When the inordinate ambition of Buonaparte, and, still more, his
misfortunes in Russia, had banded all Europe against him, Paris may be
said to have again experienced a short siege.
When Napoleon opened the campaign on the 25th of January, he confided
the command of the capital to his brother Joseph. His enemies were
numerous and powerful. The English advanced on the south; a hundred and
fifty thousand men, under Schwartzenberg, poured into France by way of
Switzerland; a large army of Prussians, commanded by Blucher, arrived
from Frankfort; and a hundred thousand Swedes and Germans penetrated
into Belgium, under Bernadotte. Here was work cut out for even the
genius of a Hannibal; and Buonaparte seemed to be duly roused by the
perils which surrounded him. He redoubled his activity and energy,
and never had his strategic calculations been more skilful. He was near
destroying the two most formidable armies of his enemies by isolating
them, and attacking them by turns. But Buonaparte’s successes became
fatal to him, by inspiring him with too much confidence: he would not
listen to the proposals of the allies for France to return within her
ancient limits, and revoked the powers he had given to the duke of
Vicenza to conclude a peace at Châtillon. Wherever he did not command
in person, the allies triumphed: the English entered Bordeaux, which
declared for the Bourbons; the Austrians occupied Lyons; and the united
armies marched towards Paris. Napoleon then subscribed to the demands
of the Congress; but it was too late: the conferences were broken
up. Joseph received orders to defend Paris to the last extremity;
the emperor depended upon him, and conceived the almost wildly brave
project of cutting off the retreat of the allies, by marching rapidly
behind them to St. Dizier. By this march he lost precious time; but
by it, if he had been seconded, Napoleon might have saved his crown.
The two grand armies of the allies had effected their junction, and
drew near to the capital. To secure the success of the emperor’s
manœuvres, it ought to have been defended till his arrival; but timid
councillors surrounded the regent, Maria Louisa, and persuaded her to
retire to the Loire. In vain Talleyrand and Montalivet expressed a
courageous opinion, and represented to the empress that the safety of
France was in Paris: fear alone was listened to; Maria Louisa quitted
the capital, and transported the regency to Blois. In the mean time
Napoleon approached Paris by forced marches; but it was no longer time:
Marshals Marmont and Mortier, on the 30th of March, fought a desperate
battle under the walls of the city with forces very inferior to the
allies. Ignorant of the emperor’s proximity, Joseph gave orders for
a capitulation; he abandoned his post, and set out for Orléans. On
the 31st of March, the allies entered Paris. Napoleon was hastening
to the defence of his capital, when, on the 1st of April, he received
this terrible news; he immediately fell back upon Fontainebleau,
where his army took up a position. There he learnt that the senate,
till that time guilty of so much servility and adulation towards him,
had proclaimed him a tyrant, and that, guided by Talleyrand, it had
declared Napoleon deposed from the throne, the hereditary right of his
family abolished, and the French people and the army liberated from
their oath of fidelity to him.
The capitulation of 1814, and the celebrated day of the Barricades,
July, 1830, do not come under the head of sieges.