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LETTER FROM MARSHAL MONCEY TO LOUIS XVIII: Refusal to
preside at the Court Martial of Marshal Ney
Important Letter
We are indebted to a correspondent for the very interesting
translation below. Marshal Moncey's letter to Louis XVIII was
written on the occasion of his refusing to preside in a court
martial at the trial of Marshal Ney. The reader will recollect
that this refusal of Moncey was treated as contumacy, and he was
ordered to be imprisoned for three months. This document is
worthy of preservation with Carnot's Memoir. Indeed, Carnot and
Moncey seem to be the Abdiels of France: While Soult, who
immortalized his name by his sword, has sullied it with his pen;
paying court to Louis, by branding Napoleon as an usurper, an
illegitimate monarch; and many others barter principles for
safety; these worthies stand firm, amidst proscription, apostasy
and desolation, anxious only to save their character from the
common ruin.
Marshal Moncey's letter was circulated in manuscript like M.
Fouche's second memoir, and this translation is made from a
manuscript copy received in New York. It truly consists of "thoughts
that breathe and words that burn," and well becomes a
Marshal of France. It is apparent from this letter, connected
with the furious speeches of the Duke of Richelieu, cidevant
governor of the Crimea, that the gallant Ney was the marked
victim of "Alexander the Deliverer"
Whether England or Russia have the precedency in treading on
France, is difficult to determine: Russia has most men; England
most money. If Alexander's agent stood forward in the French
chamber to demand the blood of the brave, Wellington held not
back.
The comparison brings to recollection the seat of power in the
family of Themistocles, where the son ruled the father by
governing the mother. So England, who pays all, probably sways
all; having a right to command her mercenary Russians, Austrians,
Dutch, and Prussians. But, we crave pardon for indulging in
pleasantry, when the fall of heroes, the prostration of nations,
and the total discomfiture of the rights of man in Europe are
enough to fix the most volatile spirits in solemnity, or sink
them in grief.
N.Y. Columbian.
Translation
Letter from Marshal Moncey to Louis XVIII on his refusal to sit
on the Court Martial for the trial of Marshal Ney.
Sire --
Will your Majesty permit me to raise my feeble voice to you? Will
it be permitted to one who has never deviated from the path of
honor, to call the attention of his sovereign to the dangers that
menace his person and his kingdom? Yes, sir, nothing less than
the imminent dangers of the State, would allow me to express
myself to you with the frankness which you ought to expect from
all your faithful subjects, and especially from your marshals --
from those who dared to uplift their voice, on the most difficult
occasions, where the absolute will and blind ambition of a master
were every thing, and the counsels of wisdom and prudence were
nothing.
I believe, that after my letter of yesterday to the minister of
war, he would have judged sufficient the reason which I gave for
refusing to sit in a court martial where I could not preside. I
find myself mistaken, as he has transmitted me a positive order
from your majesty on this subject.
Placed in the cruel dilemma of offending your majesty or of
disobeying the dictate of my conscience, it becomes my duty to
explain myself to your majesty.
I enter not into the enquiry whether Marshal Ney is guilty or
innocent -- Your justice and the equity of his judges will answer
it to posterity, which weighs in the same balance kings and their
subjects. But the subject on which I cannot be silent, and on
which I must speak distinctly to your majesty, is the critical
position into which you are rushing. Alas! has not enough French
blood been shed? Are not our misfortunes sufficiently great! The
humiliation of France, is it not pushed to the last extreme? And
when it is necessary to ???, to soften, to calm, it is then you
are required to sign new proscriptions! Oh sire! if those who
direct your councils had only in view your good, they would tell
you that never did the scaffold make friends. Do you then believe
that death is terrible for those who have so often braved it? It
is the Allies who require of France
But, sire, is there no danger for your person and your August
dynasty from them? They entered the country as your allies, and
what title do they merit from the people of Alsace, of Lorraine,
and of the capital? They have demanded the price of their
friendship; they have required securities from those they came to
deliver; they have required the inhabitants of the countries they
occupy to deliver up their arms; and in two thirds of the kingdom
there remains not even a single fowling piece. They have required
that the French army should be disbanded; and there remains not a
single man at his colours; not a single piece of cannon is
harnessed. They have demanded the delivery of our fortresses, and
if some of them still hold out, it is because their commanders
cannot believe your majesty has ordered their surrender. So much
condescension ought surely to have softened their passions. But,
no! they wish to render your majesty odious to your subjects;
they wish to guard against every possible danger by striking off
the heads of those soldiers and statesmen whose names they cannot
hear without being reminded of their own humiliation.
Let then a French general be allowed to say in the face of Europe,
that if our armies have overrun the neighboring countries, they
purchased their conquests with their valor and blood. Let your
majesty consider -- Will the allies ever forgive their conquerors?
It is their shame and humiliation which they wish to efface, and
not to strengthen your throne, which is more shaken by their
outrages than established by their vengeance! But when you have
given up every thing, what can you refuse? If the fate of Poland
is to be ours, what means of resistance have you left? Your
armies? -- You have none! -- Your fortresses? -- they are in the
power of the allies! Your marshals, your generals, your statesmen?
-- their heads will have fallen! Will you then resort to the
people -- to that people so much humiliated, so much despised? It
is those who formed your councils? The recollection of the month
of March, 1815, must shew your majesty what you have to expect
from their zeal and attachment. There remains then no other
resource than a reliance upon the generosity of your allies and
our enemies. Have you then forgotten that in order to gratify the
man who occupied your throne, they refused you one after another
an asylum in their dominions? So completely had they recognized
his legitimacy, that in their treaties with him they never
thought of stipulating even an indemnity for you. Did not England
herself negotiate with him? Would she not again have treated with
him at Prague, had his pretensions been less extravagant? Did not
the people of London drag the carriage of his minister, when you
were not even permitted to appear at court? Was your restoration
thought of when they negotiated at Chaterey (Chatillion)? Had it
not been for the hostile occupation of Bordeaux, and the loyalty
manifested by the people of that city, a treaty would have been
signed with Napoleon. Still more recently, at the Congress of
Vienna, was your majesty's minister able to obtain a guarantee
for the integrity of our territory? Oh sire, the man on Elba may
have had correspondences and intelligence in France; but who were
they that went to seek for him? Who told the English fleet to
suffer him to pass? Has the admiral who was entrusted with the
superintendence of the island been prosecuted? Had not the king
of Prussia 80,000 men near our frontiers who might have marched
upon Paris and reached it before Napoleon? Are not the Prussian
cannon daily placed and pointed against your residence? And yet
you can rely on the generosity of your allies! And yet under such
circumstances you require me to take my seat in a tribunal where
I shall perhaps figure in my turn not as a judge, but as a
prisoner at the bar! Did I not lead the French army in 1794 to
the borders of the Ebro? Even now the poignards of those who
struck Brune, and ****, and so many others, glitter before my
eyes, and shall I in my own person sanction a judicial murder? Ah
no! while there remains to my unhappy country only a shadow of
existence, shall I associate my name with that of her oppressors?
No, sire! you yourself cannot but approve my resolution: What!
Shall 25 years of my glorious labors be sullied in a single day?
Shall my locks, bleached under the helmet, be only proofs of my
shame? No, sire! it shall not be said that the elder of the
marshals of France contributed to the misfortunes of his country.
My life, my fortune, all that I possess or enjoy is at the
service of my king and country; but my honor is exclusively my
own, and no human power can ravish it from me. If my name is to
be the only heritage left to my children, at least let it not be
disgraced!
Permit me to ask your majesty, where were the accusers of Marshal
Ney, when he was on the field of battle? Did they follow his
steps and accuse him during twenty-five years of perils and
labors? And IF RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES CANNOT PARDON THE CONQUERORS
OF MOSKWA, CAN FRANCE FORGET THE VALIANT HERO OF THE BERESINA?
Sire, in the unfortunate retreat across that river, Ney saved the
remnant of the army; in that army I had relations and friends,
and soldiers (who are the children of their chiefs) who had
served under me; and shall I doom him to death who saved the
lives of so many Frenchmen, to whom so many parents are indebted
for their children, so many wives for their husbands? No, sire!
if I cannot save my country and my own life, I will at least save
my honor; and if I feel any regret, it is that I have lived too
long, since I have survived the glory of my country. Reflect,
sire! this is, perhaps, the last time that truth will reach your
throne; it is both dangerous and ??? to push the brave to despair.
W??? Is there, I will not say the marshal, but the man of honor,
who is not compelled to regret not having fought death on the
field of Waterloo? And perhaps if the unfortunate Ney had done
there what we had so often done before, he would not have been
this day dragged before a court martial, and those who demand his
death would have been seeking his protection. Excuse, sire, the
frankness of an old marshal, who has always kept clear of
intrigues, has known only his country and his profession; he
believes that the same voice which was raised against the
invasion of Spain and the war with Russia, might also speak the
language of truth to the best of kings, the father of his
subjects. If frankness is a virtue, it is not, I am conscious,
the most profitable of the virtues, since although I am the
eldest of the marshals I am also the poorest.
I will not disguise the dangers in which the step I have taken
may involve me, nor the disgrace it may draw down upon me from
the vengeance of (looks like courtiers (?) ; but if I have been
fortunate enough to enlighten your majesty as to your true
interests, I shall consider myself as but too happy, whatever may
be the consequences; and if in defending to the tomb I may say
with one of your ancestors, "All is lost, except honor,"
I shall die contented.
Moncey, Duc de Cornegliano.
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