Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 2.djvu/89

 MICHEL NEY, MARSHAL OF FRANCE 261 pear to have discovered that the English had fallen back upon Waterloo until some hours after their departure. At the great battle of Waterloo, on June 1 8th, he fought with the same reckless bravery as ever. He had five horses killed under him, and his clothing was riddled with bullets. Napoleon said, not without truth, that he behaved like a madman. After his fifth horse was shot he fought on foot until forced from the field by the rush of fugitives. He had done his best to die on the field of battle, but almost miraculously he escaped without a wound. After the second restoration of the Bourbons Ney retired into the country, meaning to escape to the United States, and was provided by Fouche with a passport for this purpose. He delayed, for some reason, to use it ; and on August 3d he was arrested at the house of a relative. A council of war was appointed to try him, composed of Marshals Mass^na, Augereau, Mortier, and three lieutenants. It would have been better for Ney had he submitted himself to their verdict ; but he unwisely denied their competence, and demanded, as a peer of the realm, to be tried by his peers, and it was a tribunal which showed him no mercy. It does not appear that the king desired his death ; but Talley- rand declared that it would be a grand ex,ample, and the royalists generally thirsted for his blood; He was condemned, by a majority of 139 to 17, to be shot for high treason. On December 7th his wife and four children were admitted to his prison in the early morning, to take leave of him. But neither in this painful ordeal nor at any time afterward, did the condemned marshal show any sign of weak- ness. At eight o'clock he was taken in a carriage to the place of execution, outside the garden gates of the Luxembourg. The officer who commanded the firing party wished to bandage his eyes, but Ney said, quietly " Are you igno- rant that for twenty-five years I have been accustomed to face both balls and bullets ? " Then, raising his voice, he cried, " I protest against my condemna- tion. I wish that I had died for my country in battle. But here is still the field of honor. Vive la France ! " The officer in command, to his credit be it said, was dumb. He seemed in- capable of giving the word to fire ; and Ney himself, taking off his hat, and striking his breast, cried, in a loud voice " Soldiers, do your duty fire 1" Thus died, in his forty-seventh year, " The Bravest of the Brave."