Dear Mr. Cornwell, Having recently re-read the Sharpe series, I happened across an interesting comment of yours in the Historical Notes section of ‘Waterloo’. The remark concerned the fate of Marshal Ney and the possibility that he had escaped his Royalist-imposed death sentence, but seemed to suggest that you did not quite believe this escape to have been feasible. ‘Waterloo’ was originally published in 1990. In the last twenty years, however, much information has become more readily accessible that seems to credibly support the possibility that Marshal Ney’s execution was indeed fabricated and that he subsequently voyaged to the United States and became a well-respected teacher in the Carolinas. My question is: have you been able to peruse the matter any further over the last twenty years, and if so, are you more open-minded with regard to the possibility of Ney’s survival? Yours Respectfully, James McNew Prescott, Arizona