British Embassy emulates the solitude of a monastic establishment; with
the exception, however, of that hospitality and courtesy which the traveller
and stranger were wont to experience, even in monasteries.


ESCAPE OF LAVALETTE FROM PRISON


Few circumstances created a greater sensation than the escape of Lavalette
from the Conciergerie, after he had been destined by the French Government
to give employment to the guillotine. The means by which the prisoner
avoided his fate and disappointed his enemies, produced a deep respect
for the English character, and led the French to believe that, however
much the Governments of France and England might be disposed to foster
feelings either of friendship or of enmity, individuals could entertain
the deepest sense of regard for each other, and that a chivalrous feeling
of honour would urge them on to the exercise of the noblest feelings
of our nature. This incident likewise had a salutary influence in preventing
acts of cruelty and of bloodshed, which were doubtless contemplated
by those in power.

Lavalette had been, under the Imperial Government, head of the Post
Office, which place he filled on the return of the Bourbons; and when
the Emperor Napoleon arrived from Elba, he continued still to be thus
employed. Doubtless, on all occasions when opportunity presented itself,
he did all in his power to serve his great master; to whom, indeed,
he was allied by domestic ties, having married into the Beauharnais
family. 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