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
18th, 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 Fouché 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 Masséna, 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 example, 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!"

Thus died, in his forty-seventh year, "The Bravest of the Brave."

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