19th June a small band of officers retreating from the field
found Ney asleep at Marchiennes, "the first repose he had had for four
days," and they did not disturb him for orders. "And indeed what order
could Marshal Ney have given?" The disaster of the day, the overwhelming
horror of the flight of the beaten army, simply crushed Ney morally as
well as physically. Rising in the Chambers he denounced all attempt at
further resistance. He did not know, he would not believe, that Grouchy
was safe, and that the army was fast rallying. Fresh from the field,
with all its traces on him, the authority of Ney was too great for the
Government. Frightened friends, plotting Royalists, echoed the wild
words of Ney brave only against physical dangers. Instead of dying on
the battle-field, he had lived to ensure the return of the Bourbons, the
fall of Bonaparte, his own death, and the ruin of France.

Before his exception from the amnesty was known Ney left Paris on the 6th
of July, and went into the country with but little attempt at
concealment, and with formal passports from Fouche. The capitulation of
Paris seemed to cover him, and he was so little aware of the thirst of
the Royalists for his blood that he let his presence be known by leaving
about a splendid sabre presented to him by the Emperor on his marriage,
and recognised by mere report by an old soldier as belonging to Ney or
Murat; and Ney himself let into the house the party sent to arrest him on
the 5th of August, and actually refused the offer of Excelmans, through
whose troops he passed, to set him free. No one at the time, except the
wretched refugees of Ghent, could have suspected, after the capitulation,
that there was any special danger for Ney, and it is very difficult to
see on what principle the Bourbons chose their victims or intended
victims. Drouot, for example, had never served Louis XVIII., he had
never worn the white cockade, he had left France with Napoleon for Elba,
and had served the Emperor there. In 1815 he had fought under his own
sovereign. After Waterloo he had exerted all his great influence, the
greater from his position, to induce the Guard to retire behind the
Loire, and to submit to the Bourbons. It was because Davoust so needed
him that Drouot remained with the army. Stilt Drouot was selected for
death, but the evidence of his position was too strong to enable the
Court to condemn him. Cambronne, another selection, had also gone with
Napoleon