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then brutally arresting the commissary-general, sent him, under pretence of preventing a scandalous exposure, to another division of the right wing. But he had ill calculated his means of vengeance. Ney rejected his pretended kindness in preventing exposure, and demanded a public investigation. Lahorie, as a justification of this proceeding, then reverted to certain complaints which he stated had been made to him by Prince Charles, and by the Elector of Bavaria. But Ney having persisted in obtaining an investigation, the result was Lahorie's utter discomfiture. Such a thing is not easily forgotten, and Lahorie waited only for an opportunity of revenge, which at length came.

We have already mentioned the estimation in which Ney held Lieutenant Daiker, and the homage he had rendered to the bravery displayed by that officer under the walls of Ulm. Ney having on a former occasion requested Daiker's promotion to the rank of captain, had renewed this request after the battle of Ingoldstadt, and again after the victory of Hohenlinden, in both of which actions Daiker had particularly distinguished himself. But no notice was taken of these repeated applications; and Lahorie, far from promoting Ney's protegé, imagined to apply to his case a former decision of the generalin-chief, and even to contest the rank which Daiker then held. Ney was indignant at such a proceeding, and referred the case to the commander-in-chief, to whom he wrote as follows.

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"You know Daiker; you are acquainted with his courage and zeal; you well know how little he deserves the treatment he has met with. You may easily perceive that he is not the real object of dislike he is struck only by a rebound. I am myself the individual aimed at by this unjustifiable persecution. As there is a dread of attacking me face to face, my officers are made to stand the brunt of these manœuvres against me. But you are just, and will never allow your name to be made use of for the purpose of crushing a man whose talents and services entitle him to find in you nothing but a protector."

This appeal produced the desired effect, and Lahorie was obliged to adjourn his vengeance. The army repassed the Rhine, and here the matter dropped.

CHAPTER IV.

NEY now returned to France. He had earned renown both as a soldier and as a commander, and his greeting at Paris from the head of the state was most flattering. Policy had doubtless something to do with the praises lavished upon him. The First Consul was well aware that the armies of the North felt some little jealousy of the splendid victories gained by those of the South; and he was anxious to extinguish so dangerous a feeling of rivalry. He wished to convince every body that he had no respect of persons, and would acknowledge and reward the services performed on the Rhine as well as those done on the Adige. His reception of Ney was perhaps more warm on this account. that as it may, Ney was much gratified by it; whilst the reforms which had taken place in every department of the state were calculated to win his warmest applause. Wise laws had consolidated the foundations of the social edifice; the criminal laws were in progress of useful revision, and justice had resumed her power; the public accounts were becoming every day more clear, and the machinery of government was much more rapid in its operations.

Be

The First Consul, always at work, animated the whole, and personally discussed every measure. From the decree which changed the denominations of the weights and measures, to the law establishing the courts of justice, not a public measure took place which bore not the stamp of his powerful genius. It was difficult not to admire his perseverance, still more difficult not to feel emotion at his solicitude. He overlooked no interest, he neglected no branch of administration. Education, commerce, arts, religion, industry—he gave life to all, and held the whole in the grasp of his gigantic mind.

The war had been unsuccessful during his absence, but the moment he assumed the personal command of the republican forces, the ascendancy of the French arms was restored. The French armies again sent beyond the frontiers, had carried all before them, overthrown the enemies of free institutions, and baffled the most odious plots against their country. The coalition against France was forcibly dissolved. Austria had treated on the 9th of February, Naples on the 28th of March, and Rome on the 1st of July: in a word, Bonaparte had renewed the wonders of Campo Formio, and forced Europe to subscribe to peace. nations.

He was therefore the benefactor of

Ney, like every good patriot, gloried in the greatness and prosperity of his country. He joined the great body of his countrymen in cherishing the colossal genius which had raised it from the abyss into

which it had fallen, and he gave his warm applause to the acts of the consular administration.

The First Consul was not insensible to Ney's good: opinion, and, whether from regard or from policy, determined to attach that general to his person. Madame Bonaparte approved of this resolution, and wished to concur in effecting it. She had recourse to those means which a woman knows so well how to employ, and called love to her aid. She brought about an attachment between Ney and a young female favourite of hers, and wound up the romance with the marriage of the lovers. Madame Louis Bonaparte had a friend of her childhood named Mademoiselle Auguié, a lovely and amiable girl, whose misfortunes rendered her still more interesting. She was the daughter of a former receiver-general, whose fortune had been greatly reduced by the revolution. She had seen her father thrown into a dungeon, and her mother, condemned to captivity by the same sentence, elude it at the cost of her life, in the hope of preserving from the ruffian grasp of her persecutors a last resource for her children.

Josephine was desirous of promoting the happiness of a soldier whose future renown she foresaw, at the same time that she procured for her young friend the brilliant and honourable rank in society to which this interesting girl was entitled, and which Ney's military rank, and the high respectability of his Jocharacter, were calculated to secure for her. sephine therefore gave Ney a letter of introduc

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