After Antoine-Marie Chamans de Lavallette, on board the frigate Artemise, had escorted the disgraced Grand Master Frederick von Hompesch into the Adriatic Gulf on his way to Trieste, he rejoined the French fleet as it sailed along the north coast of Crete towards Egypt.

In the meantime, Admiral Horatio Nelson, who had narrowly missed intercepting them in the Sicilian Channel, opted to sail along the southern coast of Crete. As a result, he reached Egypt before Napoleon Bonaparte’s convoy and was dismayed to find no sign of the French.

The English fleet then sailed back westwards, while the French reached Egypt and stormed and captured Alexandria. Napoleon moved his troops inland while the French fleet was anchored in the Bay of Aboukir. It was here that Nelson eventually discovered them on August 1. He ordered an immediate attack on the French, who were unprepared.

The resulting Battle of the Nile was a great victory for the English admiral, the turning point being the violent explosion of the formidable L’Orient, the French flagship and pride of the fleet, which was now practically destroyed. Together with the L’Orient, many treasures which had been plundered from the Order in Malta were lost.

Some time before Nelson’s victory at Aboukir, Lavallette had decided to leave the fleet (in all probability, a life-saving decision) and to make his way inland in order to rejoin Bonaparte as his aide-de camp. He participated in the Battle of Salahieh, in which the Mamlukes, under Ibrahim-Bey, were defeated by the French.

It was just after this victory that Napoleon learnt of the Aboukir Bay disaster, and it was Lavallette who was the bearer of the bad news.

He writes that General Kléber’s aide-de-camp, who had been dispatched to inform Napoleon of Nelson’s victory, could not proceed any further, and he entrusted a written note with details of the defeat to a messenger who was intercepted by Lavallette. The latter, after reading the note, approached Napoleon and broke the news.

The commander-in-chief re­main­ed calm and asked his aide-de-camp to maintain secrecy for the time being. Later that evening, Napoleon broke the sad news to his officers during a jovial dinner, and is quoted by Lavallette as saying: “Well, you appear to be enjoying your stay in this country; this is fortunate for we no longer have a fleet to take us back to Europe”.

After seeing further action in the Syrian campaign, Lavallette accompanied Napoleon back to Cairo. While camped near the Great Pyramid, they were in­formed that a large Ottoman force had landed at Aboukir Bay, attacked the fortifications and slaughtered the small French garrison stationed there.

Napoleon immediately marched on Aboukir intent on punishing the Turks. He attacked them just outside Aboukir and defeated them in what has since been referred to as the Battle of Aboukir. Napoleon, however, lost some of his best officers in this action, and with the Egyptian campaign stagnating and political trouble brewing back in Europe he felt he had nothing useful left to do in Egypt.

He decided to leave the Egyptian campaign, which was to be continued under General Kléber, and return to France. He secretly left Egypt in August, embarking on the frigate Muiron together with his carefully chosen favourites, Lavallette among them, and the ‘savants’, scholars and artists who had formed the scientific backbone of the Egyptian campaign. Their destination: Ajaccio, Napoleon’s birthplace, which he had left eight years earlier as a mere captain. They were accompanied by the frigate La Carriere with other notables on board.

Lavallette relates that on arrival in Ajaccio in early October, they were unable to go ashore because of strict quarantine, since the plague was still prevalent in Egypt. The inhabitants of Ajaccio, on hearing that their illustrious compatriot was on the Muiron, “took to the boats and boarded the frigate, effectively breaking the quarantine”. Among the boarders was an old woman who, on seeing Napoleon, cried out “Caro figlio”, and Napoleon, overcome by emotion, retorted “Madre”. She was his old nurse.

Napoleon now took stock of the situation: Italy was lost, battles were raging in Switzerland, and changes were taking place in Paris in the higher levels of the Directoire in the midst of great civil disorder.

He continued his voyage to France, arriving in Paris in mid-October. He was not very well received by the new members of the Directoire, with whom he was not previously acquainted. The public, however, warmly welcomed Napoleon as he was perceived to be the person who could bring back some order to the capital.

Recognising the enthusiasm of the populace, the Directoire rather reluctantly gave a state dinner in honour of Napoleon in the church of Saint-Sulpice, the same church where Lavallette had been baptised 30 years earlier. Lavalette summed up the atmosphere at the dinner as follows: “I have never seen a more silent assemblage where the guests showed such lack of intimacy and conviviality.”

In the days that followed there was much political activity, culminating in the nomination on January 25, 1800, of Napoleon as First Consul, together with Messrs Cambacérès and Lebrun as Second and Third Consuls respectively.

One of Napoleon’s first acts as First Consul was to send Lavallette as his special envoy to Saxe with plenipotentiary powers to negotiate an armistice with Austria. His mission was successful, and on Christmas Day, 1800, the armistice was signed.

As he had been promised by Napoleon, Lavallette was immediately recalled to Paris, where, after refusing the post of administrator of the Caisse d’Ammortissements, he was appointed administrator of the postal service in November 1801.

One of his first acts was the reorganisation of the so-called Cabinet Noire, a procedure for secretly opening mail sent by or to people under suspicion for intelligence-gathering purposes. In 1804, the postal service was raised to a Directorate, and Lavallette was appointed director-general.

A year later he introduced a courier service using mounted postmen connecting Paris with all regions of France, and later on with other European cities. Letters and documents were placed in sealed dispatch boxes to which only the sender and recipient had keys. This service was very successful, so much so that it lasted until 1872.

On November 27, 1808, Napoleon made Lavallette Count of the Empire and he assumed the title Comte de Lavallette. On his return from the Russian campaign in November 1813, Napoleon took on Lavallette as his special confidante, spending an hour every evening with him discussing affairs of state.

A few days before Napoleon’s abdication on April 4, 1814, and his ensuing exile, Lavallette gave up his duties at the Directorate of Posts. Napoleon’s forced stay in Elba lasted until February 26, 1815, when he escaped and returned to France. By March 20, he had re-established himself as Emperor of France. The following day, Lavallette again officially resumed his duties at the Directorate of Posts.

The defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, signalled his final downfall and he abdicated for the second time four days later.

With Napoleon now exiled in faraway St Helena, Lavallette had lost his powerful protector. He was taken to the Prefecture of Police on July 18 and interrogated for six days.

On July 24 he was imprisoned in the Conciergerie and charged with collaborating with Napoleon during his exile in Elba and participating in the conspiracy of March 20.

His trial started on November 20, and the following day he was found guilty and condemned to death. His appointment with Joseph-Ignace Guillotine’s infernal invention was fixed for December 21, 1815.

Lavallette’s imprisonment was the precursor to the event for which he is now still renowned in France: his escape on the very eve of his execution. On the evening of December 20, his wife Emilie-Louise, together with her daughter Joséphine and a governess, presented themselves at the Conciergerie to have their last dinner with the condemned count.

Much more than a final dinner had been planned, however, for later that evening, Lavallette exchanged clothes with his wife and it was the Comte de Lavallette who left the Conciergerie accompanied by his daughter and her governess.

He departed in a sedan chair and was assisted in finding safe refuge by a number of his friends.

One of Lavallette’s first acts was the reorganisation of the Cabinet Noire, a procedure for secretly opening mail sent by or to people under suspicion

In another historical turnaround, his subsequent departure from France to Germany via Belgium was planned and assisted by three members of the ‘Old Enemy’ – Captain Hutchinson, Crawford Bruce and General Sir Robert Wilson.

On January 18, 1816, Lavallette, wearing the uniform of an English officer, left in an open carriage together with Hutchinson and Wilson. The latter was later arrested after his dispatch describing the escape was intercepted, probably in the Cabinet Noire which Lavallette himself had promoted. Lavallette’s detailed description of the escape and its aftermath in his autobiography make very interesting reading.

The heroic Madame de Lavallette was kept in prison until January 23, 1816. Psychologically and physically exhausted, she fell ill.

In 1822, Lavallette was pardoned and he returned to France, and continued to live in Paris with his ailing wife and their daughter.

Lavallette’s imprisonment was the precursor to the event for which he is now still renowned in France: his escape on the very eve of his execution

He died on February 15, 1830, from lung cancer. Following an impressive funeral service worthy of one of the great names of the Empire, he was laid to rest in the Père Lachaise cemetery. The sealed tomb is decorated with a marble bas-relief depicting his daring prison escape.

On March 20, 1954, Journée du Timbre, the French postal authority issued a commemorative stamp dedicated to Lavallette. The 12 franc (plus three francs for charity) light brown and green stamp shows a profile of the count facing left. It is inscribed ‘Lavallette – Directeur Général Des Postes 1804-1825’.

Concluded.