[Footnote 9: References: Houssaye, Napoléon à l'île d'Elbe, in Revue historique, tom. 51, pp. 1-25. Metternich's Memoirs.]
The Allies Demoralized -- Napoleon's Desperate Choice -- The Battle at Arcis -- The Correspondence of Caulaincourt and Napoleon -- Panic at Schwarzenberg's Headquarters -- Cross-purposes of the Allies -- Napoleon's Determination Confirmed -- His Over-confidence -- The Resolution to Abandon Paris -- The French Brought to a Stand -- Their Masked Retreat -- Inefficiency of Marmont and Augereau -- Napoleon's March toward St. Dizier -- His Terrible Disenchantment -- How the Allies had Discovered Napoleon's Plans -- Their Determination to Pursue -- The Czar's Resolution to March on Paris -- Successful Return of the Invaders.
Though unscientific as a military move and futile as to the ultimate result of the war, the capture of Rheims was, nevertheless, a telling thrust. On receipt of the news from Laon, Schwarzenberg had immediately set his army in motion against Macdonald, and Blücher, after waiting two days to restore order among his worried troops and insubordinate lieutenants, had advanced and laid siege to Compiègne. The capture of Rheims checked the movements of both Austrians and Prussians; dismay prevailed in both camps, and both armies began to draw back. The French halted at Nangis in their retreat before Schwarzenberg, and the people of Compiègne were released from the terrors of a siege. "This terrible Napoleon," wrote Langeron in his memoirs--"they thought they saw him everywhere. He had beaten us all, one after the other; we were always frightened by the daring of his enterprises, the swiftness of his movements, and his clever combinations. Scarcely had we formed a plan when it was disconcerted by him." Besides this, in obedience to Napoleon's call, the peasantry began an organized guerrilla warfare, avenging the pillage, incendiarism, and military executions of the allies by a brutal retaliation in kind which made the marauding invaders quake. Finally the momentary consternation of the latter verged on panic when the report reached headquarters that Bernadotte, lying inactive at Liège with twenty-three thousand Swedes, had permitted a flag of truce from Joseph to enter his presence. Could it be that the sly schemer, for the furtherance of his ambition to govern France, was about to turn traitor and betray the coalition?