He arrived at Chalons ere midnight; and found that Schwartzenberg and Blucher, having severally passed through Franche-Comte and Lorraine, were now occupying—­the former with 97,000 men, the latter with 40,000—­an almost complete line between the Marne and the Seine.  Blucher was in his own neighbourhood, and he immediately resolved to attack the right of the Silesian army, which was pushing down the valley of the Marne, while its centre kept the parallel course of the Aube, ere the Prussian marshal could concentrate all his own strength, far less be adequately supported from the side of Schwartzenberg, who was advancing down the Seine towards Bar.  A sharp skirmish took place accordingly on the 27th at St. Dizier; and Blucher, warned of Napoleon’s arrival, lost no time in calling in his detachments, and taking a post of defence at Brienne-le-Chateau on the Aube—­the same town where Buonaparte had received his military education.  Could Napoleon force him from the Aube, it was evident that the French would be enabled to interpose themselves effectually between the two armies of the Allies:  and it was most necessary to divide the enemy’s strength, for after all his exertions, Napoleon had been able to add only 20,000 good troops to the 50,000 who had been retiring before the allied columns from the course of the Rhine.

Napoleon, therefore, marched through a thick forest upon the scene of his youthful studies, and appeared there on the 29th:—­having moved so rapidly that Blucher was at dinner in the chateau, when the French thundered at his gates, and with difficulty escaped to the rear through a postern—­actually leading his horse down a stair.  The Russians, however, under Alsusieff, maintained their place in the town courageously; and, some Cossacks throwing themselves upon the rear of the French, the Emperor himself was involved in the melee, drew his sword, and fought like a private dragoon.  General Gourgaud shot a Cossack when in the act of thrusting his spear at Napoleon’s back.  The town of Brienne was burnt to the ground; Alsusieff was made prisoner; Lefebre Desnouettes died; and there was considerable slaughter on both sides; but the affair had no result of importance.  Blucher retired but a little further up the Aube, and posted himself at La Rothiere, where Schwartzenberg, warned by the cannonade, hastened to co-operate with him.

Napoleon said at St. Helena, that during the charge of the Cossacks at Brienne, he recognised a particular tree, under which, when a boy, he used to sit and read the Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso.  The field had been, in those days, part of the exercise ground of the students, and the chateau, whence Blucher escaped so narrowly, their lodging.  How strange must have been the feelings of the man who, having but yesterday planted his eagles on the Kremlin, now opened his fifteenth campaign amidst the scenes of his own earliest recollections—­of the days in which he had never dreamt of empire!