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From far beyond La Belle Alliance had Blücher come, a cow boy showing him the way a boy who, if he had not known the way, or had lied, might have saved Napoleon from St. Helena. The ground where Blücher entered the field is just visible to us from the mound as with strained eyes, we peer through the morning mist. During Ney's attack, Blücher opens fire on La Haye Sainte.
Ney's horse is killed under him the fifth to-day but he quickly extricates himself from saddle and stirrups and continues on his way on foot, sword in hand the sword that conquered at Austerlitz, at Eylau and at Moskowa. Round him the grenadiers of the Old Guard they with the fur bonnets and the grizzled moustaches tighten up their ranks.
I moved on, therefore, so as not to witness the execution, and the hussars shot the monk and the peasant, repeating, 'Ah, you don't know the Chamborant! I could not understand how an officer and two privates of Ney's corps could be so near Taragona when their regiments had not come that way; but most probably they had been captured elsewhere, and were being taken to Saragossa, when their escort learned the defeat of their countrymen at Tudela, and massacred their prisoners in revenge for it.
Eugène and Davout were within reach, but Ney's position was terrible: he was only then leaving Smolensk. Was he to be left to his fate? Around and behind his six thousand troops were swarming almost as many stragglers; and on the eighteenth the Russians, in spite of their momentary halt, threw forward their van with the hope of cutting off his hampered and sore-pressed division.
At five o'clock a salvo of twenty guns opened the second and greater battle of Friedland. To rush on the Muscovite van and clear it from the wood of Sortlack was for Ney's leading division the work of a moment; but on reaching the open ground their ranks were ploughed by the shot of the Russian guns ranged on the hills beyond the river.
Ney's valour was animal, Jackson's was moral, and between the two there is a vast distinction. Before the enemy, when his danger was tangible, Ney had few rivals. But when the enemy was unseen and his designs were doubtful, his resolution vanished. He was without confidence in his own resources. He could not act without direct orders, and he dreaded responsibility.
Had Napoleon given those orders on the 15th, all might have gone well; for all his available forces, except Ney's and Reynier's corps, were near at hand, making a total of nearly 150,000 men, while Schwarzenberg had as yet not many more. But those orders on the 16th were not only belated: they contributed to the defeat on the north side. The Emperor's thoughts were concentrated on the south.
They were entirely stripped, but their shakoes were near them, by the numbers on which I could see that they belonged to one of the regiments in Ney's corps. Some little distance farther we saw a horrible sight. A young officer of the 10th Mounted Chasseurs, still wearing his uniform, was nailed by his hands and feet, head downwards, to a barn door. A small fire had been lighted beneath him.
Rapidity of Napoleon's victories Murat at Wertingen Conquest of Ney's duchy The French army before Ulm The Prince of Liechtenstein at the Imperial headquarters His interview with Napoleon described by Rapp Capitulation of Ulm signed by Berthier and Mack Napoleon before and after a victory His address to the captive generals The Emperor's proclamation Ten thousand prisoners taken by Murat Battle of Caldiero in Italy Letter from Duroc Attempts to retard the Emperor's progress Fruitless mission of M. de Giulay The first French eagles taken by the Russians Bold adventure of Lannes and Murat The French enter Vienna Savary's mission to the Emperor Alexander.
At five o'clock a salvo of twenty guns opened the second and greater battle of Friedland. To rush on the Muscovite van and clear it from the wood of Sortlack was for Ney's leading division the work of a moment; but on reaching the open ground their ranks were ploughed by the shot of the Russian guns ranged on the hills beyond the river.
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