which he knotted into a rope, the 63-year-old attached one end to his body and tied the other end to a gargoyle and climbed down the 300 foot cliffs to a boat, which his wife had brought out from Cannes. They sailed to Genoa in Italy, and from there Bazaine came to London with his young family where he stayed for a time with his Hayter relations. Bazaine was the only prisoner to have escaped from the Fort Royal. A terrace of the fort, now housing a museum, is today named after Bazaine, due to his legendary escape. Later life By midsummer 1875, Bazaine had settled in Madrid, where he was treated with marked respect by the Spanish government of Alfonso XII, in deference to his role in the Carlist War. Queen Isabella had arranged lodgings for him and his family in the Calle Hortaleza. With his own means stripped of him, he had his eldest son's pay to depend upon besides the assistance of some well-known army men who were charitable to the old soldier. However Bazaine's position in society was undermined by the negative influence of France. Admiral Jaures (French Ambassador in Madrid) had made it a rule to leave every ball, fete, or drawing room where he met Bazaine, on several instances naming the Court-Martial as the reason. Assassination attempt On 18 April 1887, Hillairand, a french national and correspondent for the Paris newspaper Courrier de Rochelle, was paying a visit to Bazaine in Madrid. Bazaine's report of the incident was that "He thought, at first, that the man was an applicant for alms, like so many Frenchmen at Madrid". After a short conversation, Hillairand stabbed Bazaine with a dagger (ponaird), who was dangerously wounded on the head. During the attack, Hillairan shouted "J'ai vengé ma patrie." ("I avenged my country."), telling police later that he had come there with the intention of killing Bazaine. The woound was said to be "slight", and Bazaine was described as "slowly recovering" from his wound a month later. Personal life Bazaine was initially married Maria Juaria Gregorio Tormo de la Soledad, on 12 June 1852, during his commandment of the Sidi Bel Abbès (Algeria) subdivision of the 1er R.E.L.E. (1851-1854). His first wife died while he was in Mexico, and Bazaine got engaged and married to Maria-Josefa Pedraza de la Peña y Barragán on 28 May 1865. Bazaine had three