d Colors.]

When Massena was sent to Portugal with orders from Napoleon to drive
the "English leopards and their Sepoy general into the sea," Ney,
acting under his directions, took Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida. At
Busaco, on September 27, 1810, he differed from his commander-in-chief
as to the advisability of attacking the English position in front,
which was strong. Massena suffered a severe repulse; and Ney was
undoubtedly right, since the fact remains that after the battle
Wellington's position was easily turned, and he was compelled to fall
back. He retreated upon the famous lines of Torres Vedras, before
which Massena sat helplessly for months, until famine forced him to
break up his camp. Ney was intrusted with the command of the
rear-guard, and the universal opinion of military critics is that his
management of this retreat was one of his most splendid feats of arms.
On one occasion he confronted, with 5,000 men, Wellington and his army
of 30,000, and delayed them for many hours, while the sick and
wounded, the baggage wagons, and the main body of the French army made
good their retreat. While Ney was in front of him Wellington knew no
repose, nor, for all his efforts, did he succeed, during the whole
pursuit, in capturing an ammunition wagon or even a single gun. But
when Massena--with a view to saving his military reputation, which had
been gravely compromised by his want of success--proposed again to
advance upon Lisbon, Ney flatly refused to obey him, and after a
violent quarrel, was ordered by Massena to relinquish his command and
retire into the interior of Spain to await the decision of the
emperor. Napoleon recalled him to France, and gave him the command of
the third corps of that avalanche of men--men of so many nations and
kindreds and peoples--which he was preparing to hurl upon Russia.

The Grand Army crossed the Niemen in June, 1812, and followed an
ever-retreating foe to Smolensk, where the Russian general, Barclay de
Tolly, had received positive orders from Alexander to give battle, and
where he had placed a garrison of 30,000 men. On August 14th Ney
cleared the neighboring town of Krasnoi at the point of the bayonet,
and during the next two days the Russians were slowly forced back
under the walls of Smolensk. On the 17th a general attack was ordered,
and Ney was directed to take the citadel. But so obstinate was the
Russian defence that when night came no entrance had been effected.
However, an