That same day, at eight o'clock in the evening, the reconnaissance returned and reported what they had seen.
The enemy was at Gray near Champlitte, and was occupying the roads between Gray and Thil-le-Châtel. His force had been seen at Bèze, about eighteen miles from La Roche-Pont. Communication between Dijon and Langres was cut off: and although the enemy had not occupied that town, he was forming a curtain between it and the north to mask his ulterior movements.
The circumstantial details given by his orderly officer confirmed the colonel in the idea that the army of Bohemia was paying but little attention to what was taking place in his rear, but was pushing on towards the capital by the basin of the Seine. "Ah!" said the colonel, when he had heard every particular from the young officer, "if we only had twenty thousand of those men who were lost in Russia, we could make these German and Russian gentlemen pay dearly for their temerity, and few of them would see the other side of the Rhine again."
Colonel Dubois therefore determined to follow the second part of his instructions. He sent a reliable man, selected by Captain Allaud, to Auxonne to inform the governor of the place--if the town was not already occupied--that he was holding La Roche-Pont, that he was in a condition to defend himself there for some time, and that he should wish all isolated detachments and any provisions or munitions that had no particular destination to be sent to him.
Up to the 15th of January the town of La Roche-Pont had not seen a single enemy. The centre column of Prince Schwartzenberg's army was marching in the direction of Gray along the heights of the Seine and Marne basins, and avoiding the Lower Saône. This delay had allowed additional munitions to be brought into the town, and the garrison increased by some recruits who, not being able to join their regiments, were wandering about without orders. Four pieces of field artillery, whose carriages were out of repair, had also been got into the town. The colonel had put himself in communication with Lyons; and Marshal Augereau, still hoping to commence offensive operations, had confirmed the previous orders that had been given--that is to say, to hold La Roche-Pont, and to gain all possible information respecting the enemy's movements in the north.