He had given instructions to magnify their number and their strength.

He shrewdly surmised that their appearance on the left flank would cause the cautious Schwarzenberg to pause, to withdraw his flankers, to mass to meet them.

There would be a halt in the advance.
The allies still feared the Emperor.

Although much of his prestige was gone, they never made little of Napoleon.

He intended to leave some of the best troops to confront Schwarzenberg between Nogent and Montereau, under Victor and Oudinot, hard fighters both, with instructions not to engage in any decisive battle, not to allow themselves to be trapped into that, but to stand on the defensive, to hold the River Seine, to retreat foot by foot, if pressed, to take advantage of every cover, to hold the enemy in check, to contest every foot of the way, to assume a strength which they did not have.
He promised that so soon as he had fallen upon Bluecher he would send the news and see that it got to Schwarzenberg and the allied monarchs who were with him.