This was, no doubt, a discomfiture, though Sully coloured it over; but in 1594, Henry fairly bought his capital of the League governor, the Count de Brisac, for 1,695,400 livres. The royal troops were admitted by the Porte Neuve, at the Quai du Tuileries, which had been banked up, the Porte St. Honoré, and the Porte St. Denis. The cannon on the ramparts were at once turned on the city. Soldiers from Corbeil and Melun landed at the Quai de Celestins. Some German soldiers who resisted at the Quai de l'Ecole, were killed and thrown into the Seine. The Leaguers in vain endeavoured to save the Temple. The agitators excited the people in the University quarter, but a lame-legged captain falling down and breaking his wooden leg and musket, covered with an air of ridicule the whole emeute. From a window near the Porte St. Denis, the King himself shouted to the Spanish soldiers as they left the city, "Gentlemen commend me to your master, but never return here."

But the siege that after all more nearly concerns us, and was attended by events that bear more resemblance to what may soon happen, was that conducted by the Allies in March 1814. A short narrative of this one day's siege will have a special interest to most of our readers at this moment. The Allies, eager to at last revenge the losses of Marengo, Jena, and Smolensko, took an ungenerous but not unnatural advantage of those disasters of Napoleon that had culminated at Beresina and at Leipsic, and crossed the Rhine, mustering with their reserves scarcely less than half-a-million of men. The Emperor with a genius soaring above all dangers, instantly concentrated 80,000 men at Chalons and ordered a levy of 280,000 fresh conscripts, intending to form three camps, one at Bordeaux, a second at Metz, and a third at Lyons.

The grand running fight which the Emperor carried on through Champagne ended in his being frequently overpowered and always overweighted by his relentless enemies. Unwilling to be crushed to death between Blucher's and Schwartzenberg's divisions, he at last retreated, hoping to be joined by Suchet's army from Catalonia, and Angereau's regiment from Lyons, and then to hurry back and defeat his enemies under the very walls of Paris. In the meantime, as Marmont and Mortier fell back to the capital, the Allies approached the gay city by three routes, Meaux, Lagny and Soissons. The preparations in Paris for real defence had hitherto been but slight. Napoleon had either never relied on the luxurious and excitable people of the capital, or what is more likely, had, like his nephew, been afraid to trust them with arms. There were two hundred cannon at Vincennes intended for the heights, but they were not

yet mounted. No barricades had been thrown up in the streets near the Octroi wall. Of the 30,000 National Guards, not more than 6,000 had been provided with muskets. The redoubts before the gates were mere "tambours" of palisades, and without moats. The 50, or 60,000 volunteers with fowling pieces that could have been mustered, had not been called upon. Paris was not yet fortified, and all was excitement, confusion and distrust; while the actual reliable soldiers did not number more than 25,000 men.

Paris, protected by a curve of the Seine, is naturally strong on its north and east sides; but its other sides are weak and paralysed. But then the Seine has to be crossed on the weak sides, and the enemy if repulsed is in danger of being driven into the river. "On the east side," says M. Thiers, who prides himself, and with reason, for having urged Louis Philippe to fortify the city, "from Vincennes to Passy a semi-circle of heights encloses the most populous and richest part of the city. From the confluence of the Seine near Charenton to Passy and Auteuil, the heights, sometimes in plateau as at Romainville, sometimes salient as at Montmartre, afford valuable means of resistance. South were the encampments of Menilmontant (at the back of the cemetery of Père la Chaise), Charonne, and furthest south of all, the forest and chateau of Vincennes, a natural rampart reaching to the banks of the Marne. Beyond Belleville (now like Montmartre within the enceinte), stretch the gardens, orchards, and vineyards of Romainville." North of these are the villages of Pantin and Près St. Germain, on the west is Bondy, still outside the fortifications, but now almost as much part of Paris as Kensington is of London. North of Romainville and towards Montmartre comes the high ground called the Butte de Chaumont (now just inside the enceinte railway), to the right hand, also inside the walls, stands La Petite Villette, and on the left the larger Villette. At St. Chaumont the ridge of heights sinks, and admits an aqueduct called the Canal de l'Ourcq. The ground then rises to that steep quarter of Paris called Montmartre, where in old time St. Denis is said to have been martyred. Before the fortifications it was necessary for an army, M. Thiers shows in his history, to first seize the plateau of Romainville, or he might be cut off at once from his Allies on the north-east. If the plateau was disregarded the defenders could fall on the flank of a regiment coming from Vincennes, or on the flank of a column crossing the plain of St. Denis to attack the barriers of La Villette, St. Denis, or Montmartre.

On the 29th of March the Allied Sovereigns met at the Château of Bondy; and dreading the tiger-like rush of Napoleon, resolved to at once storm Paris, and by the right bank of the Seine, so as not to

have to recross the river if repulsed. There were to be three simultaneous attacks. On the east (the German side), Barclay de Tolly, with 50,000 men, was to march by Passy and Pantin, and carry the plateau of Romainville; on the south, the Prince Royal of Wurtemberg undertook, with 30,000 Germans, to break through the wood of Vincennes, and to reach the barriers of Charonne and du Trône; the third attack, on the north (the English side), was to be led by grim old Blucher himself, who was to force his way through Mortier's grenadiers and over the plain of St. Denis.

On the French side, Marmont took Vincennes, the Barriers du Trône and Charonne, and the plateau of Romainville as far north behind this plateau as Prè St. Gervais; while Mortier defended the plain of St. Denis and the space round the Canal of the Ourcq. The Russians won the first move. Misled by an officer, Marmont was mortified to find the Russians already in possession of Romainville. With 1,200 men of the Lagrange division, however, he threw himself on their rearguard, and drove them hotly back on Pantin and Noisy. At the same moment the Ledru des Essarts division swarmed hotly into the wood of Romainville, whose heights border the plain of St. Denis. Marmont then distributed his troops. The Duke of Padua placed his men on the extreme edge of the plateau of Romainville, in the tallest houses of Bagnolet and Montreuil, where the gardens slope down towards the city. In the centre of the plateau Marmont drew up the Lagrange division, backed by the houses of Belleville, while the Ricard division was in the wood of Romainville on the left, and to the north the division of Ledru des Essarts. At the foot of the plateau, in the plain at Près St. Gervais, stood the Boyer de Rebeval division, while the Michel division guarded La Grande and La Petite Villette. The cavalry was posted between Charonne and Vincennes. About eight o'clock, Joseph, posted safe like Jupiter in Montmartre, heard the musketry begin to rattle.

The brave Livonian, Barclay de Tolly, vexed at being pushed out of Romainville, called up his reserves to retake it. Paskiewich's grenadiers were to scale the heights on the Rosny side, while Count Pahlen's cavalry attacked on the south from Montreuil. At the same time Prince Eugene of Wurtemberg was told off to attack Pantin and Près St. Gervais to the north, and to contribute to the recovery of the important post of Romainville. The Russian attack prospered. General Meyerzoff, who had been repulsed in the morning, forced back Lagrange, and wrested from him the heights. The Russian brigade also turned the plateau by Montreuil and Bagnolet, and the Duke of Padua, being outflanked, was driven

slowly but surely backward. At the same time the Russian cuirassiers, storming along the plateau, charged the French infantry, but were repelled by the drifting fire. At Belleville, too, the narrower plateau gave the French, by concentration, greater strength. The tirailleurs threw themselves for cover behind the houses of Bagnolet, and found shelter in the wood of Romainville. The French batteries, though served for the most part by mere lads from the Polytechnique, kept up a relentless fire that drove the grey coats backwards, at the same time Ledru des Essart's Young Guard won back, tree by tree, the wood of Romainville, and outflanked the Russian force. At the foot of the plateau, the French still held Pantin and Près St. Gervais, and repelled all efforts of the Prince of Wurtemberg to win them back. If the French had now got but 11,000 more men, their historians say, the Allies might have received a severe check; but they had not.

About this time, while Schwartzenberg waited for the two other attacks to begin, that weak and vain man, Joseph Bonaparte, hearing that Cossacks had already been seen near the Bois de Boulogne, and that the capital must soon be surrendered, fled back to the city.

The other attacks were now commencing. Blucher was on the plain of St. Denis. Langeron had driven through Aubervilliers nearly to the Bois de Boulogne. He then sent his Prussian and Baden Guards to help Prince Eugene to carry Pantin and Près St. Gervais. The Prince Royal of Wurtemberg was also moving forward to the south by Neuilly and the forest of Vincennes.

The Allied forces were now in line. To the north Prince Eugene, backed by Prussian bayonets, fell fiercely on Pantin and Près St. Gervais, and tried his best to drive out the Boyer de Rebeval divisions and the Young Guard. Slowly but surely Romainville was

won.

The Russians, though at first repulsed, at last seized Montreuil and Bagnolet, and took possession of the nearest houses of Menilmontant, and the Duke of Padua was outflanked on the French left. The Ledru des Essart division was beaten from tree to tree out of the wood of Romainville, which they had so lately conquered. Pressed on both flanks and enveloped in fire, Marmont struck a brave blow for life and for victory. Throwing his troops rapidly into four massive battalions formed in column, he rushed like a sword-fish at the Russian centre. Twelve cannons loaded with grape welcomed the fierce assailants, and at the same moment the Russian grenadiers pressed upon his front, while Miloradovitch's heavy cavalry hewed at his flank.

The French columns bent, wavered, and retired before

these myriads; but a brave fellow, named Ghesseler, breaking with 200 men from a wood, gave time to Marmont to retreat towards Belleville. The game was all but played, the struggle all but over. Everywhere the French were outweighted and retiring. The wood and plateau were now both lost. The centre stood near Belleville, maimed and enfeebled. The Padua division was at Menilmontant. The Michel and Boyer divisions battled still, but almost hopelessly, for Pantin. In the plain, too, there was tough fighting; La Villette and La Chapelle were both assailed. General Billiard's cavalry was keeping Blucher's dogged squadrons at bay. It was at this crisis that General Dejean arrived from Napoleon, and cheered on the men for a last rush by the enormous and reckless lie that the Emperor was almost in sight, with a force of 600,000 men. There was some hope still at Vincennes. A battery nobly worked by Polytechnique lads, advancing too far from the Barrier du Trône to play on Pahlen's cavalry, got cut off by some German cavalry, and were only saved by their own steadiness and a dash of some national guards and dragoons, who would not leave them to perish. Belleville, the key of the height, still held out; and there Marmont had concentrated his field artillery and the wrecks of his shattered divisions, sending word to scared Joseph, like an obstinate old soldier that he was, that as yet he saw no reason for surrender.

But the end was now near. Schwartzenberg, dreading every moment to see the flash of Napoleon's bayonets on the eastern horizon, ordered a general attack. Five columns (north and south) were to cut off Belleville from Paris. Brigadier Paisch, with eight heavy guns at Menilmontant, four more at Belleville, and eight on the Butte de Chaumont, received them with a mowing fire, but nothing could stop such deluging masses; they were everywhere superior, and Belleville fell. Mortier, afraid of being cut off, then collected all his forces, charged on the Russians, already entering the Temple Faubourg, drove them out, and resumed the defence of the Octroi wall. In the meantime another division, fighting desperately on the plain of St. Denis, was jostled back to the barriers, while Langeron took the now undefended Montmartre, and marched on the Clichy barrier, held bravely by Marshal Moncey. Marmont, unwilling to see the city destroyed in a useless defence, now proposed terms, and surrendered the city to the Allies. Thus with a total loss of 16,000 men (10,000 Allies, 6,000 French), fell Paris after one day's hard fighting.

Will the city, beautiful and fierce as a tigress, make a desperate resistance now is the great problem that may be solved before this