Show MICHEL Mill And now we are asked to believe upon the strength of the literary and other researches of a reverend gentleman gentle-man from North Carolina Mr J Weston Wes-ton that the romantic account of Don Caeuar de Bazans marvelous escape from death when fired upon by a troop of soldiers at ten paces has a counterpart counter-part in real life in the case of Marshal Nay the first Napoleons right arm in battle the bravest of the brave Mr Weston is the author of a volume devoted to the consideration of Historic His-toric Doubts as to the Execution of Marshal Ney and has just informed his publishers of the discovery of further evidence In support of his theory The evidence being nothing less than a son of the marshal now an old man eightyeight years old living near Louisville Kentucky This man claims that his father Marshal Nay was not hit by the bullets aimed at him on the field of execution and the evening after his supposed execution execu-tion he visited the house of his mother in Paris remained a few minutes and afterwards escaped to America settling in North Carolina where he lived as Peter Stuart Ney and followed the occupation of schoolmaster In North and South Carolina until November I 15 1846 when he died I I would be a pleasant thing to believe be-lieve that this remarkable man ended his stormy career in this way for we I always thought that the execution of I the brave mal hn the dull grey of that early December morning in 1815 was I rather a sad period to so brilliant a career When he left the carriage which brought him and the officer II charged with the duty of killing him to theplace ofexecution he was asked his name title and station by a recorder re-corder whereupon he answered Plain Mlohel Ney soon to become a mere handfuL dust lie faced the guards detailed for the service and a moment latei fell pierced by bullets I is the most unlikely thing on earth I that tlje shotswere blank or that the soldiers aimedto miss him The house of Louis XVIII which had just come I in possession of the throne were not sufficiently secure in their seats tot to-t in such a matter as this or to trust Neys execution to officers likely to connive at his escape Ney had once betrayed the trust of Louis when notwithstanding not-withstanding the king had made him a poor he deserted to Napoleon on the the escape of the latter from Elba The offense was too great to be pardoned par-doned the execution too important to be trusted to careless 01 unfaithful hands And while it might be pleasant to think of the old soldier spending the evening of his life under the sunny skies of the Carolinas where both day and night would remind him of his own sunny France the theory can scarcely be considered probable and Ney himself the sun of glory for which he lived having gone down would beyond question have sought rather than attempt to avoid the fate which history has set down as his Ney a schoolmaster in rural South I Carolina The hero of a hundred battle bat-tle fields the fortunes of war turning at last against him would have preferred pre-ferred drawing his cloak about him and with prideexpanding breast welcome wel-come the fatal bullets that in battle had so strangely passed him by Marshal Ney fell thus early in the morning of the 7th of December 1815 a cold drizzling rain falling the while as if the skies which had looked upon his valor wept in pity of his death |