They asked the woman to help them, for now they had no money. The baron told the sailor that he would give him fifty livres at Boulogne, if he landed them there. He was an honest fellow, brought them a sailor’s clothes, and went along the beach with them, replying, ‘Fishermen’ to the many challenges they got. Finding a small boat, they shoved it off, and got in, so as to board a fishing-smuggling smack riding outside. It was a foul night, and three times they were hurled back ashore, wet to the skin; so they returned. The next day the weather moderated and they got off, under the very lee of a police boat, which they deceived by pretending to get nets out. In six hours they were within sight of Boulogne, but were obliged to keep off or they would be fired upon, until they had signalled and were told to come in. At this time England sent by smugglers a quantity of incendiary pamphlets which the French coast-guard had orders to seize, so that Le Jeune and Stoffel were searched and, guarded by armed men, marched to the Commissary of Police, ‘just as if’, Le Jeune said, ‘we were infected with the plague.’ Luckily, the Commissary was an old friend of the baron, so they had no further trouble, but paid the sailor his fifty livres, and went to Paris. At an interview with the Emperor, the latter said to Le Jeune, ‘And did you see Lefebvre-Desnouettes?’ ‘No, sire, but I wrote to him. He is extremely anxious to get back to you, and is beginning to lose hope of being exchanged. He would do as I have done if he were not afraid of your Majesty’s displeasure.’ ‘Oh! Let him come! Let him come! I shall be very glad to see him,’ said the Emperor. ‘Does your Majesty give me leave to tell him so in your name?’ ‘Yes, yes. Don’t lose any time.’ So Madame Lefebvre-Desnouettes got a passport, and went over to England, and her presence did much to distract the attention of the general’s guardians, and made his escape comparatively easy. The general, as a German or Russian Count, Madame in boy’s clothes as his son, and an A.D.C. got up as a valet-de-chambre, went in a post-chaise from Cheltenham to London, where they rested for a couple of hours at Sablonière’s in Leicester Square, then at midnight left for Dover and thence to Paris. General Osten, second in command at Flushing, on parole at Lichfield, was another gentleman who was helped to get off by a lady member of his family. His daughter had come with him from Flushing, and in December 1809 went away with all her father’s heavy baggage. In February 1810, Waddell, the escape agent, met the general and two other officers in Birmingham, and forty-six hours later landed with them in Holland.