of a statue of Cambronne in Nantes after his death. Other sources reported that Colville insisted and ultimately Cambronne replied with one word: "Merde!" (literally, "Shit!", figuratively, "Go to hell!") This version of the reply became famous in its own right, becoming known as le mot de Cambronne ("the word of Cambronne") and repeated in Victor Hugo's account of Waterloo in his novel Les Misérables and in Edmond Rostand's play L'Aiglon. The name Cambronne was later used as a polite euphemism ("What a load of old Cambronne!") and sometimes even as a verb, "cambronniser". Cambronne always denied both Rougement's account and the one-word response, stating that he could not have said such a thing and remained alive. A series of letters to The Times claimed that British Colonel Hugh Halkett, commanding the 3rd Hanoverian Brigade, captured Cambronne before he made any reply. "The Guard dies ..." statement has also been ascribed to General Claude-Étienne Michel. In July 1845 the sons of General Michel requested a royal decree stating that the words attributed to General Cambronne had in fact been said by their father, producing a number of witnesses and published historical works as evidence. The attribution was left undecided. Further career Cambronne was tried for treason in France, but well defended by the royalist Antoine Pierre Berryer, he was acquitted on 26 April 1816. He later married Mary Osburn, the Scottish nurse who had cared for him after Waterloo. In 1820, Louis XVIII made him Commandant at Lille with the rank of brigadier, and made him a viscount. He retired to his birthplace in 1823, dying there in 1842. A statue of Cambronne was erected in Nantes in 1848, and a square in Paris, the Place Cambronne, also commemorates him. He was buried in Cemetery Miséricorde, Nantes. He makes a fictional appearance in C. S. Forester's Hornblower short story "St. Elizabeth of Hungary". Hornblower discovers Cambronne in the West Indies engaged in an attempt to rescue Napoleon from Saint Helena. Cambronne's exact words at Waterloo are discussed. References 1770 births 1842 deaths Military personnel from Nantes French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Commanders in the French Imperial Guard French generals Viscounts of France Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur People acquitted of treason French Freemasons Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe