Few circumstances created a greater sensation than the escape of
Lavalette from the Conciergerie, after he had been destined by the
French Government to give employment to the guillotine. The means by
which the prisoner avoided his fate and disappointed his enemies,
produced a deep respect for the English character, and led the French
to believe that, however much the Governments of France and England
might be disposed to foster feelings either of friendship or of enmity,
individuals could entertain the deepest sense of regard for each other,
and that a chivalrous feeling of honour would urge them on to the
exercise of the noblest feelings of our nature. This incident likewise
had a salutary influence in preventing acts of cruelty and of
bloodshed, which were doubtless contemplated by those in power.
Lavalette had been, under the Imperial Government, head of the Post
Office, which place he filled on the return of the Bourbons; and when
the Emperor Napoleon arrived from Elba, he continued still to be thus
employed. Doubtless, on all occasions when opportunity presented
itself, he did all in his power to serve his great master; to whom,
indeed, he was allied by domestic ties, having married into the
Beauharnais family. When Louis the Eighteenth returned to Paris after
the battle of Waterloo, Lavalette and the unfortunate Marshal Ney were
singled out as traitors to the Bourbon cause, and tried, convicted, and
sentenced to death. The 26th of December was the day fixed for the
execution of Lavalette, a man of high respectability and of great
connections, whose only fault was fidelity to his chief. On the
evening of the 21st, Madame Lavalette, accompanied by her daughter and
her governess, Madame Dutoit, a lady of seventy years of age, presented
herself at the Conciergerie, to take a last farewell of her husband.
She arrived at the prison in a sedan chair. On this very day the
Procureur-general had given an order that no one should be admitted
without an order signed by himself; the greffier having, however, on
previous occasions been accustomed to receive Madame Lavalette with the
two ladies who now sought also to enter the cell, did not object to it;
so these three ladies proposed to take coffee with Lavalette. The under
gaoler was sent to a neighbouring cafe to obtain it, and during his
absence Lavalette exchanged dresses with his wife. He managed to pass
undetected out of the prison, accompanied by his daughter, and entered
the chair in which Madame Lavalette had arrived; which, owing to the
management of a faithful valet, had been placed so that no observation
could be made of the person entering it. The bearers found the chair
somewhat heavier than usual, but were ignorant of the change that had
taken place, and were glad to find, after proceeding a short distance,
that the individual within preferred walking home, and giving up the
sedan to the young lady. On the greffier entering the cell, he quickly
discovered the ruse, and gave the alarm; the under gaoler was
despatched to stop the chair, but he was too late.
Lavalette had formed a friendship with a young Englishman of the name
of Bruce; to whom he immediately had recourse, throwing himself upon
his generosity and kind feeling for protection, which was
unhesitatingly afforded. But as Bruce could do nothing alone, he
consulted two English friends who had shown considerable sympathy for
the fate of Marshal Ney--men of liberal principles and undoubted
honour, and both of them officers in the British service: these were
Captain Hutchinson and General Sir Robert Wilson. To the latter was
committed the most difficult task, that of conveying out of France the
condemned prisoner; but for this achievement few men were better fitted
than Sir Robert Wilson, a man of fertile imagination, ready courage,
great assurance, and singular power of command over others; who spoke
French well, and was intimately acquainted with the military habits of
different nations.
Sir Robert Wilson's career was a singular one: he had commenced life an
ardent enemy of Bonaparte, and it was upon his evidence, collected in
Egypt and published to the world, that the great general was for a long
time believed to have poisoned his wounded soldiers at Jaffa.
Afterwards he was attached to the Allied Sovereigns in their great
campaign; but upon his arrival in Paris, his views of public affairs
became suddenly changed; he threw off the yoke of preconceived
opinions, became an ardent liberal, and so continued to the last hours
of his life. The cause of this sudden change of opinion has never been
thoroughly known, but certain it is that on every occasion he supported
liberal opinions with a firmness and courage that astonished those who
had known him in his earlier days.
Sir Robert undertook, in the midst of great dangers and difficulties,
to convey Lavalette out of France; having dressed him in the uniform of
an English officer, and obtained a passport under a feigned name, he
took him in a cabriolet past the barriers as far as Compiegne, where a
carriage was waiting for them. They passed through sundry examinations
at the fortified towns, but fortunately escaped; the great difficulty
being that, owing to Lavalette's having been the director of the posts,
his countenance was familiar to almost all the postmasters who supplied
relays of horses. At Cambray three hours were lost, from the gates
being shut, and at Valenciennes they underwent three examinations; but
eventually they got out of France. The police, however, became
acquainted with the fact that Lavalette had been concealed in the Rue
de Helder for three days, at the apartments of Mr. Bruce, and this
enabled them to trace all the circumstances, showing that it was at the
apartments of Hutchinson that Lavalette had changed his dress, and that
he had remained there the night before he quitted Paris. The
consequence was that Sir Robert Wilson, Bruce, and Hutchinson, were
tried for aiding the escape of a prisoner; and each of them was
condemned to three months' imprisonment: the under-gaoler, who had
evidently been well paid for services rendered, had two years'
confinement allotted to him. I went to see Sir Robert Wilson during his
stay in the Conciergerie--a punishment not very difficult to bear, but
which marked him as a popular hero for his life. A circumstance I
remember made a strong impression on me, proving that, however great
may be the courage of a man in trying circumstances, a trifling
incident might severely shake his nerves. I was accompanied by a
favourite dog of the Countess of Oxford, who, not being aware of the
high character of Sir Robert, or dissatisfied with his physiognomy, or
for some good canine reason, took a sudden antipathy, and inserted his
teeth into a somewhat fleshy part, but without doing much injury. The
effect, however, on the General was extraordinary: he was most earnest
to have the dog killed; but being certain that the animal was in no way
diseased, I avoided obeying his wishes, and fear that I thus lost the
good graces of the worthy man.