Fabvier went to the top of Montmartre in search of Joseph. When he could not be found there, Fabvier turned round and set off to look for him, but he failed, because Joseph was already galloping off to Saint-Cloud.
Marshal Marmont decided to go on fighting.
The hours passed and the French continued to resist doggedly. The situation was, however, deteriorating for them.
The right flank was being steadily pushed back.
The defence of the village of Montreuil had collapsed under the combined bombardment of the Russian Guard, the Prussian Guard and the Baden Guard.
The village of Pantin had been taken and was still in the hands of the Russians and the Prussians, despite the frenzied attacks of General Curial, who was trying to take it back.
The Russians and Prussians had also taken over the gardens of Romainville and had immediately stationed a battery there, which bombarded the French to keep them back. General Raevski, the hero of the defence of the Great Redoubt during the Battle of Borodino, had sent a division of grenadiers to meet Marshal Marmont, who was leading a counterattack in the hope of retaking the
plain, and managed to force him back.
Marmont had fallen back to Le Pre-Saint-Gervais and alternated between counterattacking and defending.
Wurtemberger and Austrian troops reinforced by Russian cavalry were pressing round to the south-east to see whether they could get round the French line. The Chateau of Vincennes, firmly held by General Daumesnil and well served by large-calibre cannons, represented a significant obstacle. But they skirted round it and gained control of Saint-Maur, Charenton and Bercy. Pahlen’s Russian cavalry — hussars, uhlans, dragoons and Cossacks — tried to get past Marshal Marmont but were stopped by twenty-eight cannons, manned by students, backed up by National Guardsmen, a few policemen, dragoons and cuirassiers.
Allied reinforcements continued to flow in from all sides, like bees coming to cluster around each French position.
The French left wing was also severely buffeted.
After violent fighting, the village of Aubervilliers was taken by the Russians under General Langeron, a French aristocrat who had
joined the Russian army shortly after the Revolution.
The villages of la Villette and la Chapelle had resisted for hours, under a deluge of artillery fire. But they had finally succumbed to the incessant attacks of Generals Kleist, Yorck and Woronzow. Cossacks, sent out as scouts, reached the Bois de Boulogne looking for the breach that would allow the Allies to get round Marshal Mortier and attack him from behind.
General Langeron had been slowed down for hours, partly because of the unforeseen and energetic resistance of Savarin and his eight hundred men in the town of Saint-Denis. Six thousand Russians had been held in check and their general, Kapzevich, had finally informed Langeron that it would be impossible for him to take Saint-Denis. Langeron had to come to terms with this unexpected problem. And now that the previous points of resistance of Aubervilliers, la Villette and la Chapelle had been annihilated, he could focus all his attention on the principal objective: Montmartre.
Leaume had asked all his members to a meeting. But only fifteen of them had turned up. Out of forty! They would all willingly show up to talk and quibble, to squabble and criticise. But now that it was time to take action ...
Vicomte de Leaume and the members who had responded to his call set about trying to alarm the Parisians. They went to the gates of the city where volunteers in civilian clothes asked the National Guard to provide them with arms. They mingled with the volunteers as if they were on their side and tried to demoralise them by harping on the dangers. ‘We’re going to have to get a move on; it’s ten of them for every one of us. If we delay any longer, all will be lost!’ ‘What, no rifles for us? How are we going to fight? We might as well open the gates to the Prussians straight away!’ ‘Hear that din? That’s the Allies coming to get us!’ After a while the others started to look at them suspiciously. Time to slip away, saying that they would try to find arms elsewhere ... Royalists from other groups were operating the same tactics at other gates.
Honoré de Nolant was satisfied with their strategy. Varencourt -who had regained the confidence of the group when it was discovered, as they fled, that the police were not surrounding the treasure-trove - had removed the bullet that Margont’s sidekick had lodged in his arm. Nolant, however, was still in pain and felt that he had already taken his fair share of gunfire.
But Leaume and Chatel wanted to do far more. They abandoned Honoré de Nolant, who complained that he was weakened by his wound and that he couldn’t walk any further, and took the rest of the men and armed them with pistols and swords from one of their secret caches. When they went out onto the streets again, they were all sporting the cockades, white scarves and emblems of the Swords of the King.
Vicomte de Leaume led the little troop towards the Montmartre gate. It was the perfect place, because a little further north Joseph Bonaparte had established his headquarters on the top of the hill of Montmartre. If Leaume and his men caused trouble inside the gate, the French constituting the external defence would panic. They would think that some of the enemy had managed to slip
round them and into the city. The royalists were taking a huge risk, but if they succeeded they would be spectacularly rewarded! Should Joseph lose his nerve - and that would be just like him - if he were to gallop down the hill to take refuge in Paris for fear of being killed or captured, everyone around him would abandon their posts in panic and flee with him. And then it would have been he, Vicomte de Leaume, who, by a daring coup, would have allowed the Allies to take the deserted hill of Montmartre. What a triumph that would be! A masterstroke! A kingly stroke!
But his hopes were dashed when he saw the Montmartre gate. There were far more guards posted there than he had imagined. He could see at least a hundred National Guardsmen, invalid soldiers pressed back into service, volunteers keen to get their hands on rifles ... Yet normally the gate was one of the least used. The group stopped, undecided.
Leaume had assumed that because the Allies had so many more troops at their disposal, the French would post almost all their defenders on the exterior line. That’s why he had chosen somewhere he thought would be poorly defended for his point of attack. But that part of his planning had backfired. In Leaume’s opinion, the interior defence had been overmanned at the expense of the exterior line. Then he thought again. Was this not proof that royalist groups had succeeded in well and truly frightening Joseph?
‘We should turn back,’ advised Jean-Baptiste de Chatel.
‘No! There are wounded everywhere - they must have removed them from the front to pile them up here. Look at that confusion! The guards are demoralised. Let’s incite them to abandon their posts!’ Leaume gestured to the others to advance.
The soldiers watched the arrival of the royalists in stupefaction. What were these apparitions? The Vicomte’s men began to distribute flyers, printed thanks to Margont. When the soldiers did not take them, they laid them on the ground for all to read.
‘Long live the King! Long live Louis XVI11! Long live the Bourbons!’ chanted Chatel, and the others followed suit.
A detonation rang out and one of the royalists fell to the ground -
a National Guardsman had opened fire. Then gunfire came from all sides. Several members of the Swords of the King were old hands and were not about to give up so easily. Leaume wanted to charge the Montmartre gate. That would show everyone! But Jean-Baptiste de Chatel took his arm to hold him back. Another National Guardsman took aim at the Vicomte, whom he discerned was the leader of the band. He was only a few feet from his target. Chatel saw the danger and placed himself deliberately between Louis de Leaume and the shooter as he fired. The bullet struck him full in the chest and he was killed instantly. Leaume and the others fled.