At the Battle of Laon on 9 March, the 10,000 troops of the corps arrived in the early afternoon and captured some positions east of Laon. Satisfied, Marmont called off the attack and the troops went into bivouac. Without warning, Blücher launched an attack in the evening, routing the VI Corps. Two pieces of luck allowed Marmont and his men to escape. General Charles Nicolas Fabvier, sent on a mission with 1,000 men, returned to keep the road open. Meanwhile, 125 soldiers of the Old Guard held off waves of Allied cavalry to hold the Festieux defile. At the Battle of Reims on 13 March, Marmont's corps helped recapture the city. At the Battle of Fère-Champenoise on 25 March, the VI Corps and other troops proved unable to stop the advance of the Coalition armies. After the Battle of Paris, the French abandoned the capital to the Allies. By this time, the VI Corps was a mere shadow of its former self. It went into action with Lagrange's 1,395 troops, Ricard's 726 men, and General Jean-Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova's 1,250 soldiers. As a result of the loss of Paris, Napoleon abdicated on 6 April 1814.