[citation needed] On 24 March Schwarzenberg reached Vitry, where he met with King Frederick William III of Prussia and Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

[citation needed] On the following day the pursuit was continued with increased vigor, and the Allies overtook a still larger French division at Saint-Dizier, where a brisk engagement took place.

Tettenborn immediately brought his guns close to the bank of the river, and commenced the pouring of a murderous fire of cannonballs and grenades upon the nearest French troops, which retreated into the woods with the loss of many men.

However, the French were not long exposed to this fire, as a portion of their artillery, placed on the heights of Valcourt, commanding the road which lay through a narrow gorge, soon silenced the Allied guns.

Tettenborn passed the night in Eclaron, while General Wintzingerode fixed his headquarters in Saint-Dizier, and sent a considerable number of troops from Vitry towards Montier-en-Der, to secure the Allied right flank.

Whilst Wintzingerode was still doubtful whether Napoleon was actually approaching with his whole force, and hesitated to give full credit to Tettenborn's statements, he saw General Tschernyscheff suddenly driven back from Montier-en-Der, while he himself was attacked at the same moment.

The Russian cavalry and horse artillery were distributed in the plain behind this road; in their rear was the wood, whilst in their front laid the French, who poured heavy fire into the Allied ranks.

The Allied troops came within the range of the enemy's guns, broke and were put to the rout along the road to Vitry; here the baggage and horses, flying in all directions, caused indescribable confusion.

Tettenborn, who with his officers had maintained the contest to the last, and had been in great personal danger, got his troops again into some order at the village of Perthe, skirmished a little with the French that same evening, and retreated during the night by Marolles to Vitry.

The rest of Wintzingerode's cavalry, who were drawn up on the plains by Saint-Dizier, and who had waited till the French attacked them, without taking the initiative, and as a result, had a far greater number of men killed, besides the fact that they lost many artillery pieces.

Napoleon, who learned all this from some of his devoted adherents in Saint-Dizier, halted at Vassy, recalled those troops which had already marched forward, and thought that he would fight a battle where the ground and the circumstances would be in his favour.

Even on the day after this action, Napoleon could not be brought to believe that he was mistaken, and had been striking at a shadow: He persisted in advancing against Vitry, where the small garrison prepared to meet the storm.

There, however, he suddenly learnt of Marmont's and Mortier's defeat at the Battle of Fère-Champenoise and the advance of the Allies upon Paris: He now hastily collected his weary, half-famished troops, and made forced marches by Troyes, Sens, and Fontainebleau, to relieve his threatened capital.