Thus ended the assault of Paris, after a bloody action, in which the defenders lost upwards of 4000 in killed and wounded; and the allies, who had to storm well-defended batteries, redoubts, and intrenchments, perhaps about twice the number. They remained masters of the line at all points, and took nearly one hundred pieces of cannon. When night fell, the multiplied and crowded watch-fires that occupied the whole chain of heights on which the victors now bivouacked, indicated to the astonished inhabitants of the French metropolis, how numerous and how powerful were the armies into whose hands the fate of war had surrendered them.[22]
[14] "Mon Amie, j'ai été tous les jours à cheval; le 20 j'ai pris Arcis-sur-Aube. L'ennemi m'y attaqua à 8 heures du soir: le même soir je l'ai battu, et lui ai fait 4000 morts: je lui ai pris 2 pieces de canon et même repris 2: ayant quitté le 21, l'armée ennemie s'est mise, en battaille pour protéger la marche de ses armées, sur Brienne, et sur Bar-sur-Aube, j'ai décidé de me porter sur la Marne et ses environs afin de la pousser plus loin de Paris, en me rapprochant de mes _places_. Je serai ce soir à St. Dizier. Adieu, mon amie, embrassez mon fils."
[15] "General Muffling told me that the word _St. Dizier_, of so much importance, was so badly written, that they were several hours in making it out. Blucher forwarded the letter to Maria Louisa, with a letter in German, saying, that as she was the daughter of a _respectable_ sovereign, who was fighting in the same cause with himself, he had sent it to her."--_Memorable Events_, p. 98.
[16] Lord Burghersh, Observations, &c., p. 232; Baron Fain, p. 222.
[17] "At half past ten on the morning of the 29th, the Empress, in a brown cloth riding-habit, with the King of Rome, in one coach, surrounded by guards, and followed by several other coaches, with attendants, quitted the palace; the spectators observing the most profound silence."--_Memorable Events in Paris in 1814_, p. 50.
[18] Souvenirs de Mad. Durand, tom. i., p. 205.
[19] "I saw the proclamation of _Roi Joseph_ selling for a sous, on the Boulevards, where groups of people were assembled. The flight of the Empress caused considerable alarm. Many loudly expressed their discontent at the national guard, for permitting her to leave Paris, as they entertained a dastardly hope that her presence would preserve them from the vengeance of the allies. For the first time I heard the people openly dare to vent complaints against the Emperor, as the sole cause of their impending calamity; but I witnessed no patriotic feeling to repulse the enemy."--_Memorable Events_, p. 53.