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 Jli
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 tit 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 might 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