This place was repeatedly and desperately attacked
by the allies, but the French made good their
position. Arcis itself was set on fire by the shells
of the assailants, and night alone separated the
combatants, by inducing the allies to desist from
the attack.
In the course of the night, Buonaparte was
joined by Macdonald, Oudinot, and Gerard, with
the forces with which they had lately held the de-
£ensive upon the Seine ; and the anxious question
remained, whether, tlius reinforced, he should ven-
ture an action with the grand army, to which he
was still much inferior in numbers. Schwartzen-
berg, agreeably to the last resolution of the allies^
drew up on the heights of Mesnil La Comtesse,.
