WHAT HAPPENED TO LAFAYETTE?
by William A. Brown
from KNIGHT TEMPLAR magazine Vol. 34 No.11 November 88
and Vol. 34 No. 12 December 88
What happened to the Marquis de Lafayette, a Brother Mason
and benefactor of our country, during the French Revolution?
Most American historians don't make the answer a part of our
early history, so to find out we must go to the story of the
French Revolution.  The story of the imprisonment of
Lafayette ten years after the American Revolution and the
melodramatic rescue attempt by a grateful young American is
filled with political intrigue, adventure, suspense, and a
convoluted conspiracy in which six countries became
unknowing accessories to the plot.
The story began early on the afternoon of June 13, 1777,
when a French vessel slipped into an isolated bay on the
coast of South Carolina and dropped anchor.  On board was a
young man, the Marquis de Lafayette, who had purchased the
ship for this voyage to America.  With him was Baron de Kalb
and a group of French nobles who had been promised
commissions in the "Armies of the States-General of North
America" by one of the American agents in Paris raising
support for our cause.
The Frenchmen were lost; they had intended to land at
Charleston, but had been driven off their course by fifty
miles to the north.  They had entered a small bay which
belonged to Major Benjamin Huger.  Some men who were
grappling for oysters in the bay led the Frenchmen to the
plantation of Major Huger, himself a descendant of French
Huguenots.  Huger welcomed his unexpected guests and invited
them to stay the night at his plantation.
In time, Lafayette, de Kalb, and the rest of the Frenchmen
were led north, where they joined the Continental Army and
helped to win the American independence.  But among those
who first encountered Lafayette on that night in South
Carolina was one of Huger's sons, Francis Kinloch Huger, who
was then three years old.  It was Francis Huger who,
seventeen years later, took part in one of the oddest
episodes in Lafayette's life: a plot to liberate him from an
Austrian prison.
The tale of how Lafayette came to be incarcerated in the
central European country began during the early events of
the French Revolution.  The Marquis, a leading figure in
those events, was a moderate who actively supported the
concept of a constitutional monarchy, a position that
alienated him from both the royalists and the radicals.  He
was serving as commanding general of the northern army of
France when the "Suspension of the King" was announced on
August 10, 1792.  With France in the control of
revolutionaries like Robespierre and Danton, Lafayette
realized that only the guillotine awaited him at home.
With a group of followers, Lafayette crossed the frontier
into Austria just as the French assembly passed a decree
calling for his arrest as a traitor.  The group hoped to
take refuge in a neutral country, but when they reached the
Austrian lines, Lafayette was arrested as an enemy of
monarchy and sent to Prussia for temporary confinement.
Soon, in London, the French aristocrats living in exile were
making efforts through diplomatic channels to have the
Marquis freed.  They also contacted Justus Erich Bollman, a
doctor from Hanover who was more interested in adventure
than medicine and had already made a reputation for himself
by successfully smuggling many aristocrats, including the
Comte de Narbonne, out of France.  The fact that the Comte
de Narbonne was the ex-minister of war made this quite an
accomplishment.  In fact, the feats of Dr. Bollman
paralleled the escapades of the fictional "Scarlet
Pimperenel."
Early in 1794 Bollman was in Berlin appealing for
Lafayette's freedom.  Unsuccessful there, he traveled to
Magdeburg Prison, where Lafayette had been incarcerated, but
he arrived too late - Lafayette had already been moved to
Neisse.  In May of 1794 he was transferred entirely out of
Prussia to an undisclosed Austrian prison.  The emperor of
Austria held Lafayette personally responsible for the
downfall of Louis XVI and was determined not to let the
general's friends contact him.
Three months after Lafayette's disappearance, Bollman's
search took him to Olmutz, a fortress city located on a
plain in Austria (now Czechoslovakia).  There Bollman heard
talk of increased security at the prison and of new and
important arrivals so important that they had no names -
they were referred to by numbers.  Even the guards were
forbidden to talk to the prisoners who were locked behind
double doors.  Bollman felt sure that Lafayette was among
them, and so checked into the Golden Swan, where a Dr.
Haberlein, the prison physician, was in residence.  Bollman,
being a doctor himself, had no trouble making friends with
Dr. Haberlein.  Haberlein, a simple, unsuspecting man, was
one of the few people who knew the identity of all the
prisoners; through Haberlein, Bollman confirmed his
suspicion that Lafayette was one of the nameless prisoners
of Olmutz.  After a short time, Haberlein became an
unwitting messenger between Bollman and Lafayette.
Haberlein transmitted notes and books between Bollman and
Lafayette.  It all seemed very innocent; the doctor was
permitted and even encouraged to read the letters and notes,
but what he did not know was that each note or letter
contained messages written in the simplest form of invisible
ink, lemon juice.
At this time Austria was full of spies, and foreigners with
no obvious occupation were quickly checked by officials;
thus Bollman made plans to travel to Vienna, promising Dr.
Haberlein he would return.  It was in Vienna that Bollman
met Francis Kinloch Huger.
Francis' father, Major Huger, had been killed in 1779 during
the siege of Charleston, and two years later young Francis
Huger had been shipped off to England to improve his health
and study medicine.  By 1794 he had completed his medical
studies in London and decided to see first-hand the war
raging in Europe between France and her neighbors.  That
spring he set off for Antwerp, where he spent several months
working in the British hospitals, and from there moved to
Vienna.
Huger, at length ready to return to England and eventually
to the Americas, was looking for a traveling companion.  A
mutual friend introduced him to Bollman.  The two men began
to get acquainted and talked quite freely; both doctors,
they had much in common.  Speculation on the whereabouts of
Lafayette was widespread in Europe, and Huger had more than
a passing interest in the topic.  He told Bollman of
Lafayette's early visit to his father's plantation, and
spoke aloud of his concern about the general's imprisonment.
Bollman, who wasn't ready to take anyone into his
confidence, said nothing to Huger of his plans to free
Lafayette, although he felt more secure after discovering
Huger to be a fellow Mason.  As for being a traveling
companion, Bollman said he had to make a short side trip to
Hungary, and that on his return they might talk of their
return to England.
Huger waited eight days and then made plans to purchase a
carriage and leave for England alone, but Bollman showed up
the day before he planned to leave.  Bollman said he would
join Huger, but on obtaining a promise of secrecy, told
Huger of finding Lafayette in prison in Olmutz and of his
detailed escape plan in which they would take Lafayette to
England with them.
Bollman revealed that every day the imprisoned Lafayette was
driven into the country under close guard, ostensibly for
his health.  Accordingly, Bollman and Huger would use two
horses, as a third might arouse suspicion; the horse upon
which Dr. Huger would ride had been trained to carry two
persons, while it was necessary for the other horse to carry
Bollman.
The general made the rest of the plan sound easy.  He would
be in a phaeton; the driver, an over-large, clumsy man,
would be no problem.  Lafayette would have no trouble
frightening the cowardly little corporal with his own sword.
The other two guards were seen as no threat at all, as they
were but a pair of crippled old soldiers, no longer good for
anything except guard duty and other non-physical "light
work."
When Bollman had explained the plan to Huger, he asked if
Huger was willing to join him in the escape plan.  It was
almost a matter of family honor for Huger.  As he said
later, "I saw an opportunity to restore liberty to a man who
at my own age had risked everything for me."
Accounts of the events of the next few days read like a
modern spy novel, complete with a custom-made coach
containing secret compartments for ropes and saws.  Huger
and Bollman returned to Olmutz on November 5, 1794; the
following day they sat on their horses, watched the route
taken by Lafayette, and signaled to the general of their
presence and that his escape was planned for just two days
later.
On Saturday morning, November 8, 1794, Drs. Huger and
Bollman paid their inn bill and sent a servant ahead with
the custom-made coach to wait for them at Hoff, a village
twenty-five miles down the road.  The two men then set watch
for Lafayette's carriage.  Soon the carriage stopped by the
side of the road; Lafayette and the corporal got out and
went walking through a field.
At that point Huger and Bollman spurred their horses,
galloping up as Lafayette pulled the corporal's sword out of
its sheath, but the supposedly cowardly little corporal
failed to be frightened; instead, he grabbed the sword
blade, cutting his hands, and began to yell for help.
Peasants working in the nearby field looked up but merely
watched the struggle.  The driver also failed to answer the
call.  Only the other two soldiers took action-they headed
back toward the fortress shouting and waving their hats to
attract the attention of the sentries on the walls of the
prison, which was some distance off but still visible across
the flat plain.
Lafayette's miscalculation of the character of the corporal
led to a series of complications in the plan.  Instead of
being able to hold the corporal at bay with his own sword,
the general was struggling for its possession.  Bollman rode
up to help Lafayette; he leaped form his horse and tossed
the reins to Huger-who missed them!  The horse, frightened
by the clamor, lurched and took off down the road, Huger
watching helplessly as it galloped away.
Bollman pulled the corporal off Lafayette, but the corporal
gave up the sword only to seize Lafayette by the cravat.
The general cried weakly, "He is strangling me!"  At this
point Huger joined the fight, this time first passing his
arm through his mount's bridle.
Failing to intimidate the corporal by drawing a pistol,
Huber stuffed it back into his pocket and managed to pull
the bloody hands away form the general's throat.  Lafayette,
tired out form his encounter, fell to the ground, and
Bollman dragged the corporal down, pinning him to the ground
and pushing a handkerchief into his mouth.
Huger helped Lafayette to his feet and shouted to him to
take his horse, which had been trained to carry two men, and
"get to Hoff," the village where the servant waited with the
carriage built to conceal the general.  Lafayette mounted
and started to trot away, then stopped, apparently unwilling
to leave the two behind.  Waving him on, Huger again called
out, "Get to Hoff!" and Lafayette rode off.
Huger and Bollman conferred for a moment and then released
the corporal, who took off after Lafayette on foot.  A
peasant boy had stopped Bollman"s horse and returned it.
When Huger spotted the horse he ran to it, helped Bollman up
behind, and trotted off after Lafayette. Unfortunately,
Bollman's horse was not trained for a double load and, when
urged to go faster than a trot, bucked both riders off.
They remounted, but the horse bucked them off once more.
Finally Huger told Bollman to take the horse and he would
follow on foot.
After Bollman rode off, Huger ran along the road leading to
the mountains.  Just when he thought he was safe, he heard
shouting and looked back to see three men running after him.
Huger began to run again, hoping to reach the mountains and
slip across the Prussian border, but he was overtaken by a
peasant on horseback who had joined the chase.  Seeing that
it was impossible to escape, Huger gave up to the horseman;
the three escorted back to Olmutz, where he was turned over
the soldiers.
He was immediately taken before General  D'Arco, the
commandant of the fortress, for examination.  D'Arco's
reputation was certainly to be tarnished by the escape of
such an important prisoner, and he was determined to uncover
the whole plot.  Huger answered the often pointed questions
truthfully and in some detail, telling of his meeting with
Bollman and the events of the escape itself.  Huger said he
felt justified in what he had done.  "I did not think of
harming anyone, and I was assured that it was the purpose of
M. Lafayette to cross immediately to America and not to mix
himself any more in the affairs of the empire."
This argument did nothing to help Huger's case; D'Arco noted
at the end of this transcript of examination:  "The culprit
was turned over by the military authorities to the Olmutz
court, put in irons, as a criminal, and held in the
strictest custody."  All Huger's possessions were taken from
him; an iron was put on his ankle, another around his waist,
and he was chained to a staple in the wall over a wooden
bench which was to be his bed.
Lafayette, meanwhile, was alone in a unfamiliar area, as
Hoff was twenty-five miles form the prison at Olmutz.
Complicating matters further, Bollman had not told Lafayette
of the escape route they would follow.  During the confusion
resulting form the corporal's resistance, Lafayette had
misunderstood Huger's frantic advice for him to "get to
Hoff."  Not recognizing the name of the city, Lafayette
thought the american had simply told him to "get off."
Separated from his guides, the general reached a fork in the
road-and picked the road which led him away form Hoff and
the waiting coach.
Covered with mud and blood form the fight, he rode into a
village and offered two thousand crowns for a fresh horse.
The large sum, his accent, and his disheveled appearance
aroused suspicion, and he was taken into custody.  He kept a
cool head and gave a plausible explanation for his
appearance, and was about to be released when someone in the
crowd recognized him.  The general at first denied the
identification, but when the mayor insisted he be taken ot
Olmutz to make certain, he admitted that he was indeed
Lafayette and was escorted back to his cell.
Bollman was the only one to reach Hoff.  Not finding
Lafayette there, he guessed that the general had gotten lost
and set out to try and find him, believing Lafayette might
have tried to cross the border into Prussia by a different
route.  Bollman tried to pick up his trail, but a week later
he too was arrested and taken to Olmutz to join Huger.  The
civil examination of Huger had begun and, since Huger spoke
no German, a Professor Passi living in the vicinity was
employed as interpreter.
For three months Huger and Bollman were kept in solitude and
brought separately before the tribunal for examination.  The
early investigation centered on a suspected political plot
involving Austrians.  Finally the judges determined the two
had worked independently of any local help and for the sole
purpose of freeing Lafayette.  The charges were reduced to
"forcing a military post"; after that they were allowed a
little more freedom and better food.  However, the
examinations continued.
There were efforts on many fronts to help the two.  Huger
managed to smuggle letters out ot Thomas Pickney, former
governor of South Carolina, who was then the American
minister in London.  He first wrote Pickney to write to his
mother and closing with the plea, "Don't forget us."
At home, Huger's family wrote to George Washington, asking
that the  President intervene to obtain Huger's freedom.
Secretary of State Timothy Pickering informed them that the
President was concerned, but "...the cause of Mr. Huger's
confinement would render any application delicate and
difficult, the United States having no public functionary in
the Austrian dominions."
However, the Olmutz prisoners had more influential help
closer to them in Austria.  Mr. Passi, the interpreter who
had been in on all the examinations of Huger, was a close
friend to a Count Mitrowsky, who also became interested in
the prisoners Huger and Bollman.  Count Mitrowsky supplied
money, which Passi used to bribe the judges, and when Huger
and Bollman were found guilty they received a very light
sentence of one month's labor in irons, followed by
banishment form Austria.  With a little more money, the
judges saw fit to reduce the sentence to fourteen days of
confinement and banishment form Austria.  The crown lawyers
had reported to vienna, and a directive came back upbraiding
the judges for their leniency and demanding the trial be
reopened, but the demand came too late.  The fourteen days
had passed and the two prisoners were on their way to the
United States.
Lafayette continued to be held prisoner until Bonaparte
invaded Austria in 1797, forcing the emperor to sue for
peace.  The Directory asked Bonaparte to demand the release
of Lafayette and the others in the Olmutz prison as a
condition to the peace settlement.  At last the famous
general was freed September 19, 1797, just five years after
his arrest on the Austrian frontier.
But the story does not end there.  Bollman arrived in
America and, failing repeatedly in business, became a land
agent for Aaron Burr in 1805, which entangled him with the
Burr plot to establish a western empire in the Louisiana
Territory.  Bollman was caught delivering some papers from
Burr to General and Brother James Wilkinson and for the
second time in twelve years was imprisoned.  However, he
regained his freedom when the case did not hold up in court.
Bollman died in Jamaica in 1821, just three years before
Lafayette made his last trip to America.
What was not publicly known was that Washington had been
trying to make contact with Lafayette ever since the
beginning of the French Revolution without success.  All of
Washington's friends were of the nobility, and they had all
fled to England-those who had not been imprisoned or
executed.  It may be well that Washington's search for
Lafayette and his press for information contributed to the
fact that Lafayette was held incognito, and so out of the
reach of the French revolutionaries, thus saving his life!
As for Huger, on his return to America he married the
daughter of Thomas Pickney.  Finding the life of a medical
man not to his liking, he divided his time between his
plantation on the Santee River and a summer home in
Statesburg, South Carolina, choosing the life of a rice
farmer.  Huger also served two terms in the South Carolina
legislature.
In 1824 Lafayette arrived in America to revisit old familiar
places and friends.  He got in touch with Huger and heard of
Bollman's death.  Lafayette asked Huger to join him in New
York and be one of his traveling companions for his stay in
America.  Auguste Levasser, a member of Lafayette's party,
wrote: "At a dinner, at the theatre, and the ball - in
short, everywhere - the name of Huger was inscribed with
that of Lafayette."  There was even a play written entitled
LAFAYETTE, OR THE CASTLE OF OLMUTZ, which the party attended
in Philadelphia.
Huger, a very modest man, though willing to tell his story,
said of himself, "I simply considered myself the
representative of the young men of America, and acted
accordingly."
