All the allied leaders had at one time or another bent under
his blows; and the French Marshals seemed doomed, as in 1813, to fail
wherever their Emperor was not. Ney, Victor, and Mortier had again
evinced few of the qualities of a commander, except bravery. Augereau
was betraying softness and irresolution in the Lyonnais in front of a
smaller Austrian force. Suchet and Davoust were shut up in Catalonia
and Hamburg. St. Cyr and Vandamme were prisoners. Soult had kept a
bold front near Bayonne: but now news was to hand that Wellington had
surprised and routed him at Orthez. On the Seine, Macdonald and
Oudinot failed to hold Troyes against the masses of Schwarzenberg. Of
all the French Marshals, Marmont had distinguished himself the most in
this campaign, and now at Laon he had been caught napping. Yet, while
all others failed, Napoleon seemed invincible. Even after Marmont's
disaster, the allies forbore to attack the chief; and, just as a lion
that has been beaten off by a herd of buffaloes stalks away, mangled
but full of fight and unmolested, so the Emperor drew off in peace
towards Soissons. Thence he marched on Rheims, gained a victory over a
Russian division there, and hoped to succour his Lorraine garrisons,
when, on the 17th, the news of Schwarzenberg's advance towards Paris
led him southwards once more.

Yielding to the remonstrances of the Czar, the Austrian leader had
purposed to march on the French capital, if everything went well; but
he once more drew back on receiving news of Napoleon's advance against
his right flank. While preparing to retire towards Brienne, he heard
that his great antagonist had crossed that river at Plancy with less
than 20,000 troops. To retrace his steps, fall upon this handful of
weary men with 100,000, and drive them into the river, was not a
daring conception: but so accustomed were the allies to dalliance and
delay that a thrill of surprise ran through the host when he began to
call up its retiring columns for a fight.[428]

Napoleon also was surprised: he believed the Grand Army to be in full
retreat, and purposed then to dash on Vitry and Verdun.[429] But the
allies gave him plenty of time to draw up Macdonald's and Oudinot's
corps, while they themselves were still so widely sundered as at first
scarcely to stay his onset. The fighting behind Arcis was desperate:
Napoleon exposed his person freely to snatch victory from the
deepening masses in front. At one time a shell burst