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.
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