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Others were here before you; yes, General Ducrot's men were here this morning, I tell you, and they cleaned me out of everything." The soldiers came forward again, one by one. "Let us in, all the same; we can rest ourselves, and you can hunt up something "
It took place on October 21, but the success which at first attended Ducrot's efforts was turned into a repulse by the arrival of German reinforcements, the affair ending with a loss of some four hundred killed and wounded on the French side, apart from that of another hundred men who were taken prisoners by the enemy.
A few of those about him removed their hats; others, who had no time for such idle ceremony, were circulating the report of General Ducrot's appointment to the command of the army. It was half-past seven o'clock. "And what of the Emperor?" Henriette inquired of a bookseller, who was standing at his door. "He left the city near an hour ago," replied the neighbor.
The news of General Vinoy's success during the early part of the day had been damped by the evening report of Ducrot's delay in crossing the swollen Marne. But the spirits of the Parisians rallied from a momentary depression on the excitement at night of that concert of martial music.
Within the town the excitement to know what had passed is intense. The Government has posted up a notice saying that everything is happening as General Trochu wished it. Not a word is said about Ducrot's failure. The Liberté, which gives a guarded account of what really took place, has been torn to pieces on the Boulevards. I have just been talking with an officer on the headquarters staff.
Whereupon Fouchard, now master of himself and no longer fearing that this anger might lead him into unguarded speech, once more found his tongue. "Wine! I haven't any, not a drop! The others, those fellows of Ducrot's, ate and drank all I had, robbed me of everything!" He was lying, and try to conceal it as he might the shifty expression in his great light eyes showed it.
December had come and wrapped the city in a winding-sheet of snow; the cruel news seemed all the bitterer for the piercing cold. After General Ducrot's repulse at Champigny, after the loss of Orleans, there was left but one dark, sullen hope: that the soil of France might avenge their defeat, exterminate and swallow up the victors.
On the whole this was the first considerable success achieved by the French since the beginning of the war, and it did much to revive the spirits which had been drooping since the fall of Metz. Another of its results was to change Ducrot's plans respecting the Paris sortie.
First Efforts of the National Defence Delegates La Motte-Rouge and his Dyed Hair The German Advance South of Paris Moltke and King William Bourges, the German Objective Characteristics of Beauce, Perche, and Sologne French Evacuation of Orleans Gambetta arrives at Tours His Coadjutor, Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet Total Forces of the National Defence on Gambetta's Arrival D'Aurelle de Paladines supersedes La Motte-Rouge The Affair of Chateaudun Cambriels Garibaldi Jessie White Mario Edward Vizetelly Catholic Hatred of Garibaldi The Germans at Dijon The projected Relief of Paris Trochu's Errors and Ducrot's Schemes The French Victory of Coulmiers Change of Plan in Paris My Newspaper Work My Brother Adrian Vizetelly The General Position.
The shell which struck MacMahon withdrew him from the catastrophe; Ducrot's blunder, the inopportune order to retreat given to General Lebrun, is explained by the confused horror of the situation, and is rather an error than a fault. Wimpfen, desperate, needed 20,000 soldiers to cut his way out, and could only get together 2000.
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