I hope to bring him back to Paris in an iron cage. - Michel Ney

Marshal Michel Ney, duc d'Elchingen, prince de la Moskova
François Gérard (PD)

Sergent Nicolas Guilbert turned to his fellow Guardsman, Caporal Jean Bruneau and smiled, "The King keeps sending us men, perhaps he expects the Emperor to save France. For Louis."

Bruneau shook his head, "Have you heard the rumors? Marshal Ney is approaching, he has sworn to return le Tondu to Paris in an iron cage. He has 6,000 men with him, artillery as well. What do we have? A single battery?"

"Ney? I shouldn't be surprised. It was the damned marshals who drove the Emperor into exile. They had gotten too comfortable with their titles and their estates." Guilbert spat on the verge of the road.

"Bah, dismiss all of them, promote the colonels, they have always been faithful!"

 

It was an extraordinarily tense moment, the Emperor, with barely 3,000 effectives, was facing Marshal Ney, the Bravest of the Brave, with over 6,000 men. Napoléon looked at newly promoted general, Charles de la Bédoyère and smiled.

"What do you think, de la Bédoyère? Does Ney mean to bring his Emperor back to Paris in an iron cage?"

De la Bédoyère grinned back, "I don't truly know, Sire. But I'm sure Monsieur le Marechal told Louis XVIII exactly what the king wanted to hear."

"Perhaps." Napoléon nudged his horse forward. "Now let us see what le Rougeaud¹ intends for us."

Charles de la Bédoyère had come over to the Emperor's side a few days before, bringing his 7th Regiment of the Line with him. This confrontation with Ney could turn badly.

While the Emperor had his spies in Paris, and in the army, it was hard to tell which way Ney would jump. Though rumor had it that Ney was disgruntled with the new regime, his wife had been treated badly by the old nobility. Perhaps ...

"Monsieur le Marechal Ney, my old comrade. It is a good day for battle, is it not?"

"Sire, I have decided that I can no longer serve the king. I know where my true loyalties lie. I have issued a proclamation to the Army that I believe the Bourbons have failed the French nation and that you, our rightful sovereign, have returned to the throne."

Ney looked nervous, he had thrown the dice, now he must play things out.

The Emperor winked at Ney, "Then come, my friend, let us advance and prepare to defend le patrie. I'm sure the other crowned heads of Europe have their own thoughts on who should rule France."

Marshal Ney nodded, then drawing his sword he turned to his troops and shouted out, "VIVE L'EMPEREUR!"

The soldiers' shouts rang up and down the valley and echoed from the mountains as they hailed the return of their emperor. Many would pay a steep price for their loyalty to the Bonaparte dynasty. None more than Ney and del la Bédoyère².

But that is in the future, for now the eagles fly north and soon will alight on the spires of Paris.

Proclamation to the French People on His Return from Elba, March 5, 1815.

Frenchmen: The defection of the Duke of Castiglione (Augereau) delivered up Lyons without defense to our enemies. The army, the command of which I had entrusted to him, was, by the number of its battalions, the courage and patriotism of the troops that composed it, in a condition to beat the Austrian troops opposed to it, and to arrive in time on the rear of the left flank of the army which threatened Paris. The victories of Champ-Aubert, of Montmirail, of Château-Thierry, of Van Champs, of Mormons, of Montereau, of Craonne, of Rheims, of Arcis-sur-Aube, and of St. Dizier, the rising of the brave peasants of Lorraine and Champagne, of Alsace, Franche-Comté and Burgundy, and the position which I had taken in the rear of the hostile army, by cutting it off from its magazines, its parks of reserve, its convoys, and all the equipages, had placed it in a desperate situation. The French were never on the point of being more powerful, and the élite of the enemy's army was lost without resource; it would have found a tomb in those vast plains which it had so mercilessly laid waste, when the treason of the Duke of Ragusa delivered up the capital and disorganized the army. The unexpected misconduct of these two generals, who betrayed at once their country, their prince, and their benefactor, changed the fate of the war; the situation of the enemy was such that, at the close of the action which took place before Paris, he was without ammunition, in consequence of his separation from his parks of reserve. In these new and distressing circumstances, my heart was torn, but my mind remained immovable; I consulted only the interests of the country; I banished myself to a rock in the middle of the sea; my life was yours, and might still be useful to you. Frenchmen: In my exile I heard your complaints and your wishes; you accused my long slumber; you reproached me with sacrificing the welfare of the country to my repose. I have traversed the seas through perils of every kind; I return among you to reclaim my rights, which are yours. (Source)

Word has spread of Napoléon's return, even now the crowned heads of Europe, through their representatives at the Congress of Vienna, have declared Napoléon Bonaparte an outlaw.

Europe would go to war once again, this time to stop a single man.

¹ Literally, the ruddy-faced, more likely intended to mean "the red haired." Ney was a ginger.

² Both men were executed for treason after Waterloo. De la Bédoyère in August,  Ney in December of 1815.