Learning at the same time that the French Emperor in person was at hand, Blücher accordingly fell back a few miles the next morning to a strong position covering the exits from the Bar-sur-Aube defile.

[citation needed] Napoleon attacked around noon on 2 February, but the weather was terrible, and the ground so heavy his artillery, the mainstay of his whole system of warfare, was useless.

In the drifts of snow which, at intervals, swept across the field, the columns lost their direction and many were severely handled by the Cossacks.

Owing to the state of the roads or to the lethargy within Schwarzenberg's headquarters, no pursuit was attempted, resulting in the subsequent Battle of Champaubert.

They had captured 50 guns and 2,000 prisoners, and 4,000 dead or wounded Frenchmen littered the plain, but it was not these trophies or these hecatombs which raised their spirits to such a height: they themselves had had 6,000 men mown down by the grape shot; but they had overthrown Napoleon in fair fight on the soil of France; the charm which had been broken at Leipzig had not been restored, and it was again proved that the Emperor was not invincible.