Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 2.djvu/82

 266 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS divisions did not commend itself to the Swiss. It is generally admitted, however, that Ney acted with as much moderation as his odious task permitted ; and he doubtless welcomed his recall to take a command in the army which was being collected at Boulogne, ostensibly for the invasion of England. When Napoleon was proclaimed emperor Ney was made a marshal, "for a long succession of heroic actions," and when the army, instead of crossing the Channel, turned back to crush Austria and the coalition, Ney commanded the si.xth corps. By October 14, 1805, Napoleon had surrounded Mack and his army in Ulm, and on that day Ney carried the heights of Elchingen after a ter- rific combat. It was from this achievement that his title of Duke of Elchingen was derived. After the capitulation of Ulm Ney had, at Innspriick, the proud satisfaction of restoring to the seventy-sixth regiment the flags of which they had been despoiled. He was sent into the Tyrol in pursuit of the Archduke John, whose rear-guard he caught and cut to pieces at the foot of Mount Brenner, at the same time that Napoleon, at Austerlitz, brought the war to a close. After the peace of Presburg Ney remained in Suabia until the rupture with Prussia. The day of Jena found him so an.xious for the fray that he attacked the enemy without waiting for orders, and brought the whole Prussian cavalry upon his small division of some three thousand men, and held them at bay until Napoleon sent him assistance. Though Prussia was practically annihilated by the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, Russia was still to be reckoned with. Napo- leon invaded Poland, and found himself forced into a winter campaign at a for- midable distance from France. Marching and countermarching through mud and snow the whole army v/as subjected to horrible suffering ; but even then Ney's impetuous energy was unabated. Napoleon even rebuked him for " fool- hardiness ; " and more than once his only salvation from destruction was in the slowness and density of the Russians. He took little part in the dreadful and in- decisive battle of Eylau, after which Napoleon remained for eight days without making any movement ; but it was to him that, at Friedland, Napoleon allotted the post of honor and of danger, saying, as the marshal went off proud of his task, "That man is a lion." Napoleon about this time discovered that " the interposition of France was necessary in the affairs of Spain ; " and after the peace of Tilsit Ney was only allowed to remain in France long enough to recruit his forces, before being sent to the Peninsula. A few months later in the year, when Napoleon visited Spain, Ney was given the command of the si.xth corps there, but he was destined to reap few Spanish laurels, and it is said that he endeavored to persuade the emperor to relinquish the hopeless struggle against an entire people. While Soult was en- gaged in the difficult task of forcing the English from the Peninsula by way of Corunna, Ney held Galicia and the Asturias, destroyed guerilla bands, defeated Sir Robert Wilson, and intercepted the enemy's convoys ; but the whole country was in arms against the French, who after six months' unceasing struggle, were compelled to retreat. When Massena was sent to Portugal with orders from Napoleon to drive the