preceded as sharpshooters the arrival of our troops on the field of
battle, and during the battle proved themselves worthy, to fight by
their side.

This victory filled the Parisian patriots with hope and joy. It
inspired them with the noble desire of imitating the fine example,
that had just been set them. But when it was known, that a general
engagement had been unanimously desired and agreed upon; and that the
enemy, had it not been for counter-orders, surprised and cut off,
would have been annihilated, this intoxication was changed into
depression, and a cry was raised on all hands of infamy and treason.

Excelmans and his brave men, not being supported, were obliged to
retreat. The Prussians advanced, the English moved out to support
them; they formed a junction, and came and encamped together on the
heights of Meudon.

The committee hastened to inform the commissioners of the critical
situation of Paris, and desired them, as the Duke of Wellington was
incessantly sending them from Caiphas to Pilate, to endeavour to see
Prince Blucher. They answered, "that they had never been able to have
any communication with the marshal; and that they could not establish
a conference with him, unless through the intervention of Lord
Wellington, without the risk of occasioning a rupture."

They added to their despatch a fresh letter, by which his lordship
announced to them, that "Prince Blucher continued to express to him
the greatest repugnance to the conclusion of an armistice," &c. &c.

The government no longer doubted the ill will of the English general.
Count Carnot said, "that they must address themselves definitively to
the brutal frankness of Blucher, rather than live in the uncertainty,
in which they were kept by the civilities of Wellington."

The Duke of Vicenza thought the same, that the only way of coming to a
conclusion was by bluntly making a proposal without the knowledge of
the English. He remarked to the committee, that the great repugnance
shown by Marshal Blucher to concluding an armistice, no doubt, arose
from his being probably unwilling, to negotiate under the direction
and influence of Wellington, to whose head-quarters he apparently
avoided paying a visit. That he would be much more tractable, if he
were addressed directly. That, by taking this step, they would also
have the advantage of removing the negotiations from the place, where
the Bourbons were; and of being able more easily to avoid the
po