almost as bad as the Napolean story:
The ship that was taking Napolean to his exile encountered high seas, and was rolling terribly. A gun, on its carraige, got loose: the gun capatain finally managed to get on the cannon, securing the device so that it would roll no more on the deck.
It was said that Napolean gave the man his own military honor off his chest for his brave act: then turned around and ordered the man shot for his derliction in duty that allowed the cannon to get loose in the first place.
Yep, defitnetly a weird world