He certainly counted on victory over Bluecher.  A week earlier, he had foreseen the chance that that leader would expose his flank:  on the 7th he charged Marmont to occupy Sezanne, where he would be strongly supported; on the afternoon of the 9th he set out from Nogent to reinforce his Marshal; and on the morrow Marmont and Ney fell upon one of Bluecher’s scattered columns at Champaubert.  It was a corps of Russians, less than 5,000 strong, with no horsemen and but twenty-four cannon; the Muscovites offered a stout resistance, but only 1,500 escaped.[413] Bluecher’s line of march was now cut in twain.  He himself was at Vertus with the last column; his foremost corps, under Sacken, was west of Montmirail, while Yorck was far to the north of that village observing Macdonald’s movements along the Chateau-Thierry road.

The Emperor with 20,000 men might therefore hope to destroy these corps piecemeal.  Leaving Marmont along with Grouchy’s horse to hold Bluecher in check on the east, he struck westwards against Sacken’s Russians near Montmirail.  The shock was terrible; both sides were weary with night marches on miry roads, along which cannon had to be dragged by double teams:  yet, though footsore and worn with cold and hunger, the men fought with sustained fury, the French to stamp out the barbarous invaders who had wasted their villages, the Russians to hold their position until Yorck’s Prussians should stretch a succouring hand from the north.  Many a time did the French rush at the village of Marchais held by Sacken:  they were repeatedly repulsed, until, as darkness came on, Ney and Mortier with the Guard stormed a large farmhouse on their left.  Then, at last, Sacken’s men drew off in sore plight north-west across the fields, where Yorck’s tardy advent alone saved them from destruction.  The next day completed their discomfiture.  Napoleon and Mortier pursued both allied corps to Chateau-Thierry and, after sharp fighting in the streets of that place, drove them across the Marne.  The townsfolk hailed the advent of their Emperor with unbounded joy:  they had believed him to be at Troyes, beaten and dispirited; and here he was delivering them from the brutal licence of the eastern soldiery.  Nothing was impossible to him.

Next it was Bluecher’s turn.  Leaving Mortier to pursue the fugitives of Sacken and Yorck along the Soissons road, Napoleon left Chateau-Thierry late at night on the 13th, following the mass of his troops to reinforce Marmont.  That Marshal had yielded ground to Bluecher’s desperate efforts, but was standing at bay at Vauchamps, when Napoleon drew near to the scene of the unequal fight.  Suddenly a mighty shout of “Vive l’Empereur” warned the assailants that they now had to do with Napoleon.  Yet no precipitation weakened the Emperor’s blow:  not until his cavalry greatly outnumbered that of the allies did he begin the chief attack.  Stoutly it was beaten off by the allied squares:  but Drouot’s artillery ploughed through their