Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 2.djvu/88

 260 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS things, and was created a peer of France, knight of St. Louis, and governor of the sixth Military Division. But the world was for the time at peace ; and Ney's occupation was gone. He had been a fighter all his life he could not turn courtier at the end. He had married, in 1810, Mile. Auguid, who had been brought up in the court of Louis XVI., was a friend of Hortense Beauharnais, and naturally fond of gayety and society. The great marshal was a simple and rather illiterate man, who had had no time to cultivate fashionable graces, so it happened that when Madame la Marechal gave a banquet or a ball, Ney used not to appear, but dined by himself, in his own apartments, as far removed as possible from the noise of the festival. It is said that outside the field of battle he was one of the timidest of men, and even submitted quite tamely to the inso- lence of his own servants. In January, 181 5, he departed for his country-seat of Coudreaux, near Cha- teaudun, where he lived in the simplest possible fashion, till on March 6th, an aide-de-camp of the Minister of War brought him an order to return at once to the head-quarters of the Military Division of which he was commander. Instead of going directly to his post, he went by way of Paris, where he heard for the first time of the landing of Napoleon. " It is a great misfortune," said he. " Whom can we send against him ? " Then, having visited the king, and assured him of his devotion to the mon- archy, he went to his command at Besangon. Next morning he heard that Grenoble had declared for the emperor, and that the occupation of Lyons was inevitable. He could observe for himself the dissatisfaction of the troops by whom he was surrounded. On the 12th he was at Lons-le-Saulnier, organizing his troops, and writing to the minister of war for ammunition and horses. But he soon saw that resistance was hopeless. The Bourbons had managed, as usual, to make themselves hated. The king's brother and Marshal Macdonald had been obliged to flee from Lyons when Napoleon appeared. All the soldiers were delighted at the thought of having their " Little Corporal " back again. On the night of the 13th Ney received an emissary from Napoleon, What memories must have stirred in his heart, of old perils and old glories ! How could he resist the mighty spell of the past? On the 14th he announced to his troops that the house of Bourbon had ceased to reign, and proclaimed Na- poleon. " It was a grievous fault, and grievously did Caesar answer it." From this moment Ney knew no more peace of mind. So bitter was his remorse that he could not face his fellow-soldiers, and obtained Napoleon's permission to retire for a time into the country. When he returned, Napoleon said, banteringly, " I heard you had emigrated." " Ah, sire," answered Ney, " I ought to have done so long ago, but it is too late now." The approach of war revived his spirits to some extent, and when, a few days before the battle of Waterloo, he joined the army in Flanders, he looked like the Ney of old. At Quatre Bras, on June i6th, despite an obstinate combat, he failed to drive Wellington from his position, and the next day he does not ap