‘No, sire, but I wrote to him. He is extremely anxious to get back to you, and is beginning to lose hope of being exchanged. He would do as I have done if he were not afraid of your Majesty’s displeasure.’
‘Oh! Let him come! Let him come! I shall be very glad to see him,’ said the Emperor.
‘Does your Majesty give me leave to tell him so in your name?’
‘Yes, yes. Don’t lose any time.’
So Madame Lefebvre-Desnouettes got a passport, and went over to England, and her presence did much to distract the attention of the general’s guardians, and made his escape comparatively easy. The general, as a German or Russian Count, Madame in boy’s clothes as his son, and an A.D.C. got up as a valet-de-chambre, went in a post-chaise from Cheltenham to London, where they rested for a couple of hours at Sablonière’s in Leicester Square, then at midnight left for Dover and thence to Paris.
General Osten, second in command at Flushing, on parole at Lichfield, was another gentleman who was helped to get off by a lady member of his family. His daughter had come with him from Flushing, and in December 1809 went away with all her father’s heavy baggage. In February 1810, Waddell, the escape agent, met the general and two other officers in Birmingham, and forty-six hours later landed with them in Holland.
In this year, 1810, the escapes were so numerous by boats stolen from the shores that the Admiralty issued a warning that owners of boats on beaches should not leave masts, oars, and tackle in them, and in 1812 compensation was refused to a Newton Abbot and to a Paignton fisherman, because prisoners had stolen their boats, which had been left with their gear on the beach, despite warning, and when the prisoners were recaptured it was found that they had destroyed the boats.
In October 1811, six French officers—Bouquet, army surgeon, Leclerc, lieutenant of hussars, Denguiard, army surgeon, Jean Henry, ‘passenger’ on privateer, Gaffé, merchant skipper, and Glenat, army lieutenant, under the guidance of one Johns, left Okehampton, crossed the moor to Bovey Tracey, where they met a woman of whom they asked the way to Torbay. She replied, and while they consulted together, gave the alarm so that the villagers turned out and caught three of the runaways. The other three ran and were pursued. Johns turned on the foremost pursuer and stabbed him so that he died, and two others were wounded by the Frenchmen, but the latter were caught at Torquay. Johns got off, but on November 2 was seen at Chesterfield, where he got work on a Saturday; instead of going to it on Monday morning, however, he decamped, and was seen on the Manchester road, eight miles from Chesterfield. In 1812 a man named Taylor, of Beer Alston, said to be Johns, was arrested, but proved an alibi and was discharged.
In 1812 General Maurin, who may be remembered in connexion with the Crapper trouble at Wantage, escaped with his brother from Abergavenny, whither he had been sent, the smuggler Waddell being paid £300 for his help. At the same time General Brou escaped from Welshpool. Both these officers had been treated with particular leniency and had been allowed unusual privileges, so that the Transport Office comments with great severity upon their behaviour.
On November 8, 1812, a girl named Mary Clarke went in very foggy weather from Wolverhampton to Bridgnorth to meet a friend. She waited for some time, but he did not come; so she turned back towards her inn, where her chaise was waiting. Here was Lieutenant Montbazin, a French naval officer, who had broken his parole from Lichfield, who politely accosted her and asked her if she was going to Wolverhampton. She replied that she was. Was she going to walk? No; she had her chaise. Would she let him have a seat if he paid half expenses? She agreed, and went back for the chaise while he walked on, and she picked him up half a mile on, between some rocks by the roadside. So they went on to Wolverhampton—and to Birmingham. In the meantime he had been missed at Lichfield, and followed, and in the back parlour of the Swan at Birmingham was arrested with the girl.