The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-08-31
"BIood will TeI''-The Son of Mar.
shall Ney.

dispatches that Michael Ney, the Duke
of elchingen, received three saber cuts
across the face at the battle of GRAY
e%llotte, and that he was promoted to a
colonelcy in the field. This exhibit
ton valor shows that "blood will telP'
and that he is a worthy son of his IL
lustrious father, whose name he bears.
His father one of the great military
chieftains of the first Empire, original
ly entered the army in the early days
of the Republic as a private soldier
By his bravery and genius he rose,
through all the successive steps ofpro
motion, to a Marshal of France and a
Duke of the Empire. 1t was he who,
in the course of the disastrous Russian
campaign of 1912, when the French
were ~retreating toward the Niemian
River, summoned by n greatly superb
or force to surrender, made this mem
orable answer, "a Marshal of France
never %surrenders." He commanded
the rear guard of what had once been
the Grand Army, and OF all the i'm
mense force which n C. composed it,
over half a million of men. he fred
the last shot, aud was the last man to
leave the territories ofthe Czar. The
detachment under his immediate com
mand had dwindled away to thirty
men.
After the Empire had gone down, in
1914, beneath the attacks of combined
Europe, Marshal Ney accepted a sim
liar high position under the Govern
ment of the restored Bourbons. The
next year Napoleon escaped from the
island of Elbe, and with a few follow
ers again made a strike to turn the
smiles of fortune in which he had so
long basked. The soldiers whom he
encountered everywhere deserted the
standard of the King and joined the
Emperor. Marshal Ney was sent by
the King with an army of 10000
men to oppose him. Ney loyalty ac-
eepted the trust, and in a procloma-
ton in which he utterly repudiated his
old commander in arms, avowed his
intention to bring him to Paris in an
iron cage. But when the Emperor
was encountered, when he fearlessly
rode forth. alone, to meet the troops
of the Marshal, and made an appeal
to them, it was irresistible, They
broke their ranks, and amid cries of
"Vtrc Z Empers,w," Joined his stand
ard. The privated commenced the
followed by the inferior Off
GERS, and then by the superior, until
at last the contagion which had swept
away his army. reached the Marshal
himself. He who had sworn to bring
the Emperor to Paris as a prisoner,
swelled his triumphant cortege as he
approached that metropolis. He was
of a breach of duty, but his
heart, which was with the Emperor,
carried him along, and in despite of it,
to a point not conformable to the code
of honor. 1t was a weakness of hu-
attacked upon its best side,
of gratitude to an old bachelor,
and was excused by many who had
the peculiar relations existing
between the parties. But it was an
objectionable crime against the Bour-
bens. Whoever might be forgiven i'll
case of the overthrow of the newly
Empire, it could not be Mar
,nsl Ney. In the battle of Water 90
ne fought with more than his wonted
desperation and valor. He had five
shot under mn, and then on
DOT he headed the last Charge OF n
I'D Imperial Guard upon the British
ines, in order to break them before
he Prussian reinforcements under
Butcher could came up. 1t would
ave been better for him if death had
ound him upon the battlefield. : But
UGH was not to be his destiny. BY
he aid of the bayonets of Wellington
nd Butcher, Louis XVIII was n sec
nd time restored to the commons of
lis ancestors. A military treaty, ne
by Wellington, gave immu-
lity from arrest to every one on ac-
cunt of their acts during the hun
.red-day reign of Napoleon. 1t should
ave protected Marshal Ney, but
louis XVIII would not be bound by
!, and soon gave indications that he
'as determined to have victims for .
lood. The conspicuous and most
example vas to be Marshal +,
Fey. He was betrayed into the
ands of the Government by the folly
f the friend with whom he had found :
ecret shelter exhibiting, at his house,
, his visitors, an elegant Egyptian
,ber, which had been presented many
ears before to Ney by the Emperor. ,
Royalist visitor remembered there :
ere but two such sabers in Eurcpe, $
belonging to Ney and the other to ,
Iurat, the brother-in-law of the En- :
error, the ex-King of Naples. He
REQUIRED the services of the police ]
he house was searched and the Mar -,
nal arrested. He was tried by the !
,hamber of Peers, found guilty of i,
and sentenced to be shot \,
at the place of execution, in |
ne Luxembourg, his various titles of
Iarshal Ney, Duke of Elchingen, :
nd-so, forth, were read to him, he re- ,
"Call me simply Michael :
ley, a French soldier, who, is soon to !;
9 a heap of dust" A volley dis !.
atched him, and he who had borne ,
he standard of France in triumph in ,
hree continents received his death
rom French bullets. His father, p,
Tho was very aged, and who survived
i'm some years, most humanely was
ever informed of his melancholy ,
cath. The reinstatement of the Bo-
dynasty again brought sun
the family of Ney, and it is
vident that, in the dark days of the
Empire, the son is displaying !.
he same qualities of heroism which
characterized his father in the time of
Sapoleon.-Enq~irsr.