Claude Francois De Malet, a French conspirator, born in Dole, June 28, 1754, executed in Paris, Oct. 29, 1812. In 1799 he distinguished himself in the army during the passage of the Little St. Bernard, and was made brigadier general. lie disapproved of the promotion of Bonaparte to the consulate, but apparently adhered to the empire, expressing in a letter to Napoleon a hope of its becoming beneficial to and not destructive of liberty. But Prince Eugene expelled him from his headquarters in Italy, on the charge of conspiring against the emperor, and he was imprisoned during ten months till May, 1808, and soon rearrested. In prison he continued to plan conspiracies with other opponents of Napoleon, especially in 1809, after the defeat at Essling, but this attempt was abortive. The emperor ordered him to be transferred from La Force to a regular state prison, but Fouche neglected to do so, and even permitted him in June, 1812, to remove to a private sanitary asylum. Here he met the Polignacs and Abbe Laf on, the principal Bourbon agents, while his wife, the corporal Bateau, and others worked against Napoleon in the interior of the country. Malet's plot was ripe in October, when he deemed the anxiety respecting the Russian campaign favorable for its execution.

In the night of Oct. 23-24, when the disastrous retreat from Moscow became known, he announced to the garrison of Paris the death of Napoleon, and at first met with some success, with the aid of bis confederates, and by promising rewards to those who would join him. He shot dead the recalcitrant Gen. Hullin, commander of the first division, but was disarmed by two officers, who disclosed the deception which had been practised, and the populace responded with the cry, Vive Vempereur. The whole plot fell to the ground, and Malet was sentenced to death. His wife was arrested; and as she subsequently received a pension, and her son an appointment, from Louis XVIIL, it was supposed that Malet had conspired in the interest of the Bourbons, but it is generally believed that lie was a sincere republican.