Note 87 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
It is notorious that Ney was one amongst the last who quitted the scene of carnage; it is also certain, we had our hands full to wrest victory from the French. Had all Napoleon’s generals acted with the same energy, gallantry and constant audacity as Ney did on his last field, our day’s work would have been more troublesome, and not so many of us left to tell the tale. As a soldier, I am sorry that both Ney and the Emperor did not die a soldier’s death at Waterloo.