The Conspiracy of General Malet, 1812

At half-past two on the morning of October 23rd, 1812, three men left a lodging house in an obscure quarter of Paris and began to walk, through drenching rain, towards the Popincourt Barracks. The first man had twisted around his waist a tricolour sash which gave him a vaguely official dignity: this was Andre Boutreux, aged 28, an unsuccessful poet and student of law from Rennes, now doing his best to look as much like a commissioner of police as he could. The second man wore, self-consciously, a captain’s uniform: this was Jean-Auguste Rateau, and until late the previous night he had been a corporal in the National Guard of Paris. Neither (if one may believe the statements which each made later) knew quite where he was going, nor why he had suddenly achieved such dazzling promotion. The third man wore the gold-embroidered uniform and plumed hat of a general of brigade. This was General Claude-François Malet, and he had no doubts whatever about his destination or his purpose. He had broken out of prison a few hours earlier, and he was on his way to overthrow the Napoleonic Empire.