The National Register. — London, England, 1814-02-13 00:00:00

106 lasted the vi hole day, and was even protracted far in the night. Snort! villages were taken and retaken several times, nob% itlistanding• the thickness of the snow, which greatly imrded the movements, especially those of the artillery. BUONAPARTE is said to have been present, to I have headed some of the charges, and to have had a horse shot under him. His loss is differently rated in the la- 1 , rious di patches from one, to three and four thousand i prisoners, and from sixty to seventy-three pieces of cannon. On the ‘2d, he still maintained himself behind 11 La Rothiere and Dienville, but in the course of the day, evacuated all his positions and crossed the Aube in the !, direction of Troyes. The same clay MacooNaLD was at- I tacked at Vitro, and lost three hundred prisoners and j! three pieciis of cannon. From these accounts, it aprars that the Allied Armies haw neither passed between Jl i licoNapaßTr and Paris, nor placed him betneen two firm The French Papers to 9th instint, which have reachf this -week, have given us the full measure of Napeleon's etended victmies. The 43 pieces of cannon, and the )5.000 prisoners, taken in the action of the 29th ult. ac tending to The journal /e Paris, and the 'private letters, have vanished at a stroke 'Fite courier who had .seen the captured artillery, and counted the prisoners, is aeknowledg es! to tulle been an impudent liar ; and in his official lc port to the Empress, Napoleon himself declares the battle to have been most obstinate and sauguinary, without any (Alter advantage on his pit than the possession of the !laming ruins of Brienne, the seat of his fiist military stu dies, which General Blucher reduced to ashes in order to hover his retreat. Up to that time, the enemy, it appears, had acted on the offensive. On the 627th he had succeeded in driving the adsanced posts of the Allies from St. De, tier, fancying that lee had fallen in with their grand army, which he conceived would be compelled to retire before Lim. Ile soos lear - nt, however, that he had only engaged the force urder Geocial B'ucher, which had then crossed the Name, and %%al rapidly marching towards Troves, to ffect its junction with Prince Schwartzenbetg. who moved furtLer to the south, on the Auxerre nod Sens road to Vat is. instend of purtuing his advantage at St. I)czier, and in the direction of Lorraine, as he had first intimated was his intention, Napoleen iesolved on preventing the union of the Silesian with the Grand Amy, and for that purpose turncd to his ti t ht in , tead of advancing, and un expectedly on Blucher's main body at Btienne. Al thoug!i he seems to have brought all his force to !Kat n the Pi ussian veteran, the battle lasted with al- ternate success almost lug the whole of the 99th, lie hoverer carried the castle in the evening, anal Blucher, al -I,r a de , perate but unavailing effort to retake it, set fire to the town, and retreated at the approach of night. In this action the enemy 'acknowledges that but few prisoners were t;,ken, vvhikt he estimates his lo,s at between 2 and 3000 mill, a General ki:led and several others wounded; that of the Allies he, 4.f course, states at double his own. Ilad not tl'e Grand Army penetrated so far on his sight towards Pa:is, he would have followed up his success and driven Blucher back upon Chaumont and Langres, but lie felt that the capital mi g ht then he carried before the reserve, corn posed of new levies and of troops from Spain, could he fowled fur its protection. He therefore did not proceed THE NATIONAL HEC;ISTEIL FEB. 13. farther than La Rnthiere and Dienville, where he posted his rear under Victor and Grouchy, whilst he crossed the Aube with his.van,• and hastily marched upon Troyes. This move ment, however, was not unobserved, and the great nume rical superiority of the Allies enabled them to make - a com bined attack, on three points at once, to endeavour to frus trate his intention. The active Blucher traced hack his steps, and on the Ist inst. fell with his whole force on the rearguard at La Rothiere and Dienville. Meanwhile a crops detached from the army that invests Me'2, LuXemburgh, and Thionville, appeared before Vitry on the road to (ha- Ions; ;Hid an Austrian division, detached from the Grand Army, stormed the bi idge of Rosnay between-Paris and the enemy, which Marmoot was appointed to defend. On all these points, the enemy tells us the assailants mere repulsed with loss. He agiers, however, that at the close of the ac tion with Geaeral Blucher, a battery of artillery moving to support a cavalry manceuvre, missed its way in the obscu rity •f the night, and was taken. But the brave c•ant►oneers, sooner perceived this ambush, than they cut the traces, mounted the horses, and contrived to escape with the loss f only fifteen killed and wounded. This heroic a• t is re lated with much, complacency, but it did not touch improve the situation of the rear- gnat d; for !bough it actually re tained courage enough to remain during the night so dose to its enemy, that the advanced posts were almost intermixed; and Berthier nearly went over to the Allies whilst making his rounds; no sooner had the morning dawned than it re treated, taking positions, or rather being driven from them, until it effected its passage across the Aube, and regained Napoleon's main body, which on the WI inst. established itsel fat Troyes. Macdonald, whom the previous accounts haft le ft at !Mete!, was called from that place to Chalons, to oppove the columns advancing from the side of Thiauville. By his movement on Troyes, Napoleon seems to have exe cuted his plan of interposing between Prince Schwartzen-- berg's and Blucher's armies. lie stands in the rear of the former, and in front of the latter, and though between two fires, and threataned with utter annihilation, in case Of de feat, as long as he maintains the position, he prevents the, farther march of either of the Allied Conneandeis on, Paris. For should Prince Sc•ltwartzenherg proceed, regardless of Napoleon's, army behind him, he exposes Blucher to the danger of being overpowered by the superior numbers of the enemy, in which case he would find himself entirety cut off from the Rhine, and in a situation as full of peril as that froth which I3ttoi n extricated himself at Moscow, only by the ruin of his army. Should he, an the contrary, re. main stationary, be gives time to complete the fortifications now erecting round Paris, and the advance of the Army of Reserve in advance of that capital, so that he. might 114 his turn be placed between two fires. In this situation it might he thought that he would have recourse to a gr. neral engagement, as the only means of bringing the contest at once to an issue, did it not appear •fkoin The Mo niteur of the 15th instant, supported by later intelligence, that recourse has been had to negociations.—" On the 4th, in the morning, Count Stadion, Count Rmornowski, Lord Castlereagh, and Bacon Humboldt, arrived at Chatillon•sur- Seine, where the Duke of Vicenza already had arrivefl. The first visits on both sides had been made, and the first confer ence was to take place between the Plenipoteatiaries - the same evening." Such is the statement given in the French official paper, with the assurance, that no important events had since taken place between the armies. We migTit doubt this intelli gence, had not the arrival of Mr. Silvester, the Messenger. •