Torrance MacLeish
Torrance MacLeish, a lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, is the first downed airman whom Isabelle Rossignol helps escape from Occupied France, and his successful return to Britain through the newly created Nightingale escape route proves the viability of the network and establishes Isabelle as its leader. He is a young pilot from Ipswich, England, whose aeroplane went down over Reims. After his crash, he spent four days hiding in dark corners before being grabbed by a member of the French Resistance and brought to a safe house where Isabelle first encountered him. He was still wearing his flight suit, which was torn and stained with dried blood at his hairline, and his face was scratched. When Isabelle spoke to him in English, he expressed profound relief, saying, "You speak English. Thank God." He told her he had taken three German aeroplanes down with him before his own was hit.
Rescue and Hiding in Paris
Isabelle found MacLeish hiding in the bushes near her apartment building on the evening she first met him, crouched behind a tree in a large copper urn. She gave him directions to her apartment and instructed him to come to the door in one hour. When he arrived, she led him up five flights of stairs, told him to remove his flight suit, and hid him in a secret room behind her armoire—a small space she had used as a fort as a child, where her dolls were still lined up along the walls. She disposed of his identification tags and flight suit by throwing them into the Seine River. The next morning, she dressed him in her father's old clothes—a shapeless turtleneck sweater, patched corduroy pants, and a gray beret—and led him across Paris to the Resistance safe house on rue de Saint-Simon. When she presented him to the group, she said, "This is Lieutenant Torrance MacLeish of the RAF. Pilot. I found him hiding in the bushes near my apartment last night."
The First Pyrenees Crossing
MacLeish became the test case for Isabelle's bold plan to lead downed airmen across the Pyrenees into Spain. He was given false papers identifying him as a Flemish farmworker, and his flight boots were cut down to pass as civilian shoes. He was trained to smoke like a Frenchman, using his thumb and forefinger, and instructed to look left before crossing the street. On the train from Paris to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, he sat apart from Isabelle and read a newspaper, as instructed. When German soldiers on the train glanced at him, Isabelle distracted them by engaging them in conversation and a card game. During the grueling mountain crossing, MacLeish struggled with ill-fitting espadrilles that caused his feet to turn into open sores, and at one point he collapsed beside Isabelle, gasping, "Christ Almighty." When Isabelle asked him about a girl back home, he mentioned Alice, and she used that name to motivate him to keep walking. At the Bidassoa River, he crossed a rickety suspension bridge in sixty-second intervals between searchlights, and when he reached the Spanish side, he dropped to his knees and crawled beneath the guardhouse window.
Arrival in Spain and Aftermath
When the group reached the British consulate in San Sebastián, MacLeish stepped forward and announced, "Lieutenant Torrance MacLeish. RAF," and the other airmen followed suit. Inside the consul's office, he told the official, "You'll want to ring up MI9. They'll pay whatever Juliette's group needs." He later called Isabelle "a wonder" and told her, "Dumb but brave." His successful return to Britain proved that the escape route was viable, and Isabelle was formally established as the primary contact for MI9, code-named the Nightingale. MacLeish's gratitude and cooperation helped secure the financial and logistical support that allowed the network to expand, ultimately saving over one hundred men. He remained a symbol of the first success, and Isabelle later thought of him when she reflected on the men she had saved.
