its farthest extremity, while the foreground is finely
marked by the decaying towers of the fortress, or the dark foliage which
shades its ramparts.

We walked over the field of battle with a degree of interest, which
nothing but the memorable operations of which it had formerly been the
theatre, could possibly have excited. The accounts of the action, which
we received from the inhabitants of the town, and peasantry in its
vicinity, agreed perfectly with the official details which we had
previously read; and although we could not give an opinion with
confidence on a military question, it certainly appeared to us, that the
operations of the French army had been ill combined. Indeed, some
French officers with whom we conversed on the next day, allowed that the
battle had been ill fought, but, as usual, laid all the blame upon
Marmont. The main body of the French army, advancing by the road from
Soissons, attacked the villages of Ardon and Semilly in front of the
town, on the centre of Marshal Blucher's position, and his right wing,
which was posted in the intersected ground to the west of the town, on
the morning of the 9th of March. These parts of the position were
occupied chiefly by the corps of Woronzoff and Buloff, and as they were
very strong, no impression was made on them, and the troops who defended
them maintained themselves, without support from the reserves, during
the whole day. Late in the evening, the corps of Marmont, with a body of
cavalry under Arrighi, appeared on the road from Rheims, advancing
apparently without any communication or concert with the troops under
Napoleon in person, (who were drawn up, for the most part, in heavy
columns, in the immediate vicinity of the Soissons road), and made a
furious attack on the extreme left of Marshal Blucher's position. The
Marshal being satisfied by this time, that the troops in position about
the town were adequate to the defence of it against Napoleon's force,
was enabled to detach the whole corps of York, Kleist, and Sacken, with
the greater part of his cavalry, to oppose Marmont, who was instantly
overthrown, cut off from all communication with Napoleon, and driven
across the Aisne, with the loss of four or five thousand prisoners, and
forty pieces of cannon. The only assistance which Napoleon could give
him in his retreat, was by renewing the attack on Ardon and Semilly,
which he did next morning, and maintained the action during the whole of
the 10th,