men in the plain as they had lain down around a fire the evening before,
frozen and dead. The survivors would depart, hardly glancing at the
unfortunates who had died or were dying, and for whom they could do
nothing.

The snow would soon cover them, and small eminences marked the places where
these brave soldiers had been sacrificed for a foolish enterprise.

It was under these circumstances that Ney, the man of the greatest energy
and of a courage which could not be shaken by any kind of suffering, took
command of the rear guard, relieving Davout whose inflexible firmness and
sense of honor and duty were not less admirable than the excellent
qualities of Ney. The bravest of the brave, as Napoleon had called Ney, had
an iron constitution, he never seemed to be tired nor suffering from any
ailment; he passed the night without shelter, slept or did not sleep, ate
or did not eat, without ever being discouraged; most of the time he was on
his feet in the midst of his soldiers; he did not find it beneath the
dignity of a Marshal of France, when necessary, to gather 50 or 100 men
about him and lead them, like a simple captain of infantry, against the
enemy under fire of musketry, calm, serene, believing himself invulnerable
and being apparently so indeed; he did not find it incompatible with his
rank to take up the musket of a soldier who had fallen and to fire at the
enemy like a private. There is a great painting in the gallery of
Versailles representing him in such an action. He had never been wounded in
battle. And this great hero was executed in the morning of December 7th.,
1815, in the garden of the Luxembourg.

Louis XVIII, this miserable and insignificant man of legitimate royal blood
who had never rendered any service to France, wanted revenge--Ney was
arrested and condemned by the Chamber of Peers after the marshals had