.
Nearly one hundred and fifty thousand men, moving forward at the
recognised signal, presented to the eyes of the inhabitants a most
imposing spectacle, while at the same time, a continued line of
batteries, all the way from Recknitz to Plouen, opened their fire.
Shells and cannon-balls fell like hail in the suburbs, and the carnage
was as indiscriminating as it was terrible.

There had not yet been time for more than the half of Napoleon's army
to come up. He had scarce seventy thousand men disposable; but his
position was a very favourable one, and he ably took advantage of it.
The guns from the advanced redoubts replied to the enemies' cannonade
with little effect, and the Allies swept onwards without a check. They
had raised their cry, "To Paris! To Paris!" and were already within a
few yards of the Plouen gate, when the word was passed to the division
of the Young Guard, which lay behind it, and they sprang to their feet.
The sortie is described by those who witnessed it, to have been
terrifically fine. Out dashed these warriors, inured to victory, and
bearing down all opposition, rolled back the head of the advancing
columns, as a river is rolled back by the tide when it meets it. There
was a fearful slaughter on both sides. The cannon from the city walls
plunged into the rear of the wavering column. The infantry mowed down
its front; the detached redoubts which it had passed, as if despising
them, took its whole extent in reverse. There was neither time nor
space to deploy, and the attack was repulsed.

The same, or nearly the same results, had attended the attempts of the
Allies on the other gates. They were everywhere defeated, their defeat
being occasioned not less, perhaps, by surprise at finding Napoleon
himself in their front, than by the impetuosity of the French attacks.
They retreated in great confusion, the Russians to Blazewitz, the
Prussians over the plain, the Hungarian grenadiers under Colloredo to
Recknitz, and the Austrians to the defiles of Plouen. There they could
not be followed up, because night was already closing, and of the
French army a large portion were yet at a distance. One success more,
however, attended Napoleon's arms ere he slept; the Austrians, rallying
a corps in the dark, made a dash, with great gallantry, at the gate of
Plouen; but they were repulsed. And then, one party in the open fields,
the other among the lanes and streets of the city, the jaded and
harassed armies lay