Pinching of the Nose - Ney's Declaration, I Swear It Smells of Violet, 1815 (engraving)

Serrement de Nez - Serment de Ney, Je Jure que ca Sent la Violette. Michel Ney (1769-1815), popularly known as Marshal Ney, was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. A pun in which the text completes the image - Ney sounds like Nez which is French for nose. On Napoleon's return from exile in Elba, Ney promised the king that he would stop Napoleon on his march to Paris, but instead he joined Napoleon and commanded in the Waterloo campaign. He was condemned for treason by the house of peers and shot.