The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-22 00:00:00

MARSHAL BAZAINE'S ESCAPE.

The Paris Sol, publishes the following details -
" It follows from information which we hare re-
ceived that the steamer Baron Rims° i 11/Rol freighted
at Genoi through the medium of a foreigner established
in Italy. The price agreed iii was I,ooof. a day, and
the whole am mot 6,000 f. Tha captain was h,mo want of
the quality of the personage for whom Is vessel was
destined, and thought that be was going to take up
some foreign princes in France who wanted to proceed
from the Gulf Juan to Genoa by sea. Consequently
he made some resistance when he learnt the real
state of the case. It was only on the urgency of
M. X , who was on board, and who invoked the
text of the contract made between the owners of the
vessel and the house which had hired it, that he gave
way. On arriving at Genoa, the Marshal, who had
assumed the demeanour and quality of a servant to
his own wife, landed behind the lady, who repre-
sented herself as Madame RuII, carrying on his
shoulders a trunk with which he concealed his
countenance. In that way they reached the HUtel
Feder, which is close to the quay and the port. The in
cognito had nevertheless been disclosed by the crew of
the steamer, and a report was soon spread that
the Marshal had alighted at the hotel above men-
tioned. A crowd began to collect, which, without any
menacing aspect, did not fail to cause some embarrass-
ment to the master of the hotel, and he could only in-
duce the people to disperse by assuring them that his
guests, immediately after their arrival, had gone to the
station of Acquaverde, where they had taken tickets
for Milan." Marshal Bazaine's brother writes to the
Figaro denying that the Marshal ever gave his parole
that he would not attempt to escape,

The Cologne Gazette gives the following particulars of the
Marshal's escape as derived from himself

From his sitting room the prisoner was obliged, in
order to arrive at the terrace (his promenade), to pass
a bridge, and to descend some steps at the end of it.
The bridge was enclosed by walls on both sides, on one
of which stood the guard. A tent-roof was spread
over the bridge to keep off the rays of the sun, which
also concealed from those standing at the foot of the
steps the persons on the bridge. On the south-eastern
point of the island, which has a steep descent into the
sea, the Marshal had arranged a little kitchen-garden,
in which he worked much and watered his beans. There
his flight was to be effected. On a far projecting part
of this garden the Marshal discovered one day that an
old gutter for carrying off the rain water which poured
through the rock was tilled up by fragments of wall
and rubble. Every day the Marshal worked to
open it gradually, and had to conceal with stones and
grass what he was doing from the eyes of spies. At
last the opening was completed. If inside the gutter
two streng iron bars were placed across the rock, and
if to the bars a strong rope ending with an iron ring
and penetrating through the other side of the gutter
was attached, a rope ladder could be fastened to it
strong enough to carry even so corpulent a man as the
Marshal. In the gutter there was ro rn enough to
hide the rope ladder and ropes till the decisive day.
The most difficult part was to arrive unnoticed at the
gutter. Every evening Mudd (the gaoler) accom-
panied the prisoner on his return from the terrace
across the bridge to his rooms. Thenthe door was closed
by the warders and escape rendered imp ssible. The
Marshal resolved to trust to a happy chance, and to
expect the day agreed on with his wife for the daring
act. The night from last Sunday to Monday was
chosen. When at ten o'clock the Marshal arrived
with Marchi at the flight of steps, he asked him not to
take any more trouble, as this way to the rooms was
now very short. Marcia let him,elf he persuaded.
The Marshal mounted alone, crossed the bridge, the
bait roof of which concealed him for a moment from
those outside, feigned to open and shut the door, which I
was closed later the unsuspecting warders, leaped
across the wall at the left of the bridge, went softly
along the outer wall, and reached the gotter, having
now passed the first,l anger. A thick rope, provided with
loony knits, and at threw, with a strongiron hook, was
f,:stened 411 Lie ring, and the descent, 80 ft deep, beAan
ii ith the danger of !wing fonaehed swains: the project-
vii cliffs or of falling into this sea, lashed by a
file ions Mistral. The Marshal, who nrol gr.:nod unieh
strength during his captivity, had also put on 5 strong,
lizlitly-litting belt, with an iron los lc in front, so that
he eould fasten himself to a knot of the rope whenever
he required a short root, Arrived at the middle of the
rope, lie perceived a icabls light beneath him. He
knew now that his wife was them Ile replied by the
signal agreed on, lighting a match, ahowir.g hi thus
suspended. His hands swelled and blesl, the chits
hurt him everywhere—thick cloth trousers, still damp
from the 84a waters 44) covered all over with holes,
and show what the flaring mass must, have suffered.
Having reached the end of the rope, but not the
strand, he let himself drop into the sea, and swam
towards the boat in which were his faithful wife and
her courageous cousin. Before reaching it his
strength left him, and Alvarez de Rull, his youthful
deliverer, had to lift the heavy man into the rolling
boat. After one hour's rowing they reached the
peninsula of Croisette. At some distance the barge of
the steamer Baron Risaa.li, hired by Mdme. Bazaine
for a pretended pleasure trip, waited for them, and
brought them towards one in the morning on board
the steamer. The captain did not know the name of
his iruest. Mdme. Bazaine, when going on land with
the barge, had announced that she would engage a
valet and perhaps a Chambermaid for her voyage. The
Marshal was introduced as the nawly-eng valet,
and went at once to his cabin, which he aid c.-. 1 leave
again before the landing at Genoa. The Marshal and
Mdme. Bazaine state most explicitly that they have
had no accomplices, and began and executed the work
alone.

The same paper, speaking of Marshal Baraine's so.
iourn at Cologne, says :—" Young and beautiful, with
luxuriant black hair and black eyes, of a charming
figure and bewitching loveliness, Nldme. Bazaine has
passed the days of splendour at the side of her hue.