SOJ ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



magazine of powder, the explo- 

 sion of which did great injury to 

 the place. D'Yorck advancing to 

 Clave, had a sharp action with the 

 enemy's rear, in which he lost 

 some hundreds of men, but suc- 

 ceeded at length in driving them 

 from the woods about that place. 

 The alarm was now hot in Paris. 

 The nominal king Joseph, whom 

 his brother had constituted his 

 lieutenant-general, issued a pro- 

 clamation, in which he acquainted 

 the Parisians with the enemy's 

 advance to Meaux, and urged 

 them to the defence of their city, 

 assuring them that the emperor 

 was marching with a victorious 

 army to their succour. 



On the 29th, the corps of Mar- 

 mont and Mortier entered Paris, 

 in which a garrison had been pre- 

 viously assembled, consisting of 

 part of general Gerard's corps, and 

 a body of about 8,000 regular 

 troops, and 30,000 national guards 

 under general Hulin. The allies 

 at this time had their right to- 

 wards Montmartre, and their left 

 near the wood of Viucennes. 

 Prince Schwartzenberg now ad- 

 dressed a proclamation to the 

 people of Paris, in which he ac- 

 quainted them with the presence 

 of the allied armies before their 

 city, their object being a sincere 

 and lasting leconciliation with 

 France. " The attempts (he said) 

 hitherto made to put an end to so 

 many calamities have been useless, 

 because there exists in the very 

 power of the government which 

 oppresses you an insurmountable 

 obstacle to peace." After other 

 bints of the expectation of the 

 allied powers, that the Parisians 

 would declare in favour of a " sa- 

 lutary authority," and a reference 



to the conduct of Bourdeaux, he 

 concluded with an assurance that 

 the preservation and tranquillity of 

 their city would be attended to by 

 the allies, in conjunction with 

 their own principal citizens, and 

 that no troops should be quartered 

 upon them. Another conflict, 

 however, still remained before the 

 final decision of Napoleon's fate. 

 On the morning of March 30th, 

 the French army, under the com- 

 mand of Joseph Buonaparte, as- 

 sisted by marshals Marmont and 

 Mortier, took a position in which 

 its right occupied the heights of 

 Fontenay, Romainville, and Belle- 

 ville ; its left rested upon Mont- 

 martre ; its centre was protected 

 by several redoubts, and in the 

 whole line were ranged more than 

 150 pieces of artillery. An attack 

 was immediately determined on 

 by the allies, in which the Silesian 

 army was to advance by the side 

 of St. Denis and Montmartre, 

 and the grand army was to force 

 the heights of Romainville and 

 Belleville. These, with that of 

 Montmartre, are so situated that 

 the possession of them commands 

 Paris, with all the intervening 

 tract, filled with villages and 

 country seats. The attack wa« 

 commenced by the division of 

 prince Eugene of Wurtemberg, 

 which long sustained with great 

 spirit a galling fire of artillery, 

 and at length carried the heights 

 of Romainville, the enemy retir- 

 ing to those of Belleville behind 

 them. More to the left, the 

 prince-royal of Wurtemberg di- 

 rected an attack on the heights of 

 Rosny and Charentou. The at- 

 tack of the Silesian army by some 

 accident was for a time delayed; 

 but it was not long before D'Yorck 



