he walked over to him with his
whole army. This was an offence not to be forgiven; and the result was,
that on the restoration of the King, Ney was tried by a court-martial,
and shot.

Of course, there could be but one opinion of this unfortunate officer's
conduct; but it is curious to observe the romantic colour which
Napoleon's dexterous fancy contrived to throw over the whole scene.

"Marshal Ney," said he, "was perfectly loyal, when he received his last
orders from the King. But his fiery soul could not fail to be deeply
impressed by the intoxicating enthusiasm of the population of the
provinces, which was daily depriving him of some of his best troops, for
the national colours were hoisted on all sides." Notwithstanding this,
Ney, when the Emperor was ready at Lyons, resisted his recollections,
until he received the following letter from the Emperor. "Then he
yielded, and again placed himself under the banner of the empire."

The letter was the following pithy performance:--"Cousin, my
major-general sends you the order of march. I do not doubt that the
moment you heard of my arrival at Lyons, you again raised the tricolored
standards among your troops. Execute the orders of Bertrand, and come
and join me at Chalons. I will receive you as I did the morning after
the battle of Moscow." It must be acknowledged that the man who could
have been seduced by this letter must have been a simpleton: it has all
the arrogance of a master, and even if he had been perfectly free, it
was evident that obedience would have made him a slave. But he had given
a solemn pledge to the King; he had been given the command of the army
on the strength of that pledge; and in carrying it over to the enemy of
the King, he compromised the honour and hazarded the life of every man
among them. The act was unpardonable, and he soon found it to be fatally
so.

Napoleon makes no reference to the pledge, to the point of honour or the
point of duty, but pronounces his death a judicial assassination. Still,
he is evidently not quite clear on the subject; for he says, that even
if he had been guilty, his services to his country ought to have
arrested the hand of justice.

Napoleon sometimes told interesting tales of his early career. One of
those, if true, shows how near the world was to the loss of an Emperor.
After the siege of Toulon, which his panegyrists regard as the first
step to his good fortune, he returned to Paris, apparently in the wors