HOW NAPOLEON ESCAPED.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 28 August 1912, Page 3

HOW NAPOLEON ESCAPED.

Napoleon the Third's nickname, "Badinguet," recently discussed in a French journal, recalls his dramatic escape from the fortress of Ham, in Northern France, on May 25, 1846. The sole credit for the escape lay with the young Prince himself. He made his valet, Thelin, buy a black wig, some rouge, a cap, which was scrubbed with pumice-stone, and a pair of sabots. Then he cut off his moustache, put on a blue apron,^_a blue pair of trousers, and a close-fit-ting shirt of coarse stuff..

Some workmen were repairing that part of the fortreses where the Prince lodged, and this helped his disguise, so much so that the two watchmen entertained- no suspicions jeirurding the man who walked past them and out at the great gate,, a pipe in his mouth, and a plank on his shoulder. The sergeant on duty at the" drawbridge was reading a letter as he passed, and took no notice of him. It was then 5 o'clock in the morning.

Four times tfhat day, the last time at sin the afternoon, did the Governor, Demarle, send for the-Prince. Each time Doctor Conneau jreplied that the prisoner could not see anybody because he had taken medicine. When at length the Governor lost patience and went to the Prince's room he walked up to tJhe bed on which the supposed invalid was lying, and discovered that a very presentable dummy had been put in the place of Louis Napoleon. The fugitive was by that time over the Belgian frontier.