on any subject. We not only consider the accusation fully proved against him, but we believe that his conduct was even worse than it appeared to be." Sentencing Sentenced to death by the government of the Third Republic following the war. The court unanimously sentenced Bazaine to 'degradation and death', and to pay the costs of the enormous trial (300,000 francs), which was to leave Bazaine's family penniless. Bazaine's reaction on being read the sentence of the court was "It is my life you want, take it at once, let me be shot immediately, but preserve my family". Since the Revolution, only two French Marshals have been condemned to death — Ney, by a Bourbon, and Bazaine, by an Orléans. But, as though the judges themselves felt a twinge of conscience at the sentence, they immediately and unanimously signed a petition for 'Executive Clemency' to the President of the Third Republic, Marshal MacMahon, although Bazaine refused to sign this petition himself. Bazaine petitioned the government to commute his punishment to a simple banishment. MacMahon, was a fellow Foreign Legion Officer, had served in many campaigns alongside Bazaine, also been beaten at Sedan. MacMahon was visibly disgusted when he received the news of the Court's decision and was incensed by their attempt to pass responsibility to him. MacMahon first proposed life imprisonment, though he softened and commuted the punishment of death to twenty years' imprisonment and remitted the disgrace of the formalities of a military degradation ceremony. Bazaine wrote to thank his fellow legionnaire, though he added, tongue in cheek, that he might have let his feelings run away with him. It was an academic concession for a man nearing sixty-three. Other have judged this move harshly in later years, with Victor Hugo writing “Mac-Mahon absolves Bazaine. Sedan washes Metz. The fool protects the traitor." Escape Bazaine was incarcerated in the Fort Royal on Île Sainte-Marguerite and treated rather as an exile than as a convict. During the night of 9–10 August 1874, at the instigation of his wife (Pepita) and assistance, who was only twenty-six in 1873, and with the help of ex-Captain Doineau of the Arab Bureaux, his aide de camp lieutenant-colonel Henri-Léon Willette, Bazaine escaped after two hundred and twenty-one days of imprisonment. During the night of 10 August 1874, using parcel rope supplied by Angelo Hayter, (son of the Court Painter Sir George Hayter) and baggage straps