t
Brienne, he recognised a particular tree, under which, when a boy, he
used to sit and read the _Jerusalem Delivered_ of Tasso. The field had
been, in those days, part of the exercise ground of the students, and
the chateau, whence Blucher escaped so narrowly, their lodging. How
strange must have been the feelings of the man who, having but yesterday
planted his eagles on the Kremlin, now opened his fifteenth campaign
amidst the scenes of his own earliest recollections--of the days in
which he had never dreamt of empire!

On the first of February Blucher, in his turn, assumed the offensive,
assaulting the French position in his front at once on three several
points. The battle lasted all day, and ended in the defeat of the
French, who, with the loss of 4000 prisoners and seventy-three guns,
escaped from the field in such disorder, that, according to Napoleon's
own avowal at St. Helena, he had serious thoughts of putting an end to
the war by voluntarily resigning the crown to the heir of the Bourbons.
However this may have been, while the division of Marmont retired down
the Aube before Blucher, Napoleon himself struck across the country to
Troyes, which there was every reason to fear must be immediately
occupied by Schwartzenberg; and was there joined by a considerable body
of his own guard, in high order and spirits, whose appearance restored,
in a great measure, the confidence of the troops beaten at La Rothiere.

On the 3rd, he received at Troyes a despatch from Caulaincourt,
informing him that Lord Castlereagh, the English Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, had arrived at the headquarters of the Allies--that
negotiations were to be resumed the morning after at Chatillon--(now in
the rear of the armies), and beseeching him to intimate distinctly at
what price he was now willing to purchase peace. Napoleon replied, by
granting Caulaincourt full powers to do everything necessary "to keep
the negotiation alive, and save the capital." But the Duke of Vicenza
durst not act immediately on a document so loosely worded, and sent back
once more to beg for a specific detail of the Emperor's purposes.
Napoleon had his headquarters at Nogent, on the Seine, some leagues
below Troyes, when the despatch reached him, on the evening of the 8th
of February; and his counsellors unanimously urged him to make use of
this, probably last, opportunity. They at length prevailed on him to
agree to abandon Belgium, the left of the Rhine