Claude François de Malet Claude François de Malet ( June 28 , 1754 – October 29 , 1812 ) was born in Dole to an aristocratic family . He was executed by firing squad , six days after staging a failed republican coup d ' état as Napoleon I returned from the disastrous Russian campaign in 1812 . Before and during the French Revolution . Malet enlisted as a Musketeer at age seventeen as was common for a young nobleman of the Ancien Régime , but King Louis XVI disbanded the musketeer regiments in 1776 for budgetary reasons . In 1790 Malet ' s family disinherited him for supporting the French revolution , when he became commander of his home town ' s National Guard and celebrated the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille . Malet volunteered for the Revolutionary army when war broke out and was assigned to the 50th infantry regiment of the Army of the Rhine as a captain . He was discharged in 1795 , but reenlisted again in March 1797 , first as Chief of Staff of the 6th division , then in 1799 as Chief of Staff of the Army of the Alps under the command of general Jean Étienne Championnet . After receiving honourable citations from both Championnet and general André Masséna for defending the Little St . Bernard Pass in August 1799 , Malet was promoted to Brigadier General on October 19 , 1799 . He fought in the Helvetian Republic throughout 1801 , until the fighting ended with the Second Coalition in 1802 by the treaties of Lunéville and Amiens . After the Directory . After the coups of the 30 Prairial and 18 Brumaire of year VIII that replaced the French Directory with the French Consulate , Malet voted against the referendum confirming Napoléon Bonaparte as First Consul . Malet was relegated to Bordeaux , then to Les Sables d ' Olonne , as his opposition to Bonaparte became even more vehement , although he became Commander of the Légion d ' honneur during these years . In 1805 he was discharged from active duty ; Malet then resigned after Napoleon ' s coronation as Emperor . He was appointed Governor of Pavia in the Kingdom of Italy . Eugène de Beauharnais expelled him on allegations of black market activities and propaganda , and he was interned in the La Force prison from July 1 , 1807 to May 30 , 1808 . Released without trial , he was jailed again the next year on suspicion of belonging to the Philadelphes , a republican and anti - Bonapartist Masonic society . He remained under house arrest in Paris from July 1810 , until his escape on October 23 , 1812 . Coup d ' état of 1812 . During his detention Malet conceived of and planned Napoleon ' s overthrow in a daring coup d ' état . The plan was simple : on October 23 , 1812 during the Emperor ' s absence on the Russian front , Malet planned to announce the death of Napoleon and to establish a provisional government . Malet decided to proclaim his death via the use of forged documentation , hoping the plausible declaration would be believable . Malet ' s proposed provisional government would be composed of Mathieu de Montmorency , Alexis de Noailles , General Moreau as vice president , Lazare Carnot as president , Marshal Augereau , ex - legislator Bigonnet , Count Frochot , Prefect of the Seine , ex - legislator Florent Guiot , Destutt de Tracy , Malet himself , Vice - Admiral Truguet , Senator Volney , and Senator Garrat . The forces involved in the coup were the Gendarmerie forces of Paris ( which were dissolved thereafter and formed the 134th Line Infantry Regiment ) and the 10th Cohort of the French National Guard . Malet prepared complex instructions and forged documents for his accomplices . This preliminary work was immense , since it was necessary to give each accomplice an important role , specific instructions , and forged copies of the " senatus consultum " and the proclamations . As soon as a set of instructions was completely prepared , the dispatch was closed , sealed , numbered and entrusted to the custody of a Spanish priest who lived in Saint - Gilles street , close to the barracks of the 10th National Guard Cohort . On the night of the October 23 , Malet escaped his captivity . Dressed in a general ' s uniform , he presented himself at the La Force prison and , using forged orders , obtained the release of Generals Lahorie and Guidal , to whom he announced Napoleon ' s demise on October 7 at the Russian front near Moscow . He then convinced Lahorie and Guidal that immediate action was necessary and showed the forged documents leading them to believe the Senate had already reacted to the death of the Emperor . In the pre - dawn hours of October 23 Malet and his accomplices went to the barracks of the Gendarmerie . Malet awoke commanders and soldiers announced the Emperor ' s death and presented his forged documents as evidence . According to the " orders " in the forged documents , Malet had the troops take up their weapons and dispatched detachments of the 10th Cohort in columns to various locations to make arrests . A detachment of the 10th Cohort , led by Lahorie , went to the residence of the Duke of Rovigo , Minister of the Police . The Duke was taken by surprise and conveyed to La Force prison , while another detachment arrested the prefect of the police force . A third column went to the town hall of Paris and , while the troops took positions in place de Grève , the commanders took the key of the Midsummer ' s Day alarm bell , called the prefect Frochot and prepared the room for a provisional government . The death of the Emperor was believed throughout Paris , and Malet settled into the offices of the district general of the Place Vendôme , which offered the facilities necessary to play his part of commander . When General Pierre - Augustin Hulin , commander of the Paris Garrison , requested verification of the senatorial documents , Malet shot and injured him . Finally , Malet ' s actions were ended when a senior military police officer , Major Laborde , recognized that the new general of the Senate in fact was the prisoner Malet . Laborde disarmed Malet , returned him to prison , and ordered the 10th Cohort back to its barracks . Consequences of the Malet Conspiracy . Malet ' s plan was skillfully conceived . It focused on the weakness of the Imperial government , and calculated the consequences of passive obedience . Although unsuccessful , Malet ' s attempted coup d ' état can be seen as revealing a fatal weakness of the new dynasty . This coup d ' état caused the anger of Napoleon I because of its simplicity : nobody had had the idea to shout , " Napoleon died ! Long Live Napoleon II ! " On the other hand , the coup attempt was in fact thwarted . With the exception of two men , 23 civilians and officers , including Malet , Guidal and Lahorie , were tried on October 29 , 1812 before a council of war and executed on the plain of Grenelle on October 31 . The final result of the unsuccessful Malet conspiracy was the strained relations between the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Police .