My first entry this year is to record a loss. Another
old friend is gone,—Sir Robert
Wilson. Sir Robert Wilson was born in 1777. He entered the army
very early. He was much employed on diplomatic missions of delicacy and
importance. In 1812, he was associated with Sir
Raoul Liston on a mission to the Emperor Alexander, to prevail on him to make peace with Turkey,
and not to enter into any negociations with Napoleon. He had seen a great deal of service; but the action
with which his name will be for ever associated in the memory of Englishmen is
the generous and gallant assistance he lent to effect the escape of Count Lavallette, generously perilling both
his personal liberty and his position in life. It was an act of pure
generosity, for he had never even seen the Count. It was in January, 1816.
Lavallette had been condemned to be guillotined, and
all the attempts to
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The escape was entirely successful; but on Sir Robert’s return to Paris the police, seeing his coach covered with mud, as though from a long journey, set their spies upon his servant, and contrived to extract from him that his master had been to Mons with an officer of the guards who could not speak a word of English. They bribed him to carry the correspondence of Sir Robert to the prefect of police (for he was trusted by his master to carry his letters). The servant betrayed his trust, and the first letter they got hold of was a long despatch to Earl Grey, containing full details of the escape. Sir Robert and his two friends were immediately apprehended; but eventually they did not fall victims to their generosity. Sir Robert, when young, had been a very handsome man, with a fine commanding presence.
