It is pleaded in extenuation of Ney's defection that both his officers
and men were beyond his control, and determined to join their old Master;
but in that case he might have given up his command, and retired in the
same honourable way that Marshals Macdonald and Marmont and several other
generals did. But even among his own officers Ney had an example set
him, for many of them, after remonstrating in vain, threw up their
commands. One of them broke his sword in two and threw the pieces at
Ney's feet, saying, "It is easier for a man of honour to break iron than
to break his word."

Napoleon, when at St. Helena, gave a very different reading to these
incidents. On this subject he was heard to say, "If I except Labedoyere,
who flew to me with enthusiasm and affection, and another individual,
who, of his own accord, rendered me important services, nearly all the
other generals whom I met on my route evinced hesitation and uncertainty;
they yielded only to the impulse about them, if indeed they did not
manifest a hostile feeling towards me. This was the case with Ney, with
Massena, St. Cyr, Soult, as well as with Macdonald and the Duke of
Belluno, so that if the Bourbons had reason to complain of the complete
desertion of the soldiers and the people, they had no right to reproach
the chiefs of the army with conspiring against them, who had shown
themselves mere children in politics, and would be looked upon as neither
emigrants nor patriots."

Between Lyons and Fontainebleau Napoleon often travelled several miles
ahead of his army with no other escort than a few Polish lancers. His
advanced guard now generally consisted of the troops (miscalled Royal)
who happened to be before him on the road whither they had been sent to
oppose him, and to whom couriers were sent forward to give notice of the
Emperor's approach, in order that they might be quite ready to join him