The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

648 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAiRTE.
up their head-quarters at Coulommiers, they had be occupied by (jther guests, and for fiar different
marched upwards of seventy miles in three days. purposes. In ad(vance of these heights, and proAin effort wvas made, by about 10,000 mlen of the tected by them, is the village of Pantin, situated on
National Guards, to stop a column of the ariny of the great road from Bondy. To the left of RomrainSilesia, but it totally failed; General Horne gallop- ville, and more in front of Belleville, is a projecting
tug into the very centre of the French mass of in- eminence, termed the Butte de Chanmonot. The
fantry, and making prisoner the general who con- ridge there sinks, and admits a half-finished aquemanded them with his own hand. When Blucher duct, called the Canal de l'Ourcq. The ground
approached Meaux, the garrison (a part of Mortier's then again rises into the bold and steep eminence,
army) retreated, blowing tip a large powder magazine. called Montmartre, from being the supposed
This was on the 28th March, and on the evening of place of the martyrdom of St Denis, the patron of
the same day, the van-guard of the Silesian army France. The declivity of this steep hill is a
pushed on as far as Claye, from whence, not with- level plain, extending to the river Seine, through
out a sharp action, they dislodged a part of the which runs the principal northern approach to Palis,
divisions of Marmont and Mortier. These marshals front the large village of St-Denis. The most fornow retreated under the walls of Paris, their discon- midable preparations had been made for maintaining
raged and broken forces forming the only regular this strong line of defence, behind which the city lay
troops, excepting those of the garrison, which could sheltered. The extreme right of the French tor ces
be reckoned on for the defence of the capital. occupied the wood of Vincennes, and the village
The allied armies moved onward, on the same of Charenton upon the Mqarne, and was supported
grand point, leaving, however, Generals Wrede and by the troops stationed on the heights of Belleville,
Sacken, with a corps d'armde of 30,000 men, upon Romainville, and on the Butte de Chaumolnt, hich
the line of the Marne, to oppose any attempt which composed the right wing. Their centre occupied
might be made for annoying the rear of the army, the line formed by the half-finished Canal de I'Ourcq,
and thus relieving the metropolis. was defended by the village of La Villette, and a
Deducing this covering army, the rest of the al- strong redoubt on the farmi of Roavroi, mounted
lied forces moved in columns along the three grand with eighteen heavy guns, and by the elbalnkinents
routes of Meaux, Lagny, and Soissons, thus threat- of the canal, and still farther protected by a power
ening Paris along all its north-eastern quarter. The ful artillery planted in the rear, on the heights of
military sovereigns and their victorious armies were Montmartre. The left wing was thrown back front
now in sight of that metropolis, whose ruler and the village called Mouceaux, near the north-western
his soldiers had so often and so long lorded it in theirs; extremity of the heights, and prolonged itself to that
of that Paris, which, unsatisfied with her high rank of Neuilly, onl the Seine, which was strongly ocamong the cities of Europe, had fomented constant cupied by the extreme left of their army. Thus,
war until all should be subjugated to her empire; with the right extremity of the army resting upon
of that proud city, who boasted herself the first in the river Marne, and the left upon the Seine, the
arms and in science, the mistress and example of French occupied a defensive semicircular line,
the civilized world, the depositary of all' that is which could not beturned, the greater partof which
wonderful in the fine arts, and the dictatress as well was posted on heights of uncoiimmon steepness, and
of taste as of law to continental Europe. the whole defended by cannon, placed with the utThe position of Paris, on the north-eastern fron- most science and judgment, but very deficient inll
tier, which was thus approached, is as strongly point of numbers.
defensible, perhaps, as can be said of any mlnfor- The other side of Paris is almost defenceless; btit,
tified town in the world. Art, however, had added in order to have attacked onl that side, the allies
little to the defence of the city itself, except a few must have previously crossed the Seine; an operawretched redoubts (called by tihe French tainthours), tion successfully practised in the following year,
erected for protection of the. barriers. But the ex- but which at that period, when their work, to be
ternal line was very strong, as will appear from the executed at all, must be done suddenly, they had
following sketch. The heights which environ the no leisure to attempt, considering the great prolacity on the eastern side, rise abruptly from an ex- bility of Napoleon's coming up in their rear, recalled
tensive plain, and obrm a steep and narrow ridge, by the danger of the capital. They were, therefore,
which sinks again as suddenly upon the eastern compelled to prefer a sudden andt desperate attack
quarter of the town, which it seems to screen as with upon the strongest side of the city, to the slower,
a natural bulwark. Tle line of'defence which they though more secure measure, of turning the forafford is extremely strong. The southern extremity midable line of defence which we have endeavoured
of the ridge, which rests upon the wood of Vin- to describe.
cennes, extending southsvaid to the banks of the Three times, since the allies crossed the Rhine,
river Miarne. is called the heights of Belleville and the capital of France had been menaced by the apRomainville, taking, its name from two delightful proach of troops within twenty miles of the city, blt
villages which occupy it, Belleville being nearest, it had uniformly been delivered by the active and.
and Rtomainville most distant from Paris. The rapid movenments of Napoleon. Encouraged by this
heights are covered with romantic groves, and de- recollection, the citizens, without muich alarm, hea d:orlated by many pleasant villas, with gardens; for the fourth time that the Cossacks had been seen
orchards, vineyards, and plantations. These, which at Meaux. Stifled rumours, however, began to cirin eateftil timues are a favourite resort of the gay culate, that the divisions of Marlmont and Mor tier
Parisians, on their parties of pleasure, were now to had sustained severe loss, and were in full retreat