The French Imperial Guards, and the Sixth Corps d'Armée, which were under the more immediate orders of Grouchy, and had formed the Column that retired through Villers Cotterets in the morning, reached Levignon after Zieten had passed through it in pursuit of Reille's troops to Nanteuil; and becoming acquainted with the danger of their proceeding further on that road, they turned off to their left, to make their retreat through Assy, Meaux, Claye, and Vincennes.
General Vandamme, who, with the Third and Fourth French Corps d'Armée, was most in the rear, and had withdrawn from the high road at Villers Cotterets on perceiving the Prussian Brigade in possession of that place, took the direction of La Ferté Milon, Meaux, crossing the Marne at L'Agny, to Paris.
Bülow, who had been directed to move the Fourth Corps d'Armée from Pont St Maxence to Marly la Ville, on the 28th, deemed it advisable to augment his Advanced Guard; and therefore added to it the Fourteenth Brigade and the Reserve Cavalry, and placed the whole under the command of Prince William of Prussia. In the afternoon Prince William fell upon Detachments of d'Erlon's, and also upon Reille's Corps d'Armée, which latter was retreating from Nanteuil. He immediately attacked the Enemy, dispersed a great number of his troops, and took more than two thousand prisoners. It was evening before the Advanced Guard reached Gonesse, where it bivouacked. Detachments were pushed on to the front as far as Le Bourget and Stains, which points were occupied by the Enemy. The main body of the Corps arrived at Marly la Ville in the evening, and halted there for the night.
Thielemann, having been directed to proceed with the Third Corps d'Armée from Compiegne to Senlis, should its support not be required by the First Corps, marched his Infantry and Artillery upon Crespy, and sent the Reserve Cavalry by Verberie; but on hearing that the First Corps was engaged with the Enemy, he drew in his Cavalry towards Crespy, from Verberie, as soon as it arrived there. The First Cavalry Brigade, with six pieces of Horse Artillery, was pushed on from Crespy, along the road to Nanteuil; where it joined the Reserve Cavalry of the First Corps d'Armée, but not in time to take any active part in the engagement at that place. The Second Cavalry Brigade was detached towards Villers Cotterets. The main body of the Third Corps d'Armée bivouacked for the night at Crespy and its vicinity.
Prince Blücher deemed it advisable to send, on this day, a strong Detachment of Cavalry, consisting of the Queen's Dragoons, under Lieutenant Colonel Kamecke, beyond the Left of the First Prussian Corps, towards the Marne, for the purpose of gaining intelligence of the Enemy's movements in that direction. Lieutenant Colonel Kamecke was instructed to act discretionally; and to proceed, subsequently, by Meaux, or Château Thierry, and endeavour to open a communication with the Advance of the Bavarian Army.
Thus it will be seen that, on the 28th, the Prussian Army succeeded in cutting off the line of retreat of the French troops by the Soissons high road, compelling the greater portion of them to seek, along cross roads, the line of the Marne, by Meaux and L'Agny. It had, since it crossed the Oise, created great disorder and confusion in the French ranks, captured sixteen pieces of cannon, and made, altogether, four thousand prisoners. The Prussians now occupied both the high roads leading from Senlis and Soissons, and had their Advanced Posts (those of the Fourth Corps d'Armée) within five miles of Paris.
The sound of their cannon was already heard in the capital, where the greatest consternation prevailed amongst the citizens; whose fears had been previously excited by the most exaggerated reports brought in by fugitives from the retreating Army. The fortified works that had been thrown up on the north side, appeared sufficient to check the progress of the Allied Armies, and to secure Paris from a coup de main; but time was essential for the organisation of the defence, for the recovery of the exhausted remains of the Army of the North expected to arrive on the morrow, and for the collection of every available defensive means. It was only by the assumption of a sufficiently respectable, if not an imposing, attitude, that they could hope to succeed in negotiating for the preservation of the capital and the establishment of their own prescribed form of government—perhaps, by some extraordinary effort, to disconcert the plans of their Enemies, and obtain a triumph under the walls of Paris.
Actuated by these considerations, the Provisional Government was desirous of inducing the victorious Commanders of the Allied Armies to enter into negotiations. Another Commission was appointed, the members of which were Messrs Andreossy, Valence, Boissy d'Anglas, Flangergues, and la Benardière. They were directed to proceed to the Head Quarters of the Allied Field Marshals, again to solicit a Suspension of Hostilities and to negotiate an Armistice.
During these proceedings in Paris, a renewed application had been received by Prince Blücher, on the 27th, and by the Duke of Wellington on the 28th, from the first named Commissioners, for a Suspension of Hostilities; as also a request that a passport and assurances of safety might be accorded to Napoleon and his family, to enable them to pass to the United States of America: the Provisional Government having previously succeeded, through the medium of representations made to the ex-Emperor by some of his friends, in persuading the latter to consent to this step.