon at Nogent on the 8th of February, proceeded to act on the instructions dated at Troyes on the 3d; and in effect accepted the basis of the Allies. When Schwartzenberg was attacked at Nangis, on the 17th, he had just received the intelligence of Caulaincourt's having signed the preliminary articles, and he, therefore, sent a messenger to ask why the Emperor, if aware of his ambassador's act, persisted in hostilities; but received no answer.
Napoleon sent instead a private letter to the Emperor of Austria, once more trying to gain his friendship. The reply of Francis, written to him from Nangis, reached Napoleon at Chatres on the 23d. It announced Francis' resolution on no account to abandon the general cause, but declared that he lent no support to the Bourbonists, and urged Napoleon to avert by concession, ere it was too late, total ruin from himself and his House. Napoleon returned the envoy with a note signifying that now he would not consent to a day's armistice, unless the Allies would fall back so as to leave Antwerp in their front. The same evening news came from Paris that the Council of State had discussed the proposals of the Allied Powers, and with only one dissenting voice, now entreated the Emperor to accept them. He was urged, anew, to send to Chatillon and accept the basis to which Caulaincourt had agreed. He answered that he had sworn at his coronation to preserve the territory of the Republic entire, and that he could not sign this treaty without violating his oath. "If I am to be scourged" said he, "let the whip come on me of necessity, and not through any voluntary stooping of my own." The truth of these attempts at negotiation is that the Allies merely desired a simple suspension of arms, in order to gain time to reinforce themselves, and also in order to interrupt the too rapid course of Napoleon's successes in the last eight days. This the Emperor easily discerned through the maze of the contrary declarations of the foreign negotiators, and in fact is avowed by the historians of the campaigns of the Allies.
Napoleon now resolved to push on as far as Troyes, at the same time permitting proposals for an armistice to be considered at Lusigny, and negotiations for peace to proceed at Chatillon. The Emperor had meanwhile requested Oudinot and Macdonald, with their divisions, to manoeuvre in the direction of Schwartzenberg, in order to keep the Austrians in check.
Napoleon learned at Troyes, in the night of the 26th of February, that the Prussian army was in motion. His resolution was soon taken. He again hastened to the succor of his capital, and came, with the prodigious celerity which rendered his marches and manoeuvres so distinguishing, to fall upon the rear of Blucher, who still had Marmont and Mortier in front. Marching rapidly across the country to Sezanne he received intelligence that these two generals, finding themselves inferior in numbers to Blucher, had retired before him in the direction of Ferté-sous-Jouarre, and were in full retreat to Meaux. This point he considered as almost a suburb to Paris and he quickened his speed accordingly. Hurrying on, at Ferté-Goucher he was at once met and overtaken by evil tidings. Schwartzenberg, having discovered the Emperor's absence, had immediately assumed the offensive, defeated Oudinot and Macdonald at Bar-sur-Aube on the 27th, and driven them before him as far as Troyes; and Augereau, who commanded in the neighborhood of Lyons, announced the arrival of a new and great army of the Allies in that quarter. On the 1st of March an important treaty was ratified at Chaumont between the sovereigns of Austria, England, Russia and Prussia, by which the four contracting powers bound themselves each to maintain in the field an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men until the objects of the war were attained; England, as usual, engaging, over and above, to furnish a subsidy of four millions sterling. In a second clause, each of the four powers was bound never to make a separate peace with the common enemy. About the same time the commissioners at Lusigny broke up the negotiations for an armistice, on the plea of inability to settle the line of demarcation.
Napoleon's operations were not checked, however. Having been detained for some time at Ferté, in consequence of the destruction of the bridge, he took the direction of Chateau Thierry and Soissons, where he hoped to receive Blucher, while Mortier and Marmont received orders to assume the offensive in front of Meaux. The Emperor hoped in this manner to throw himself on the flank of Blucher's march, as he had done before at Champaubert; but the Prussian received intelligence of his approach and drawing his troops together, retired to Soissons. Napoleon proceeded thither with alacrity, believing that the French garrison intrusted with the care of that town, and its bridge over the Marne, was still in possession of it, and would enable him, therefore, to force Blucher into action with this formidable obstacle in his rear. He did not know that Soissons had been taken by a Russian corps, retaken by a French one and fallen once more into the hands of the enemy, ere the Emperor came in sight of it. He assaulted the place with much vigor but the Russians repelled the attack. Learning that Blucher had filed his main body through the town and posted himself behind the Marne, Napoleon marched up the left bank of the river and crossed it also at Bery.