The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-22

VI IIueelh mas uOne, ne uiNoIBtu IOWaruS tho
south for fancied strategical reasons, and during
the delay caused by the luctuatiDg diplomacy
of the conference, Napoleon was enabled TO
throw himself in his way on the Goth of Janu-
ary, 1914, at Brienne-le-Chateau, small town
about forty miles 8. s. E. of Chalons. If Napo-
leon had followed Bluchers retreat this contest
might not have been the practically drawn bat
tie it was. But the Emperor neglected his
opportunity, and Blucher, reinforced by
other leaders, attacked him on the LIST of Febru-
ary at La Rothiere, about 10 miles s. s. Z. of
Brienne, with such superior forces as to put him
completely to rout. The battle lasted from
noon until near midnight, rivalled in its fury by
the snow storm which accompanied it, and when
the French retreated they left seventy-three
cannon sticking fast in the mud.
Blucher then pushed on towards Paris, but
between the 10th and the 18th of February
Napoleon fell upon detached portions of the
allied army, repulsing them in detail, after his
favorite fashion at Champeaubert, .Montmirail,
Chateau Thierry, Beauchamp, Mormant, Vile
neuve-le- -Comte, and Montereau-the scene of
these operations being restricted to the tri-
angular space included between the Seine and
the Marne, with Paris at the apex of the trian-
gle, and the base distant but 20 miles. Mean
time Augereau, at the head of an army which
had been collected in the south of France, drove
the Austrians under Bubna into Switzerland;
and such was the CONSERVATION of the invaders
that, at council of war held by the allied
sovereigns at Troyes, only 30 miles southwest
of Paris, general retreat was resolved upon.
Then it was that Blucher set diplomacy at
defiance, and resolved single handed and alone,
and in defiance of all his superiors, to hurl
Napoleon from power If possible. The victories
gained by Prussia had been viewed with con-
siderable alarm in that day as they have in this,
and the other allies, jealous of her growing
power and influence, were more disposed to
diplomatize than to fight. Blucher was aware
of this disposition, and jealous of his country's
prestige, more than once cut diplomacy short
with his sword. 1t is related of him on one
occasion that, when told by a distinguished
dplomatst that even if left to himself Napoleon
could not long maintain his foothold on the
throne, as league had been formed within
France for the restoration of the Bourbons, he
answered him to his face:
"The rascality of the French Is revenge for US.
1t is we who must pull him down-we. You will no
doubt do wonders In your wisdom Patience! You
will be led as usual Dy the nose, and will go on
fawning and dipomatizng until we have the nation
again upon us and the storm bursts over our heads"
These sentiments of the sturdy old Prussian
of the early part of the century doubtless find
hearty echo in the equally sturdy Prussan
leaders of the present day, and they are quite as
applicable to the present situation as they were
| to that presented by the constant peril in which
| Germany stood from the first Napoleon in the
early part of the century.
Blucher anticipated the coming diplomatic
solution, and averted the disastrous results that
night have followed the retreat of the allied
| army by pushing forward alone and in defiance
| of orders to the contrary. Having been rein
forced in his position on the Marne by Wnzin-
| gerode and Bulow, he fell upon Napoleon's army
| at Laon, IA miles northeast of Paris, on the 9th
| of March. When nightfall put an end to the
| fight the battle was undecided. Here Napoleon
committed fatal blunder by allowing his
troops to rest, while Blucher remained under
arms, and during the night detached portion
of his command under York to surprise the
enemy. The result was that the French were
completely dispersed, and when they forsook
their position left fortysix of their guns behind
This was the turning point in the struggle.
On the Goth of March Napoleon managed barely
to hold his own against an allied force under
| Schwarzenburg at Arcis-sur-Aube 30 miles
s. s. E. of Chalons, and then threw himself
upon Troyes, Is miles further to the south, and
80 miles southeast of Paris, In the rear of the
allied army, expecting that, by the junction of
Augersau's southern army with his own and a
general rising of the population he would be
able TO draw the enemy off from Paris towards
the Rhine. But the fall of Lyons, which Auge-
reau had been guarding, on the 10th, compelled
this general to retreat still further to the south;
the people were at last sated with Napoleonism
and invasion, and refused to answer the sum-
mons for a general rising the allies effected
grand junction of all their forces, and marched
by way of the main road from Chalons upon the
capital, without meeting further distractions OF
a serious character. Two or three small en-
gagements scarcely delayed their triumphal
march, and on the Goth they defled within sight
of Paris. spirited resistance was encountered
on the 30th, on the heights of Belleville and
Montmartre; but the city, in order to escape
bombardment, capitulated during the night, ant
on the 31st the allied sovereigns made peaceful
entrance into the French capital.
Within a few days after this event, Napoleon
amy, from the devoted Ney down to the mean
est subaltern, had melted away, and on the 10tl
of April the hero of Austerlitz, Jena, and Wa
gram, who for ten years had been overrunuins
all Europe with his victorious armies, ex
changed the imperial crown of France for thu
bauble sceptre of the island of Elba. The pro
gress of the Prussian campaign of 1870 thus fa
points to a similar conclusion, with this mate
rial differenee-such disposition of the thir'
Napoleon will doubtless be made as to render i
unnecessary 10 supplement Rezonville with
Waterloo.