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LIFE 
 
 LAFAYETTE. 
 
 WRITTEN FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 By E. CECIL, 
 
 With Six Illustrations, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 
 
 117 Washington Street. 
 
 18 6 0. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 
 
 CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 University Press, Cambridge : 
 Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Eigelow, & Co, 
 
The Life of Lafayette seems properly to fol- 
 low that of Washington for several reasons. 
 They were closely connected in the dark days 
 of our Revolutionary war ; and in the stormier 
 scenes of the French Revolution, the young 
 republican constantly took Washington for his 
 model. Nor was it only in public services that 
 their lives were united, but the friendship 
 which bound them to each other was pure and 
 lasting. 
 
 As the friend of Washington, Lafayette 
 claims our respect ; as the disinterested bene- 
 factor of our country, we owe him more grat- 
 itude than is often expressed, — more, perhaps, 
 than is often felt. 
 
 This memoir is an attempt to interest Amer- 
 ican children in the character and history of 
 one who stood so near our Commander-in-chief 
 in many difficulties, and whose after life was 
 so varied and remarkable. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 I. Escape from France 1 
 
 II. A First Battle 13 
 
 III. A New Command ....... 29 
 
 IV. The Two Alliances 47 
 
 V. Active Operations 57 
 
 VI. Success the Reward of Patience . . 69 
 
 VII. France as it was 77 
 
 VIII. Changes 87 
 
 IX. Liberty in October 101 
 
 X. Doubts Ill 
 
 XL A Lamentable Flight 123 
 
 XII. Trouble at Home and Abroad . . . 134 
 
 XIII. Exile .147 
 
 XIV. The Family at Olmutz 159 
 
 XV. France much changed 170 
 
 XVI. A New King of France .... 179 
 
 XVII. Visit to the United States .... 186 
 
 XVIII. A Happy Home 198 
 
 XIX. The Old Soldier 210 
 
LAFAYETTE. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ESCAPE FROM FRANCE. 
 
 Lafayette was born on the 7th of September, 
 1757, at the castle of Chavaniae, in the province of 
 Auvergne, which lies between the centre and the 
 south of France. His family had long been dis- 
 tinguished for courage and high spirit, and he inher- 
 ited the rank of Marquis. His names were Marie- 
 Paul-Joseph-Roch-Ives-Gilbert de Motier; but he 
 seems never to have been called by or to have signed 
 any of them. 
 
 Little is known of his childhood. He never saw 
 his father, who was killed at the battle of Minden, 
 and his excellent mother died when he was eleven 
 years old. He was at first educated in the country 
 among his relations, then sent at the age of eleven 
 
2 LAFAYETTE. [l774. 
 
 to a college in Paris, and afterwards to the Academy 
 of Versailles ; but his studies must have come to an 
 end early in life, as he was married at sixteen to his 
 cousin, Mademoiselle Franchise Adrienne de Noailles. 
 
 Probably, if his parents had been living, they 
 would not have allowed so youthful a marriage ; but, 
 in spite of its imprudence, all ended happily for both 
 parties. Madame de Lafayette was descended, like 
 her husband, from a noble family, and had many 
 charming and admirable qualities. They loved each 
 other devotedly, and shared both pleasures and cares. 
 
 From the time when he was a mere child, Lafay- 
 ette recollected loving everything that was free. 
 He liked high-spirited animals, and hoped to meet a 
 hyena which had done some mischief in the neigh- 
 borhood of his home ; at school he was very unwil- 
 ling to be forced to do anything, — he would work 
 industriously, but could not bear the idea of any 
 constraint. He liked to read and think of free 
 nations, and managed to avoid a place at court which 
 his wife's family were very anxious to secure for him. 
 
 On his first appearance in the distinguished society 
 which he went into on account of his own and his 
 wife's connections, he did not make a particularly 
 favorable impression. He was observing and rather 
 
AGE 19.] LAFAYETTE. 3 
 
 silent ; he did not enjoy the conversation he heard, 
 and was thought very cold. He never could adopt 
 what were called "the graces of the court," — a kind 
 of manner which was never seen in this country, 
 and probably never will be. 
 
 He went into the army, as almost all young men of 
 rank did at that time in France. 
 
 Lafayette was but nineteen years old when he 
 first heard of the Revolutionary war in America. 
 He was stationed at Metz on military duty, when the 
 Duke of Gloucester, brother of the King of Eng- 
 land, happened to come there. At a dinner given in 
 honor of him, the conversation turned upon the 
 rebellion of the colonies, and the king's determi- 
 nation to crush it. The idea of a nation fightino; for 
 freedom at once interested him ; they were doing 
 what he had read of and dreamed of. He asked 
 questions, and from the Duke's own account was 
 disposed to believe that the Americans were in the 
 right. Before he left the table, he thought how 
 much he should like to go over to the United States, 
 and give whatever help he could in so noble a cause. 
 For several days this idea was constantly in his 
 mind.; he could not forget what he had heard, and 
 dwelt upon it until he positively longed to be on his 
 way. 
 
4 LAFAYETTE. [l776. 
 
 He went to Paris, and spoke of his wishes to a 
 few persons ; two of his young friends shared his 
 enthusiasm, and would gladly have joined him, but 
 were forbidden by their families. t Lafayette had a 
 fortune of his own, but he knew that all his own and 
 his wife's relations would oppose him. He also 
 foresaw that the government might put some diffi- 
 culties in his way, and he took for a motto, at this 
 time, the Latin words, " cur non ? " (why not ?) 
 One old friend of the family refused even to give 
 him any advice, and said to him, " I have seen your 
 uncle die in the wars of Italy, I witnessed your 
 father's death at the battle of Minden, and I will not 
 be accessary * to the ruin of the only remaining 
 branch of the family." Lafayette remained, how- 
 ever, perfectly bent upon the undertaking, and made 
 the acquaintance of Mr. Silas Deane, a commissioner 
 from the United States, by whom of course he was 
 cordially received, for his rank and connections with 
 the court would make his going to America an im- 
 portant event. Several other French officers wanted 
 to go at this time, and Mr. Deane was trying to get 
 a ship in which he could send them and some guns 
 
 * To be accessary is to help in any way, by word or act. 
 
AGE 19.] LAFAYETTE. 5 
 
 which lie had bought for the United States army, 
 when bad news reached Paris. The campaign * of 
 1776 had been unsuccessful for the Americans; 
 Washington, with a very small army, had been com- 
 pelled to retreat from New York through New 
 Jersey. In Europe all hope was at once given up ; 
 the friends of America expected soon to see the 
 power of Great Britain triumph over her feeble 
 colonies. The Americans in Paris were extremely 
 discouraged, and Mr. Deane told Lafayette the 
 whole truth, advising him not to attempt to sail. 
 Lafayette thanked him for his frankness, but said 
 immediately, " Until now, sir, you have seen only my 
 ardor in the cause, and that may not at present 
 prove wholly useless. I shall purchase a ship to 
 carry out your officers; we must feel confidence in 
 the future, and it is especially in the hour of danger 
 that I wish to share your fortune." 
 
 It was now impossible for Mr. Deane to obtain a 
 ship ; Lafayette, therefore, bought one at Bordeaux, 
 and had her fitted up for fighting, in case they should 
 meet an enemy at sea. The preparations went on 
 with perfect secrecy, and he did not yet venture to 
 tell any of his family what he was doing. 
 
 * A single season of fighting, usually one summer. 
 
6 LAFAYETTE. [l777. 
 
 Just before he was ready to sail, he was obliged to 
 go over to England, as he had promised to spend a 
 few weeks there, and was afraid of exciting suspicions 
 if he refused. He received a great deal of attention 
 in London, and quite enjoyed the joke of dancing at 
 the house of a general who had just returned from 
 New York, and whom he afterwards came near meet- 
 ing in a very different scene. He was careful, 
 however, to refuse invitations to visit the ships of 
 war, and not to see any of the preparations made 
 against the rebels. He did not think it honorable 
 to gain knowledge as a friend which he might be 
 tempted to use as an enemy. But he openly ex- 
 pressed his sympathy with the Americans. On his 
 return, he spent but a few days in Paris, and went 
 to Bordeaux, hoping to sail immediately ; but he 
 found that his plans had become known to the gov- 
 ernment, and he was forbidden to go to America and 
 ordered to go to Marseilles. He got his ship safely 
 out of the harbor, and then went back himself and 
 sent several letters to Paris ; he wrote to the French 
 ministers,* and to his family and friends, whose regrets 
 
 * Persons 'who manage the business of a government, as the 
 Minister of War, who attends to everything about the army, the 
 Minister of the Marine, who controls all the ships, etc. 
 
AGE 19.] LAFAYETTE. 7 
 
 ami reproaches distressed him. Still he was per- 
 fectly firm in his decision, and, as no answer came 
 from government during the next few days, he deter- 
 mined to take his own course. 
 
 He set otf with another young officer on the road 
 to Marseilles, but after travelling a little distance 
 disguised himself as a courier,* and rode back before 
 the carriage. He had gone in safety about half the 
 way, when a young girl, a postmaster's daughter, 
 recognized in the pretended servant the Marquis de 
 Lafayette, whom she had seen near Bordeaux. He 
 made a sign to her not to betray him, and she not 
 only kept silence herself, but prevented other people 
 from suspecting who the courier really was. 
 
 At last, on the 26th of April, 1777, Lafayette set 
 sail for America. But his adventures were not over. 
 The captain of the ship insisted upon stopping at the 
 West India islands, which Lafayette was equally 
 resolute not to do. After some time, he found out 
 that the captain was anxious about a cargo he had 
 on board, and promised that he should lose nothing 
 by taking him directly to America. The French 
 
 * A courier makes arrangements for people who travel in a 
 carriage, or now-a-days in the cars. He provides fresh horses, 
 engages rooms at hotels, and used to ride on the coach. 
 
8 LAFAYETTE. [l777. 
 
 government had, as he suspected, sent orders for his 
 arrest to these isles, and if he had stopped there 
 his voyage would have proved a long one. 
 
 Every ship of war they met gave them a great 
 fright, for they could have made but a poor resist- 
 ance had they been attacked. After Lafayette recov- 
 ered from sea-sickness, he employed himself in study- 
 ing the English language and the art of war. And 
 so seven weeks of discomfort, doubts, and hopes 
 passed, and he landed in June at Georgetown, South 
 Carolina. As his foot touched American ground, he 
 resolved in his heart to conquer or perish in that 
 cause which was so dear to him. He landed at 
 night at Major Huger's.* The family at first sup- 
 posed he and his companions came from one of the 
 enemy's ships, but, on finding that they were French 
 officers, received them with the greatest hospitality. 
 
 The next morning Lafayette was delighted with 
 the prospect from his windows and the beauty of the 
 weather, while the house and the black servants 
 coming to wait on him made him feel that he was 
 in a strange, new world. He went immediately to 
 Charleston, and wrote to his wife that it was " one 
 
 # Pronounced Yougee. 
 
AGE 19.] LAFAYETTE. 9 
 
 of the best-built, handsomest, and most agreeable 
 cities" that he had ever seen. "The American 
 women," he says, " are very pretty, and have great 
 simplicity of character, and the extreme neatness of 
 their appearance is truly delightful; cleanliness is 
 everywhere even more attended to here than in 
 England. What gives me most pleasure is to see 
 how completely the citizens are all brethren of one 
 
 family." '• The inns are very different from 
 
 those of Europe ; the host and hostess sit at table 
 with you, and do the honors of a comfortable meal. 
 If you should dislike going to bins, you may always 
 find country houses in which you will be received 
 as a good American, with the same attention that you 
 might expect in a friend's house in Europe. My 
 own reception has been particularly agreeable. I 
 have just passed five hours at a dinner given in coni- 
 plirnent to me by an individual of this town. We 
 drank each other's healths, and endeavored to talk 
 English, which I am beginning to speak a little." 
 ... . " The night is far advanced, the heat in- 
 tense, and I am devoured by mosquitos ; but the 
 best countries, as you perceive, have their incon- 
 veniences." 
 
 Lafayette very soon went on to Philadelphia, to 
 
10 LAFAYETTE. \_\m. 
 
 offer his services to Congress. He was at first re- 
 ceived with a little coolness, which, however, did not 
 disturb him much, as he Avas reasonable enough to 
 see the cause of it. Congress was at this time beset 
 every day by foreign officers eager for high rank in 
 the Continental* army. That army was so small 
 that it was impossible to find places for all the for- 
 eigners and keep any American officers at all ; and 
 the natives, who had borne the hardships of the 
 first two years of the war, were extremely disgusted 
 when European officers were put above them in 
 rank. At the same time, the foreigners were dis- 
 satisfied with low places, because they said they had 
 "seen service" abroad. Mr. Deane, in Paris, was 
 apt to encourage Frenchmen to come over, thinking 
 that their experience would be valuable to so young 
 an army; but the numbers that flocked here were 
 a sore trial to General Washington. 
 
 Lafayette, not discouraged by the backwardness 
 of Congress to give him an appointment, sent in by 
 one of the members this little note : " After the 
 sacrifices I have made, I have the right to exact two 
 favors : one is, to serve at my own expense, — the 
 
 * This was the first name of the American army. 
 
AGE 19.] LAFAYETTE. 11 
 
 other, to serve as a volunteer."* This style, so 
 different from that of the gentlemen who demanded 
 high rank and high pay, pleased Congress; the 
 letters he brought were immediately examined, and 
 he was appointed a Major- General. He did what he 
 could for the officers who had come in the same ship 
 with him. 
 
 While he was in Philadelphia, at a public dinner 
 Lafayette saw General Washington for the first 
 time. He immediately distinguished him, among 
 many officers, by his majestic figure and dignified 
 manner. Washington Avas then forty-five years old, 
 and in look and bearing exactly what one would 
 wish to see a Commander-in-chief. Lafayette was 
 no less charmed with his cordiality than with his 
 appearance. He expressed much interest in the 
 young Marquis, and invited him to make his head- 
 quarters his home, saying, with a smile, that he could 
 not promise him the luxuries of a court, but that 
 doubtless he would cheerfully bear the privations of 
 an American soldier. 
 
 The army was then stationed near Philadelphia. 
 
 * A volunteer is a person attached to the amy by his own 
 request. He receives neither rank nor pay, and may join anv 
 general he prefers. 
 
12 LAFAYETTE. [l777. 
 
 Lafayette says of bis first sight of it : " About eleven 
 thousand men, ill-armed and still worse clothed, pre- 
 sented a strange spectacle ; their clothes were parti- 
 colored, and many of them were almost naked ; the 
 best clad wore hunting-shirts, — large gray linen 
 coats, which were much used in Carolina." General 
 Washington said to him, "We ought to feel em- 
 barrassed in exhibiting ourselves before an officer 
 who has just left French troops." "It is to learn, 
 and not to teach, that I come here," replied the 
 Marquis ; and this pleasant, modest answer made 
 him very popular. 
 
 He had every reason to be satisfied Avith his 
 reception. In the Commander-in-chief he soon found 
 a true friend ; the soldiers were quite ready to 
 admire him ; and throughout the country great in- 
 terest was felt in this enthusiastic young Frenchman, 
 avIio had left his country, his home, his wife and 
 friends, and all the pleasures he might have enjoyed 
 at the French court, for the sake of joining the army 
 of the United States; or, rather, for the sake of 
 helping with his sword a people determined to be 
 free. Lafayette took great pains to learn to speak 
 and write English, and in every way to feel and 
 think as an American. 
 

 Lafayette ataReview of American Troops. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A FIEST BATTLE. 
 
 Lafayette arrived at a time of great uncer- 
 tainty in the military movements. Sir William 
 Howe had sailed from New York with his army, and 
 no one knew where he was going. The American 
 army was waiting near Philadelphia, ready to march 
 to any place at which he might reappear. After 
 many days of suspense, the ships were seen coming 
 up Chesapeake Bay, approaching Philadelphia in a 
 round-about manner. The Americans, although they 
 were not in a very good condition for fighting, 
 immediately marched to meet the enemy. The 
 troops were new recruits,* not well drilled, but 
 spirited and eager for an action. In fact, the whole 
 country was then impatient to have a regular battle 
 fought ; people at a distance did not understand how 
 
 * Men who have joined an army, but have never been soldiers 
 before. 
 
14 LAFAYETTE. . [l"T7. 
 
 poor the army Avas, and grew tired of Genera] 
 Washington's prudence and caution, which were in 
 truth caused by necessity, and not at all agreeable to 
 his disposition. It was fortunate for the Americans 
 that Sir William Howe had wasted so much of the 
 summer before opening the campaign. 
 
 General Washington made some opposition to the 
 landing of the British, and the battle of the Brandy- 
 wine,* the first in which Lafayette was engaged, took 
 place on the 11th of September. At first, success 
 seemed to be with the Americans, but the firing was 
 not very heavy ; Lord Cornwallis, in the mean time, 
 by marching seventeen miles, brought his troops up 
 behind the Americans, and so separated parts of the 
 army. The generals were not informed of this 
 manoeuvre f in time to make the best arrangements 
 to receive him; and, though the young American 
 troops at first behaved with spirit, in the course of 
 the day they gave way before the superior discipline 
 of the British. 
 
 Lafayette as a volunteer remained for some time 
 with the Commander-in-chief; at length he asked 
 
 * A river in Pennsylvania which flows into the Delaware. 
 f A change of position in a company, regiment, or larger 
 division. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 15 
 
 permission to go where he saw the fight was hottest. 
 In the midst of great confusion, he was rallying the 
 troops, when a ball wounded him in the leg. General 
 Washington brought up some fresh soldiers, and 
 Lafayette was preparing to join him, when loss of 
 blood obliged him to stop and have his wound ban- 
 daged ; he had not cared for the pain, but he could 
 not afford to faint on horseback. As it was, he was in 
 great danger of being taken prisoner. 
 
 Night came on, and nothing more could be done. 
 Men, cannon,, wagons, baggage crowded along the 
 road from Chad's Ford to Chester, about twelve 
 miles distant. At Chester Lafayette made a great 
 effort to stop this hurried and confused retreat. The 
 Commander-in-chief and the other Generals arrived 
 at the same place, and the remains of the army 
 passed there the sorrowful night after the battle. 
 At last Lafayette had time to have his wound 
 dressed. 
 
 The people of Philadelphia heai'd the firing, 
 although the field of battle was twenty-six miles 
 from the city. The defeat of the army was a ter- 
 rible blow to the Whigs ; * whole families left their 
 
 * Those who were opposed to Great Britain. 
 
16 LAFAYETTE. [l777- 
 
 homes, expecting that the British would occupy the 
 city during the winter. Congress sought a safer 
 place of meeting at Yorktown, among the mountains. 
 Lafayette was at first taken by water to Philadel- 
 phia, where he received the kindest attentions from 
 some of the citizens who were not too much occupied 
 with fears for their own safety to care for a stranger; 
 but it was of course no place for him when his 
 friends were flying, and he was removed to Bethle- 
 hem, where the Moravians * took good care of him, 
 and his wound gradually healed. He wrote to his 
 wife that his wound was but a trifle. " The surgeons 
 are astonished at the rapidity with Avhich it heals ; 
 they are in an ecstasy of joy each time they dress it, 
 and pretend it is the finest thing in the world. For 
 my part, I think it most disagreeable, painful, and 
 wearisome ; but tastes often differ. If a man, how- 
 ever, wished to be wounded for his amusement only, 
 he should come and examine how I have been struck, 
 that he might be struck in precisely the same man- 
 ner. This, my dearest love, is what I pompously 
 
 * Devout Christians, who live together somewhat as Shakers 
 do, and during the war often' took care of the wounded. Their 
 neatness and gentleness fitted them for this work. They are 
 called Moravians because the sect was first formed in Moravia. 
 
AGE 19.] LAFAYETTE. 17 
 
 style niy wound, to give myself airs, and render 
 myself interesting. 
 
 " I must now give you your lesson as wife of an 
 American general officer. They will say to you, 
 'They have been beaten.' You must answer, 
 ' That is true ; but when two armies of equal num- 
 bers meet in the field, old soldiers have naturally the 
 advantage over new ones ; they have besides had the 
 pleasure of killing a great many of the enemy, — 
 many more than they have lost.' They will after- 
 wards add, ' All that is very well ; but Philadelphia 
 is taken, the capital of America, the rampart of 
 liberty ! ' You must politely answer, ' You are all 
 great fools ! Philadelphia is a poor, forlorn town, 
 exposed on every side, whose harbor was already 
 closed ; though the residence of Congress lent it, I 
 know not why, some degree of celebrity.' This is 
 the famous city which, be it added, we will, sooner 
 or later, make them yield back to us," 
 
 Lafayette certainly did all he could to make his 
 wife's mind easy by writing constantly, and in a very 
 cheerful strain ; but letters were then six or seven 
 weeks in crossing the ocean, and she probably often 
 heard false reports from London. The English, in 
 writing home, would naturally make the most of 
 
 2* B 
 
18 LAFAYETTE. [l777. 
 
 every success of theirs, and every loss on the Ameri- 
 can side. And Madame Lafayette must have mourned 
 over this separation from her husband, as it is not 
 likely that she was as enthusiastic as he in the cause 
 of American independence. He had something to 
 suffer, too. He says once, "Why was I so obsti- 
 nately bent on coming hither? I have been well 
 punished for my error; my affections are too strongly 
 rooted for me to be able to perform such deeds. I 
 hope you pity me." Speaking again of himself, — 
 " Be perfectly at ease about my wound ; all the 
 faculty * in America are engaged in my service. I 
 have a friend who has spoken to them in such a 
 manner that I am certain of being well attended to ; 
 that friend is General Washington. 
 
 " This excellent man whose talents and virtues I 
 admired, and whom I have learnt to revere as I 
 know him better, has now become my intimate 
 friend ; his affectionate interest in me instantly won 
 my heart. I am established in his family, and we 
 live together like two attached brothers, with mutual 
 confidence and cordiality. His friendship renders 
 me as happy as I can possibly be in this country. 
 
 * Medical faculty, — physicians and surgeons. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 19 
 
 When lie sent his best surgeon to me, he told him to 
 take charge of me as if I were his son, because he 
 loved me with, the same affection. Having heard 
 that I wished to rejoin the army too soon, he wrote 
 me a letter full of tenderness, in which he requested 
 me to wait for the perfect restoration of my health. 
 I give you these details, my dearest love, that you 
 may feel quite certain of the care that is taken of me." 
 
 During his recovery, while he was compelled to 
 be idle, the Marquis, as he was generally called in 
 the United States, became very anxious for news 
 from France. In one letter he says to his wife, " It 
 is dreadful to be reduced to hold no communication 
 except by letter with a person whom one loves as I 
 love you, and as I shall ever love you until I draw 
 my latest breath. I have not missed a single oppor- 
 tunity, not even the most indirect one, of writing to 
 you. Do the same, on your side, my dearest life, if 
 you love me." 
 
 Lafayette occupied himself while among the peace- 
 ful Moravians with writing letters full of warlike 
 plans and schemes. But by his absence from the 
 army he lost only a defeat. At the battle of Ger- 
 mantown, about three weeks after that of the Bran- 
 dywine, the Americans were seized with a sudden 
 
20 LAFAYETTE. [l777. 
 
 panic, and a fog came up which confused them, so 
 that they were finally routed, though they had begun 
 very well. But at this period of the war even 
 defeats were useful to the inexperienced Ameri- 
 cans, — by them they learned that they could fight, 
 and needed only more training to be equal to the 
 British. 
 
 Lafayette rejoined the army early in November, 
 before he could put a boot upon the wounded leg. 
 Sir William Howe was established in Philadelphia 
 for the winter, and had only to get possession of two 
 forts on the Delaware River. They were bravely 
 defended, but at last yielded to superior force. The 
 American army remained on high ground near the 
 city, watching the enemy, but too weak to do much. 
 
 Lafayette distinguished himself in a little action 
 on the 25th of November. He was reconnoitring* 
 with three hundred and fifty men, and imprudently 
 ventured too near one of the enemy's posts, where 
 they had cannon. Instead of retreating, however, 
 he boldly attacked them ; they gave way, supposing 
 he had a large division of the army, and thus he had 
 an opportunity to rejoin in safety the main body. 
 
 * Examining the country or an enemy's post in a military way. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 21 
 
 This slight success pleased both the army and Con- 
 gress ; and at this time they had to make the most 
 of small- gains. 
 
 Lafayette's first campaign in America ended gloom- 
 ily in the encampment at Valley Forge. He wrote 
 hopefully, on the way thither. " The American 
 army will endeavor to clothe itself, because it is 
 almost in a state of nudity ; to form itself, because 
 it requires instruction ; and to recruit itself, because 
 it is feeble ; but the thirteen States are going to rouse 
 themselves and send us some men. My division 
 will, I hope, be one of the strongest, and I shall exert 
 myself to make it one of the best Our Gen- 
 eral is a man formed, in truth, for this Revolution, 
 which could not have been accomplished without 
 him. I see him more intimately than any other man, 
 and I see that he is worthy of the adoration of his 
 country. I admire each day more fully the excel- 
 lence of his character and the kindness of his heart. 
 "We are not, I confess, so strong as I ex- 
 pected, but we are strong enough to fight ; we shall 
 do so, I trust, with some degree of success ; and with 
 the assistance of France, we shall gain the cause 
 that I cherish, because it is the cause of justice, 
 because it honors humanity, because it is important 
 
22 LAFAYETTE. [l777. 
 
 to my country, and because my American friends 
 t and myself are deeply engaged in it." 
 
 Speaking of himself as so young for the post he 
 had to fill, — being a Major-General at twenty, — 
 he adds: "I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I 
 reflect ; and the result of all this is the endeavor to 
 form an opinion into which I infuse as much common 
 sense as possible. I will not talk much, for fear of 
 saying foolish things; I will still less risk acting 
 much, for fear of doing foolish things ; for I am not 
 disposed to abuse the confidence the Americans have 
 kindly placed in me." 
 
 Lafayette's cheerfulness was put to a severe test 
 during this winter at Valley Forge. The sufferings 
 of the army were really terrible. The soldiers lived 
 in huts, and clothes, blankets, and shoes were want- 
 ing. The winter was a very cold one, and food often 
 fell short both for officers and men. Sickness was 
 the natural consequence of so many hardships and 
 exposui-es. It was very easy for men to desert* 
 into the back country, and at times the force was so 
 small that if Sir William Howe had attacked them 
 they would have found it hard to defend themselves. 
 
 * To leave the army secretly. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 23 
 
 But he seems never to have thought of such a thing. 
 The patience of the army excited every one's admi- 
 ration, and was the more remarkable because the 
 British botli in Philadelphia and New York had 
 every comfort. But the sight of their sufferings 
 naturally prevented the men of the neighborhood 
 from enlisting,* and troops came in veiy small num- 
 bers from the distant States. 
 
 The Commander-in-chief was greatly distressed at 
 the condition of the soldiers, and made every effort 
 to relieve them. But the United States were very 
 poor; the war had interrupted trade of all kinds, 
 and Congress did not know how to provide for the 
 army. 
 
 This winter proved the truth of Washington's first 
 words to Lafayette ; the young Frenchman shared 
 all the privations of the Americans. " He adopted in 
 every respect American dress, habits, and food. He 
 wished to be more simple, frugal, and austere than 
 the Americans themselves." And what a change it 
 must have been from living in Paris, the winter be- 
 fore ! There was one great pleasure in the midst 
 of hardships. General Washington put great con- 
 
 * Joining the army. 
 
24 LAFAYETTE. [1777. 
 
 fidence in him. It was safer for him to speak of 
 anxieties and difficulties to Lafayette than to the 
 American officers ; he was less likely to be discour- 
 aged, — he was hopeful, faithful, and true ; and Gen- 
 eral "Washington, himself upright and true, valued 
 that quality more than any other in a friend. Lafay- 
 ette had also influence with the foreign officers, both 
 from France and other countries, and thus felt that he 
 was useful at Valley Forge, where there was much 
 discontent among all ranks of the army. 
 
 He soon had an opportunity of proving publicly 
 his devotion to the Commander-in-chief. In addition 
 to the distresses of the army, Washington had the 
 private trial of having his reputation attacked in a 
 mean, underhand way. Several discontented officers 
 and members of Congress joined together in what was 
 called Conway's Cabal. We do not know now all 
 that they wanted to do, but they were certainly bent 
 on ruining General Washington's reputation as a 
 soldier, and were constantly comparing the failures 
 of his last campaign with successes in other parts of 
 the country. 
 
 So brilliant and popular a young officer as Lafay- 
 ette would have been a great gain to their party ; but 
 he despised their arts, which he saw might impose 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 25 
 
 upon the ignorant. People who are not accustomed 
 to war do not know that it is impossible to fight 
 without men and money, and the Commander-in- 
 chief was obliged to keep his wants secret, lest the 
 enemy should find out his weakness, and how very 
 easily they might attack him. There were many 
 Tories * always ready to carry reports to the British 
 camp, and General Washington bore any amount of 
 blame rather than risk a loss to the army. His 
 friends were not idle, — they put him on his guard, 
 and both in and out of Congress took pains to make 
 his conduct and character known. Still he had no 
 means of finding out how many officers were engaged 
 in the Cabal, and, as suspicion was most painful 
 to his generous temper, Lafayette's frank, openly 
 expressed affection and sympathy were a special 
 comfort to him this dreary winter. 
 
 One thing which particularly troubled the Marquis 
 was that General Conway, who gave his name to the 
 Cabal, though an Irishman, had served in the French 
 army, and professed great devotion to him. He was 
 afraid that other French officers would be led away 
 by Conway's example and talking, and that his own 
 
 * People who took sides with England. 
 
26 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 name might be used quite too freely. In a letter to 
 the Commander-in-chief he says : " I don't need to 
 tell you that I am very sorry for all that has hap- 
 pened for some time past. It is a necessary depend- 
 ence* of my most tender and respectful friendship 
 for you, which affection is as true and candid as the 
 other sentiments of my heart, and much stronger 
 than so new an acquaintance seems to admit; but 
 another reason to be concerned in the present cir- 
 cumstances is my ardent and perhaps enthusiastic 
 desire for the happiness and liberty of this country. 
 I see plainly that America can defend herself if 
 proper measures are taken, and now I begin to fear 
 lest she should be lost by herself and her own sons. 
 
 " When I was in Europe, I thought that here almost 
 every man was a lover of liberty, and would rather 
 die free than live a slave. You can conceive my 
 astonishment when I saw that Toryism was as openly 
 professed as "Whiggism itself; however, at that time I 
 believed that all good Americans were united togeth- 
 er, — that the confidence hi . you was unbounded. 
 Then I entertained the certitude that America would 
 be independent in case she should not lose you. Take 
 
 * Consequence. — Lafayette always wrote in English to Gen- 
 eral Washington, and sometimes made little mistakes. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 27 
 
 away for an instant that modest diffidence of your- 
 self, (which, pardon my freedom, my dear General, 
 is sometimes too great, and I wish yon could know 
 as well as myself what difference there is between 
 you and any other man,) you would see very plainly 
 that if you were lost for America, there is nobody 
 who could keep the army and the Revolution for six 
 months." 
 
 In General Washington's answer to the affection- 
 ate letter of which this is a part, he thanked Lafay- 
 ette for his friendship, explained what he supposed 
 to be the reasons of Conway's dislike to him, and 
 expressed his own indifference to slander, ending, as 
 usual, hopefully : " I have no doubt that everything 
 happens for the best, that we shall triumph over all 
 our misfortunes, and in the end be happy ; when, my 
 dear Marquis, if you will give me your company in 
 Virginia, we will laugh at our past difficulties, and 
 the folly of others." 
 
 Thus, through various troubles, the attachment of 
 these two friends of different nations, different edu- 
 cation, different characters, and different ages, became 
 strong and lasting. 
 
 In the course of the winter, however, they were 
 separated. The Cabal, very anxious to engage 
 
 3 
 
28 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 Lafayette in their interest, offered him a separate 
 command at Albany, quite independent of the Com- 
 mander-in-chief. A few soldiers in that neighbor- 
 hood were called the Northern army, and an expedi- 
 tion into Canada was proposed. No doubt such a 
 command would have been very tempting to the 
 vanity and ambition of many young officers ; but La- 
 fayette's first request was that he might correspond 
 with General Washington. He went to York to 
 arrange plans for the expedition with Congress, to 
 find out exactly how many men he might depend 
 upon, and how he A\ r as to treat the Canadians. The 
 Cabal soon saw that they could get no hold upon 
 him. At a dinner at General Gates's house, after the 
 officers had given several toasts, he remarked that 
 there was one which had been forgotten, — he would 
 give them, "The health of the Commander-in- 
 chief!" Of course they could not refuse to drink 
 it, but it was coldly received, and Lafayette could 
 not have found a way to show his intentions more 
 clearly. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 A NEW COMMAND. 
 
 Lafayette set out on his horseback journey from 
 York, Pennsylvania, to Albany, without any very 
 bright hopes of success in his new position. The 
 roads were blocked up with snow and ice, but he 
 found some pleasure in the opportunity of seeing the 
 country people in their homes ; he liked their simple, 
 independent way of living. He wrote to General 
 Washington, on the way : "I go on very slowly ; 
 sometimes drenched by rain, sometimes covered by 
 snow, and not entertaining many handsome thoughts 
 
 about the projected incursion into Canada 
 
 Lake Champlain is too cold for producing the least 
 bit of laurel, and if I am not starved I shall be as 
 
 proud as if I had gained three battles 
 
 Could I believe for one single instant that this pom- 
 pous command of a Northern army will let your 
 
30 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 Excellency forget a little us absent friends, then I 
 would send the project to the place it comes from. 
 But I dare hope you will remember me sometimes." 
 
 He was greatly disappointed to find that no prepa- 
 rations had been begun at Albany ; he immediately 
 gave orders for enlisting men, though checked by 
 want of money. . He wrote, " Dear General : "Why 
 am I so far from you, and what business had the 
 Board of War to hurry me through the ice and snow 
 without knowing what I should do, neither what they 
 were doing themselves ? " The plan had been to 
 cross the lake upon the ice, and some Canadians 
 showed an interest in the Marquis ; but the British 
 general was much stronger than Congress had sup- 
 posed, and repeated delays in the supplies which had 
 been promised convinced Lafayette that the scheme 
 was useless. He might possibly have dashed into 
 the enemy's country with a handful of half-clothed 
 troops, and have accomplished some one brilliant 
 little action ; but it would have done no good, and he 
 had the good sense not to risk men's lives for the 
 sake of his own distinction. 
 
 Still to do nothing at all was a trial, and he began 
 soon to be distressed about his reputation. He wrote 
 to his best friend : " I confess, my dear General, that 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 31 
 
 I find myself of very quick feelings whenever my 
 reputation and glory are concerned in anything. It 
 is very hard indeed that such a part of my happiness, 
 without which I cannot five, should depend upon 
 schemes which I never knew of but when it is too 
 late to put them into execution. I assure you, my 
 most dear and respected friend, that I am more 
 unhappy than I ever was. 
 
 " My desire of doing something was such that I 
 have thought of doing it by surprise with a detach- 
 ment ; but it seems to me rash, and quite impossible. 
 I should be very happy if you were here to give me 
 some advice ; but I have nobody to consult with." 
 
 In March the ice began to melt, and Lafayette 
 with regret gave up his last hope of action, and 
 obeyed the counsels of prudence. General Wash- 
 ington's answer to his letter did not arrive until after 
 his decision, but was full of sympathy and consola- 
 tion, and Congress thanked him for his wisdom 
 and forbearance. 
 
 He endeavored to make better arrangements for 
 the troops in the neighborhood of Albany, and to 
 protect the country people from the attacks of the 
 Indians. He was present at a meeting of chiefs of 
 the Oneidas, Tuscaroras, and other tribes, with Gen- 
 
32 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 eral Schuyler and Mr. Duane, who were charged 
 with the management of Indian affairs. He made 
 speeches, and, like many other Frenchmen, had much 
 more influence over the Indians than the English. 
 They gave him the name of Kayewla, and kept 
 him in remembrance for many years. On his part, 
 he was quite pleased with the politics of the old 
 sachems.* 
 
 Early in the spring Lafayette rejoined Wash- 
 ington at Valley Forge, and found the army in a 
 better state than when he left it. The Cabal had 
 lost its power, and General Washington was more 
 beloved than ever. 
 
 The 2d of May, 1778, was celebrated joyfully by 
 the army, because they had received the news that 
 France had joined with them in the war against 
 England. It was agreed that neither nation should 
 make peace separately, and the Americans had hopes 
 of great assistance from so powerful an ally.f This 
 event gave much pleasure to the Marquis ; he had 
 been wishing for it a long time, and though he was 
 in disgrace with the French government on account 
 of the manner in which he quitted the country, he 
 
 * Chiefs of tribes. 
 
 t A person or nation who is bound by promise to help another. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 33 
 
 had many friends and relations at court, and his 
 letters may have influenced people in power. 
 
 He, unlike many discontented foreigners, always 
 sent home favorable accounts of the United States. 
 In this country, also, he tried to make the people feel 
 kindly towards France ; but there were some obsta- 
 cles in his way. For hundreds of years the English 
 and French had been enemies, often fighting, always 
 laughing at and despising each other ; and the Amer- 
 icans, being descended from the English, had inher- 
 ited many of their prejudices. Lafayette was very 
 much liked here, on account of his pleasant manners, 
 his enthusiasm for liberty, and his romantic story; 
 and his wish was to turn his own popularity into an 
 affection for his beloved country. 
 
 At the same time Avith these good tidings from 
 France, came the news that Great Britain would send 
 commissioners to make one more effort for peace. 
 But still the King refused to acknowledge that the 
 States were independent, and Congress would listen 
 to nothing short of that. 
 
 The campaign of 1778 opened rather late. Sir 
 William Howe was in no haste to leave Philadelphia. 
 On the 18th of May, General "Washington sent 
 Lafayette with 2,000 chosen men across the Schuyl- 
 
34 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 kill River, to get information of the enemy's move- 
 ments and plans. The Marquis proceeded to Barren 
 Hill, about eleven miles from both armies. He 
 stationed his troops there, and on the morning of the 
 20th was told that some red dragoons* whom he 
 was expecting had arrived at Whitemarsh, on the 
 left of his force. On examining carefully into the 
 truth of this story, he found that a column of red- 
 coated British soldiers was advancing upon him. 
 He had just altered the position of his troops, that 
 he might receive the enemy better, when he was 
 told that they were also on a road behind him. 
 This information was brought to him in presence of 
 the men, and, unpleasant as it was, he forced himself 
 to smile. No general should ever look discouraged. 
 
 He immediately decided to march rapidly, but 
 without hurrying, to Matson's Ford ; the enemy was 
 nearer to it than he. General Grant, commanding 
 a detachment of 7,000 men, had possession of heights 
 above the road ; but he was deceived by Lafayette's 
 coolness and skilful arrangement of his men, and 
 fancied that he saw but a part of his force. While he 
 was examining, the whole body passed by him. 
 
 * Soldiers who are usually on horseback, heavier armed than 
 cavalry. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 35 
 
 General Grey's column of 2,000, now in the rear, 
 was imposed upon in the same way, and Lafayette 
 succeeded in arranging his men on the opposite bank 
 of the Schuylkill before any attack had been made. 
 A third division of the British army came up, and 
 the generals were astonished to find that they had 
 only each other to fight with. They decided not to 
 cross the river, but returned to Philadelphia, much 
 disappointed that the Marquis de Lafayette was not 
 their prisoner. Sir William Howe had been so sure 
 of taking him, that he had invited some ladies to 
 meet him at supper. Lafayette likewise marched 
 back to Valley Forge, where he was received with 
 great joy. The alarm had reached the camp, and 
 General Washington had feared not only a repulse, 
 but the loss of the best men in his army. The 
 Marquis's conduct on this day added much to his 
 reputation as a military man, for it was thought 
 remarkable that so young a general had proved more 
 than a match for two old ones. 
 
 Li June Lafayette received the sad news of the 
 death of his oldest child, a little girl. For a time, 
 all his thoughts turned to France, and he would have 
 been glad to go home to console his wife; but a 
 soldier cannot leave his post in the middle of a 
 campaign. 
 
36 LAFAYETTE. [1778. 
 
 On the 17th of June the British army left Phil- 
 adelphia, and began to march through New Jersey. 
 
 There was a great division of opinion among the 
 American officers as to the propriety of attacking 
 them, or letting them go undisturbed. General Lee, 
 a distinguished officer, (English by birth, but who 
 had served in many countries,) spoke warmly in favor 
 of letting them go. He said the time was unfavor- 
 able for an attack, and that the Americans should 
 rather help than hinder the departure of the enemy. 
 
 Lafayette took the opposite side of the question, 
 and thought it would be disgraceful to allow the 
 enemy to pass . quietly through the State. Though 
 Lee's opinion had great weight, on account of his 
 age and experience, some of the officers agreed with 
 Lafayette, and the Commander-in-chief decided that 
 an attack should be made on the rear of the British 
 force. 
 
 A division of the army was to be sent forward for 
 this purpose. The command of it belonged by rank 
 to General Lee ; but, as he had never liked the plan, 
 General Washington, with his consent, gave it to 
 Lafayette. Lee then changed his mind and wished 
 to take it himself, but was persuaded to yield ; find- 
 ing, however, it was to be a large detachment, he 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 37 
 
 again requested the Commander-in-chief to allow 
 him to lead it. So many changes were very trying 
 to Lafayette's temper, — he was a young general, 
 and eager for the glory which Lee had won years 
 before ; the command of a division, any opportunity 
 for distinction, was very rare during this tedious war, 
 and much sought for, — but he was thoroughly 
 obliging. General Lee said to him, " It is my fortune 
 and honor that I place in your hands ; you are too 
 generous to cause the loss of both ; " and Lafayette, 
 after he had actually left the camp, wrote, in a note 
 to General Washington, " Sir, I want to repeat to you 
 in writing what I have told to you ; which is, that 
 if you believe it, or if it is believed necessary or use- 
 ful to the good of the service and the honor of Gen- 
 eral Lee, to send him clown with a couple of thousand 
 men, or any greater force, I will cheerfully obey 
 and serve him, not only out of duty, but out of what 
 I owe to that gentleman's character." This was the 
 more generous on his part, because he and Lee had 
 constant little disagreements. General Lee had very 
 strong English prejudices, and the Marquis was an 
 ardent Frenchman. Finally the Commander-m- 
 chief increased the number of troops, thus making 
 it more proper to give the command to the person 
 
38 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 next to himself in rank, and at the same time 
 requested General Lee not to alter any arrangements 
 which Lafayette had already made. 
 
 On the 28th of June the battle of Monmouth was 
 fought. The Americans attacked the British army 
 as it was leaving the town, but General Lee's con- 
 duct was very strange ; he ordered his men to retreat 
 early in the day, and at the very moment when the 
 Commander-in-chief was bringing up the main body 
 of the army. The meeting of course produced great 
 confusion, and General "Washington was exceedingly 
 displeased. With great quickness and with the best 
 judgment, he rearranged the troops, and the Amer- 
 icans gained a decided advantage. Lafayette says of 
 him : " General Washington was never greater in 
 battle than in this action. His graceful bearing on 
 horseback, his calm and dignified deportment, which 
 still retained some trace of the displeasure he had 
 experienced in the morning, were all calculated to 
 excite the highest degree of enthusiasm." The 
 Marquis himself was in constant motion from four 
 o'clock in the morning until night, when the battle 
 ended. He was first ordered to cross an exposed 
 plain to attack the enemy's left, and then to fall back ; 
 he had only to obey General Lee's orders, though he 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 39 
 
 could not understand them. Afterwards, while Gen- 
 eral Washington was forming his new lines, he 
 undertook to keep back the advancing enemy. " The 
 heat was so intense that soldiers fell dead without 
 having received a single wound." 
 
 At night Washington and Lafayette lay down 
 upon the same cloak, talking of General Lee's 
 behavior, and expecting to renew the fight in the 
 morning. But when daylight came they found that 
 the British had moved on, and General "Washington 
 thought his men too much exhausted to pursue them 
 in such sultry weather. 
 
 The next important event was the arrival of a 
 French fleet off New York harbor. Lafayette was 
 disappointed in his first hopes that the ships would 
 attack the city by sea, while "Washington did the 
 same by land. No pilot could be found to take the 
 large vessels into the harbor. 
 
 A plan was then formed for an attack on Rhode 
 Island by the fleet combined with land forces. Gen- 
 eral Sullivan was already at Providence, and La- 
 fayette and General Greene were despatched from 
 head-quarters. 
 
 But this expedition was likewise unfortunate. 
 The land forces were not ready when the fleet ap- 
 
40 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 peared off Newport, and while the French admiral* 
 was waiting for them, Lord Howe, who had watched 
 his movements, came to meet him. The two fleets 
 immediately put out to sea, with the intention of 
 fighting; but a violent storm scattered them, and 
 when the French admiral returned to Newport he 
 declared that he must go immediately to Boston to 
 refit his ships. This was a terrible blow to the 
 Americans who, in the mean time, had drawn near 
 Newport, and were hoping to make the combined 
 attack. Lafayette and General Greene were sent 
 on board Count d'Estaing's ship to urge him to 
 remain, but they could not prevail upon him to 
 do so. 
 
 Lafayette's regret, deep as it was, was soon min- 
 gled with indignation. All the American officers, 
 except General Greene, spoke of the admiral's con- 
 duct with great bitterness, and General Sullivan 
 even went so far as to say publicly "our allies 
 have deserted us. " It was perfectly natural that 
 they should feel vexed a*nd disappointed, but very 
 unwise to expi'ess their feelings so strongly ; for when 
 people of different nations are trying to act together, 
 
 * Count d'Eataing. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 41 
 
 they must pass lightly over causes of disagreement, 
 and do their best to keep the peace while they make 
 war. 
 
 Such language touched Lafayette in a most sen- 
 sitive place ; his country's honor was dear to him. 
 He wrote to General "Washington : " My reason for 
 not writing the same day the French fleet went to 
 Boston was that I did not choose to trouble your 
 friendship with the sentiments of an injured, afflicted 
 heart, and injured by that very people I came from 
 so far to love and support. Don't be surprised, my 
 dear General ; the generosity of your honorable mind 
 would be offended at the shocking sight I have 
 under my eyes." And further on, after a long account 
 of the troubles, he says : " Remember, my dear 
 General, that I don't speak to the Commander-in- 
 chief, but to my friend; that I am far from com- 
 plaining of anybody. I have no complaints to make 
 to you against any one, but I lament with you that I 
 have had an occasion of seeing so ungenerous sen- 
 timents in American hearts I earnestly beg 
 
 you will recommend to the several chief persons of 
 Boston to do everything they can to put the French 
 fleet in a situation for sailing soon. Give me leave 
 to add that I wish many people, by the declaration 
 
42 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 of your sentiments in that affair, could learn how to 
 regulate theirs, and blush at the sight of your gener- 
 osity. 
 
 " Farewell, my dear General. Whenever I quit 
 you, I meet with some disappointment and misfortune. 
 I did not need it, to desire seeing you as much as 
 possible." 
 
 The Commander-in-chief did, in fact, act as peace- 
 maker, and wrote most pressing letters to the officers, 
 trying to infuse into their minds a little of his own 
 patience and consideration. In spite of his indig- 
 nation, Lafayette did the same, and made the best 
 use of his influence in Boston. He was constantly 
 sent with messages from the army to the fleet, and 
 even followed the Admiral to Boston to arrange 
 plans. 
 
 While he was absent, General Sullivan removed 
 the troops from the neighborhood of Newport to the 
 northern end of Rhode Island, and Lafayette hurried 
 back, expecting an engagement. He travelled on 
 horseback eighty miles in eight hours, but arrived 
 only in time to meet the main body crossing the 
 ferry between Rhode Island and the main land. 
 A thousand men, the rear-guard,* had been left on 
 
 * Those Avho come last in marching. 
 
AGE 20.] LAFAYETTE. 43 
 
 the island, and were almost surrounded by the enemy. 
 Lafayette took the command of them, and succeeded 
 in withdrawing them without the loss of a single life. 
 When Congress returned thanks for his conduct 
 during this retreat, they also expressed their grat- 
 itude to him for undertaking the journey to Boston 
 a at a period when he might rationally have expected 
 an engagement." 
 
 No battle took place in the State of Rhode Island, 
 and the British were left at Newport exactly as they 
 had been before the expedition was proposed. 
 Lafayette went again to Boston for a little while, 
 hoping to be of use to his countrymen there, and 
 afterwards rejoined the main body of the army. 
 
 At this time, Lord Carlisle, one of the British 
 commissioners sent to Congress, made use, in a 
 public letter, of some expression insulting to France. 
 Lafayette, therefore, challenged him to fight a duel, 
 which was rather a boyish act, as Lord Carlisle was 
 not a man to fight, nor in a proper position to accept 
 a challenge. He refused it; but even people who 
 disapproved of Lafayette's conduct saw clearly that 
 his high spirit and love of his country were the 
 motives of it. Fighting a duel was not in those 
 days, and especially among the French, the disgrace- 
 4 
 
44 LAFAYETTE. [l778. 
 
 ful act that it is now considered in most civilized 
 countries. 
 
 The campaign of 1778 drew to a close in the 
 United States, and, as France was at war, Lafayette 
 thought it his duty to return to his native country, 
 and asked permission of Congress to do so. This 
 was immediately granted, with the warmest thanks 
 for his services. A sword was ordered to be pre- 
 sented to him, and a ship of war, the Alliance, 
 chosen to convey him home. 
 
 He was to embark at Boston, and set out on 
 horseback from Philadelphia. His journey was often 
 interrupted by entertainments at various places, and 
 was at last brought to an end by a severe fever. 
 He had had a great deal of labor and exposure, 
 besides excitement of mind, at Rhode Island; and, 
 although he struggled hard to keep up during this 
 journey, his strength was no longer sufficient to resist 
 the violence of the disease. Fortunately he was 
 able to reach Fishkill, on the Hudson, eight miles 
 from the headquarters of the army. Dr. Cochran, 
 the chief surgeon, was devoted to him, and General 
 Washington came every day to inquire about him. 
 He became so ill that his death was constantly 
 expected for several days, and every one in the 
 
AGE 21.] LAFAYETTE. 45 
 
 army, from the Comniander-ru-chief to the private 
 soldiers, expressed the sincerest grief. The idea of 
 this young foreigner dying in a strange land just 
 when he was expecting to go home, touched every 
 one's feelings. His mind was perfectly clear ; he 
 made some necessary arrangements in case of his 
 death, and then only regretted that he could not see 
 again those whom he loved best. 
 
 But the fever did not prove fatal ; he recovered, 
 and at the end of three months Avas thinking again 
 of his voyage. He took a most affectionate leave of 
 General Washington, to whom he had become more 
 and more attached, ever since he arrived in America. 
 He respected and admired "Washington as much as 
 he loved him ; — when absent, he constantly turned 
 to him for sympathy and advice ; when they could be 
 together, he was always happy. What a fortunate 
 man to have such a friend ! 
 
 He proceeded to Boston hi January, 1779. The 
 citizens, who had always been very friendly to him, 
 now paid him the kindest attentions, and he was sup- 
 plied with excellent Madeira wine, which he found 
 very useful in restoring his strength. He was de- 
 layed a few days, because the crew of the Alliance was 
 not complete, and it was finally filled up with some 
 
46 LAFAYETTE. [l779. 
 
 British deserters and prisoners. The Marquis wrote 
 letters to Canada, sent presents to the Indians, and 
 repeated his farewells to his friends. A long letter 
 to General Washington ends thus : " Farewell, my 
 most beloved General. It is not without emotion I 
 bid you this last adieu before so long a separation. 
 Don't forget an absent friend, and believe me, for 
 ever and ever, with the highest respect and tenderest 
 affection, Lafayette." As he did not sail immediately, 
 he opened his letter to say good by once more. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE TWO ALLIANCES. 
 
 The Alliance sailed on the 11th of January, 1779, 
 and her passage was stormy ; but Lafayette had to 
 meet a greater danger within the ship than that from 
 winds and waves without. Eight days before they 
 reached the coast of France, the Englishmen on 
 board formed a design of getting possession of the 
 ship and guns, and then killing the officers, passen- 
 gers, and any of the crew who should resist. They 
 would then have taken the ship into some British 
 harbor, and would have received as much money as 
 she was worth. 
 
 Fortunately, the mutineers,* mistaking an Ameri- 
 can for an Irishman, told him of then- plot, and 
 offered him the command of the vessel. He gave 
 
 * Men determined not to obev their officers. 
 
48 LAFAYETTE. [l779. 
 
 warning to the captain and to Lafayette just one hour 
 before the ship was to be seized. They rushed on 
 deck, sword in hand, and, with the assistance of the 
 passengers and French and American sailors, secured 
 thirty-one of the British. The rest of the crew 
 were not strong enough to carry on the mutiny, and 
 the ship went safely on her way. 
 
 As soon as he landed in France, Lafayette has- 
 tened to Paris, and was delighted to meet his own 
 family and friends once more. He had much to tell 
 of a world unknown to Parisians, but which he was 
 determined to make them care for. His mind was 
 constantly full of schemes for carrying on the war, 
 — for annoying England and helping America. He 
 was still out of favor with government for the way 
 in which he had left the kingdom ; but all France 
 was proud of his bravery, and delighted with his 
 romantic enthusiasm. We can hardly imagine how 
 much a young nobleman who had had such uncom- 
 mon adventures would be talked about. He was, as 
 a matter of form, desired not to appear in public 
 places, and to visit only his relations ; but, as he and 
 his wife had an enormous number of them, such an 
 order did not oblige him to lead a very quiet life. 
 The court ladies were eager to see him, and the 
 
AGE 21.] LAFAYETTE. 49 
 
 ministers had many questions to ask him. He soon 
 received the honorable appointment of colonel of a 
 regiment of the King's dragoons, and began to 
 correspond with the minister of war about his 
 various plans for the benefit of his adopted 
 country. 
 
 He had left the United States fired with the idea 
 of a grand expedition against Canada ; but the 
 French government was as slow to engage in so ex- 
 pensive a plan as Congress had been, and he was 
 obliged to be content with a more moderate scheme. 
 He next proposed that a small fleet should appear off 
 some of the large and rich English towns, such as 
 Liverpool ; the inhabitants, for fear of injury to their 
 houses and shops, would probably pay large sums 
 of money, and the amount so collected should be 
 devoted to the American cause. 
 
 But this project also was not acceptable to the 
 ministers, and while they were taking counsel Avith 
 Spain about a grand invasion of England, Lafayette 
 asked and obtained for the United States the assist^ 
 ance of land troops, which had not been sent up to 
 this time, and which Congress had not desired him 
 to ask for. He was perfectly sure, however, that 
 they were necessary, and that the ministers would be 
 
50 LAFAYETTE. [ 1779 
 
 more ready to send a good fleet if they were inter- 
 ested in the officers of the army. 
 
 In August, 1779, the grandson of Dr. Franklin 
 who was the envoy of the United States in Paris, 
 presented to him the sword ordered by Congress, 
 Avhich had been made in France. It was engraved 
 with figures representing his exploits at Gloucester, 
 Barren Hill, Monmouth, and Rhode Island. Dr. 
 Franklin said, in the letter which accompanied it, 
 " By the help of the exquisite artists of France, I find 
 it easy to express everything but the sense we have 
 of your worth and our obligations to you ; for this, 
 figures and even words are insufficient." 
 
 Lafayette's heart was certainly half in America, 
 during the whole summer. He wrote to General 
 "Washington : " I cannot express to you how uneasy 
 I feel on account of your health, and the dangers 
 you are, perhaps at this moment, exposing yourself 
 to. These you may possibly laugh at and call wo- 
 manlike considerations ; but so, my dear friend, I feel, 
 and I never could conceal the sentiments of my heart. 
 
 I know, my dear General, you wish to hear 
 
 something about my private affairs. My family, my 
 friends, and my countrymen made me such a recep- 
 tion, and showed me every day such an affection as 
 
 
AGE 21.] LAFAYETTE. 51 
 
 I should not have dared to hope What I 
 
 wish, my dear General, what would make me the 
 happiest of men, is to join American colors, or to put 
 under your orders a division of four or five thousand 
 countrymen of mine 
 
 " All Europe wants to see you so much, my dear 
 Sir, that you cannot refuse them that pleasure. I 
 have boldly affirmed that you will pay me a visit 
 after the peace is settled ; so that, if you deny me, you 
 will hurt your friend's reputation throughout the 
 
 world I most earnestly entreat you, my 
 
 dear General, to let me hear from you. "Write me 
 how you do, how things are going on. The minut- 
 est detail will be interesting. Don't forget me, my 
 dear General ; be ever as affectionate to me as you 
 have been ; these sentiments I deserve from the 
 ardent ones which fill my heart." 
 
 In a letter written on the 7th of October, 1779, he 
 laments that he has not once heard from General 
 Washington, and says: "Let me beseech you, my 
 dear General, by that mutual tender and experienced 
 friendship in which I have put an immense portion 
 of my happiness, to be very exact in inquiring for 
 occasions, and never to miss those which may convey 
 to me letters that I shall be so much pleased to re- 
 
52 LAFAYETTE. [l779. 
 
 ceive Be certain, my dear General, that in 
 
 any situation, in any case, let me act as a French or 
 as an American officer, my first wish, my first pleas- 
 ure, will be to serve again with you. However 
 happy I am in France, however well treated by my 
 country and king, I have taken such a habit of being 
 with you, — I am tied to you, to America, to my fel- 
 low-soldiers by such an affection, — that the moment 
 when I shall sail for your country will be one of the 
 most wished-for and the happiest of my life." 
 
 During the autumn and winter he persevered in 
 his efforts to obtain money and land forces for the 
 American army, and he was at last successful ; the 
 money was placed at General Washington's disposal, 
 the troops were to be commanded by 'Count Eocham^ 
 beau, and Lafayette was to resume his station in 
 the service of the United States. 
 
 He sailed from France the second time in March, 
 1780. No despatches from government delayed his 
 departure, and on the 27th of April he wrote from 
 Boston harbor to announce his arrival to the Com-, 
 mander-in-chief. The people of Boston received the 
 Marquis with the greatest joy. He was taken in 
 triumph to Governor Hancock's house, but he was 
 too impatient to see General Washington to allow 
 
AGE 22.] LAFAYETTE. 53 
 
 himself to be long detained by any festivities. This 
 welcome, however, was for himself: nothing was 
 known as yet of the good news he brought. 
 
 He hastened on to head-quarters. " After the first 
 pleasui'e of their meeting was over," he learned from 
 General Washington the bad state of the American 
 army. Money and provisions were scarce, and it 
 was very difficult to collect men; the country was 
 exhausted and indifferent. Then Lafayette revealed 
 his good tidings ; he had gone beyond the orders of 
 Congress, but the wants of the United States were 
 exactly those which he had supposed, and Wash- 
 ington felt the . strongest hope that the timely arrival 
 of the French fleet would rouse the Americans to 
 fresh exertions. 
 
 Secret preparations were made for the fleet at 
 Newport, Rhode Island. It was expected in July, 
 and Lafayette took up his station in the front of the 
 Commander-in-chief's division of the army, which was 
 established on the banks of the Hudson River. He 
 had brought from France swords, banners, and some 
 ornaments for the officers and soldiers of his corps,* 
 — he was so much attached to them, that it was like 
 
 * A body of troops used to acting together. 
 
54 LAFAYETTE. [l779. 
 
 giving presents to his friends. Clothes, much needed 
 by many others beside his men, had been promised 
 in France, but never came. 
 
 The French fleet arrived at the appointed time, 
 and the first plan proposed was that of a joint attack 
 on New York ; but all hopes of an action were soon 
 overthrown by the blockade of the French fleet in 
 Newport harbor. The English squadron was decid- 
 edly larger, and the French admiral could not move. 
 Count Rochambeau would very gladly have joined 
 General Washington in an attack by land ; but there 
 seemed not the smallest prospect of success, unless 
 the ships could assist them. This state of things 
 was exceedingly trying to Lafayette, who was "Wash- 
 ington's messenger and secretary in all his communi- 
 cations with the Count, and was positively longing 
 to see something accomplished. 
 
 During his first visit to Rhode Island, however, he 
 had the pleasure of finding the allied armies on very 
 friendly terms. He wrote to General Washington 
 that, on the arrival of some American militia-men, 
 " every French soldier and officer took an American 
 with him, and divided his bed and his supper with 
 
 him in a most friendly manner The French 
 
 discipline is such that chickens and pigs walk between 
 
AGE 22.] LAFAYETTE. 55 
 
 the tents without being disturbed, and that there is 
 in the camp a corn-field of which not one leaf has 
 been touched. The Tories don't know what to say 
 to it." To understand what high praise this is, you 
 must remember that soldiers are generally very 
 careless in their habits, and are apt to compel farmers 
 to give them whatever they can see in the way of 
 food. To prevent their doing mischief requires 
 great care on the part of the officers, as well as obe- 
 dience and good-temper from the men. 
 
 While waiting for further aid from France, Count 
 Eochambeau was very desirous of seeing General 
 Washington, who found it difficult to leave head- 
 quarters. On the 18th of September, however, he 
 set out for Hartford, Connecticut, where he had a 
 most agreeable meeting with the Count. He re- 
 turned to West Point on the 25th, a few hours after 
 the escape of General Arnold, who had betrayed the 
 place to the enemy. The arrest of the unfortunate 
 Major Andre, the British officer who made the 
 agreement with Arnold, prevented Sir Henry Clin- 
 ton from gaining any advantage by this piece of 
 treachery ; but the first discovery of it was appalling 
 to the Commander-in-chief, and to all those about 
 him. Lafayette was walking up to Arnold's house 
 with General Washington and General Knox, when 
 
56 LAFAYETTE. [l780. 
 
 Colonel Hamilton came out and said a few words to 
 the Commander-in-chief in a low voice, but this 
 probably excited no surprise in the minds of his 
 companions. In a short time, however, Washington 
 rejoined them, and put into their hands the papers 
 which proved Arnold's guilt. They were shocked, 
 for, though General Arnold's character was not en- 
 tirely without reproach, he had been one of the 
 bravest and most distinguished officers of the Amer- 
 ican ai-my. But no time could be lost in feeling, — 
 it was necessary to act ; and since it was too late to 
 capture Arnold, all efforts were turned to the secur- 
 ity of "West Point. Lafayette shared his General's 
 anxiety, and did not fail to observe and admire his 
 kind and delicate attention to Mrs. Arnold, who was 
 left alone in a most unhappy condition. 
 
 He was one of the fourteen generals who tried 
 Major Andre, and decided that he must suffer death 
 by hanging, — the usual fate of a spy; yet his 
 feelings were very much touched by Andre's situa- 
 tion, and the cheerful fortitude with which he bore 
 his sentence. General Washington would have been 
 glad to have exchanged Andre for Arnold ; but Sir 
 Henry Clinton would not consent to such an arrange- 
 ment, though he made great efforts to save Andre's 
 life. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ACTIVE OPERATIONS. 
 
 In October of this year Lafayette wrote a long 
 letter to the Commander-in-chief, urging an immedi- 
 ate attack on the city of New York. He was very 
 tired of reconnoitring parties, and plans which came 
 to nothing ; and he felt that some action was needed, 
 both for the honor of America and the credit of the 
 French army. General "Washington in his heart 
 desired activity quite as much as his young friend ; 
 but he did not think the time favorable enough for 
 so large a scheme, and he could only reco mm end to 
 Lafayette the patience which he so constantly prac- 
 tised himself. 
 
 In November the Marquis de Chastellux, a French 
 traveller who visited the Commander-in-chief at 
 head-quarters, thus describes Lafayette's appearance : 
 " TVe availed ourselves of the cessation of the rain 
 
58 LAFAYETTE. [l781. 
 
 to accompany his Excellency to the camp of the 
 Marquis. We found all his troops ranged in line of 
 battle on the heights to the left, and himself at their 
 head, expressing both by his deportment and physi- 
 ognomy that he preferred seeing me there to receiv- 
 ing me on his estate in Auvergne. The confidence 
 and attachment of his troops are most precious in his 
 eyes, for he looks upon that species of wealth as one 
 of which he cannot be deprived. But what I think 
 still more flattering to a young man of his age is 
 the influence which he has acquired in political as 
 well as military circles. I have no fear of being 
 contradicted when I assert that simple letters from 
 him have often had more influence in some of the 
 States of the Union than the strongest invitations on 
 the part of Congress." 
 
 In February, 1781, Lafayette was despatched 
 from head-quarters to Portsmouth, Virginia, to oppose 
 with but a small force the traitor Arnold. The 
 French fleet which was to assist him was defeated at 
 sea on its way, and Lafayette, having blockaded 
 Portsmouth, was retreating northwards, when at 
 Head of Elk he met despatches from General Wash- 
 ington. These informed him that reinforcements 
 were to go from the British head-quarters to Arnold, 
 
AC.K 23. J LAFAYETTE. 59 
 
 and that ho must aid the Virginians. Now, like all 
 American generals, Lafayette found himself beset 
 by difficulties. His men were from the New Eng- 
 land State-, and were unwilling to be exposed to the 
 southern climate ; they began to desert. Lafayette 
 told them, in a general order,* that he was setting out 
 on a difficult, dangerous enterprise, and that whoever 
 wished to quit him might obtain leave to do so by 
 coming to head-quarters. From that day there were 
 no more desertions; the men felt it an honor to follow 
 their leader, and one sergeant, who was lame and 
 could not walk, hired a cart rather than be left 
 behind. They were without proper clothes for a 
 southern campaign, and Lafayette borrowed money 
 to buy linen for them, which the ladies of Baltimore 
 made into shirts. 
 
 He had not men enough for fighting battles. His 
 objects in this campaign were to deceive and annoy 
 the enemy, to protect the military stores which 
 supplied the army of General Greene in Carolina, 
 and to prevent the British from gaining any advantage 
 from their superior troops and equipments. He 
 immediately distinguished himself by a rapid march 
 
 * Directions and advice from a general, which are read aloud 
 to the troops. 
 
 5 
 
60 LAFAYETTE. [1781. 
 
 to Richmond, the capital of Virginia, which greatly 
 astonished the British General Phillips. This officer 
 died soon after, and Lafayette refused to receive a 
 letter from Arnold, who succeeded him in the com- 
 mand. This spirited determination pleased General 
 Washington and Congress. 
 
 Perhaps it seems strange that the commanders of 
 hostile armies should have any occasion to write to 
 each other ; but there are always questions of busi- 
 ness coming up ; sometimes relating to the treatment 
 and exchange of prisoners ; sometimes to the protec- 
 tion of the country people near the camp, who are 
 always in danger of being robbed ; and in various 
 ways generals can show civility and respect for each 
 other. By refusing to hold any communication with 
 General Arnold, Lafayette plainly showed that he 
 did not think him a proper person for an American 
 officer to speak to. 
 
 Virginia became at this time the principal scene 
 of war. General Greene was active in the Carolinas, 
 but was ill-supplied, had been defeated, and could 
 only hope to delay Lord Cornwallis's arrival in 
 Virginia. His lordship was fighting his way up from 
 Charleston, South Carolina, to join General Phillips. 
 
 Between the Commander-in-chief, Greene, and 
 
AGE 23.] LAFAYETTE. Gl 
 
 Lafayette, there was the most perfect agreement 
 both in wishes and actions. General Washington 
 watched both divisions, and assisted both as far as 
 he coidd ; but he could not leave his station near New 
 York, which*was still to be attacked whenever the 
 long-expected French fleet should arrive. General 
 Greene was like Washington, — patient, prudent, 
 and hopeful ; but Lafayette needed a double share of 
 discretion when in May he found himself opposed to 
 Lord Comwallis, the best British general in America. 
 
 From the Marquis's youth and inexperience, 
 Cornwallis promised himself an easy victory, and 
 was confident enough to say, in one of his letters, 
 " The boy cannot escape me." He had one great 
 advantage in mounting his dragoons on the fine 
 Virginia horses which he found in abundance in the 
 stables of the planters. Lafayette says, in one of his 
 letters : " There is no fighting here unless you have 
 a naval superiority, or an army mounted on race- 
 horses ; " and, again, he speaks of the " immense and 
 excellent body of horse, whom the militia fear as if 
 they were so many wild beasts." He was, however, 
 joined by many of the young men of the State, whose 
 intelligence and high spirit were of great use to him. 
 
 After having gained possession of Richmond, he 
 
62 LAFAYETTE. [l781. 
 
 was not strong enough to remain there, and slowly 
 retreated before Lord Cornwallis, hoping to be joined 
 by some Pennsylvania troops. He never allowed the 
 two armies to meet in such a way that there could 
 be an engagement ; and yet he moved as slowly 
 as possible, leaving each place just as the British 
 advance guard entered it. He could not continue 
 long on this plan ; for the Pennsylvanians did not 
 come at the time they were expected, and there 
 were some stores at Albemarle Old Court House, 
 which it was necessary to guard. It was supposed 
 that he must pass in front of the whole English army, 
 and so expose himself to certain defeat ; but he dis- 
 covered an old road, which had been long unused, 
 had it mended by night, and led his men success- 
 fully to the spot. Lord Cornwallis was surprised 
 to hear of him established in so strong a position. 
 He uoav turned towards Richmond and Williamsburg, 
 and Lafayette, being joined by the Pennsylvania 
 troops, under General Wayne, and by another re- 
 inforcement, under Baron Steuben, ventured to follow 
 him. 
 
 There were constant skirmishes, but nothing that 
 could be called a regular attack until the 6th of July, 
 when the British army was crossing James River, 
 
AGE 23.] LAFAYETTE. G3 
 
 on the march from Williamsburg to Portsmouth. 
 Lafayette, believing that the larger part of the army 
 had crossed, ordered an attack upon what he sup- 
 posed to be a rear-guard. Lord Cornwallis, intending 
 to deceive him, had sent forward, with great parade, 
 only a small detachment, and received the Americans 
 with the main body of his army. General Wayne, 
 nick-named Mad Anthony, was in command, and 
 when he found out his danger continued to advance, 
 thinking it safer than to retreat. Lafayette, with 
 fresh troops, was ready to follow, if he were needed ; 
 but, as he listened to the heavy firing, it struck him 
 that there must be more than a rear-guard engaged, 
 — he galloped to a place where he could see the ac- 
 tion, and immediately sent assistance to Wayne, with 
 orders to fall back. This was successfully done, and, 
 as it was growing dark, Lord Cornwallis did not pur- 
 sue him. The violent beginning and sudden end of 
 the attack made him suspect a snare. 
 
 This was a severe conflict. " Our field officers," 
 says General Wayne, " were generally dismounted 
 by having their horses killed or wounded under 
 them. I will not condole with the Marquis for the 
 loss of two of his, as he was frequently requested to 
 keep at a greater distance. His natural bravery 
 rendered him deaf to admonition." 
 
64 • LAFAYETTE. [l781. 
 
 A few days later, the British proceeded to Ports- 
 mouth, which they considered a very advantageous 
 place, on account of the communication with New 
 York. Lafayette had been hoping that they would 
 go to the sea-coast, as he thought it would then be 
 much easier for him to watch them on land, and 
 believed that a French fleet would surely come, in 
 the course of the season, to blockade them by sea. 
 He wrote to General Washington, saying that he was 
 glad of this arrangement ; and about the same time 
 the enemy got possession of a letter to him from the 
 Commander-in-chief hi which he spoke of his plans 
 for an attack upon New York, and gave the Marquis 
 permission to return to head-quarters and take part 
 in it. This letter made the British feel very easy in 
 Virginia, and consider New York alone as the place 
 to be protected. 
 
 The active campaign of the last four months was 
 now exchanged for a steady watching of the enemy 
 at Portsmouth, and constant communication with 
 head-quarters. On the 20th of July, Lafayette wrote: 
 " I am entirely a stranger to everything that passes 
 out of Virginia, and Virginian operations being for 
 the present in a state of languor, I have more time 
 to think of my solitude ; in a word, my dear General, 
 
AGE 23.] LAFAYETTE. 05 
 
 I am homesick, and if I cannot go to head-quarters, 
 wish at least to hear from thence. I am anxious 
 to know your opinion of the Virginian campaign. 
 
 So long as my lord wished for an action, 
 
 not one gun has been fired ; the moment he declined 
 it, we have been skirmishing ; but I took care never 
 to commit the army." And to Colonel Hamilton he 
 wrote, " Independence has rendered me the more 
 cautious, as I know my own warmth." 
 
 At the end of July he saw the greatest part of 
 Cornwalhs's army at Portsmouth embark on board 
 vessels which did not immediately sail. He supposed 
 they must be going to New York, but in less than 
 three weeks found out they were removed to York- 
 town and Gloucester Point, where they began to fort- 
 ify. In the mean time he had heard from General 
 Washington that the French fleet would arrive in 
 Chesapeake Bay, instead of New York Harbor. 
 The attack on New York was given up, and Vir- 
 ginia was to be the scene of action. Lafayette no 
 longer regretted that he had been sent away from 
 head-quarters. He followed Lord Comwallis and 
 took measures to shut him in completely, while the 
 British General felt so secure within his fortifi- 
 cations, and with only Lafayette for an opponent, 
 
66 LArATETTE. :--;. 
 
 that he offered to send some of bis men to New 
 York. 
 
 Lafayette wrote to his wife, when matters were 
 thns far advanced : * It was not prudent in the 
 General to confide to me such a command. If I 
 had been unfortunate, the public would hare called 
 that partiality an error of judgment-" But he had 
 already proved that the Commander-in-chief had 
 judged wisely of the capacity of his young general. 
 
 About this time Lafayette warned a spy to sand 
 into the British camp, and a New Jersey soldier 
 named Morgan was pointed out to him as a fit 
 person to be employed. It is not an easy thing to 
 find a spy : a man must be trustworthy and faithful 
 to his own officer, and ret willing to deceive the 
 enemy; be must be obserring. and yet must not 
 appear to be getting information. Morgan was 
 unwilling to put himself in such a position, but at 
 last consented, on condition that, if be should be 
 kjDed, the General would have a full account of the 
 case printed in the New Jersey newspapers, so that 
 no reproach might fall upon his honor. He went to 
 the British camp and faithfully obeyed orders. After 
 several weeks had passed, thinking he could no 
 longer be useful, be came back, and brought with 
 
AGE 23.] LAFAYETTE. C7 
 
 him five deserters and a prisoner. The next day 
 the General, to reward him, offered to make him a 
 sergeant. Morgan thanked him, but declined, say- 
 ing that he thought himself a good soldier, but was 
 not certain of being a good sergeant. He likewise 
 refused other offers. " What can I, then, do for 
 you ? " inquired Lafayette. " I have only one favor 
 to ask/' replied Morgan. " During my absence my 
 gun has been taken from me ; I value it very much, 
 and I should like to have it back again." Orders 
 were given that the gun should be found, and it was 
 his only reward for this difficult, dangerous service. 
 
 On the 1st of September the French fleet, under 
 Count de Grasse, arrived. The Marquis de Saint 
 Simon immediately landed with three thousand sol- 
 diers. Lafayette added his force to theirs, and took 
 up a strong position at Williamsburg. Lord Corn- 
 wallis marched out, intending to make an attack ; but 
 finding them so strong, contented himself with im- 
 proving his fortifications at Yorktown. In an en- 
 gagement at sea between the French fleet and the 
 British under Admiral Graves, Count de Grasse 
 was victorious, and Lord Cornwallis's confidence 
 began to waver a little as he saw himself blockaded 
 on both sides. 
 
68 LAFAYETTE. [l781. 
 
 Lafayette was now exposed to a great temptation, 
 or what might have been a great temptation to a 
 more selfish man. The French admiral and the 
 Marquis de Saint Simon strongly urged him to 
 make an assault upon Yorktown. They said that he 
 had had the danger, fatigue, and anxiety of the 
 campaign, and that it was but fair that he should 
 have the honor of receiving Lord Cornwallis's sur- 
 render. But Lafayette would not listen to any such 
 proposals. He told them that General Washington 
 and Count Rochambeau were already on their way, 
 and that the combined forces would make so large 
 an ai'my that Lord Cornwallis would surely yield to 
 a regular siege, and in that way many lives would 
 be spared which must be lost in a violent attack 
 made by his present force. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SUCCESS THE REWARD OF PATIENCE. 
 
 The Commander-in-chief and Rocharnbeau arrived 
 on the 14th of September, and Lafayette saw one of 
 his cherished wishes fulfilled when General Wash- 
 ington was at the head of the united army of French 
 and Americans. Even after their arrival, however, 
 the whole scheme was put in peril for a day by the 
 French admiral's declaring that it was not prudent 
 for him to remain at Yorktown, and that he must put 
 out to sea to meet and fight with some new British 
 men-of-war which had just arrived at New York. 
 Lafayette, at General "Washington's request, went 
 on board the admiral's ship, and with considerable 
 difficulty persuaded him to wait until the siege of 
 Yorktown should be ended. Then the works went 
 on; the Americans gradually surrounded the town 
 with earth-works, redoubts, and trenches, and all the 
 
70 LAFAYETTE. [l781. 
 
 regular means of besieging a city, while Lord Corn- 
 wallis continued to strengthen his fortifications. 
 
 On the 11th of October the siege was begun by- 
 General Washington's firing the first gun. For 
 several days a steady firing was kept up on both 
 sides ; cannon-balls were constantly crossing each 
 other in the air, and at night red-hot shot glared out 
 of the darkness. One English ship and some smaller 
 vessels were set on fire by them, and as the flames 
 ran up to the top of the masts, the sight was at once 
 splendid and horrible. The noise of the large guns, 
 and of the shells bursting and tearing up the ground 
 all about them, was perpetual, and added not a little 
 to the dreadful effect of the scene. 
 
 On the 14th it was decided to take by storm two 
 redoubts, the only defences outside the city which the 
 enemy still held. One was to be attacked by the 
 French under the Baron de Viomenil, the other by 
 the Americans under Lafayette. The Baron had 
 said once, in conversation, that in an attack of this 
 sort he thought the French superior to the Ameri- 
 cans. Lafayette answered, "We are but young 
 soldiers, and we have but one sort of tactic on such 
 occasions, which is to discharge our muskets and 
 push on straight with our bayonets." In making his 
 
AGE 24.] LAFAYETTE. 71 
 
 attack, Lafayette carried out this plan exactly ; he 
 thought that only such an impetuous assault would 
 enable his inexperienced troops to overcome the 
 well-trained British soldiers waiting within their 
 fortifications. In a very few minutes he took the 
 redoubt, and, as he still heard firing from the other, 
 he sent his aide to the Baron, to inquire if he should 
 give him any assistance, and to say that he had won 
 his prize. Viomenil answered, " Tell the Marquis 
 that I am not yet master of my redoubt, but that I 
 shall be in less than five minutes." And in less than 
 that time he entered it with his men, in perfect order. 
 He had followed strict military rule, and had had the 
 way cleared for him before his onset ; but while he 
 was waiting his troops were exposed to a terrible 
 fire from the enemy. Colonel Barber, the aide who 
 carried Lafayette's message, had received a wound, 
 but would not allow it to be dressed until lie had 
 executed his commission. Perhaps he had a little 
 pride in showing the French officers how indiffer- 
 ent to pain an American could be. 
 
 After the taking of these redoubts, Lord Corn- 
 wallis's position became still more hopeless ; the 
 cannon continued to destroy his works, he could do 
 but little to injure the French and Americans, and 
 
72 LAFAYETTE. [l781. 
 
 bad weather prevented an escape in boats to Glouces- 
 ter, which he had planned. On the 17th he requested 
 an interview with an American officer, that'the terms 
 of surrender might be agreed upon, and on the 19th 
 his army laid down their arms. 
 
 The French and American troops were drawn up 
 in long lines, and were quiet and orderly as the 
 conquered army passed between them; but their 
 secret triumph and rejoicing must have been great 
 as they saw how full the ranks were, and felt how 
 important a victory they had won. Every one was 
 eager to see Lord Cornwallis, but this distinguished 
 general did not make his appearance; General 
 O'Hara took his place. 
 
 Count Rochambeau, General Washington, and 
 Lafayette sent their aides to offer their compliments 
 to Lord Cornwallis ; who sent a message to tell the 
 Marquis that, after having made this long campaign 
 against him, he wished to give him a private account 
 of the reasons which had led him to surrender. 
 The next day Lafayette went to see him. " I 
 know," said the English general, " your humanity to 
 prisoners, and I recommend my poor army to you." 
 Lafayette replied, " You know, my lord, the Ameri- 
 cans have always been humane towards imprisoned 
 
AGE 24.] LAFAYETTE. 73 
 
 armies. He would not accept even a compliment 
 which seemed to separate him from his adopted 
 countrymen. The other generals also visited Lord 
 Cornwallis, and every civility which could make his 
 mortifying position more endurable was shown to 
 him. 
 
 The Americans knew that they had gained a great 
 advantage in taking this army ; but they were very 
 desirous of closing the campaign by the recapture 
 of Charleston, South Carolina, which had been hi 
 the possession of the enemy since May, 1780. Gen- 
 eral Greene had had a very hard summer, opposed 
 to Lord Eawdon from the time that Cornwallis had 
 come into Virginia. It seemed easy now to give 
 him assistance, when the fleet was ready, and the 
 land forces so far on their way to the south. Lafay- 
 ette would again have commanded the expedition, 
 and would have been glad to undertake it with a 
 small army which might easily have been transported 
 in a few vessels ; but the French admiral declared 
 that it was his duty to return immediately to the 
 West Indies. It is said that when Lord Cornwallis 
 saw Lafayette returning from his last visit to the 
 admiral's ship, he said to some officers who were with 
 him, " I lay a wager he has been making arrange- 
 
74 LAFAYETTE. [l781. 
 
 ments to ruin us at Charleston." This remark shows 
 that he understood Lafayette's disposition and talents. 
 There is every reason to suppose that such a scheme 
 would have succeeded. As it was not undertaken, 
 the campaign came to an end, and the army went 
 into winter-quarters. 
 
 During all the time that the French and American 
 armies were together, the most perfect friendliness 
 prevailed between them. The French officers ad- 
 mired "Washington Avith the ardor that belongs to 
 their nation, and only laughed at the hardships they 
 had to bear. And doubtless their example influenced 
 the common soldiers. On their part, all Americans 
 felt themselves under great obligations to those who 
 had come so far to fight for them. Lafayette men- 
 tions, as a proof of good feeling, that when the 
 French troops under the Marquis de Saint Simon 
 joined his, he ordered them to be supplied with flour 
 enough to last three days before the Americans 
 received any. The latter were obliged to live chiefly 
 on Indian meal, but were quite satisfied. He also 
 gave horses to the French hussars, while the Amer- 
 ican officers had none, yet he never heard a com- 
 plaint. Perhaps nothing shows more clearly that he 
 felt as an American than his thus treating his own 
 
AGE 24.] LAFAYETTE. 75 
 
 countrymen as guests. He had taken the precaution 
 before they left France to have it settled that they 
 were always to be considered as auxiliaries,* and 
 that French officers were always to be under the 
 orders of Americans of equal rank. 
 
 In November of this year, Lafayette again asked 
 leave to return to France, and, with the most cordial 
 thanks from Congress, and the respect and gratitude 
 of every patriot, he once more set sail from Boston. 
 He carried with him the consciousness that his 
 services to this country had been great and highly 
 valued here. His friendship for General Washing- 
 ton was one of the delights of his life, and he felt 
 sure that the United States would always hold a 
 place in his affections second only to France. 
 
 No mutiny this time disturbed his voyage. He 
 found all things prosperous in his family, and he 
 had gained a military reputation which made him 
 still more admired than before. 
 
 He was commissioned by Congress to make 
 arrangements for them in Europe, and the next year 
 was chiefly occupied with preparations for a com- 
 bined expedition from France and Spain, which now 
 
 * Those who give assistance, but never take the lead. 
 6 
 
76 LAFAYETTE. [l782. 
 
 joined in the war against England. The fleet of 
 sixty vessels was to be commanded by Count d'Es- 
 taing; the army of twenty -four thousand men, by 
 Lafayette. The plan was to sail from Cadiz for the 
 island of Jamaica, then to proceed to New York, 
 and after taking that city to go on to Canada. 
 There were so many delays in getting together this 
 grand army, and arranging all the points of the 
 agreement between the nations, that Lafayette was 
 still at Madrid when he heard the news of the Peace 
 of Paris, which put an end to our Revolutionary 
 war. It was signed in January, 1783, and he was 
 the first to inform Congress of this joyful event. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FRANCE AS IT WAS. 
 
 In the next year, 1784, Lafayette allowed himself 
 the pleasure of a visit to the United States. He 
 arrived at New York in August, went to the south 
 as far as Yorktown and Richmond, and paid to Gen- 
 eral Washington at Mount Vernon that visit so often 
 anticipated in their letters written by camp-fires and 
 amid the hardships of war. He was present at the 
 making of a treaty with the Indians of the Sis 
 Nations, some of whose chiefs called him by his old 
 name of Kayewla, which they gave him in 1778. 
 He also went through the Eastern States, and was 
 everywhere, as Washington wrote to Madame de La- 
 fayette, " crowned with wreaths of love and respect." 
 
 He was particularly interested in seeing the old 
 soldiers of the army, and often touched by finding 
 the children of those who had fallen making part of 
 
78 LAFAYETTE. [l784. 
 
 the processions in his honor. Every one was eager 
 to see him, either from gratitude or curiosity, and his 
 reception was cordial and affectionate. 
 
 At the end of November he was again at Mount 
 Vernon, and after their parting General Washington 
 wrote this note, so expressive of his affection : " At 
 the moment of our separation, upon the road as I 
 travelled and every hour since, I have felt all that 
 love, respect, and attachment for you, with which 
 length of years, close connection, and your merits 
 have inspired me. I often asked myself, as our 
 carriages separated, whether that was the last sight 
 I should ever have of you. And though I wished 
 to answer no, my fears answered yes." 
 
 Lafayette would not admit this idea; though he 
 saw that his beloved friend was never likely to cross 
 the water, he promised himself the happiness of 
 several visits at Mount Vernon. He could not fore- 
 see the political stomis that were to sweep over his 
 life, and he cared little for those he must meet on the 
 Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 After a great public entertainment at Boston, he 
 embarked on board a French frigate, and had a 
 prosperous voyage, bearing home with him many 
 bright recollections of warm friends and happy hours 
 
AGE 27.] LAFAYETTE. 79 
 
 in the United States, and strong hopes for their 
 futm*e prosperity. 
 
 He did not find France in an equally promising 
 condition. 
 
 The following year, 1785, Lafayette undertook 
 a shorter journey into Austria and Russia, Though 
 republicans were not much admired in those coun- 
 tries, Lafayette's distinguished family connections, 
 and his reputation as a young general, gained for 
 him a polite reception. In Prussia, he went to all 
 the military reviews in company with the king, 
 Frederic the Great, at that time the most distin- 
 guished soldier in all Europe. 
 
 After his return to France, he gave much time 
 and attention to a scheme in which his benevolence 
 interested him. He bought a plantation at Cayenne, 
 in French Guiana, and sent out an excellent superin- 
 tendent, to teach the slaves and to prepare them 
 gradually for freedom. He had been particularly 
 pleased with a school for free-negro children, which 
 he had seen at New York, and wished at least to 
 try the experiment of training the blacks. Difference 
 of color could not check his enthusiastic love of 
 liberty. He honestly desired that all men, not 
 merely himself and his countrymen, should be free ; 
 
80 LAFAYETTE. [l785. 
 
 but lie had the common sense to see that some races 
 of men require preparation even for freedom, and 
 that a slave, who has all his life been fed and clothed 
 by a master, does not know how to provide for him- 
 self in his old age. 
 
 "We now come to a great change in Lafayette's 
 life. We have seen him fighting for freedom, and 
 interested in military affairs ; — the love of liberty, 
 from this time forth, led him to a different work, — to 
 an endeavor to reform the government of his country. 
 Other men's minds were full of the same idea, and 
 there was a general feeling in Paris, and throughout 
 France, that the hour was come for a great change. 
 
 It is difficult to explain to those who have lived 
 only in the United States how bad the French gov- 
 ernment was, and had been for several hundred 
 years. But one great evil, which caused many 
 others, was, that the kings and the nobles had long 
 believed that government was made for their pleas- 
 ure and glory, not for the happiness and welfare of 
 the common people. They did not know that a few 
 hundred noblemen were but of small imjiortance, 
 compared with the hundreds of thousands who toiled 
 for their daily bread in France ; on the contrary, 
 
AGE 29.] LAFAYETTE. 81 
 
 they thought that the poor were created to work 
 for them. The consequence was, that acts of 
 cruelty to the low-bom were looked upon with per- 
 fect indifference by the great lords. You must not 
 suppose that there were not kind-hearted people 
 among them ; then, as now, there lived in the world 
 those who delighted to make all about them happy, 
 including the peasants ; but, as a general rule, their 
 lives were full of other occupations. Many of them 
 were soldiers, and when they were not actually en- 
 gaged in war made plans for new campaigns, or 
 else amused themselves with hunting or other sports, 
 never giving any time to thinking how the poor 
 people around them lived. 
 
 The king and the royal family, including even his 
 distant cousins, must have palaces to live in; ser^ 
 vants, horses and carriages, and money to spend, 
 provided for them out of the public wealth ; all the 
 priests were to be maintained ; and in times alike of 
 war and of peace, there was a great army to be fed 
 and clothed. Thus several thousands of idle people 
 were supported by the industrious ; and all these ways 
 of pouring out money consumed it much faster than 
 the sale of the farmer's corn, or the weaver's cloth, 
 or the vine-grower's wine, supplied it. 
 
82 LAFAYETTE. [l787- 
 
 But there was no less expense at the court because 
 the nation was growing poorer. The ministers had 
 not the courage to tell a King of France that he 
 could not have anything he desired ; and so he and 
 all those who lived at court went on spending money 
 for trifles, while the peasant and the shop-keeper 
 were pressed harder and harder with taxes to pay 
 upon everything they ate or drank, or bought or 
 sold. A tax upon salt, which is so constantly in use, 
 caused great distress. Any person could be licensed 
 to sell salt, if he would pay a large sum to the gov- 
 ernment. Of course, then, the seller asked the high- 
 est possible price for it, because he wanted to secure 
 his own profit in addition to what he had to pay over 
 to the government. Thus hard men were more 
 likely to undertake the business than any others, 
 because asking such high prices made them very 
 much disliked. France was divided into districts, 
 in some of which the people were compelled to buy 
 a certain quantity of salt every year ; in others, they 
 did as they chose. This made one hardship the 
 more ; for a poor man who lived in one district 
 might be ruined by being forced to buy a great 
 quantity, while his near neighbor was perhaps free 
 from any restraint in the matter. 
 
AGE 29.] LAFAYETTE. 83 
 
 And this is only a sample of the way taxes "were 
 paid for everything. This salt-tax — the gabelle, as 
 it was called — was much talked about, and was very 
 irritating to the poor people ; but the real suffering 
 was owing to the great number of taxes. 
 
 An English traveller, passing through France at 
 this time, says of what he saw in one day's journey, 
 '' The fields are scenes of pitiable management, as 
 the houses are of misery ; " and again, " All the 
 country girls and women are without shoes or stock- 
 ings, and the ploughmen at their work have neither 
 sabots * nOr feet to their stockings." 
 
 And, two years later, the same traveller, in walking 
 up a hill, chanced to overtake a poor woman, who 
 seemed unhappy, and complained of the times. 
 When he asked questions, she told him that she was 
 married and had seven children ; that her husband 
 had but a small bit of ground, a little horse, and a 
 cow, yet they had to pay 42 pounds of wheat and 
 three chickens to one great lord, and 168 pounds of 
 oats, one chicken, and one franc to another, besides 
 several very heavy taxes. She said she hoped 
 something would be done for poor people, for the 
 
 * Wooden shoes. 
 
84 LAFAYETTE. [l787. 
 
 taxes were crushing them. She was twenty-six 
 years old, but her figure was so bent, and her face so 
 wrinkled, that she might have been taken for sixty. 
 And she was only a specimen of the women that 
 were to be seen almost everywhere in France. It 
 was not uncommon for the poor people to gather 
 nettles to make soup of. 
 
 When a nobleman heard of some unfortunate 
 wretch dying .of hunger, no doubt he might feel 
 sorry for a few minutes ; but he was not apt to think 
 what could be the reason, or if he himself could do 
 anything to remedy it. And here was a point in 
 which Lafayette was quite different from other peo- 
 ple of his own rank and age. He did think about 
 the condition of working-people, and longed to 
 make them happier and better ; he believed freedom 
 would do that. 
 
 Such a state of things could not last forever; 
 when people are perfectly miserable, they grow 
 restless and fierce. This was the case in France. 
 A great many people in a middle condition of life, 
 neither very rich nor very poor, were fired with ideas 
 of liberty and equality ; they began to ask why dukes 
 and counts were better than themselves, and why 
 some lives were passed in ease and luxury, and 
 
AGE 29.] LAFAYETTE. 85 
 
 others in toil and want and pain. There can be no 
 doubt, too, that the accounts of the United States 
 brought home by the soldiers and officers who had 
 served there helped to keep up the excitement. 
 'It had been proved there that contentment and 
 prosperity could be found without a king, without 
 a court, without an order of priests, and, above all, 
 without so many taxes. 
 
 At this time (1787) Louis the Sixteenth, who was 
 the king of France, was a just and humane man, who 
 would have been very glad to do whatever he could 
 to make his subjects happier ; but he did not know 
 how or where to begin. 
 
 One thing was certain, — that the government 
 needed money ; and in order to raise it, the king's 
 ministers advised him to call a meeting of the No- 
 tables of France. These were the princes, brothers 
 or cousins of the king ; some dukes and counts, 
 marshals of France, and other military officers ; 
 several bishops and magistrates. They met in 
 February, 1787, and began to consider what could 
 be done about the national debt and taxes. A hun- 
 dred and sixty years had passed since they were 
 last called together, and all the old rules of business 
 were forgotten. 
 
86 LAFAYETTE. [l787. 
 
 Lafayette took his place among the nobles, and 
 spent much time upon a plan for reducing the debt 
 and expenses. He also brought forward several 
 proposals for limiting the king's power. One of 
 these was, that he should no longer have the right 
 to send a person who had displeased him to prison 
 without any accusation, and without any trial or 
 chance to defend himself. Such a prisoner had no 
 hope of release except from the king's mercy, and 
 might die in his cell, forgotten. Another proposal 
 was to grant greater liberty to Protestants, who were 
 in many ways kept in a position very inferior to 
 that of the Catholics. 
 
 Finding that the Notables were not doing much 
 work, Lafayette suggested that the king should be 
 asked to summon a National Assembly. " What ! " 
 said the Count d'Artois, the king's brother, " do you 
 make a motion for the States-General ? " " Yes, and 
 even more than that," was his answer. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CHANGES. 
 
 The States-General were composed of representa- 
 tives from the nobles, the clergy, and the third estate, 
 or common people of France. They had not met 
 for a hundred and seventy-five years, and had in 
 former times been most submissive to the kings ; but 
 there -was little hope, of making any change without 
 them, and they only had the right to alter the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 They met on the 4th of May, 1789, in a hall at 
 Versailles which the king had prepared for them, 
 and where he came with the queen to receive them. 
 
 It is difficult to imagine now the excitement which 
 there was then in Paris and throughout all the large 
 towns of France. The kingdom was poorer than it 
 had been the year before, — everything was dear, 
 complaints were loud. Men left their offices and 
 
88 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 their workshops to make speeches and to become 
 national deputies;* the newspapers were full of 
 articles on liberty and the rights of man; new 
 pamphlets were printed every day, and eagerly read 
 by a few of those who were suffering under real 
 wrongs, and by all the foolish people who fancied 
 they should be the happier for being as idle as the 
 counts and marquises they pretended to despise. 
 Every one, except the court and those who were 
 satisfied with the kingdom as it was, looked forward 
 with hope to the meeting of the States-General, not 
 knowing what would befall them, but trusting to 
 secure freedom and many other good things. Politics 
 were the one thing everybody cared for, not only in 
 Paris, but in all the towns of France. A stranger 
 in the city writes : " I went to the Palais Royal f to 
 see what new things were published. Every hour 
 produces something new. Thirteen pamphlets came 
 out to-day, sixteen yesterday, and ninety-two last 
 week Nineteen twentieths of these produc- 
 tions are in favor of liberty, and commonly violent 
 against the clergy and nobility." The coffee-houses 
 were always open, and orators declaimed in the most 
 
 * Members of the States-General, or National Assembly, 
 t An old palace, now used in part for shops. 
 
AGE 31.] LAFAYETTE. 89 
 
 vehement manner to an excited crowd, who loudly 
 applauded anything particularly fierce and harsh. 
 
 The king and his ministers were troubled and did 
 not know what to do. They felt that something 
 would have to be yielded to this extraordinary 
 passion for liberty which had got possession of some 
 of the nobles and common people, — they did not at 
 all understand the power of the mob, and they were 
 obliged to admit that their schemes had not made the 
 debt any less. The king's natural desire to secure 
 himself led him to coUect a great many soldiers in and 
 about Paris, and so many more mouths to be filled in- 
 creased the scarcity of flour. He thought the troops 
 would be faithful to him, but experience proved that 
 the new ideas of liberty and equality had made their 
 way into the army. 
 
 After much trouble in getting ready to work, 
 the twelve hundred National Deputies (three hun- 
 dred nobles, three hundred of the clergy, and six 
 hundred of the common people) began their task ; 
 which was, to give France a new government. They 
 first destroyed many of the bad laws which had come 
 down from old times ; they took away power from 
 the king and nobles, and forbade many of the privi- 
 leges of the rich and great which had caused suffer- 
 
90 LAFAYETTE. [l7S9. 
 
 ing among the poor. But this was not all. A 
 kingdom cannot exist without laws ; and while the 
 Assembly was talking* and listening to speeches, 
 people who had been kept down by fear of the laws 
 might do a vast deal of mischief. The Deputies had 
 no hesitation in saying that certain punishments 
 should never be repeated in France ; but then there 
 was a long pause before they could make up their 
 minds what should take their place. They found 
 building up a slower work than pulling down. It 
 was easier to make speeches, and set the nation in 
 order by adding up figures and writing papers, than 
 to supply food for a hungry mob, or teach the 
 peasants not to revenge themselves on their former 
 masters. 
 
 The French are so easily stirred up that merely 
 reading the reports of what was done each day in 
 the Assembly added to the excitement of distant 
 towns and villages, and it must be remembered that 
 while their minds were thus filled with hopes and 
 expectations, their real wants of food and clothes and 
 comforts had not been relieved. Nor were they 
 
 * A Swiss, who went often to the Assembly, says that each 
 man was vain enough to fancy himself equal to the whole labor 
 of remodelling the government. 
 
AGE 31.] LAFAYETTE. 91 
 
 likely to be during this summer (1789), for mer- 
 chants and. farmers no longer gave their whole 
 attention to business, and the nobles began to quit 
 France, taking with them the money they had been 
 accustomed to spend every year. 
 
 The natural consequences of such a condition 
 were mobs and tumults in the cities, the burning of 
 chateaus* and sometimes killing the lords, in the 
 country. 
 
 Lafayette took part in the labors of the Assembly 
 with great spirit. He welcomed everything which 
 was at all like the laws and customs of the United 
 States, and his letters to General Washington were 
 full of hope. He excused the outbreaks, alarming 
 as they were, on account of the long suffering of the 
 people. 
 
 But a more serious one took place in Paris when 
 the citizens heard that Monsieur Necker, a popular 
 minister, had been dismissed, and that the troops 
 were drawing nearer to Paris, and even entering the 
 city. The excitement was intense for several days 
 in July, and at last, after some regiments had arrived 
 and others were reported, it broke out into a uni- 
 
 * The country-houses of the nobles, -which had generally been 
 castles. 
 
 7 
 
92 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 versal demand for arras. The mob entered shops or 
 public offices where they thought any guns could be 
 found, and all smiths and armorers worked day and 
 night. The great bells sounded the alarm ; the 
 soldiers, with strange stupidity or indifference, did 
 nothing at all; and on the 14th of July an armed 
 crowd of volunteers, who believed that they could no 
 longer submit to authority, but that this day they 
 must " do or die," accompanied by all the rabble of 
 Paris, attacked an ancient prison called the Bastile. 
 After ' a short resistance, the few soldiers who 
 defended it were compelled to yield, and the com- 
 mandant was killed in the street. The people 
 seemed almost ready to tear down with their hands 
 the solid stone walls. Furious as they were, how- 
 ever, there was some cause for their rage ; for terrible 
 deeds had been done in that prison. Men had been 
 shut up there for half a lifetime, without even know- 
 ing whether their fathers and mothers, wives and 
 children, were still living, — there the innocent, upon 
 whom no sentence had ever been pronounced, had 
 despaired of seeing again the light of day. What 
 sufferings and what deaths those Avails had concealed 
 could never be known ; but thinking of them might 
 well have maddened a calmer people than the 
 
AGE 31.] LAFAYETTE. 03 
 
 Parisians ! The. few prisoners found there were 
 paraded through the streets on men's shoulders, and 
 a sort of wild rejoicing took possession of Paris. 
 In other countries, all who loved liberty could not 
 help being glad that such a dungeon was destroyed, 
 and the key of the great gate was sent by Lafayette 
 to General Washington. 
 
 While all this tumult was stirring Paris, the 
 Assembly at Versailles were bent on making the 
 king withdraw his troops. They sent to him three 
 times during the day, and continued sitting nearly all 
 night. The next day he suddenly agreed to their 
 request ; all was rejoicing at Versailles, and Lafay- 
 ette with several other deputies was sent to Paris 
 with the good news. The city, calmed from the 
 frenzy of the day before, received them joyfully, and 
 Lafayette was appointed, by acclamation, commander 
 of the National Guard.* From this time forward, 
 we find him hard at work in Paris, and seldom able 
 to take his place in the Assembly. 
 
 He immediately published an order for pulling 
 down the Bastile, and began to arrange and divide 
 
 * He suggested this name for the volunteers of Paris, — citi- 
 zens who were armed and drilled, and performed some of the 
 duties of police. 
 
94 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 the National Guard. He was exceedingly desirous 
 that they should be citizens as well as soldiers, 
 obeying the laws and magistrates as Avell as their 
 officers. Several regiments of the army insisted on 
 joining it ; but Lafayette would never allow it to be 
 merely a military establishment. He set them the 
 example of respect for law, by insisting upon a regu- 
 lar vote for his own office, several days after his 
 public appointment. " Lafayette enjoyed at once 
 that entire confidence and public esteem which are 
 due to great qualities. The faculty of raising the 
 spirits, or rather of infusing fresh courage into the 
 heart, was natural to him. His appearance was 
 youthful, which is always pleasing to the multitude. 
 His manners were simple, popular, and engaging." 
 
 It was not strange that obedience was rare in these 
 days, for no one had any authority. The king's 
 power was growing less and less ; he was obliged to 
 let his soldiers join the National Guard, because they 
 had already left their quarters, and were wandering 
 about the streets of Paris; the judges and other 
 magistrates appointed by him were disliked and 
 suspected; the assembly at Versailles had hardly 
 begun to " make the Constitution ; " * and there was 
 
 * A favorite French expression at that time ; but a constitution 
 
AGE 31.] LAFAYETTE. 95 
 
 no strong hand to govern. The people, crushed 
 by long oppression, and now aroused to vengeance 
 rather than improvement, were totally unfit to gov- 
 ern themselves. 
 
 The National Guard were needed in Paris to clear 
 the streets, to prevent thieves from stealing by day 
 as well as by night, to save unpopular persons from 
 being hung upon lamp-posts, and to make the city 
 safe for peaceable people. All sorts of vile wretches, 
 who at common times keep out of sight in the side- 
 streets and dingy shops of great cities, now canle 
 boldly forth, and in the name of liberty sought for 
 chances to commit crimes. The crowds of idle peo- 
 ple constantly drawn together by street-orators were 
 easily roused, even to the point of putting to death ; 
 and there seems no reason to doubt that men Avere 
 actually hired by some of the nobles to join these 
 crowds and stir them up to every kind of mischief 
 and cruelty. The design was to bring the revo- 
 lution into disgrace, and make it appear that liberty 
 led to violence. 
 
 This was precisely what Lafayette was resolved 
 to prevent. Liberty and order were connected in his 
 
 is not a, machine, to be made, — it must grow in part, at least, 
 from the habits of a nation. 
 
96 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 mind ; freedom did not mean that the wicked only 
 were free to do all the evil they might feel disposed 
 to, but that the good and the industrious were to 
 have liberty to keep all they could earn, and to live 
 as they desired. 
 
 It is hard to imagine the restlessness and excita- 
 bility of the people of Paris which Lafayette was 
 constantly made to feel. About this time there was 
 for several weeks a great scarcity of flour, and the 
 magistrates did not know how to get enough into the 
 city to feed the inhabitants, and the great number of 
 strangers who flocked thither. The bakers were in 
 a good deal of danger, for sometimes the mob would 
 fancy that they concealed great quantities of flour 
 in their shops. Several notes were shown to Lafay- 
 ette forbidding the millers to grind for the capital, 
 and to his surprise he found his own name at the 
 bottom. It was of course a forgery. But what 
 could the poor people think, when they saw such an 
 order ? One day, a little while after Lafayette had 
 taken command of the National Guard, a great pub- 
 lic meeting of tailors was called. He went to it, 
 and made a speech which probably prevented mis- 
 chief. It was afterwards found that this meeting 
 was called merely to delay the finishing of the uni- 
 
AGE 31.] LAFAYETTE. 97 
 
 form of the Guard. They would be more easily 
 distinguished in a crowd by wearing a uniform, and 
 so have more power to stop outbreaks ; and there 
 were people enough in Paris ready to do anything 
 that would keep up disturbances. 
 
 Lafayette led a most active life. He was con- 
 stantly on horseback, riding about the city, consulting 
 with the magistrates, addressing the people. One 
 day it was an oration to the officers of the National 
 Guard, — the next, an appeal to a dirty, disorderly 
 mob to be patient, to wait for the constitution they 
 were making at Versailles. He had great power 
 over them ; often when they were hungry and savage, 
 ready to throw stones, or even to hang a man at a 
 lamp-post, a few kind words from him, or sometimes 
 a little jest, would make them good-natured. The 
 trouble was, that they collected in such huge groups 
 that his voice could not be heard by the distant ones. 
 For instance, within a week of his appointment, two 
 men were hung hi the street, in spite of his most 
 vigorous efforts. He was so much disturbed by 
 this violence that he resigned his office, but the 
 entreaties of the most respectable citizens of Paris 
 prevailed upon him to take it again. 
 
 In this manner the summer was passed in Paris. 
 
98 LAFATETTE. [l789. 
 
 By great and steady exertion, Lafayette and the 
 mayor succeeded in getting quietly through the weeks 
 of greatest scarcity. The price of bread was very 
 high and the loaves were very poor ; but, in spite of 
 hunger and impatience, the mob did not again take 
 up arms. They could not at all understand why the 
 pulling down of the Bastile, and the appointment of 
 the National Guard instead of soldiers, had not imme- 
 diately given bread to the poor, and ease and comfort 
 to every man. They wondered why the king's 
 consenting to their demands, and being called the 
 Restorer of French liberty, did not at once remedy 
 all the mischief of bad government for hundreds of 
 years. But, although puzzled, the Parisians waited 
 for the constitution which was making at Versailles 
 with more patience than the country-people did. 
 Gaunt, thin, fierce-looking men attacked and burnt 
 the country-houses of the great lords, whose families 
 did not always escape with their lives. The peas- 
 ants had suffered terribly, and it was not strange if 
 they were at first more furious than the citizens of 
 Paris, for they knew less of what was going on at 
 Versailles, and had less to divert their minds. The 
 land lay neglected and full of nettles and briers, for 
 the peasants were so weak, so hungry, and so ill-paid, 
 
AGE 31.] LAFAYETTE. 99 
 
 that they had no heart to "work. They said that all 
 their earnings went to buy salt, to support the priests 
 and to pay taxes. And so, "when the time came, they 
 took revenge on all who had oppressed them, or who 
 belonged to the higher classes. Often the innocent 
 wife or child or sister of a great lord suffered with 
 him, for not only his own hard acts, but for those of 
 his grandfather or great-grandfather. Brigands was 
 the common name for the most atrocious of these 
 people ; and at any time a panic could be caused in 
 any city, even Paris itself, by a report that the 
 brigands were coming. The news "of all these dis- 
 tresses came to Paris, and added to the anxiety of 
 the patriots. 
 
 The quietness of the city was no doubt partly due 
 to the National Guard-, who became used to acting 
 together, and interested in keeping order. They 
 wore a cockade of red and blue, the colors * of the 
 city of Paris, to which Lafayette had added white, 
 the king's color, to signify that the Guard was faithful 
 
 * In former times a knight was recognized by some ornament 
 on his armor, or the colors of the scarf or feathers he wore ; and 
 so each great family and each city had colors of its own, which 
 were shown on banners, on the coverings of horses, on the orna- 
 ments of buildings, &c. 
 
100 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 to the throne. " Gentlemen," said he to his friends 
 at the Hotel de Ville,* " I bring you a cockade which 
 will go round the world ! " f 
 
 He was often pressed and urged to take command 
 of the National Guard of other cities, which was 
 formed on the same plan as that of Paris ; but he 
 always refused, thinking that it was not sufficiently 
 republican for one man to have so great power, and 
 also because the task of keeping the Parisian mob 
 quiet was sufficient to employ all his energy and 
 zeal. He had refused the large salary which was 
 offered him, but he declared that he did not consider 
 the refusal a matter to be proud of, and that he 
 should have accepted the money if his own fortune 
 had not been sufficient for his expenses. These must 
 now have been great, for many Frenchmen wished 
 to visit him, and strangers had great curiosity to see 
 him, so that his table was often a long one. 
 
 * The town-house, or city hall. 
 
 f It has been worn in several countries, but not always by 
 people whom Lafayette would have approved of. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LIBERTY IN OCTOBER. 
 
 Early in October, 1789, another outbreak oc- 
 curred. There was at this time a regiment called 
 the Body- Guard on service about the king's palace, and 
 the Versailles National Guard were sometimes ad- 
 mitted within court limits. In addition, the king sent 
 for a regiment called the Flanders. On its arrival, 
 the Body-Guard gave a grand dinner of welcome. 
 After dinner, the king, queen, and dauphin* visited 
 the hall, and looked graciously upon their defenders. 
 The poor queen, whose court was very dull, whose 
 high spirit was every day wounded by the king's 
 inferior position, whose hopes even for her little son 
 were beginning to be dimmed, was delighted to hear 
 once more a hearty cheer, " Vive le Roi ! " f Her 
 
 * The eldest son of the king of France, 
 t Long live the King ! 
 
102 LAFAYETTE. [l7S9. 
 
 beauty, the sight of the court ladies attending her, 
 the music they heard, and the wine they had drunk, 
 all excited the Guards ; prudence was forgotten ; the 
 National Assembly near them and the mobs of Paris 
 were alike out of sight and out of mind ; the tricolor 
 cockade was torn from their coats and trampled on 
 the floor, amid shouts and cheers for the royal 
 family. 
 
 This would have passed off at common times as 
 merely the enthusiasm of a military dinner ; but now 
 there were spies in the court, and watchful eyes upon 
 everything that was displeasing to the patriots or the 
 mob. This feast was reported at Paris, and the 
 people immediately said, "How is this? We are 
 starving and standing in long trains before the 
 bakers' shops, while at Versailles the idle soldiers 
 can give dinner-parties ! " The account was exag- 
 gerated, and one Monday morning, the 5th of Octo- 
 ber, the insurrection of women began. Early in the 
 day vast numbers of them streamed all over the 
 Hotel de Ville, up-stairs and down-stairs, to find the 
 Mayor. They were poor women, seamstresses, wash- 
 erwomen, fish-women, coarse and rude, market- 
 women, accustomed to talk loudly in their stalls. 
 Some of them were bold, noisy, and furious ; others, 
 
AGE 32.] LAFAYETTE. 103 
 
 more respectable and modest, apologized for the 
 behavior of their companions ; but they all said the 
 same thing. " Bread ! bread ! " was the universal 
 cry, — " for ourselves and for our children ! " Some 
 of them had seized rusty pikes and old guns, but 
 their real power lay in their numbers ; they had been 
 of course joined by a great many men, and they 
 blocked up the streets and squares all about the 
 Hotel de Ville. Lafayette, who arrived there early, 
 was obliged to sit still on his white charger. Many 
 and many a time he addressed them, but they would 
 not disperse, and cries of " Let us go to Versailles " 
 were mingled with the shout for bread. They must 
 have been pretty good-natured, for he managed to 
 keep the greater part of them standing there for 
 eight hours. But at last he could no longer resist 
 them, and sent to inquire at the Hotel de Ville if the 
 magistrates would permit him to go. They were 
 thankful to get rid of the mob upon almost any 
 terms, and gave the permission. But this was a real 
 proof of courage, that he dared to keep an angry 
 crowd waiting while he showed this desire to obey 
 the magistrates. 
 
 He provided as quickly as possible for the pi'otec- 
 tion of the city, and set forth at the head of a strange 
 
104 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 procession of National Guards, accompanied by 
 women, and unhappily by the worst and lowest vil- 
 lains of Paris, the brigands. 
 
 Messengers had been already sent in haste to 
 give warning at Versailles, and thousands of women, 
 accompanied by armed men and a few cannon, had 
 set out at an earlier hour. They found Versailles 
 in a state of agitation almost equal to that of Paris. 
 Crowds had pressed about the building occupied by 
 the Assembly from early morning ; the members had 
 been disturbed ; the courtiers knew not what to do, 
 as it was very doubtful if the soldiers could be 
 trusted; the king, who was out hunting, had been 
 hastily summoned home, but had given no orders 
 after he came. 
 
 The troops of women had crowded into the As- 
 sembly's hall and eaten sausages there, all the while 
 noisily applauding their favorite deputies, or bidding 
 the unpopular ones hold their tongues. The presi- 
 dent had tried in vain to restore order. Other 
 women flattered the soldiers, and used every kind of 
 persuasion to make them, as they said, friends of the 
 people. Finally they sent in a committee of twelve 
 to speak with the king, who was very gentle and 
 courteous to them, so that they went out again quite 
 
AGE 32.] LAFAYETTE. 105 
 
 content and pleased, but their companions scolded 
 them for bringing no bread. 
 
 All was confusion. There were no places for this 
 vast multitude to sleep in, when night came on. It 
 was ahnost impossible for them to get enough food, 
 for they were very hungry after their long march — 
 they Avere wet and cold and forlorn, — not in a state 
 of body very favorable to good temper or good 
 behavior. 
 
 Lafayette arrived a little before midnight, and 
 went first to see the President of the Assembly, 
 whom he found very anxious ; then he proceeded 
 to the palace, in company with two commissioners 
 from Paris, who made their requests to the king. 
 
 He agreed to all they asked, and one point was, 
 that he should come and live in Paris. The cour- 
 tiers and attendants were alarmed and restless ; the 
 king seemed uncertain ; the queen alone kept a firm 
 countenance, however terrified she may have been 
 in her heart. Lafayette provided as well as he 
 could for the defence of the palace during the night, 
 but he was not allowed to place the National Guard 
 in any but the outer posts. Leaving all quiet there, 
 he went to find accommodations for the Guard for the 
 rest of the night, and consulted with his officers in a 
 room which he intended to use as head-quarters, 
 
106 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 After so long a day of activity and anxiety, he 
 was just throwing himself down to get a little sleep, 
 when an alarm came from the palace, that the brig- 
 ands had broken into the queen's apartments and 
 were massacring the Body-Guard ! He rushed to 
 the palace, and found that the mob had indeed burst 
 in, but that only two of the Body-Guard had been 
 killed. The queen was saved by their devotion ; — 
 while fighting desperately they had cried out, Save 
 the queen ! and an officer flew to the door of her room 
 and alarmed her ladies. Hastily wrapping something 
 around her, they all took refuge in the king's apart- 
 ments. Lafayette by great exertions succeeded in 
 clearing the palace, and saving the Body-Guard and 
 other troops from the fury of the mob ; but it was 
 necessary for them to put on the tricolor cockade, 
 which they had thrown down a few days before. 
 
 A scene took place which shows the nature of the 
 French and of soldiers generally. The National 
 Guard had come to Versailles indignant at the Body- 
 Guard and their dinners ; but when this alarm was 
 given, the first company that reached the spot was 
 one of grenadiers who had fought in former years in 
 company with the Body-Guards. All quarrels were 
 forgotten; they remembered only that they were 
 brothers-in-arms, and saved them. 
 
Lafayette and Mane Antoinette on the Balcony atVersaille' 
 
AGE 32.] LAFAYETTE. 107 
 
 Lafayette now placed the National Guard every- 
 where, with solemn charges to protect the royal 
 family. lie then proceeded to the balcony a*nd ha- 
 rangued the multitude who filled the court below; 
 he did not hesitate to rebuke them for their violence, 
 and assured them of the king's intention to come 
 to Paris. The king himself appeared and confirmed 
 it, and then Lafayette said to the queen, " Madame, 
 what is your own intention ? " "I know the fate 
 which awaits me," she answered ; " but it is my duty 
 to die at the king's feet and in my children's arms." 
 " Come with me, Madame," said he. " What ! alone 
 on the balcony ! Have not you seen the signs they 
 have made ? " " Yes, Madame, but come." She 
 stepped forward with her children, but a voice cried 
 a No children ! " and she gently pushed them back 
 and advanced alone before the angry mob. She was 
 terribly unpopular. They hated her because she 
 was an Austrian, and because they thought she ad- 
 vised the king against all the plans for their good. 
 False stories too had been cruelly told about her, 
 years before, so that she had long been an unhappy 
 lady ; and now you can imagine her heart was almost 
 breaking with fear and with humiliation at being in 
 the power of the crowd whom she had been taught 
 
103 LAFAYETTE. [1789. 
 
 to despise. They could not help admiring her as 
 she stood before them, so beautiful, so brave, and so 
 dignified. Lafayette could not make himself heard 
 above the tumult, so he knelt down and kissed the 
 queen's hand. When they saw that, they cried 
 out " Vive le General ! Vive la Reine ! " * 
 
 Then the king said to Lafayette, "And now 
 what can you do for my Guards ? " tt Bring one 
 here," was Lafayette's answer, and, giving him his 
 own tricolor cockade, he embraced him before all the 
 people, who then shouted for the Body-Guard. By 
 these acts Lafayette endeavored to teach them that 
 their own liberty need not interfere with respect for 
 the queen, and that they might be merciful to an 
 enemy whom they had conquered. They knew well 
 enough that he was their friend, and he wanted them 
 to see that he meant to be the queen's at the same 
 time. 
 
 The morning was spent in hasty preparation for 
 the departure for Paris. Kings and queens do not 
 generally move from palace to palace in such haste, 
 and the ladies in waiting were too frightened to pack 
 trunks. The mob emptied the magazines of Ver- 
 sailles, and fancied that they should supply Paris 
 
 * Long live the General ! Long live the Queen ! 
 
AGE 32.] LAFAYETTE. 109 
 
 with the cart-loads of grain which formed a part of 
 the strange procession that set out at one o'clock. 
 The National Guard walked hefore and behind the 
 royal carriage ; the National Assembly followed in 
 a long line of coaches, and the mob filled up all 
 spaces. "Women seemed to be everywhere, and, 
 though Lafayette rode by the side of the king's 
 coach, he could not always prevent the queen's hear- 
 ing some of the rude speeches of these dirty, coarse 
 women. They were no longer furious ; the city of 
 Paris had sent' out after them cart-loads of loaves, 
 and they connected in some unreasonable way the 
 king's living in Paris with a supply of provisions. 
 One of them called out, " Courage, friends ! — we are 
 bringing you the baker, the baker's wife, and the 
 baker's boy ! " This is not the language queens are 
 used to hear, but it was much better than threats or 
 insult. 
 
 Moving slowly, this train arrived at Paris in the 
 evening; and the royal family were first taken to the 
 Hotel de Ville, where the king got out of his carriage 
 and showed himself to the people, wearing the tricolor 
 cockade. He desired the mayor to say that he came 
 to live among his people of Paris with pleasure and 
 confidence. The mayor, in repeating, forgot the word 
 
110 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 confidence ; the queen reminded Lira of it, and he, 
 turning again to the crowd, said, " Gentlemen, in 
 hearing it from the queen's lips, you are more fortu- 
 nate than if I had not made the mistake." At last 
 they were able to go to the palace of the Tuileries, 
 which was not at all ready for them, but any resting- 
 place must have been welcome after such a terrible 
 day and night. 
 
 All the royal family, the king's aunts and sister 
 as well as himself, expressed much gratitude to La- 
 fayette for Ins services during this trying time. 
 Even the queen, who disliked him, acknowledged 
 that he had saved their lives. It was no easy matter 
 in these days to serve the queen ; for the aversion to 
 her was extraordinary, and was not at all confined to 
 the people of Paris. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 DOUBTS. 
 
 The royal family were now to live at the Tuileries 
 in a monotonous, lonely way. The nobles had been 
 for many months leaving France to seek safety by liv- 
 ing-in foreign lands, and the court was thin and small. 
 The queen occupied herself with her children, and 
 with writing letters ; she had many plans of escap- 
 ing from Paris to join the emigrant nobles and her 
 own family. The king lamented the loss of his 
 hunting, and amused himself as best he could. "When 
 they drove about Paris, they were always well re- 
 ceived by the people. 
 
 For a few clays after their arrival, all was joy and 
 rejoicing; but before the end of October a bakei^'s shop 
 was broken into, and the baker killed. This outrage 
 Lafayette promptly punished, but it was found neces- 
 sary to put the city under martial law; that is, to 
 
112 LAFAYETTE. [l789. 
 
 give to officers the power, if necessary, to shoot or 
 hang a man without his being tried. 
 
 At this time clubs were beginning to come into fash- 
 ion in Paris. They were not like the English ones, 
 places for comfort, but for political discussion ; and 
 generally the most fiery and abusive speeches were 
 made at them. An immense excitement was kept 
 up in this way. The most famous was the Breton, 
 afterwards the Jacobin club. Lafayette's friends 
 tried to form a milder, more respectable one ; but it 
 failed. 
 
 There was far more trouble in the country than 
 in Paris during the winter of 1789-90 ; but all the 
 outbreaks were reported in the city and to the Assem- 
 bly, which went on making new laws and speeches, 
 all the time. People must have read nothing but 
 newspapers and pamphlets in those days, to judge 
 by the hundreds that were sold ; while in certain 
 places the walls of the city were covered with huge 
 placards, fresh every day. 
 
 As the spring opened, Lafayette sometimes re- 
 sumed his place in the Assembly ; he took part in 
 discussions relating to the terrible riots at Marseilles, 
 and to the conduct of the Duke of Orleans, the 
 king's cousin, who was an exceedingly difficult person 
 to manage. 
 
AGE 32.] LAFAYETTE. 113 
 
 Early in June, he brought forward a proposal that 
 no person should ever command the National Guard 
 of more than one department of France. This was 
 agreed to and became a law, which proves Lafayette's 
 forbearance, for he must have anticipated that in the 
 course of a few weeks several commands would be 
 offered to him. A project for the meeting of deputies 
 from all the National Guards of the kingdom was 
 much talked of, and the day selected for it was the 
 fourteenth of July, the anniversary of the surrender 
 of the Bastile. 
 
 In June, also, a decree was passed abolishing titles 
 of all sorts, the use of liveries for servants, and some 
 other distinctions which had been very common 
 among the nobles. Lafayette was strongly in favor 
 of these changes, as he desired to see republican 
 sirnplicity.take the place of ancient forms. . 
 
 One incident of this spring. sIioavs his energy and 
 popularity. A man who had stolen a bag of oats 
 was beaten to death (as Lafayette thought) by a 
 mob. He was going home in his carriage when he 
 heard of the affair, and instantly pressed into the 
 thickest of the crowd and inquired who had killed 
 him. A man being pointed out by the Guards, La- 
 fayette seized him by the collar and dragged him to 
 
114 LAFAYETTE. [l790. 
 
 prison, reproaching the people for their offence. 
 When he came out of the prison, he ordered the 
 Guards to move off, and again, standing quite alone, 
 rebuked the mob. He told them they were the dupes 
 of artful men who endeavored to stir them up, and 
 who hoped by such tumults to bring disgrace on true 
 liberty, and to drive the king and the Assembly from 
 Paris ; but that he was resolved to maintain order. 
 While he was speaking, the thief, who had appeared 
 to be dead, came to life, and the people on the edge 
 of the crowd were beginning to hang him, when 
 Lafayette and the Guards rescued him. He then for 
 the third time addressed the people, and ordered 
 them to disperse, which they did with shouts of 
 " Vive Lafayette ! " 
 
 The 14th of July, 1790, is known under various 
 names, as* the celebration of the anniversary of the 
 destruction of the Bastile, the Feast of Pikes, and 
 the Federation of the National Guard. Guards 
 came to Paris from twenty-three departments of 
 France, to swear fidelity to " the Nation, the Laws, 
 and the King ; to maintain the Constitution ; and to 
 protect the lives and property of all." The oath was 
 taken upon what was called " the Altar of our Coun- 
 try," which was built in the centre of an enclosure, 
 
AGE 32.] LAFAYETTE. 115 
 
 surrounded with a grassy bank, on which were seats 
 for three hundred thousand spectators (it was sup- 
 posed). The raising of this bank in the Champ-de- 
 Mars * had been one of the extraordinary sights of 
 the time. It was found that the hired laborers would 
 not finish it in time, and all sorts of people had joined 
 in the work ; deputies, lawyers, courtiers, priests, 
 mechanics, idlers, ladies, had all filled and wheeled 
 their barrow full of earth, to prepare for the great 
 festival. All was ready for the 14th, and the grand 
 arch of entrance, the altar, and the royal tent were 
 decorated with the taste for which Parisians are 
 always remarkable. The people poured out of the 
 city at an early hour, and the grassy banks were 
 soon turned into a circle of gay colors ; but the day 
 was showery, and the bright dresses were often hid- 
 den by umbrellas. 
 
 Through the high gate came rank after rank of Na- 
 tional Guards, soldiers, sailors, the mayor and magis- 
 trates of Paris, the king and queen, (to whom all this 
 show was but a sad sight,) and the National Assembly. 
 The people cheered their favorite deputies, but* La- 
 fayette was now their idol. The king had intrusted 
 
 * A field in the southwest part of the city, used for military 
 reviews. 
 
116 LAFAYETTE. [l790. 
 
 to him the giving of all orders within the enclosure, 
 and he was for that day the most powerful man in 
 all France, — Major-general of the whole National 
 Guard, which perhaps included three millions of men. 
 He had arranged a system of signals and expresses, 
 by which news was to he carried all over the king- 
 dom as fast as possible. He was the first person who 
 mounted the steps of the altar and took the oath. 
 As soon as he had finished speaking, the whole body 
 of Guards cried out, " I swear ! " and, as there were 
 about fourteen thousand present, the words must 
 have been lost in a roar. The king and the presi- 
 dent of the Assembly also took the oath, and cannon 
 were fired. Through the day there were shows and 
 rejoicings, and at night there were illuminations. 
 
 On the 16th of July the representatives of the 
 National Guard of several different places, then as- 
 sembled in Paris, made an address to Lafayette, ex- 
 pressing their regret that the law he had himself 
 proposed made it impossible for them to unite under 
 his command, as they would gladly have done. 
 
 Krora all this rejoicing, one might imagine that 
 the troubles of the nation were over, and that a time 
 of ease and quiet was coming. The king seemed to 
 have submitted to the people's will, and the National 
 
AGE 33.] LAFAYETTE. 117 
 
 Guard might be thought a sufficient protection against 
 the mob. But Lafayette could not yet relax his 
 watchful control of the city of Paris, — a very small 
 excitement still collected a crowd ready for all mis- 
 chief, and he was always suspicious of the nobles' 
 endeavoring to rouse the bad part of the population. 
 Those who were still in France and those who had 
 taken refuge in other countries all hated the revo- 
 lution, and some of them were ready to do anything 
 that would make it odious. 
 
 From the country, too, still came reports of out- 
 breaks ; of crowds demanding bread and vengeance ; 
 of burning castles and fields uncultivated. 
 
 But even at this time Lafayette's whole thought 
 was not given to his own country ; he took a warm 
 interest in a revolution in Belgium, and the liberal 
 party there seem to have looked upon him as 
 almost their chief. 
 
 The winter had passed away without disturbance, 
 though not without alarms, until the 28th of Feb- 
 ruary, when Lafayette received information that 
 there was a chance of an outbreak at the old disused 
 prison of Vincennes. He left a battalion near the 
 palace of the Tuileries, and set forth himself for Vin- 
 cennes. He found a crowd just beginning to demolish 
 
118 LAFATETTE. [l791. 
 
 the prison, and took the ringleaders to jail, after hav- 
 ing threatened to bring cannon against one of the 
 gates of the city which was shut behind him. As he 
 rode home, several shots were fired at him and his 
 officers, and one man tried to bring down his horse in 
 order to get closer aim, but a grenadier's bayonet 
 saved him. The report, however, was spread that 
 he was killed. 
 
 In another part of Paris, a different scene was 
 taking jjlace. An unusual number of gentlemen had 
 been all day about the palace of the Tuileries, and 
 some of them had invited the National Guard to 
 drink with them. Towards evening it was discovered 
 that they were armed, and no one seemed to know 
 exactly what they had come for. The king came out 
 of his apartments to see them, and they loudly 
 asserted that Lafayette had been killed. When pon- 
 iards were shown, the king seemed disconcerted, and 
 the officer in command of the National Guard stoutly 
 refused to believe the death of Lafayette. He ar- 
 rived in the midst of confusion, and, seeing a great 
 basket of weapons, immediately ordered the gentle- 
 men to be put out of the palace. 
 
 This was done and quiet Avas restored within the 
 Tuileries, but the two affairs together had given 
 
AGE 33.] LAFAYETTE. 119 
 
 Lafayette a vexatious day. He believed that the 
 tumult at Viucennes had been excited by the enemies 
 of the revolution, and that if he had been killed 
 these Jcnig/tts of the poniard, as they were called, 
 would have persuaded the king to go off with them. 
 
 Lafayette could not be so much at the palace and 
 so often with the king as he was now, without seeing 
 that there was a great chance the king would follow 
 the example of the great lords and make his escape 
 from France. The queen could not be contented with 
 her present mode of life ; the palace Avas gloomy 
 and sad ; her former friends and the courtiers she 
 had long known had deserted her ; she did not under- 
 stand these new ideas of liberty for the people ; she 
 had never been taught to think of her subjects 
 except to be kind and polite to those about her ; and 
 she had not had pleasant lessons in freedom, seeing 
 her palace surrounded by a mob ready to kill her, 
 and being insulted in the streets as she sometimes 
 had been. She had sense enough to see that the 
 king's power would never be restored to him, that 
 her son would not succeed to such a throne as her 
 husband had, and in her melancholy moments she 
 was afraid for all their lives. Her brother was a 
 powerful emperor, — was it strange that she thought, 
 
 4 
 
120 LAFAYETTE. [1791. 
 
 if she could but go to him, he would give the king 
 and his old friends .an army, and they should come 
 back victorious over their enemies ? Of course she 
 urged the king to go while yet he was able. Lafay- 
 ette and other persons were always encouraging 
 him that all would end Avell ; and he wavered, some- 
 times acting on one side, sometimes on the other. 
 
 There was no reason to suppose that she or the 
 king expected this collection of people at the palace, 
 but they probably would not have come if they had 
 believed the royal family were entirely content. 
 
 After this, however, the king used, in speaking to 
 Lafayette, such strong expressions of determination 
 to abide by the constitution, that the latter assured 
 the public, on his life, that the royal family would 
 remain in Paris. 
 
 During the spring of 1791, discussions were going 
 on in the National Assembly which interested Lafay- 
 ette very much. One related to the position of the 
 clergy ; another to the condition of the negroes in the 
 French colonies. In both cases he was of course in 
 favor of the greatest liberty that could exist at the 
 same time with good order. 
 
 In April he was for the first time dissatisfied with 
 the conduct of the National Guards. The king de- 
 
 * 
 
I 
 
* 
 
 Lafayette attempting to conduct the King and Queen to St. Cloud. 
 
AGE 33.] LAFAYETTE. 121 
 
 sired to spend a few days at Saint Cloud, a palace 
 in the country, about four miles and a half southwest 
 of Paris ; there he wished to pass Easter week, to 
 hear mass and confess in his favorite church. As 
 soon as the rumor of this got abroad, all sorts of 
 stories were started ; it was said that thousands of men 
 with poniards lurked in ambush in the woods, and 
 would immediately overpower the National Guard 
 and carry off the king. "When the royal carriage 
 was driven to the front of the palace, the great bell 
 of the nearest church began to ring, and in a moment 
 the square was crowded with people. They poured 
 in, crying " The king shall not go ! we will not let the 
 king go ! " Lafayette came up and addressed them, 
 rode hither and thither in vain ; and when he gave 
 his orders to the Guards, was not at all satisfied with 
 their obedience. The king and queen took their 
 places ; the coachman cracked his whip and the 
 horses reared, but could do no more, for many hands 
 snatched at their bridles. There the sovereigns sat 
 for more than an hour, waiting, hoping that the tu- 
 mult would subside, while Lafayette tried his utmost. 
 At last he told the king that if his Majesty would 
 order him to fire on the crowd he would open a 
 passage for the coach ; but that was a thing Louis the 
 
122 LAFAYETTE. [l791. 
 
 Sixteenth never would do, — allow a drop of his 
 subjects' blood to be shed by his command. He 
 said No, and with the queen got out of the carriage 
 and went back into the palace. Neither of them 
 ever saw Saint Cloud again. 
 
 After this, Lafayette proposed to the king to de- 
 clare frankly to the Assembly that while he governed 
 as a constitutional king he must have for himself, as 
 well as for every other person, the right to worship 
 God according to his own conscience. The king 
 seemed touched by Lafayette's earnestness, but said 
 that he would take a day to decide ; and there the 
 matter ended. 
 
 Lafayette, wearied alike with the plots of the 
 nobles and the tumults of the mob, and offended by 
 the want of discipline of the Guards, resigned his 
 command. He was, however, induced by many re- 
 quests from the Guards themselves and from other 
 excellent persons, to resume his labors for the public 
 quiet 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A LAMENTABLE FLIGHT. 
 
 The next important event was that on the night 
 of the 20th of June the king and his family escaped 
 from the Tuileries. This was not discovered until 
 five or sis o'clock in the morning of the next day. 
 As soon as Lafayette heard of it, he went imme- 
 diately to the palace, but could get little information 
 from the attendants there, and then proceeded to the 
 Hotel de Ville. On his way he met crowds of people, 
 who were furious against him for having allowed the 
 king to escape. He was perfectly calm, and, seeing 
 his tranquillity, they were a little quieted ; and he 
 talked with them until the Assembly, hearing of his 
 danger, sent for him. The deputies asked him to 
 provide an escort, that they might all return together ; 
 and he answered " that he would provide one out of 
 respect for those who had been sent to him, but for 
 
124 LAFAYETTE. [1791. 
 
 himself he should go apart, having never been safer, 
 for the streets were full of people." Arrived at the 
 Assembly,* he said but few words to the members ; 
 he found them quite ready to give the necessary 
 orders; his aide-de-camp was at once sent off in 
 pursuit of the king. 
 
 There was much excitement hi the streets of Paris 
 throughout the day. At the clubs the speeches were 
 furious, and Lafayette was thoroughly abused. 
 
 The next day the National Guard asked leave to 
 repeat their oath of fidelity before the Assembly, and 
 Lafayette presented them as tried and faithful sol- 
 diers and citizens. 
 
 It was soon known that the king had been stopped 
 at Varennes. On the 25th of June the royal family 
 re-entered Paris, more like captives than rulers. 
 
 Their flight had been completely mismanaged. 
 They had gone in one great party, — the king and 
 cpieen, the two children, the Princess Elizabeth, (the 
 king's sister,) and the children's governess. They 
 
 * The king had left a proclamation, which was brought to the 
 Assembly by a M. de la Porte. He was asked how it came to 
 his hands, and answered, " With a note." " Where is this note ? " 
 said a member. " No, no," was called out from all sides. " It is 
 a confidential note; we have no right to see it." 
 
AGE 33 .J LAFAYETTE. 125 
 
 ought to have separated and gone in the quietest 
 way ; instead of that, they had a showy carriage that 
 moved slowly and attracted attention, and the king 
 had walked up hills to enjoy the sunshine! They 
 were not punctual at the place where they expected 
 to meet soldiers, and the gentlemen who conducted 
 the business, though devoted royalists, do not seem 
 to have made good couriers. Common travellers 
 went faster every day. Something of the queen's 
 suffering when they were stopped may be known 
 from the fact that her beautiful hair turned white in 
 one night. 
 
 Lafayette exerted himself to keep the streets quiet 
 as the king passed through them, and was successful. 
 There were many discontented looks, but no outcries. 
 
 While he went to meet the carriage at the gate of 
 the city, a considerable crowd collected about the pal- 
 ace, and attempted to seize two of the Body-Guard, 
 who had ridden outside the coach of the royal party, 
 disguised as couriers. The queen, seeing him, cried 
 out, eagerly, " Monsieur de Lafayette, save the Body- 
 Guards ! " He secured a safe entrance for them all. 
 
 It was his next duty, and a very painful one, to in- 
 form their Majesties of the Assembly's decree that 
 there should be a separate special guard for each of 
 
126 LAFAYETTE. [l791. 
 
 them and for the Dauphin, and that all persons con- 
 cerned in the flight should be immediately examined. 
 Also, that the acts of the Assembly would become 
 laws without the king's consent to them being asked. 
 The king heard all this very calmly, and then said 
 to Lafayette : " I tell you frankly that until the last 
 few days I thought I was in a whirlpool of men of 
 your opinion, with whom you surrounded me, but 
 that it was not the opinion of France. I have seen 
 clearly on this journey that I was mistaken, and that 
 it is the common idea." The queen showed more 
 annoyance, but after a long conversation with Lafay- 
 ette was heard to say that she was satisfied with him. 
 He assured them he would try to make them content ; 
 but his office became far more oppressive to him than 
 it had ever been. He was obliged to put more sol- 
 diers about the Tuileries, so that the royal family felt 
 painfully that they were watched, although a large 
 number of their friends, well-known enemies of the 
 revolution, were still admitted to visit them. Lafay- 
 ette chose to interpret the Assembly's decrees in the 
 mildest manner, though he knew that some of the 
 members were not satisfied with his conduct. 
 
 After this attempt at escape, there were serious 
 discussions in the Assembly as to continuing the 
 
AGE 33.] LAFAYETTE. 127 
 
 monarchy in France, and if Louis the Sixteenth 
 should be allowed to reign. Some persons proposed 
 to put the little Dauphin on the throne and have a 
 regency,* but the matter was finally settled as Lafay- 
 ette and his friends desired. They were already 
 disturbed at the violence of some deputies and of the 
 clubs, and desired to give the new constitution as 
 fair a chance as possible under the present sovereign, 
 and without any more overthrows. 
 
 But these events and discussions could not pass by 
 without exciting some tumult in such a city as Paris. 
 
 The 14th of July was celebrated cheerfully ; but 
 on the 17th a dangerous crowd collected around 
 the altar of the Champ de Mars. They pretended 
 that they only wished peacefully to sign a petition 
 and then disperse ; but they lingered many hours, 
 until it became necessary for the mayor and Lafay- 
 ette, with a strong body of the National Guard, to 
 march against them. With some difficulty and some 
 loss of life, the rioters were put down ; but they had 
 formed wild schemes of attacking the Assembly, and 
 the good citizens of Paris felt much relieved when 
 at night all ended within the Champ de Mars, instead 
 
 * A regency consists of one or more persons who govern while 
 a king is a child or insane, — unfit to rule, for any reason. 
 
128 LAFAYETTE. [l791. 
 
 of spreading through the streets, as was feared, The 
 mayor and Lafayette were both much troubled by 
 the character of this outbreak. Barricades * had 
 been erected, and the National Guard were fired on 
 more freely than ever before ; the beginning of the 
 day was also bloody, for two old men concealed 
 beneath the altar had been killed by the crowd. 
 
 The summer was much occupied with the revision f 
 of the constitution, and Lafayette took an active part 
 in the last debates of the National Assembly. The 
 constitution was accepted by the king in Sep- 
 tember, and in the same month the Assembly broke 
 up. It had done a great work for France. It had 
 destroyed many old abuses, given greater freedom to 
 the common people than had been dreamed of before, 
 secured religious liberty, and formed a new system of 
 government. Some persons doubted if it had left 
 the king sufficient power to be anything more than a 
 name and a show ; but Lafayette's chief fear was 
 from the violence of certain public men, who seemed 
 
 * Barricades are made by piling vehicles, paving-stones, pieces 
 of fences, anything the crowd can lay hands upon. When well 
 made it is exceedingly hard to climb over them, or to shoot 
 people behind them. 
 
 f Examining, — looking over to see what errors there are. 
 
AGE 34.] LAFAYETTE. 129 
 
 discontented with the necessary restraints of order 
 and law, and who probably did not understand the 
 force of their own expressions, or their effect on other 
 people. Such men had shown, in the discussions 
 relating to a republic, utter indifference to the con- 
 dition and welfare of the king. From this time forth 
 Lafayette endeavored to combine with his love for 
 the people sincere efforts to save the king's power. 
 
 On the 12th of September, 1791, the day the king 
 accepted the constitution, Lafayette proposed that all 
 trials for acts connected with the Revolution should 
 cease. This was adopted by acclamation by the 
 Assembly, and set free all who were concerned in 
 the king's flight to Varennes, as well as some of the 
 rioters of the Champ de Mars. 
 
 Early in October Lafayette took a most affection- 
 ate leave of the National Guard of Paris. He had 
 always intended to resign his command when the 
 constitution should be made ; and when that Assembly 
 which he had been the first to demand broke up, he 
 felt that a very solemn and interesting period of his 
 own fife and his country's history was past. 
 
 His journey from Paris to his home at Chavaniac, 
 in Auvergne, was one continued triumph. The city 
 of Paris voted him a medal and a marble statue of 
 
130 LAFAYETTE. [l791. 
 
 Washington. The National Guard of Paris sent him, 
 after his retirement, a sword cast from one of the 
 bolts of the Bastile. 
 
 For a few months he lived very happily in the 
 country, enjoying the great changes which he found 
 in the condition of the peasants about him. The 
 priests, however, still remained much opposed to the 
 Revolution, and he says, in a letter, that " the peas- 
 ants, released from trammels, paying one half less 
 than they used to, hardly dare rejoice to be free, for 
 fear of losing their souls." Lafayette was always 
 liberal to every kind of belief and worship, but he 
 desired that the clergy should not be opposed to the 
 well-being of their flocks here on earth. 
 
 Shortly after his retirement some of his friends 
 made an effort to elect him Mayor of Paris ; but a 
 more violent man was successful against him. He 
 had not, however, a long interval in his public hfe, 
 for in December the king's ministers announced that 
 three armies were to be sent to the borders of 
 France and Belgium. Lafayette was to command 
 one of them. The king in council hesitated a little 
 about appointing him ; his minister, M. de Narbonne, 
 immediately answered, "If your Majesty does not 
 appoint him to-day, the national wish will force you 
 to, to-morrow." 
 
AGE 34.] LAFAYETTE. 131 
 
 Lafayette came up to Paris ; was politely received 
 by the king, and cordially welcomed by the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly, which had succeeded to the National 
 or Constituent Assembly. It was composed of new 
 men, and Lafayette's friends now held the place 
 which had been occupied by the court party; that 
 is, they were now the people opposed to changes and 
 to new things, and wishing to stand by the government 
 as it was. Lafayette expressed his respect for the 
 Assembly, and determination to support the constitu- 
 tion. The President told him publicly that the 
 nation with confidence opposed to its enemies "the 
 Constitution and Lafayette." The National Guard 
 fined the streets as their former chief left Paris to 
 take his new command. 
 
 "War with Austria was expected and prepared for ; 
 but the campaign did not immediately begin. There 
 were several causes of quarrel between Austria and 
 France, but they were chiefly stirred up by the 
 emigrant nobles, who in their hatred of the new 
 people forgot all the horrors of seeing a foreign 
 army enter their own country. The king and queen 
 wavered. He seems to have wished that the consti- 
 tution might succeed, and to have been ready to 
 make great sacrifices for his people's happiness ; but 
 
132 LAFAYETTE. [l791. 
 
 he could not bring himself heartily to accept this 
 new order of things ; he had no faith in it, and was 
 always trying to avoid doing what the friends of the 
 constitution desired. He constantly disappointed 
 them, though they made great sacrifices for him. 
 
 The queen was more decided. She corresponded 
 with her own family and the emigrants ; she would 
 have been thankful- to have escaped long before their 
 unfortunate attempt ; and, being a foreigner and hated, 
 she had none of the sympathy with the French 
 nation which Louis the Sixteenth often expressed. 
 And yet even she objected to some of the conditions 
 of being restored by the emigrants, and she had at 
 different times a good deal of intercourse with more 
 violent republicans than Lafayette. She seems to 
 have fancied herself safer if she could have a secret 
 friend in that party of the Assembly which seemed 
 to be her bitterest enemies, and she spared no pains 
 to secure one. It is said that she used bribes of 
 money freely. 
 
 Party spirit ran terribly high in the Assembly at 
 this time. Violent language was heard on all sides, 
 and the club?, especially the Jacobin, seemed almost 
 as powerful in Paris as the Assembly itself. It was 
 an immense association, for it had a society connected 
 
AGE 34.] LAFAYETTE. 133 
 
 with it in every town in the kingdom. And from 
 being the name of a club, it became the title of the 
 most violent and bloodthirsty political party ever 
 known in France, or it might be said in the civilized 
 ■world. 
 
 The ministers, too, quarrelled with each other, so 
 that there was no peace or order anywhere. 
 
 When Lafayette arrived at Metz, his head-quar- 
 ters, he devoted himself to improving the condition 
 of his army. It had been expected that, being a 
 republican, and in favor of equality, he would be 
 more indulgent than the former generals ; but it did 
 not prove so ; — his desire was to make the army 
 efficient, and strict discipline alone would do that. 
 He made it understood that every kind of luxury 
 and idleness was a sign of aristocracy, and that the 
 republican officer or soldier would be severe in dis- 
 cipline and simple in habits. 
 
 He was particularly interested in introducing 
 horse-artillery, which he had seen in Prussia, and 
 which has since become famous. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TROUBLE AT HOME AND ABROAD. 
 
 In consequence of the various disagreements 
 already mentioned, the three generals, Lafayette, 
 Luckner, and Rochambeau,* were summoned to 
 Paris, and detained there for some time. It was finally 
 agreed that Lafayette should be the one to enter 
 Belgium, and that the minister of war should never 
 change the positions of the three armies without 
 giving all three generals sufficient time to arrange 
 their movements on the same plan. 
 
 War was formally declared in April, and while 
 the generals were engaged in the preparations neces- 
 sary for entering the Low Countries, they were star- 
 tled by a new plan suddenly sent to them from 
 Paris. According to this, Lafayette was to move 
 with his whole army from Metz to Givet, near 
 
 * The general of the French troops in America in 1781. 
 
AGE 34.] LAFAYETTE. 135 
 
 Charlemont, a distance of fifty-six leagues* in five 
 days. The weather was excessively hot, the troops 
 suffered much from their rapid march, and the 
 officers had hard work to collect the great number 
 of horses necessary to transport the heavy cannon 
 and the baggage of a large army. But it was done, 
 and Lafayette's enemies in the Assembly, who had 
 hoped that a failure would destroy his popularity, 
 were for the present disappointed. 
 
 He was of course becoming unpopular now with 
 the violent party, on account of his devotion to the 
 king, just as in 1787 he had been looked upon with 
 horror by the royalists f for his love of liberty. 
 
 The other parts of the new plan failed, but even 
 this slight beginning of active operations showed 
 that the army could not be trusted. ' Some officers 
 deserted in the night, — others threw the troops into 
 confusion on the field of battle. 
 
 After these proceedings Count Rochambeau in- 
 sisted on resigning. Marshal Luckner and Lafay- 
 ette, therefore, remained in command. During an 
 attack on Flanders by sea, Lafayette agreed to 
 occupy an intrenched camp at Maubeuge, with eight- 
 
 * A French league is about two and a half English miles, 
 t The king's party. 
 
136 LAFAYETTE. [1792. 
 
 een thousand men. A few days after he removed 
 thither, some little skirmishing engagements with the 
 enemy took place, in which Lafayette's young troops 
 showed their excellent discipline, and prepared them- 
 selves for future distinction. 
 
 But his great interest even at camp seems to have 
 been the state of Paris and the Assembly, or rather 
 the Jacobinism which was spreading over the whole 
 country. From every quarter complaints were 
 brought to him of the constantly increasing power 
 and violence of this party. He felt their influence 
 keenly in the difficulties which were every day thrown 
 in his way in relation to providing for the army. 
 
 After much thought on the subject, he decided on 
 writing a letter to the Assembly, in which he spoke 
 of the Jacobin faction by name, as the enemies and 
 destroyers of real liberty. He dwelt on the clangers 
 of France, at this moment threatened by enemies 
 without, and agitated within, and he exhorted the 
 Deputies to be at once constitutional and just. He 
 appealed to the services of his own past life as proof 
 of his sincere devotion to the people, praised the 
 patriotism and courage of his army, and urged loy- 
 alty to the king and constitution, and the putting 
 down of clubs. He also explained the difficulties he 
 
AGE 34.] LAFAYETTE. 137 
 
 had had with the ministers, so that this letter must 
 have raised up for him many open enemies where 
 before he had secret ones. 
 
 It cannot be said to have produced much effect on 
 the Assembly. Seventy-five departments * of France 
 announced their agreement with its principles, but 
 the moderate men had hardly been at all strength- 
 ened by it when the horrors of the 20th of June 
 filled all minds with consternation. 
 
 On this day an attack was made by the mob on 
 the palace of the Tuileries. For several hours a 
 great multitude marched through the apartments. 
 They insulted the king and queen, but did not kill 
 them, and at last withdrew in obedience to the mayor, 
 Petion. Both he and the Assembly behaved very 
 ill ; they would not believe that the king was in 
 danger, or take anv measures for his defence. The 
 crowd were armed Avith axes, pikes, knives, or any- 
 thing they could lay hands on ; they also carried 
 on high poles various inscriptions, such as " Death to 
 tyrants ! " and symbols, such as a little guillotine, &c. 
 
 The king and queen had been separated. A few 
 attendants and some grenadiers were with difficulty 
 
 * Districts. 
 
138 LAFAYETTE. [l792. 
 
 collected about the king ; they drew him a little back 
 into a recessed window, and put a table before him. 
 And in this way he stood for hours watching his 
 people as they passed through the room. Men and 
 women, alike coarse and rough, spoke to him from 
 time to time, compelled him to wear the red cap, 
 called the cap of liberty, or claimed his consent to 
 certain public measures. " This is not the time nor 
 the manner to ask me," said the king, firmly. Louis 
 the Sixteenth did not know how to be popular, could 
 not win the nation by brilliant acts either in politics 
 or war ; but he had courage, and could endure. On 
 this day a soldier standing near him said something 
 of the alarm he must be in. " No," said the king, 
 " I am in no terror ; I have meant well ; I have no 
 fear. Give me your hand. Here," said he, putting 
 the soldier's hand upon his heart. " Does it beat as if 
 I were afraid ? " It seems that he had expected this 
 outbreak, and was quite prepared to lose his life in it. 
 For several days his thoughts had been turned to 
 heaven rather than earth. 
 
 The queen was in an agony at being separated 
 from him, and only the entreaties of her attendants, 
 who assured her the king's danger would be in- 
 creased by her appearance, kept her in her private 
 
AGE 34.] LAFAYETTE. 139 
 
 apartments ; she was obliged to hasten from" room to 
 room as the crowd broke down doors. The court 
 ladies and gentlemen with her were of course unfit 
 •to resist a furious armed mob. She was not called 
 for until some grenadiers had been got into the palace, 
 who were ranged on each side of her, while a large 
 council-table formed a sort of barricade between her 
 and the never-ending multitude who swept through 
 the rooms she might once have called hers. Pro- 
 tected by the faithful troops, she listened for hours 
 to the horrid cries of the rabble, and, however dis- 
 tressed at heart, it is said that her face never showed 
 disturbance. Her manner was gentle and courteous 
 to all who spoke to her. She was obliged to bear 
 the ignominy (to her) of putting the red cap on her 
 own head, and then on the Dauphin's. Poor chil- 
 dren! Imagine how frightened he and his sister 
 must have been ! 
 
 The princess Elizabeth behaved nobly on this day. 
 Early in the affair, she was trying to join her brother, 
 when the crowd compelled her likewise to move into 
 a recessed window. Mistaking her for the queen, 
 they abused her in the most shocking manner. 
 Those about her were just on the point of exclaiming 
 that she was not the queen, when the princess said, 
 10 
 
140 LAFAYETTE. [l792. 
 
 "No, no, don't tell them my name ; let them take me 
 for the queen." No doubt she was ready to be 
 killed herself in order to save her sister's life. 
 
 This outbreak was prepared by the Jacobins, who 
 made no secret of their intention to excite it. 
 
 Lafayette understood this the moment he received 
 the news. His grief and horror were great, for he 
 was shocked on every point. That a mob should 
 appear armed before the Assembly, was an insult to 
 the liberty he cherished ; that such a mob should 
 dare to enter the palace, showed the weakness of the 
 National Guard ; and that the Assembly should make 
 no effort to protect the prince, who was, in name at 
 least, the head of the nation, showed a want of agree- 
 ment between the two chief powers of the consti- 
 tution. 
 
 He took a resolve — somewhat hopeless, indeed — 
 to go to Paris, address the Assembly, and see what 
 could be done, — if he could yet collect around him a 
 band of true patriots strong enough to oppose the 
 Jacobins. 
 
 He reached Paris on the 28th, and immediately 
 said to the Assembly that he had come to declare 
 himself the author of the letter of the 16th of June, 
 which some persons had said was a forgery ; to ex- 
 
AUK 34.] LAFAYETTE. 141 
 
 press the surprise and regret of the army at the 
 events of the 20th, and to entreat that the Assembly 
 would order the punishment of all who stirred up 
 such an outbreak, — would resist the tyranny of a 
 party, and cause constitutional powers to be every- 
 where respected. 
 
 His words produced little effect ; it was clear to 
 him, in the course of a day or two, that the Assembly 
 dared not oppose the Jacobins. He visited the royal 
 family, who received him politely, and with thanks, 
 but told him none of their plans.* He made vain 
 attempts to collect the National Guard and address 
 them ; but only a few came to the appointed place, 
 and a review which he had intended to attend was 
 put off by the mayor. 
 
 Not exactly disappointed, because he had hoped 
 so little, but very desponding as to the prospects of 
 his country, Lafayette returned to camp. His pop- 
 ularity in Paris was evidently gone ; but he thought 
 more of the king and the Assembly than of himself. 
 
 * The Princess Elizabeth said it was time to forget the past, 
 and throw themselves with confidence into the arms of the only- 
 man who could save the king and his family. But the queen 
 said, " It would be better to perish than to be saved by Lafayette 
 and the Constitutionals ! " 
 
142 LAKAYJSTTE. [l792. 
 
 It was hard to have his bright hopes of liberty dashed 
 just at the moment when they seemed to be fulfilled. 
 He saw that the power of the Jacobin club was just 
 as much a tyranny as that of any king or emperor. 
 And he was convinced, by the way in which he was 
 treated as he passed through the country, that the 
 greater part of the nation sympathized with him, and 
 not with the Jacobins. 
 
 At camp Lafayette was again troubled by obstacles 
 thrown in his way on purpose. No interesting mili- 
 tary movements occupied his time and thoughts. He 
 received orders from Paris to change his department, 
 — that is, the region he had to defend, in a case of 
 fighting, — and was then abused at the clubs for 
 doing so ! 
 
 In marching the necessary distance, Lafayette's 
 army passed near Compiegne, a royal seat, and the 
 idea occurred to him that the king, attended by him, 
 might go to the Assembly and announce his intention 
 of passing a few days at Compiegne ; and that, once 
 arrived there and surrounded by certain faithful 
 soldiers whom Lafayette would answer for, he should 
 send out a proclamation forbidding the emigrants to 
 advance into France, declaring himself decidedly for 
 the constitution, and ready to lead the army against 
 
AGE 34.] LAFAYETTE. 143 
 
 Austrians and Prussians. Such a declaration would 
 have strengthened the Constitutionals, would have 
 given the king a party he could depend upon, and 
 Avould have silenced the Jacobins, who always de- 
 clared that the royal family urged the coming of a 
 foreign army. 
 
 But Louis the Sixteenth and his advisers could 
 not consent to any measure so contrary to their old 
 habits and inclinations. Lafayette was thanked 
 and refused.* 
 
 Fresh difficulties were created between the Gen- 
 erals Luckner and Lafayette during a visit of the 
 former to Paris. It was said in the Assembly that 
 Lafayette had proposed to him to march upon Paris. 
 Their letters were read, and fully proved that the 
 only proposals which had passed between them were 
 for attacks on the enemy. But the matter went so 
 far that Lafayette's enemies ventured to propose an 
 accusation. This, however, was voted down. 
 
 The 10th of August, 1792, was memorable for a 
 still more alarming attack on the Tuileries. Twenty 
 thousand armed men, followed by the mob and brig- 
 
 * The queen is reported to have said, alluding to the 6th of 
 October, 1789, " It would be too much to owe our lives to him 
 twice! " 
 
144 LAFAYETTE. [l792. 
 
 ands, approached the palace, which was too large to 
 be defended except by regular soldiers, well com- 
 manded. The king had about nine hundred Swiss, 
 a few of the National Guard, and some brave gentle- 
 men, who, knowing his danger, had come rather to 
 die with him than to save him. The artillery-men 
 refused to obey orders. 
 
 Defence was so hopeless that the royal family were 
 persuaded to go over to the Assembly. This step 
 probably saved their own lives, but tbe faithful Swiss 
 whom they left behind were terribly massacred. 
 Either the king forgot to give the order he intended 
 forbidding them to fire, or it was not delivered by 
 the person to whom he gave it. It is not known 
 on which side the firing began, but they could 
 of course do nothing against such numbers. The 
 king and queen were distressed when they heard 
 the noise of arms, and a brave gentleman offered 
 to carry another order back to the palace. He 
 did so, and a few were saved. The Swiss officers 
 and all the attendants of the royal family had 
 terrible risks to run, and it seems almost a miracle 
 that any of them could escape with their lives. 
 
 Though the king and queen were not killed on 
 this horrible day, they were ever after prisoners, 
 
AGE 34.] LAFAYETTE. 145 
 
 and were both executed by order of the National 
 Convention, which took the place of the Assembly. 
 
 Lafayette first heard the account of this terrible 
 10th of August from one of the National Guard 
 escaped from the massacre, and from an officer who 
 had been at the Tuileries. Finding that all was 
 violence and tyranny at Paris, that the king was a 
 prisoner, and the Assembly no longer really free, 
 Lafayette declared that he put his army and him- 
 self under the orders of the magistrates of Ardennes, 
 the department in which he then was, as they were 
 the only authorities chosen by the people who were 
 left for him to obey. He told the army what he had 
 done, and was rejoiced ' to find that both officers 
 and soldiers remained truly patriotic. Some of the 
 neighboring departments joined Ardennes in its res- 
 olutions, and Lafayette did not despair of others 
 taking the same stand. In the mean time he refused 
 obedience to the orders which were sent to hini from 
 Paris. 
 
 Immediately after the 10th of August, the enemy, 
 under the command of the Duke of Brunswick, 
 entered France, but not in the neighborhood of La- 
 fayette. He had to guard the frontier, but was not 
 concerned in any engagement. 
 
146 LAFAYETTE. [l792. 
 
 The Assembly continued to pass decrees entirety 
 contrary to Lafayette's principles of liberty, and sent 
 numerous commissioners to his camp to try to shake 
 the fidelity of his soldiers. No towns, no magistrates 
 showed themselves on his side ; he found that by 
 persisting in his resistance he should expose his 
 troops to two dangers, — one from the enemy, the 
 other from their own countrymen. On the 19th of 
 August, he sorrowfully decided that he was no longer 
 of use, was exposing himself and his friends to dan- 
 ger, and must for the present seek shelter in some 
 neutral country.* 
 
 * A country taking no part in a Avar. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 EXILE. 
 
 It was not easy to find a neutral country which 
 he could reach, and he decided to pass through Hol- 
 land on the way to England. If he could hope to 
 return to France soon, he would remain in England, 
 where he desired his family to join him ; but if his 
 own country were not free, he resolved to make his 
 home in the United States. After having written 
 this to his wife, he added, " I make no apology to 
 you or my children for having ruined my family ; 
 no one among you would wish to owe fortune to con- 
 duct contrary to my conscience." 
 
 After taking every possible precaution for the 
 safety of his army, Lafayette set out on the 19th of 
 August, as if he were merely reconnoitring, with his 
 usual escort and some officers who had served with 
 him in the National Guard of Paris. Two of his 
 
148 LAFATETTE. [l792. 
 
 friends, Messieurs Latour-Maubourg and Bureaux 
 de Pusy, also accompanied hiru, and a third, M. 
 Alexandre Lameth, met them on the road. He had 
 intended to go to Lafayette's camp, but, hearing of his 
 journey, determined to accompany him. When they 
 reached Bouillon, on the borders of France, Lafay- 
 ette sent back his escort, and all the officers dismissed 
 their orderlies,* because they would not deprive 
 their country of even one defender. 
 
 The little party of twenty-three exiles — for such 
 they really were — had only reached Rochefort, 
 seven leagues from Bouillon, when they were stopped 
 by finding Austrian soldiers there. They had of 
 course kept clear of the enemy's camp, but this was 
 a sort of outpost which they had not been quite sure 
 of. They applied to the commandant for permission 
 to proceed the next day, representing that they no 
 longer held rank in the French army, and therefore 
 Avere not to be treated as military officers, but as 
 private gentlemen. 
 
 The commandant agreed very readily, but insisted 
 that they should provide themselves with a passport f 
 
 * A military officer oflow rank, who waits upon a superior, 
 t A permission from government to go from one country to 
 another. In time of war it is often given by a general. 
 
AGE 35.] LAFAYETTE. 149 
 
 from General Moitelle, commanding at Namur. This 
 general, when he saw the letter announcing Lafay- 
 ette's arrival, instead of saying anything about pass- 
 ports, fell into transports of joy, and cried out, " La- 
 fayette ! Lafayette ! Run instantly to tell the Duke 
 of Bourbon ! Lafayette ! Take post to carry this 
 news to his Royal Highness at Brussels ! " Instead 
 of passports, an order was despatched for forwarding 
 the p7-isoners immediately, to Namur. They hoped 
 they should not be long detained, but were soon re- 
 moved to Nivelle, where a division was made. Those 
 Avho had not served in the National Guard were 
 released; the other officers Avere sent to Antwerp, 
 where they had to spend two months ; the four Dep- 
 uties, to the National Assembly, Lafayette, * Latour- 
 Maubourg, Bureaus de Pusy, and Lameth, were 
 sent to Luxembourg, where they were separated, and 
 after a week's delay, escorted to Wezel by a Prus- 
 sian guard. There they spent three months in 
 prison, parted from each other, deprived of all news 
 and of the means of writing. They were never 
 
 * While they were at Nivelle, an order came to take away from 
 Lafayette the treasure which he was supposed to have brought 
 from camp! He observed, coldly, that "doubtless the princes 
 would agree that in his place they would have done that." 
 
150 LAFAYETTE. [l792. 
 
 allowed to go out ; the double doors of the prison 
 were bolted and padlocked. Such a mode of life was 
 enough to ruin any one's health. Lafayette became 
 veiy ill, and when Maubourg asked permission to 
 see him, when he should be near death, he was told, 
 " That could not be." Lafayette recovered, and the 
 king of Prussia had the baseness to invite him, in 
 order to improve his condition, to give some advice 
 or information against France. " The king of 
 Prussia is exceedingly impertinent," said Lafayette, 
 when this paper was read to him. 
 
 Spending days in this utter solitude and idleness, 
 how varied and how anxious Lafayette's thoughts 
 must have been ! Recollections of home, of the 
 United States and the free happy life he led there, 
 must have blended with the ideas of 1789, his bright 
 hopes from the doings of the National Assembly, — 
 then the scenes in Paris and at Versailles, the Avomen 
 in insurrection, the queen's courage, the visits at the 
 Tuileries, the difficulty of convincing the king, the 
 devotion of the National Guard, the outbreaks he 
 had suppressed, the gratitude of the citizens, the 
 obstinacy of the courtiers, — all the events of his life 
 for the last four years must have made pictures in 
 his mind, as he walked to and fro in his solitary cell. 
 
AGE 35.] LAFAYETTE. 151 
 
 And many a sound must have re-echoed on his ear, 
 from the shouts of the mob to the speeches of Depu- 
 ties, or the queen's firm, clear tones. But the over- 
 powering feeling was anxiety: first, for the fate of 
 his family and friends, — how far his unpopularity 
 might Lave affected them ; next for the king, a 
 prisoner as he knew ; and then for his unhappy 
 country, with enemies coming upon her from without, 
 and the Jacobins ruling within. The acts of those 
 few days after the 10th of August had shown him 
 that a terrible time was coming ; but how terrible 
 neither he nor any one else could imagine. 
 
 From Wesel they Avere removed to Magdeburg, on 
 the Elbe, from whence Lafayette managed to Avrite 
 again. He dared not send letters to his wife in 
 France, because his handwriting might be recog- 
 nized, and then the letter would surely be stopped ; 
 but he addressed them to a friend in London, hoping 
 that his family might have made their escape to 
 England. He gives the following account of his 
 situation : " Imagine an opening made under the ram- 
 part * of the citadel,! and surrounded with a strong, 
 high palisade ; + through this, after opening four 
 
 * A strong outer -wall. f The centre of a fortress. 
 
 J A fence made of posts set into the ground. 
 
152 LAFAYETTE. [l793. 
 
 doors, each armed with chains, bars, and padlocks, 
 they come, not without some difficulty and noise, to 
 my cell, three paces wide, five and a half long. The 
 wall is mouldy on the side towards the ditch, and the 
 front one admits light, but not sunshine, through a 
 little grated window. Add to this two sentinels, — 
 whose eyes penetrate into this lower region, but who 
 are kept outside the palisade, lest they should speak, 
 other watchers not belonging to the guard, and all 
 the walls, ramparts, ditches, guards, within and with- 
 out the citadel of Magdeburg, and you "will think that 
 the foreign powers neglect nothing to keep us within 
 their dominions. The noisy opening of the four 
 doors is repeated every morning to admit my ser- 
 vant; at dinner, that I may eat in presence of ..he 
 commandant of the citadel and of the guard ; and at 
 night, to take my servant to his prison. After having 
 shut upon me all the doors, the commandant carries 
 off the keys to the room where, since our arrival, the 
 king has ordered him to sleep. 
 
 "I have books, the white leaves of which are 
 taken out, but no news, no newspapers, no communi- 
 cations, — neither pen, ink, paper, nor pencil. It is a 
 wonder that I possess this sheet, and I am writing 
 with a toothpick. My health fails daily 
 
AGE 35.] LAFAYETTE. 153 
 
 The account I have given you may serve for my 
 companions, whose treatment is the same." 
 
 In spite of every precaution of government, news 
 came to the prisoners through the jailers or the 
 soldiers. They heard of the success of the French 
 army against the enemy, of the execution of the 
 king, and of the shocking murders under the name 
 of law of many of their friends and innocent per- 
 sons. From their own families they could hear 
 nothing. Their anxiety must have been cruel, but 
 Lafayette never seems to have lost hope. He took 
 excellent care of his health, and there is no complaint 
 in any one of his letters. He had two comforts in 
 his captivity ; one was, the devotion of his young 
 secretary, Felix, and the other, some money sent for 
 him to Magdebourg by his American friends, that he 
 might be able to buy anything which the officers 
 would permit him to have. 
 
 In the spring of 1793, the prisoners were allowed 
 to walk for an hour every day in a little garden in 
 one corner of a fortification. Each one was taken out 
 separately, and an officer was with him all the time. 
 
 Lafayette also had the great happiness of receiving 
 some letters from his family and friends ; he was not 
 permitted to keep them, but read them once. His 
 
154 LAFAYETTE. [l793. 
 
 answers were always read by the officer in command, 
 and he was obliged to write with the utmost pru- 
 dence, or else compelled to rewrite two or three 
 times, if he said anything displeasing to Prussian 
 notions. 
 
 In October he writes thus to his wife : " You 
 know that for an hour every day I am taken out of 
 my hole to get a mouthful of fresh air ; I have books, 
 and, though the unlucky power of reading fast has 
 become a trouble to me, I have found in English, 
 French, and Latin, the means of conversing with the 
 dead, since I am shut off from the living. I can 
 now even see the Ley den Gazette." 
 
 His friends were not idle during these long months 
 of imprisonment. His former aides, now in London, 
 and other friends were making efforts to induce the 
 king of Prussia to set him free, and forming plans 
 for his escape ; but both were matters of great diffi- 
 culty, and not to be thoughtlessly undertaken. 
 
 In January, 1794, he was much troubled by a new 
 separation from his friends. He Avas sent to Neisse, 
 on the borders of Silesia, and Maubourg to Glatz, 
 not very far distant, while Lameth and Pusy re- 
 mained at Magdebourg. It added greatly to his 
 anxiety to be sent a hundred and fifty leagues farther 
 
AGE 36.] LAFAYETTE. 155 
 
 from France ; but immediately on arriving he ob- 
 tained leave to write to bis friends, and assured them 
 that they need feel no additional anxiety on account 
 of the change, as his treatment was almost exactly 
 the same. 
 
 In March he wrote to his friend Maubourg, at 
 Glatz : " So your sister* is established in the vaults 
 of Glatz. I have not been favored in my dungeons 
 with • any apparition, but I imagine that consoling 
 angels must have faces like hers." Maubourg and 
 Pusy rejoined him at Neisse, and for a little while 
 they were allowed to see each other and Madame de 
 Maison-Neuve. 
 
 In May all three were transferred to Olmutz, in 
 Austria, where they were again separated. Each 
 one was told, on entering his cell, that " he would for 
 the future see only his four walls, that he would 
 never hear any news from any person, that even the 
 jailers were forbidden to pronounce his name, and in 
 the despatches sent to court he would be mentioned 
 only by his number; that he would never know 
 anything about the existence of his family or of his 
 two companions, and that, as such a condition led 
 them to think of killing themselves, knives, forks, 
 
 * Madame 'de Maison-Neuve. 
 11 
 
156 LAFAYETTE. [ 179-1. 
 
 and other articles, were forbidden. They were also 
 deprived of some things the Prussians had left them, 
 viz. their watches, their knee and stock buckles, and 
 some books in which the word liberty was found. 
 
 Lafayette again became ill, and the physician 
 represented that air was necessary for him. Three 
 times the answer was sent, that " he was not yet ill 
 enough," before he was allowed to walk. 
 
 This permission encouraged two friends of his. to 
 attempt to rescue him. 
 
 These friends were Dr. Bollman, a physician of 
 Hanover, who entered into the scheme from pure 
 enthusiasm for Lafayette's character, and had never 
 seen him until he came to Ohnutz to arrange plans. 
 The other was a young American, Mr. Huger of 
 South Carolina, son of the officer at whose house 
 "the Marquis" landed in 1778. 
 
 On the 8th of November, Lafayette drove out 
 in company with the jailer. He got rid of the 
 soldiers of his escort by giving them a commission 
 and some money, so that they went to drink at a 
 neighboring wine-shop. Then he left the carnage, 
 and while walking with the jailer asked him to let 
 him examine his sabre, and attempted to seize it. 
 While they were struggling together, Bollman and 
 Huger. who had watched for this moment, came 
 
AGE 37.] LAFAYETTE. 157 
 
 running up, unci showed a pistol. The jailer let go 
 his hold, but immediately ran off for help. Lafay- 
 ette's deliverers mounted him on one of the two 
 horses they had brought, but he would not ride away 
 until he saw that they had the other. Dr. Bollman 
 had said to him, " Get to Hoff!" but Lafayette, not 
 knowing that there was such a town, understood him 
 to say merely " Get off! " He missed his way, 
 and, being uneasy as to the fate of his friends, turned 
 back, but as he saw pursuers in the distance, again 
 resumed his road. 
 
 In the struggle with the jailer he had got a severe 
 strain, and had the flesh torn off his finger, laying it 
 open to the bone ; he was covered with mud and 
 blood, his dress was out of order, — altogether, he 
 was a strange figure to be met with as a traveller. 
 Dr. Bollman had provided fresh horses on the road 
 which he himself took ; but he was able to reach it 
 only in consequence of the generous devotion of Mr. 
 Huger, who gave himself up to the first party of 
 pursuers, hoping thereby to gain time for the others. 
 All was in vain ; Lafayette was arrested at Stern- 
 berg, about eight leagues from Olmutz, and Dr. 
 Bollman in Prussia, after he had crossed the Aus- 
 trian frontier. Both Bollman and Hujrer were 
 
158 LAFAYETTE. [l794. 
 
 imprisoned, and kept chained in their cells for 
 six months ; and, in addition to all his other troubles, 
 Lafayette had the pain of dreading what those gen- 
 erous friends might suffer for his sake. The general 
 informed him that they would be hung before his 
 window. 
 
 He became very ill again, but was left for nights 
 fourteen hours long without any help at all, and at 
 first without a light, — afterwards he was allowed lo 
 burn one until nine o'clock ; he had but two shirts, 
 and could not procure another for a change ; and the 
 surgeon who dressed his finger was hurried all the 
 time by an officer, and hardly dared to talk to him. 
 
 At this time, Felix, the secretary, invented a very 
 ingenious mode of communication, by means of 
 musical airs which he and the servant of M. Mau- 
 bourg whistled to each other. They learned to tell 
 each other and all the prisoners news by different 
 sounds, and Lafayette's heart was rejoiced by at last 
 hearing that his wife and children were alive. This 
 he would not have known, but that his wife was 
 mentioned under another name in a letter to M. 
 Maubourg. Whenever her name was seen, the 
 letter was kept back, for the Austrian government 
 seem to have taken the greatest pains to torture 
 Lafayette on this point. 
 

 y^mita—^n^ -» 
 
 
 Lafayette receives HsWit'e andDaughters in the Prison at Olmuta . 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FAMILY AT OLMUTZ. 
 
 For this very reason, Lafayette must have felt 
 the most intense delight when in October, 1795, he 
 saw his wife and his two daughters enter his cell. 
 Madame de Lafayette's devotion had overcome all 
 the obstacles which parted them, and in each other's 
 company they felt strong to bear any trials that 
 might lie before them. 
 
 Having procured a passport as an American lady, 
 she had left France for Hamburg, and gone thence 
 to Vienna. There Prince Rosemburg, who had 
 known, her family, procured for her an interview 
 with the Emperor of Austria. All she asked of him 
 was permission to share her husband's imprisonment, 
 which he very politely granted. He told her that 
 Lafayette was very well treated, and that his family's 
 presence would be one comfort the more. 
 
160 LAFAYETTE. [l795. 
 
 She was therefore much shocked at the strictness 
 of his confinement, and at his extreme thinness and 
 paleness. She shared fully in all his privations, and 
 was not treated with any difference even the first 
 day of her arrival. The purses were immediately 
 asked for, and three silver forks found among the 
 luggage were eagerly seized. Not being satisfied 
 with this system, Madame Lafayette asked to see 
 the commandant. That was impossible, but she 
 might write to him. Receiving no answer, she wished 
 to write to the Emperor, who had given her leave 
 to do so ; that also was objected to, and she was told 
 that her requests addressed to the commandant had 
 been forwarded to Vienna. She had asked to be 
 allowed to go to mass on Sundays with her daughters, 
 to have a soldier's wife take care of their room, 
 and to be waited on at table by Lafayette's servants. 
 No answer ever came. A second appeal to the 
 Minister of War, joined with a request to see 
 Maubourg and Pusy, was refused by him. 
 
 In February her own health was so much affected 
 by all she had endured, that she applied to the 
 Emperor himself for permission to spend a few days 
 at Vienna, in order to consult a physician. After a 
 delay of almost two months, she was informed that 
 
AGE 38.] LAFAYETTE. 1G1 
 
 if she left the prison at all, she could never come 
 back. She instantly decided to remain at all risks. 
 
 This was the manner of living. The family took 
 their daily meals together. After breakfast, the 
 mother and daughters were locked up in their cell 
 until noon ; but between dinner and supper they 
 remained in Lafayette's. At eight o'clock they were 
 separated for the night. 
 
 The physician who visited them knew not one 
 word of French. Lafayette translated for the ladies 
 into Latin, in presence of an officer who understood it. 
 
 This life, and more hardships probably than have 
 ever been made known, these ladies endured cheer- 
 fully, seeing that Lafayette was in better health and 
 spirits since they were with him. The daughters 
 employed themselves with studies, work, and draw- 
 ing, everything which their situation allowed, to vary 
 the days, and fortunately they had good health. 
 But it is a great strain on the spirits of even the 
 youngest and gayest people to lead such a life month 
 after month. 
 
 Madame Lafayette had many a melancholy story 
 to tell of the events that had taken place in France. 
 Immediately after her husband's departure she had 
 been imprisoned, but was soon released and allowed 
 
162 LAFAYETTE. [l796. 
 
 to live at Chavaniac, on her parole, — that is, her 
 word of honor not to leave the place. In a year, 
 however, October, 1793, she was again imprisoned, 
 and taken to Paris the next June. She was detained 
 there during what was called the Reign of Terror, 
 when her grandmother, mother, and sister were all 
 beheaded. Nothing can be imagined more horrible 
 than the manner in which innocent people were 
 carried before a judge, who was no real judge ; a few 
 questions were asked, the answers hardly listened to, 
 and the victims were hurried off to be killed. Any 
 excuse was enough for arresting them. They might 
 have been of high rank, or the friends of aristocrats, 
 — they might have money, or merely be supposed to 
 have it. Nothing would save them ; neither rank, 
 beauty, talents, innocence, goodness, age, or sex was 
 any protection. " Blood ! " was the cry of the men 
 who had power in Paris. 
 
 Lafayette found that he had lost many dear friends 
 and more acquaintances during this time. It was 
 also a bitter grief to him to see that the Revolution 
 had come to such an end. The hopes and the labors 
 of so many patriots seemed to be blotted out. 
 
 During these melancholy months Lafayette's 
 friends were not idle. In England speeches were 
 
AGE 39.] LAFAYETTE. 163 
 
 made in the House of Commons,* asking the Minis- 
 ters to interfere ; President Washington wrote a 
 letter to the Emperor of Austria, in behalf of Ins 
 friend ; and the success of the French army encour- 
 aged his relations in France to hope that the generals 
 might at last be in a position to demand the release 
 of their countrymen. 
 
 This took place at last. The French government 
 — a Directory, as it was called, of five persons — de- 
 sired Generals Bonaparte and Clark to insist on their 
 being set free. It took five months of exchanging 
 letters, &c, to induce the Austrian government to 
 give them up. 
 
 Before they left Olmutz, and while this arrange- 
 was going on, a nobleman was sent to visit Lafayette 
 and his friends, and to require from them a promise 
 that they would never again enter Austria. 
 
 They drew up a paper in answer, in which they 
 denied the Emperor's right to ask such a promise. 
 They certainly had no wish ever again to set foot on 
 Austrian ground ; but they would not engage to stay 
 away if the service of France should require them 
 to come within its lhnits. Nor would Lafayette bind 
 himself by a promise to go to America, although he 
 
 * Somewhat like our Hoi;se of Eepresentatives, at Washington. 
 
104 LAFAYETTE. [l798. 
 
 had formed such a plan many and many a time 
 during his imprisonment. He had said in one of his 
 letters, " The Huron and Iroquois forests are peopled 
 with my friends ; the despots of Europe and their 
 courts are tne savages for me." 
 
 On the 19th of September, 1797, the prisoners of 
 Olmutz were set free. Probably we cannot imagine 
 the delight with which they saw again the sky, the 
 earth, the very road they travelled which took them 
 out of Austria. In the first safe place, the families 
 of Messieurs Maubourg and Pusy met them. The 
 journey was a slow one on account of Madame 
 Lafayette's health, which was much injured by living 
 in two prisons. They were ordered to go to Ham- 
 burg, and although out of Austria, the prisoners did 
 not yet feel free to return home. They did not agree 
 in politics with those who governed France, and chose 
 Denmark as a safe place, and one near their own 
 country. 
 
 Lafayette found and felt that he had come back to 
 a changed world. The King, Queen, Court, Assem- 
 bly, and Constitution, were all gone ! The places of 
 the Avise and good who had been killed in the Reign 
 of Terror seemed empty still to him. A new consti- 
 tution had been made, which satisfied him in some 
 
AGE 40.] LAFAYETTE. 165 
 
 respects better than that of 1791. But the govern- 
 ment was in the hands of five directors with whom 
 he had no sympathy, and he found that even his 
 manner of returning thanks for his release gave 
 offence. He wrote to a friend who had cautioned 
 him as to the free expression of his opinions, after 
 speaking of being unfit to join any party : " Thus I 
 risk nothing in speaking as I think, because I would 
 not and could not be employed, except according to 
 my own ideas. The result is, that except on some 
 very great occasion of serving the liberty of my 
 country after my own fashion, my political life is 
 ended. To my friends I shall be full of life, and to 
 the public a sort of picture in a museum or book in 
 a library." And in a later letter he says : " Those 
 who know my views and wishes must be convinced 
 that the services I should wish to render to my coun- 
 try are of a nature to be combined with the mode of 
 living which suits my position, my wife, all my 
 family, and myself; that is to say, with a quiet philos- 
 opher's establishment on a good farm, — far enough 
 from the capital not to be interfered with in my 
 solitude, and to see only intimate friends." 
 
 Lafayette established himself at a country-house 
 near the little town of Ploen, in Holstein. Here he 
 lived quietly with the family of his friend M. Mau- 
 
166 LAFAYETTE. [l799. 
 
 bourg, whose brother, M. Charles Latour Maubourg, 
 soon after married the eldest Mademoiselle Lafayette. 
 He received and wrote many letters, and occupied 
 himself with plans of a book on the French Revolu- 
 tion, to be written by himself and his friends. Gar- 
 dening was also an amusement, and he studied books 
 on farming with as much zeal as he had given in his 
 youth to those on the art of war. Absence from his 
 own country and Madame Lafayette's ill-health were 
 the chief drawbacks to his happiness. 
 
 But he could hardly believe that he was destined 
 to be a mere looker-on while the French army was 
 winning the most brilliant victories everywhere ; and 
 he was proud of its glory, for there could not be a 
 more devoted Frenchman than Lafayette. His heart 
 was open to all who were striving to be free in every 
 country, but France was always dear. He some- 
 times thought of going to the United States, but 
 could not resolve to make his home so far from his 
 native land. And his position in America would not 
 have been a comfortable one, for some difficulties 
 had arisen between the United States and the French 
 government, and in case of war Lafayette could not 
 have joined either side. 
 
 Early in the year 1799, he removed from Holstein 
 to Vianen, near Utrecht. "War was raging in almost 
 
AGE 42.] LAFAYETTE. 167 
 
 every country in Europe, and he preferred • living in 
 Holland, which brought him a little nearer France. 
 During his wife's absence,* he wrote thus to her: 
 " Yesterday and to-day, George f and I have been 
 arranging a farm for you, either in the beautiful val- 
 ley of the Shenandoah, in the State of Virginia, not 
 far from Federal City and even Mount Vernon ; or 
 in the lovely fields of New England, within reach 
 of the town of Boston, for which you know my 
 fancy. I do not conceal from myself, dear Adrienne, 
 the fact that I, who complain of the serfs of Holstein 
 as a sad surrounding for a friend of liberty, should 
 find negro slaves in the valley of the Shenandoah ; 
 for, if in the Northern States there is equality for 
 all, in the Southern it exists only for the whites. It 
 is true that, with our ideas of Cayenne,! we might 
 
 * She had gone to Paris, hoping to save some of the property 
 of her family, taken from them during the Eeign of Terror. 
 
 f George Washington Lafayette, his only son, now nearly 
 twenty years old. He had spent two years in the United States, 
 chiefly under General "Washington's care, while the rest of the 
 family were at Ohnutz. 
 
 % Lafayette's plantation, on which he had hoped to educate 
 slaves was at Cayenne. In spite of his wife's efforts, they were 
 sold, by order of his enemies, in August, 1792. All slaves in 
 French colonies were, however, set free in 1794. 
 
168 LAFAYETTE. [l799. 
 
 console ourselves somewhat. I should, however, pre- 
 fer New England, and at the same time I feel all the 
 reasons which ought to draw us near Mount Vernon 
 and the seat of government. But we only want the 
 first dollar to buy our farm with." 
 
 Young Lafayette joined the French army in Hol- 
 land this year. It was a singular state of things for 
 the father to be unable to enter his native country 
 while the son was fighting her battles ! Lafayette, 
 however, had agreed to his taking part in this cam- 
 paign the more readily because he hoped and be- 
 lieved that a change in the French government was 
 at hand. He sent letters and messages to Paris, but 
 there seemed to be no oi^ening for him. 
 
 Another star was rising over the French nation, 
 which dazzled their eyes with its brilliancy; fame 
 and glory in war were now desired, and the men 
 and services of 1789 were forgotten. Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, by his extraordinary military talents, had 
 put himself in a position to govern France. In 
 December, 1799, he caused a new constitution to be 
 proclaimed, by which he secured great power. His 
 title was simply First Consul, but he might have 
 been called King. 
 
 Lafayette hastened to Paris, on hearing of this 
 
AGE 42.] LAFAYETTE. 169 
 
 change. His friends were somewhat alarmed to see 
 him there, and thought the First Consul was not at 
 all pleased at his speedy arrival. He received a 
 message from Bonaparte, through Madame Lafay- 
 ette, recommending a very quiet life, which he had 
 always intended to lead. 
 
 The family were soon established at Lagrange, an 
 estate inherited by Madame Lafayette, about four- 
 teen leagues from Paris. It was their home for the 
 rest of Lafayette's life, and a very happy one. His 
 children remained there after their marriages, * and 
 during his son's frequent absence with the ai'my he 
 had the pleasure of keeping with him his daughter- 
 in-law and grandchildren. He particularly enjoyed 
 seeing his friends about him after his long separation 
 from them, and though his manner of living was sim- 
 ple, both Frenchmen and foreigners found a most 
 cordial welcome at Lagrange. 
 
 The estate was large enough for him to employ 
 himself with experiments in farming, and to put in 
 practice what he had learned and observed in Hol- 
 stein and Holland. 
 
 * M. George Lafayette married a Mdlle de Tracy, daughter 
 of an old friend of Lafayette, both politically and in private. 
 The youngest Mdlle Lafayette married M. Louis Lasteyrie. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FRANCE MUCH CHANGED. 
 
 Shortly after his return to France, Lafayette 
 received the painful news of General "Washington's 
 death. It was an unexpected grief and a disappoint- 
 ment, for through all his trials Lafayette had cher- 
 ished the hope of future visits to the United States 
 and Mount Vernon. 
 
 He wrote immediately to the family, and their an- 
 swers were accompanied hy a pair of pistols, which 
 the General had left him in his will. 
 
 Washington's influence seems almost to have 
 formed Lafayette's political character. Without 
 knowing him, the young Marquis had the greatest 
 enthusiasm for liberty, and wished to help all who 
 would be free ; but he learned from the Father of 
 our Country that steady respect for law, and desire 
 to strengthen the foundations of government, which 
 
AGE 43.] LAFAYETTE. 171 
 
 distinguished Lafayette from both friends and ene- 
 mies during the stormy scenes of the French Revo- 
 lution. He could not convince his countrymen of 
 the wisdom of his views; the Constitution of 1791, 
 which he liked, was destroyed in less than a year 
 by the Jacobins ; — but we need not judge him very 
 hardly for having thought the French more fit for 
 liberty than they really were. And considering how 
 many enemies he had, it is only wonderful that he 
 kept his popularity as long as he did. Perhaps, if 
 there had been no court to thwart him in everything, 
 the nation might have been controlled under his con- 
 stitution. 
 
 In the summer of 1800, Lafayette and Maubourg 
 were presented to the First Consul, at the Tuileries.* 
 He received them with great politeness, and they 
 added to their expressions of gratitude many compli- 
 ments on the Italian campaign, from which he had 
 just returned. 
 
 He seemed to like talking with Lafayette, asked 
 some questions about America, and often discussed 
 with him the state of Europe. One day he said to 
 him that he "must have found the French much 
 
 * Where he had so often seen Louis XVI. and Marie An- 
 toinette. 
 
 12 
 
172 LAFAYETTE. [1800. 
 
 cooled on the subject of liberty." "Yes," replied 
 Lafayette, '"but they arc in a state to receive it." 
 "They are disgusted," answered the First Consul; 
 " your Parisians, for instance, the shopkeepers, — O, 
 they want no more of it ! " Lafayette repeated his 
 former words, and added, " I did not use the expres- 
 sion lightly, General ; I am not ignorant of the effect 
 of the follies and crimes which have defiled the name 
 of liberty ; but the French are perhaps more than 
 ever in a state to receive it. It is for you to give 
 it ; from you they await it." 
 
 Several proposals were made to Lafayette, about 
 this time, to be a Senator, or to hold some office, but 
 he declined. Bonaparte, notwithstanding, had the 
 kindness to procure leave for some of Lafayette's 
 friends to return to France and regain their j>rop- 
 erty.* But all friendly intercourse between them 
 came to an end in 1802, when a decree was passed 
 declaring Napoleon First Consul for life. 
 
 Lafayette would have been very ready to vote for 
 this appointment, if the liberty of the people had 
 been first secured ; but he was not willing to have 
 such an office bestowed on any man, unless the gov- 
 
 fk Emigrants were forbidden to come back, and deprived of 
 their property. 
 
AGE 45.] LAFAYETTE. 173 
 
 eminent were a remarkably free one.* He felt so 
 grateful to Bonaparte that lie was very unwilling to 
 offend him, but he could not desert the principles 
 which had always governed his actions. He Avrote 
 to the First Consul, explaining his motives, but no 
 answer was ever returned. 
 
 His son felt the full force of Bonaparte's displeas- 
 ure, for his promotion in the army was stopped, 
 although two or three gallant acts ought to have 
 been rewarded. 
 
 A fall on the ice, about the end of the year 1802, 
 deprived Lafayette for a long time of his usual out- 
 of-door pleasures. He broke the thigh-bone, and, in 
 order to avoid lameness, went through a terrible pro- 
 cess of having his leg stretched in a frame. It was 
 kept on for forty days and nights, and caused the 
 greatest suffering, which he bore so bravely that the 
 surgeons never suspected the mischief it was doing. 
 When it was taken off, they were shocked to see the 
 effects of such pressure on the muscles and blood- 
 vessels about the thigh. The tendons of the foot 
 
 * One of his German friends, Klopstock, the poet, said, soon . 
 after he came from Olmutz: " General Lafayette's character pre- 
 vents him from understanding his countrymen. How can he 
 think them capable of haying free institutions? " 
 
174 LAFAYETTE. [lS03. 
 
 were also injured, and many months passed before 
 the wounds inflicted by the machine were cured; 
 but Lafayette was always glad that he had tried that 
 system, because lameness would have interfered so 
 much with his exercise. 
 
 The accident happened in Paris, and during the 
 weeks that he was shut up by it he had the pleasure 
 of receiving many kind visits and messages of in- 
 quiry from both old friends and new, generals and 
 senators. People showed the differences in their 
 political opinions by the manner in which they came 
 themselves to the house, or sent their servants, or 
 inquired from others. The Americans in Paris did 
 not fail in their attentions. 
 
 In 1803 an arrangement was made between 
 France and the United States by which Louisiana 
 was bought by the republic. President Jefferson, 
 with whom Lafayette kept up a regular correspond- 
 ence, proposed to him to become the governor of 
 the new territory, and suggested that he would be 
 both useful and happy in reconciling the French set- 
 tlers to the American government. The land allotted 
 to him, as a former major-general in the American 
 army, was selected from the rich fields of Louisiana. 
 
 But the project does not seem to have tempted 
 
AGE 46.] LAFAYETTE. 175 
 
 Lafayette. Much as lie loved America, his native 
 country was dearer still, and he could not give up 
 the hope that he might yet serve the cause of liberty 
 in France : if not in action, at least by his character 
 and example. 
 
 Bonaparte's power seemed a perfect barrier to 
 Lafayette's wishes. The army was devoted to him, 
 and France parted cheerfully with immense sums 
 of money, and with the young men, the hope of the 
 nation, who fell by thousands, on his battle-fields. 
 The victories were wonderful, and even Lafayette 
 watched with enthusiasm the progress of the armies, 
 though he entirely disapproved of the spirit of the 
 government. 
 
 In 1804 the First Consul was crowned Emperor, 
 and all the kings in Europe courted his favor. But 
 there was still one old republican whom all his power 
 could not move from the fixed opinions of thirty, 
 years. The Emperor said, one day, to his Council : 
 " Gentlemen, I know your devotion to the power of 
 the throne. Every one in France is corrected; I 
 was thinking of the only man who is not, — Lafay- 
 ette. He has never retreated from his line. You 
 see him quiet, but I tell you he is quite ready to 
 begin again. 
 
176 LAFAYETTE. [l808. 
 
 The close of the year 1807 was mai'ked by the 
 greatest of sorrows for Lafayette, the death of his 
 wife. He wrote thus of her to his friend Maubourg: 
 " During the thirty -four years of an union in which 
 her tenderness, her kindness, the delicacy and gen- 
 erosity of her soul charmed, adorned, and honored 
 my life, I was so accustomed to all she was to me 
 that I did not distinguish it from my own existence. 
 
 You know as well as I all she was, all she 
 
 did during the Revolution. It is not for coming to 
 Olmutz, as Charles Fox said, ' on the wings of love 
 and duty,' that I praise her here; but for having 
 waited to secure, as far as it lay with her, the well- 
 being of my aunt and the rights of our creditors, — 
 for having had the courage to send George to 
 America. What a generous imprudence it was to be 
 almost the only woman in France compromised by 
 her name who would not change it ! * Every one 
 of her petitions began with these words, ' the wife 
 
 of Lafayette.' But we have all seen this 
 
 woman, so lofty and brave in great circumstances, 
 as gentle, simple, and easy, in the common inter- 
 course of life." 
 
 * Most of the wives of emigrants went through a form of 
 divorce from their husbands, in order to save a portion of their 
 property. 
 
AGE 57.] LAFAYETTE. 177 
 
 His grief for his wife's death was moderated by 
 the recollection of her sufferings from ill-health, and 
 by the love and sympathy of his children. Her 
 room at Lagrange was always kept sacred, and 
 Lafayette, every morning of his life spent a few 
 minutes in looking at her miniature. There was no 
 part of his life, private or public, in which she had not 
 sympathized with him. But in the bitterest days of 
 political strife she had never been heard to utter a 
 harsh word, although she had missed no opportunity 
 of defending her husband. 
 
 She was a truly religious person, and her rever- 
 ence, joined with great sweetness and kindness, seemed 
 to set her apart from earthly passions. She was 
 almost worshipped at Lagrange, and left a bright 
 example, which her daughters and her son's wife 
 endeavored to follow in her home. 
 
 Bonaparte's career after his coronation was still 
 wonderfully successful. The first disappointment 
 was his invasion of Russia, in 1812. The Russians 
 defended their country obstinately, and the French 
 army suffered terribly during its retreat from cold, as 
 well as the usual distresses of an unsuccessful army 
 in an enemy's country. Prussia joined Russia and 
 England against him, and the battles were doubtful, 
 
178 LAFAYETTE. [l814. 
 
 instead of being certain victories for the French. 
 Twice they tried to settle matters by agreement, but 
 Napoleon's pride and confidence were not yet shaken. 
 Austria joined the Allies, they entered France, and, 
 in spite of some successes on Napoleon's side, the 
 city of Paris was surrendered to them in March, 
 1814. 
 
 The Emperor had Avorn out both power and popu- 
 larity. He had governed kings, and had flattered 
 French ambition and love of glory ; but the desire to 
 rule over every one had become a passion with him, 
 and he had indulged it until French blood had 
 watered the plains of Europe, and the nation had 
 nothing more to give. He was now reduced to 
 ruling over the little island of Elba, which was given 
 to him by the Allies. 
 
 On the 20th of April, 1814, Bonaparte left Fon- 
 tainebleau.* The allied sovereigns, the Emperors of 
 Russia and Austria, and the King of Prussia, de- 
 cided to recall to France and place upon the throne 
 the brother of Louis the Sixteenth, under the name 
 of Louis the Eighteenth. The poor little Dauphin, 
 who had died in prison, was counted as Louis the 
 Seventeenth. 
 
 * A country palace, near Paris. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A NEW KING OF FRANCE. 
 
 In spite of all the opposition he had met with from 
 this family, the feelings of his youth revived again 
 in Lafayette's heart, and he was glad to see the 
 king and his brother, the Count d'Artois, once more. 
 The recollection of Louis the Sixteenth's sorrows 
 and death no doubt touched him ; but the feeling of 
 loyalty to the royal family is stronger in people 
 who live under a king than we Americans can 
 imagine. 
 
 He, however, did nothing but pay his respects 
 once at the palace. The court was composed of 
 people with whom it was impossible for him to have 
 any connection. The princes soon proved that dur- 
 ing then- long absence they had "learned nothing 
 and forgotten nothing." Their whole desire was to 
 restore France to its ancient condition. They were, 
 however, obliged to agree to a charter which secured 
 
180 LAFAYETTE. [l815. 
 
 certain conditions to the common people. They gave 
 up, much to the regret of the nation, a great many- 
 forts, guns, and other things gained in Napoleon's 
 campaigns, and they seemed in many ways to have 
 more feeling for the crowned heads who had assist- 
 ed them than for the French people. They did 
 nothing, either, for military glory ; and the French, 
 who had enjoyed the idea that their Emperor set 
 kings upon half the thrones of Europe, and had 
 welcomed back the victor of many a campaign, 
 found it dull to see, on public days, a gouty old 
 gentleman, who sat in an arm-chair at parade, and 
 had nothing to say to them but, k> I am pleased, very 
 well pleased." 
 
 Notwithstanding all these objections, however, 
 Lafayette preferred this form of government to 
 the Empire, and was sorry to hear of Bona- 
 parte's escape from Elba and landing at Cannes, 
 in the south of France, on the 1st of March, 
 1815. 
 
 He had been for a little time in Paris, and found 
 that the king was now only ready to make some 
 efforts to please the people. Lafayette's friends hoped 
 to gain something for the cause of liberty by taking 
 the royal side ; but he had seen too much of the 
 
AGE 57.] LAFAYETTE. 181 
 
 obstinacy and slowness of that party, to have any 
 hope of working with it.* 
 
 The National Guard of Paris was ready to pro- 
 tect the Tuileries, and a great many people who had 
 deserted Napoleon the year before now dreaded his 
 return, and were cpiite ready to fight for the king. 
 
 Still all was confusion and disagreement at Paris, 
 while Bonaparte, joined everywhere by his old 
 soldiers, and welcomed by the country people, ad- 
 vanced to the capital without firing a shot. 
 
 On the 20th of March the king and royal family 
 left Paris and went to Ghent, travelling quietly by 
 post through a country sufficiently friendly to him, 
 had he only been willing to accept a new order of 
 things. 
 
 This was what Napoleon was trying hard to do. 
 In every proclamation he spoke of "the people," of 
 " owing all to the people," and used as often as pos- 
 sible republican words, although his real feelings of 
 despotism would occasionally peep out. 
 
 Under his government, of course, Lafayette could 
 
 * One of the king's ministers said, " All is lost ! There is no 
 extremity, no endurance, to which the king would not sub- 
 mit." " "What !" said some one , "even Lafayette?" "Yes," 
 cried he, " Lafayette himself! " 
 
182 LAFAYETTE. [l815. 
 
 not hold any public station. After spending three 
 days more in Paris, in order not to appear alarmed, 
 he returned to Lagrange and his happy home-life. 
 
 It was to be interrupted sooner than he supposed. 
 The Allies immediately rose against Napoleon, who 
 found he must in some way gratify the people, who 
 were balancing the advantages of having him on the 
 throne and another war to carry on against the 
 Allies, ^>r of having Louis the Eighteenth, with all 
 his defects, ruling over them once more. 
 
 His brother Joseph sent for Lafayette, who could 
 only suggest his invariable remedy for all national 
 difficulties, a National Assembly. To this the em- 
 peror gave a most unwilling consent, and Lafayette 
 was elected a deputy. 
 
 The chamber of Representatives was opened by 
 Bonaparte with great pomp, but, though his words 
 were satisfactory, his face had a constrained look, as 
 if he were acting a part that was odious to his nature. 
 He could not speak to National Deputies so cordially 
 as poor Louis the Sixteenth had done in 1789. 
 
 During the reception of the emperor he spoke to 
 Lafayette in private, and began by saying, " It is 
 twelve years since I had the pleasure of seeing you." 
 " Yes, sire," replied Lafayette, rather dryly, " it is, 
 
 
AGE 57.] LAFAYETTE. 183 
 
 fully that time." * Later in the day, the emperor 
 remarked, " I find you grown young ; country air 
 has done you good." " It has clone me much good," 
 answered Lafayette, who could not return the com- 
 pliment. 
 
 On the whole, he was pretty well satisfied with the 
 Assembly, finding more independence than he had 
 expected among the members. 
 
 War being declared, the emperor left Paris on the 
 12th of June, 1815, and the battle of "Waterloo was 
 fought on the 18th. It was a total defeat for the 
 French. Napoleon came back to Paris ready to dis- 
 solve the Assembly and seize all authority for himself. 
 
 Lafayette insisted that the Assembly should de- 
 clare that it would not be broken up, and would try 
 to protect the city. This was agreed to, and the 
 Emperor's abdication f was proposed. After a great 
 struggle to keep his power, he consented to resign 
 the throne in favor of his son. The Assembly ac- 
 cepted his abdication, but said nothing of his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 Some of his friends were desirous that he should 
 
 * Thirteen years, in fact, — since 1802, when Bonaparte was 
 appointed Consul for life. 
 t Giving up the throne. 
 
184 LAFAYETTE. [l815. 
 
 go to America, and Lafayette tried to secure a safe 
 passage for him. 
 
 The Assembly now appointed a sort of committee 
 to govern France from day to day. It was expected 
 that Lafayette would be a member ; but he was sent 
 instead to meet the victorious generals, and, if pos- 
 sible, prevent them from coming to Paris. They had 
 declared that they waged war against Bonaparte 
 alone, and not in favor of the royal family. 
 
 It was, however, impossible to induce them to 
 agree to any terms of peace until they were near 
 Paris, and they insisted on having Napoleon in their 
 safe keeping. "When Lord Stewart first said to 
 Lafayette, " I must inform you, sir, that there can 
 be no peace with the allied powers, unless you 
 deliver up Bonaparte to us ; " he replied, " I am 
 surprised that, to propose so base an act to the 
 French nation, you address yourself by choice to a 
 prisoner of Olmutz." 
 
 There was nothing to be done but to return to 
 Paris, and Lafayette was sorry to find the French 
 army in too broken a condition to surprise the Prus- 
 sian force on its way to the capital. There Avas one 
 favorable moment for such an attempt, and military 
 ardor awoke again in Lafayette's mind at the sight 
 
AGE 57. J LAFAYETTE. 
 
 185 
 
 of the enemy marching upon Paris for the second 
 time within a year. 
 
 They entered the city, and Napoleon, who had 
 lingered too long in France to make his escape now, 
 gave himself up to the captain of an English ship of 
 war. He was banished to Saint Helena. The 
 Assembly was dissolved on the 18th of July. Lafay- 
 ette was therefore free to return to Lagrange. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Louis the Eighteenth was replaced on the 
 throne of France, and the nation had again to bear 
 the mortification of giving up some forts and pull- 
 ing others to pieces. It was a bitter thing to the 
 French to see other nations triumphing over them ; 
 but rest was needed, at last, after all their efforts. 
 
 "Whatever might be the troubles that disturbed 
 France, or however great Lafayette's disappointment 
 in the form of government, Lagrange was always 
 to him a haven of peace, content, and happiness. 
 He lived on the best terms with his poor neighbors, 
 who thought of him as the country gentleman inter- 
 ested in his farm, and not as the "hero of two 
 worlds," the soldier and public man. Here he re- 
 ceived his guests with the greatest cordiality, and 
 enjoyed the liveliness and affection of his grand- 
 
AGE 61.1 LAFAYETTE. 187 
 
 children, who were educated chiefly by their mothers, 
 and were constantly to be seen in the drawing-room 
 with their grandfather. 
 
 Many distinguished persons, artists, literary men, 
 and all foreigners who were liberal in politics, came 
 to see him at Lagrange, so that his quiet life was 
 never a dull one. An English lady, who spent 
 several days in his house in 1818, describes the 
 pleasant conversations in which Lafayette was some- 
 times led to speak of the scenes and people he had 
 seen in past years, his cordial, cheerful manners, and 
 the happiness of the family. " Charming days, 
 more charming evenings, flow on in a perpetual 
 stream of enjoyment here." In the mornings 
 Madame George Lafayette, the Countess Lasteyrie, 
 and the Countess Maubourg, were " busy with the 
 children and did not appear." The visitors amused 
 themselves, or were with the General, unless his 
 occupations prevented. Then came a walk or drive, 
 — sometimes a long excursion. After dinner, at 
 four o'clock, conversation ; in the evening, music, 
 or talking. 
 
 She speaks thus of the grandchildren's education : 
 " Before breakfast I find all the young people at 
 their easels, painting from models, in the ante-room ; 
 13 
 
188 LAFAYETTE. [1818. 
 
 then they go to their music* (there are three pianos) ; 
 then they all turn out into the beautiful park for two 
 hours, and then resume their studies for two hours 
 more. But I never saw such happy children ; they 
 live without restraint, and, except while at their 
 lessons, are always with the grown people. If the 
 little ones are noisy, they are sent into the ante- 
 room ; but their gentleness and good conduct are 
 astonishing, considering, too, that eleven of the twelve 
 arc always with us." 
 
 It seems as if they must have inherited something 
 of their grandfather's sunny temper. 
 
 This very pleasant mode of life was sometimes 
 exchanged for a long visit in Paris. Lafayette was 
 chosen deputy to the Assembly of 1818, and began 
 to work with all his old diligence. The national 
 expenses for the army, navy, and public education ; 
 the law of elections ; the forming of the National 
 Guard, and the freedom of the press, were the prin- 
 cipal subjects which occupied him. His speeches 
 were marked by his usual independence and open- 
 ness. His enemies were numerous and powerful, 
 and some attempts were made to accuse him of a 
 share in secret plots against the government. But 
 
 * A music-master and an English governess lived in the house. 
 
AGE 64.] LAFAYETTE. 189 
 
 such efforts failed, although Lafayette was connected 
 for a short time with a secret society. He was too 
 frank and open in his nature, and his views were too 
 moderate, ever to satisfy politicians who work in 
 underhand ways. 
 
 In the summer of 1824, Lafayette accepted the 
 invitation of President Monroe to visit the United 
 States. Congress voted to send a man-of-war for 
 him ; but he declined it, and came in a packet-ship, 
 landing at New York on the 16th of August. He 
 was accompanied by his son and his secretary, M. 
 Levasseur. From New York he proceeded to Bos- 
 ton, and as far north as Portsmouth, N H. ; then 
 returned to New York, and went south to Yorktown, 
 Washington, Charleston, and New Orleans ; then 
 came up the river Mississippi, and through Kentucky, 
 Ohio, and New York, to Boston again, in order to be 
 present at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker 
 Hill Monument, which took place June 17, 1825. 
 He then went once more to the south to take leave 
 of his friends in Virginia, and sailed from the Potomac 
 on the 8th of September, 1825. Thus he travelled 
 through almost every State ha the Union, and saw 
 many a flourishing town where there had been an 
 unbroken forest in 1777, or even at his last visit in 
 1784. 
 
190 LAFAYETTE. [l824. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the welcome the nation 
 gave to its guest. From the moment of his landing 
 until his embarkation, there was a constant succession 
 of processions, speeches, public dinners, military re- 
 views, balls, fireworks, rejoicings of every kind at 
 every place. Old soldiers of the Revolution were 
 collected to see him, school-children often formed a 
 part of the processions, private houses were thrown 
 open, committees from one town escorted him to the 
 next, barouches with four or six horses met him 
 everywhere for his entrance into the towns, all the 
 streets and houses were crowded with eager faces, 
 wherever he went the day of his arrival was cele- 
 brated as a holiday, and the whole United States 
 showed their joy at receiving him. 
 
 No such event is recorded in history. It was 
 most extraordinary that the man who devoted him- 
 self in his early youth to helping a nation in the days 
 of poverty and weakness should live to come back to 
 a new generation of men, living under the govern- 
 ment which he had helped to establish, and prosper- 
 ous in every way. 
 
 No pains were spared to please him and to do him 
 honor. On his first arrival at New York, the Gov- 
 ernor, Mayor, and other important persons, went to 
 
AGE 66.] LAFAYETTE." 191 
 
 meet him in a steamboat, followed by several others, 
 two of which towed up the ship Cadmus, that had 
 brought him over. 
 
 In Boston he received the highest honors, and 
 went to Commencement at Cambridge, and also to 
 hear the oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 
 The church was crowded with people more eager to 
 see him than to hear the performances, and the 
 whole audience listened breathlessly when the orator, 
 Mr. Everett, turning to him, addressed him in these 
 words : " Hail, Friend of our Fathers ! welcome to 
 our shores ! Enjoy a triumph which is reserved 
 neither for conquerors nor monarchs ; the assurance 
 that here, throughout all America, there is not a 
 heart which does not beat with joy and gratitude in 
 hearing your name. You have already received, 
 and will soon receive the greetings of the small 
 number of ardent patriots, wise counsellors, intrepid 
 warriors, with whom you were associated for the con- 
 quest of our liberty ; but in vain you will look 
 around you for those who would have preferred a 
 single day like this, passed with their old companion 
 in arms, to years of life. ..... You will again 
 
 visit the hospitable roof of Mount Vernon ; but he 
 whom you revered will no longer be on the thresh- 
 
192 LAFAYETTE. [l824. 
 
 old to receive you ; his voice, that consoling voice, 
 which reached you even in the cell of Olmutz, will 
 no more break silence to bid you sit at his hearth ; 
 but the children of America receive you in his name, 
 and cry, ' Welcome, Lafayette ! thrice welcome to 
 our land, friend of our fathers and our country ! '" i 
 
 On his return to New York a very splendid pub- 
 lic ball was given to him at Castle Garden, a large 
 hall built just on the water's edge, at the foot of the 
 Battery. It was beautifully ornamented ; and as 
 the General took his seat, what appeared to be a 
 painting in front of the gallery was lifted up, and 
 showed a transparency with a view of Lagrauge, and 
 underneath it these words : " His Home." Not only 
 Lafayette, but many a person who had never seen 
 Lagrange, was moved. At two o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, a steamboat came to take him from Castle Gar- 
 den up the Hudson River to West Point. 
 
 At Philadelphia an equal enthusiasm was shown, 
 and at Baltimore he was particularly touched by 
 being received in Washington's tent, where he found 
 several veterans of the war waiting for him. 
 
 His visit to the tomb of Washington was private 
 and most solemn. Mr. Custis (Mrs. Washington's 
 grandson) gave him on the spot a ring containing 
 Washington's hair. 
 
AGE 67.] LAFAYETTE. 193 
 
 Pleasing and painful memories, of course, came 
 crowding upon Ins mind as he revisited the battle- 
 grounds of the Revolution, or the places where he had 
 lived, and found himself almost alone, — that he had 
 survived his companions. He arrived at Yorktown 
 on the 19th of October, the anniversary of Lord Corn- 
 wallis's surrender, and saw the field again white with 
 tents ; but this time there were no batteries, and the 
 place of the redoubt which his troops had stormed 
 was marked by a triumphal arch. The names of 
 other French heroes besides Lafayette, were not for- 
 gotten in the inscription. A review of militia did 
 not exactly recall the perils of the siege ; and a 
 great public dinner, fireworks, &c, closed the day. 
 
 Lafayette went to Monticello to visit Mr. Jefferson, 
 whose health was too infirm to allow him to take 
 part in any of the festivities, but who welcomed him 
 heartily to a home. And a little rest was very 
 pleasant after so much motion and excitement. The 
 mere effort of making so many speeches and shaking 
 hands with so many strangers would have been 
 fatiguing under common circumstances ; but Lafay- 
 ette's health was perfectly good through the year; 
 enjoyment seems to have enabled him to bear every 
 exposure. 
 
194 LAFAYETTE. [l825. 
 
 At Washington he was received in the most re- 
 spectful manner by the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives, who voted him a present of two hundred 
 thousand dollars and a township of land, "in con- 
 sideration of his services and sacrifices in the Rev- 
 olutionary War." He spent several weeks of the win- 
 ter at the capital, and then proceeded further south. 
 
 At Fayetteville, N. C, a town named for him, a 
 part of his escort consisted of a troop of cavalry that 
 had travelled a hundred a fifty miles, a great part of 
 the time in the rain, from their homes in the country. 
 
 At Charleston, S. C, he met once more Mr. Huger, 
 the faithful friend of Olmutz. What a contrast to 
 the time when he had mounted Lafayette on horse- 
 back, and quietly given himself up to the jailers ! 
 
 At Savaunah, he laid the corner-stones of two 
 monuments to General Greene and Count Pulaski, 
 both friends of his youthful days. On the Chata- 
 hoochee River, in Georgia, a number of Indians were 
 collected to see him, and greeted him with yells as he 
 crossed. On his landing they took the horse out of 
 the sulky * provided for him, and dragged him up the 
 hill, after which they entertained him Avith one of 
 
 * A vehicle like a chaise, which holds but one. 
 
 
AGE 67.] LAFAYETTE. 195 
 
 their games at ball. Red men and white alike 
 exerted themselves to gratify the nation's guest. 
 
 In going to Louisville, Ky., Lafayette met with 
 the only accident which interrupted the pleasure of 
 this journey. The steamboat he was in struck a 
 snag and was wrecked. No lives were lost, but it 
 was impossible to get out the luggage ; and Lafayette 
 lost six hundred letters, besides the other contents of 
 his trunks. 
 
 He accomplished one object on which he had set 
 his heart, — that of getting back again to Boston in 
 time for the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker 
 Hill Monument. It was fifty years from the day of 
 the battle, and the hill was crowded with free, happy 
 New Englanders, who looked back to that hard fight 
 as to the first step on the path of liberty. The pro- 
 cession was formed as usual, with the military, vari- 
 ous societies, the Governor, Mayor, and guests from 
 a distance. Lafayette's place was of course a con- 
 spicuous one, and he was accompanied by ninety-six 
 survivors of the battle in carriages, and others on 
 foot. 
 
 Mr. Webster was the orator of the day, and when 
 he addressed Lafayette and this band of veterans, 
 they all rose. The interest of the scene was very 
 
196 LAFAYETTE. [l825. 
 
 great, and the whole ceremony of laying the corner- 
 stone was successful. The weather was fine, and 
 Lafayette wrote to his family, that afternoon, that he 
 had just come from " one of the finest patriotic cele- 
 brations there could be." At the dinner which was 
 given after the morning's work, his toast was, " Bun- 
 ker Hill, and the sacred resistance to oppression 
 which has already freed the American Hemisphere ! 
 — The toast on the jubilee of the next half-century 
 will be, Europe free ! " * 
 
 Towards the close of the summer, there came 
 some painful farewells to be said to his American 
 friends. In Virginia he took leave of ex-Presidents 
 Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. The election of a 
 new President had taken place during the past 3tear, 
 and Lafayette pleased himself with the hope that his 
 presence had softened a little the harshness of party 
 spirit. The new President, Mr. John Quincy Ad- 
 ams, invited him to dine at the White House on his 
 birthday, (Sept. 6th,) with a large party. It is con- 
 trary to custom to give toasts at the President's table, 
 but on this occasion Mr. Adams rose and said, " The 
 22d of February and the 6th of September : Birth- 
 days of Washington and Lafayette ! " The General, 
 
 * There is not much sign of this now (1859). 
 
AGE 6S.] LAFAYKTTK. 197 
 
 much moved at hearing his name thus associated 
 with Washington's, gave, in return, " The 4th of 
 July : Birthday of liberty in both hemispheres ! " 
 
 The next day, September 7th, Lafayette received 
 and answered a farewell address from the President, 
 and then, followed by a long procession, went to the 
 steamboat which waited to take him on board the 
 frigate Brandywine. 
 
 It was a solemn parting ; for few of the persons 
 there present could hope to see Lafayette in France, 
 and he was too old a man to think of ever coming 
 to America again. The visit had been a happy time 
 in his life, and one that can never be repeated in 
 the history of the United States. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A HAPPY HOME. 
 
 After all his enjoyment, however, he was glad 
 indeed to find himself at home at Lagrange, where 
 he was welcomed with a " fete," a few days after his 
 arrival. The house was decorated, and all his neigh- 
 bors danced merrily in the park. Young girls came 
 to see him and to sing a few little verses, which is a 
 French fashion of rejoicing, and perhaps quite as 
 good a one as the American style of making speeches. 
 
 During Lafayette's absence, Louis the Eighteenth 
 had died and was succeeded by his brother, Charles 
 the Tenth ; but the system of government was not 
 much changed. In fact, Charles the Tenth was 
 still more attached to the old aristocratic system than 
 his brother. He said, himself, " Lafayette and I are 
 the only two men in France who have remained 
 perfectly firm in then- principles through the devolu- 
 tion." 
 
 
AGE 69.] LAFAYETTE. 199 
 
 At this time Greece was in a state of revolt 
 against the Turks ; Spain and Portugal were at least 
 half way towards revolutions ; Italy was far from 
 being quiet ; General Bolivar was laboring to make 
 Columbia a republic, and Mexico claimed some 
 interest from the loA*ers of freedom. Lafayette 
 corresponded with the various generals, and La- 
 grange was always open to unfortunate politicians 
 who were banished from their native country, 
 wherever that might be. No limits of sea or 
 mountains ever shut off his sympathy from a people 
 who loved freedom, and he was ready to give 
 any help in his power to those who were resisting 
 oppression. 
 
 He seems never to have known fatigue, either of 
 body or mind. He was again elected to the As- 
 sembly in 1827, and took up all his habits of busi- 
 ness. The care of so large a farm as Lagrange 
 would have been thought by many people occupa- 
 tion enough for a man of his age. It included 
 about five hundred French acres of land, partly 
 in plantations, and partly in meadows for sheep 
 and cattle. Lafayette took great pleasure in col- 
 lecting fine animals, and he had many presents of 
 good specimens. All his barns and sheepfolds 
 
'200 LAFAYETTE. [l827. 
 
 were kept in the neatest manner, and the accounts 
 of the produce and expenses of the farm were put 
 down in large books, as accurately as the accounts 
 of a merchant's business. It was not intended for 
 a show place, and the chief ornament was the beauti- 
 ful park, and the long, shady avenue which led to 
 the house. 
 
 This was an old castle, but comfortable enougn 
 for a modern family. Five towers * were the most 
 striking part of it to a stranger, as he approached ; 
 one in the middle of the' house, two at the end of 
 each wing. Around three sides of the house was 
 a moat, or deep ditch, full of clear water, in which 
 fishes might be seen. Large weeping willows and 
 other fine trees hung over the edge. On the fourth 
 side it had been filled up, and the front of the cha- 
 teau looked out on a smooth lawn, with a few flowers 
 growing near the house. In the lower story of the 
 house were a small chapel, a large dining-room with 
 a stone roof, a hall, kitchens, etc. ; above, the draw- 
 ing-rooms, the General's private apartments, and the 
 rooms used by the various families and the guests. 
 
 Lafayette's own habits were very simple and 
 
 * One of them was covered with ivy, planted by Mr. Fox, a 
 very distinguished Englishman. 
 
AGE 69.] LAFAYETTE. 201 
 
 regular. He slept usually but seven hour?, and was 
 called by his servant at five o'clock. He read or 
 wrote in his own apartment until the ten o'clock 
 breakfast, after which he always went about the 
 farm for two hours at least, then returned to his 
 writing until dinner-time. - In the evening, if there 
 were visitors, he remained in the drawing-room, 
 talking ; if the family were alone, he sometimes 
 went back to his own occupations, — but he reap- 
 peared to bid his children good night. 
 
 His management of his farm served as an ex- 
 ample to his poor neighbors. The peasants laughed 
 when they first saw his large plantation of apple- 
 trees ; but by and by, when they found the cider 
 from Lagrange was good and • sold well, they also 
 began to set out orchards. 
 
 His neighbors, and even strangers, were allowed 
 to walk freely on his grounds, and all visitors at the 
 house were at liberty to amuse themselves with 
 walks, boating and fishing on the pond, or anything 
 else they preferred. The spirit of genuine kindness 
 governed the Avhole family, from the General down 
 to his youngest grandchild, and made them a great 
 blessing to the neighborhood. The physician of the 
 place had the best means of knowing their char- 
 
202 LAFAYETTE. [l827. 
 
 ities, for he was often sent to visit the sick at their 
 expense. He says : " All Lafayette's moments at 
 Lagrange resemble each other, for they are all 
 marked by good feelings or kind actions." 
 
 Every week two hundred pounds of bread were 
 given out to the poor, of the same quality as that 
 used at Lafayette's table ; and in times of scarcity 
 the quantity was increased to six hundred pounds, 
 and soup was added. In 1817 there was a famine, 
 and the distress was great near Lagrange. Seven 
 hundred persons might have been seen at the 
 chateau every day, — they received soup and bread, 
 but the supplies fell short before the end of the season. 
 A family council was held, and Lafayette proposed 
 that they should all go to his old home at Chavaniac, 
 in Auvergne, and thus leave for the poor what they 
 usually consumed themselves. This plan was joy- 
 fully agreed to and carried out by the family. 
 
 During the cholera season of 1832, Lafayette and 
 his son and daughters devoted themselves to the 
 care of the sick. His son brought down a physician 
 from Pai'is. Medicines, ice, blankets, flannel, every- 
 thing in the house was used for them, and by day 
 and by night the family gave their whole strength 
 and efforts to relieving pain, and curing the dis- 
 
AGE 71.] LAFAYETTE. 203 
 
 ease, if possible. The peasants, who had at first 
 been so frightened that they deserted all who were 
 attacked, took courage from such an example, ven- 
 tured into the houses, and nursed their own relations. 
 
 Was it strange that, after many years of such 
 thoughtful kindness, the country people loved him ? 
 
 The house was a perfect museum of presents. 
 Swords from the United States and the National 
 Guard ; busts and portraits of "Washington ; rings 
 containing the hair of celebrated people ; flags, boxes 
 made from old or famous trees, canes, silver vases, 
 portraits of patriots of all nations, Indian weapons, 
 stuffed birds, — everything which people had imag- 
 ined he might like to keep, had been showered upon 
 him. And he had the pleasantest way of answering 
 questions upon the various parts of his life, — from 
 his acquaintance with the Queen to the habits of the 
 Indians. To young people he was almost a volume 
 of history. And if a little vanity mingled with his 
 frankness in speaking of what he had done, it could 
 be easily excused in one whose services had been so 
 great. 
 
 In the summer of 1829 Lafayette took a little 
 
 journey in France, which was almost the repeating 
 
 of some of his days in America. He went first to 
 14 
 
204 LAFAYETTE. [l829. 
 
 Chavaniac, in Auvergne, his native place, and thence 
 on to Vizille, near Grenoble, to visit one of hi3 
 granddaughters. He received everywhere a public 
 welcome ; banquets were given to him, followed by 
 patriotic speeches ; processions escorted him ; fire- 
 works and illuminations made the nights brilliant. 
 
 The Government was displeased with this expres- 
 sion of admiration for Lafayette, and with the liberal 
 sentiments and wishes he did not hesitate to utter; 
 but there was no excuse for interfering. 
 
 The king and his son made themselves constantly 
 more and more unpopular, by doing everything in 
 their power to interrupt elections, to restrain the 
 freedom of the press, and to blot out all traces of 
 wdiat had been gained by the Revolution. The king 
 wished to govern alone, and he preferred ministers 
 who would allow him his own way in everything. 
 " Where will this end ? " asked some timid politicians, 
 and Lafayette lived to see the end. You might 
 think there was to be nothing more in his life but 
 quiet home-scenes, and the happiness of being be- 
 loved and honored in so many places ; but a second 
 Revolution called his powers once more into active 
 use. 
 
 In July, 1830, certain decrees relating to elections 
 
AGE 72.] LAFAYETTE. 205 
 
 appeared, which the people of Paris decided not to 
 submit to. On the 27th they took up arms and 
 began to resist the king's troops. Lafayette was 
 sent for, arrived at night, and immediately gave the 
 assistance of his name and character to the Parisians 
 fighting in the streets. 
 
 The next day the Deputies to the Assembly met, 
 and, after much discussion, decided what to do. Some 
 of them proposed merely to act as mediators between 
 the king and the people, who were taking the Hotel 
 de Ville, and having sharp conflicts with the soldiers 
 all over the city. Others said it was too late ; that 
 some committee must take command for a few days, 
 and give orders to the party that was resisting at the 
 barricades, and that the king must go. Lafayette 
 was indignant at any delay while his countrymen 
 were dying around them with the cry "Vive la 
 Liberte ! " * on their lips. 
 
 On the 29th he was asked to take command of the 
 National Guard, which he did very cheerfully. His 
 thoughts went back to the hopeful days of 1789 ; and 
 when he went up the great staircase of the Hotel de 
 Ville, he said to some person who offered to show 
 
 * It is not easy to translate these 'words. " Hurra for Lib- 
 erty ! " means almost the same thing. 
 
206 LAFAYETTE. [lS30. 
 
 kiin the way, " I know every step." He had not 
 been there for nearly forty years. 
 
 On the third day the righting came to an end. 
 Lafayette gave his orders to the National Guard 
 with as much ease and interest as he had in 1789. 
 He was proud to command the Parisians. In a 
 letter written on the 30th, he says, " The people of 
 Paris have covered themselves with glory; and when 
 I say the people, I mean those who are called the 
 lowest classes of society, who this time have been 
 the first ; — for the courage, the intelligence, the de- 
 votion and virtue of the citizens, have been admira- 
 ble We are admirably barricaded. If the 
 
 enemy, should venture again into the streets, he 
 would have cause to repent of it." 
 
 On the 31st the Deputies decided to invite the 
 Duke of Orleans — the son of the wicked Duke of 
 Orleans, who was cousin to Louis XVI., Louis XVHL, 
 and Charles X. — to be Lieutenant-General of France. 
 He had fought under the Republican flag nearly 
 forty years before, and was believed to be far more 
 reasonable and sensible than the king's sons. He 
 came to visit Lafayette at the Hotel de Ville. Proc- 
 lamations containing his name had been torn down, 
 and the immense crowd which filled the square did 
 
AGE 72.] LAFAYETTE. 207 
 
 not show him any favor as he rode along. Lafayette 
 received him at the foot of the staircase ; they went 
 up together, and the proclamation announcing him as 
 Lieutenant-General was coldly received. Lafayette 
 held out his hand to the duke, gave him a tricolor 
 flag, and led him to one of the windows. The crowd 
 below instantly cheered them. 
 
 Lafayette was very anxious to find out clearly the 
 opinions of the duke, who was to hold so important a 
 position, and returned the visit quickly. He said to 
 the duke: "You know I am a republican, and I 
 think the constitution of the United States the most 
 perfect one there has ever been." " I think as you 
 do," answered the duke ; " it is impossible to have 
 passed two years in America and not be of that 
 opinion ; but do you think it fitting for us to adopt 
 it, in the situation of France, and considering the 
 general opinion ? " " No," said Lafayette ; " what 
 the French want to-day is a throne surrounded with 
 republican institutions, — entirely republican." " So 
 I understand it," replied the duke. 
 
 Daring this time the royal troops were collected 
 near Rambouillet, about twenty-five miles southwest 
 of Paris, where the king waited, uncertain what to 
 do. A large body of the National Guard set out for 
 
208 LAFAYETTE. [l830. 
 
 Versailles, intending to keep on to Rambouillet ; but 
 the king, hearing of their march, agreed to give up 
 the diamonds of the crown, and to go to Cherbourg 
 to take passage for England. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans invited Lafayette to take 
 command of the National Guard of the whole king- 
 dom. This proposal, although like the one which 
 he had prevented in 1790, he now thought it best to 
 accept. 
 
 On the 9th of August the Duke of Orleans was 
 invited to fill the vacant throne. He agreed to 
 the conditions the Assembly proposed, and became 
 King under the name of Louis Philippe, first King 
 of the French. 
 
 Lafayette gave the following account of this short 
 .Revolution : " The victory of the people has been as 
 admirable, rapid, and complete as the most romantic 
 imagination could have dreamt. Tuesday we were 
 breakfasting at Lagrange, receiving the Moniteur * 
 containing the decrees ; you can imagine that I did 
 not dine there. They began to fight the same even- 
 ing ; the two next days there were combats, barri- 
 cades, heroic actions, everywhere. I was able to 
 establish myself at the Hotel de Ville, which had 
 
 * A Paris newspaper. 
 
AGE 72.] LAFAYETTE. 209 
 
 been taken and retaken ; and the ro} r al family, cross- 
 ing France without receiving the least insult, are to 
 embark to-day (Aug. 12). The people have done 
 the whole. Courage, intelligence, disinterestedness, 
 clemency towards the conquered, — everything has 
 been incredibly tine. How different from even the 
 first moments of '89 ! " 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE OLD SOLDIER. 
 
 Lafayette continued to take great pleasure in 
 arranging the National Guard, which the king often 
 reviewed, and in which he expressed much satisfac- 
 tion. He devoted to it all the time which could be 
 spared from his duties as Deputy. 
 
 His orders were full of spirit, and it pleased the 
 people to see this veteran general of seventy-two as 
 active in his habits as any young officer. He was 
 always greeted with cheers and many signs of favor 
 when he appeared on public occasions. 
 
 He had been in the habit of receiving his friends 
 and strangers at his house one evening of every 
 week, and after this revolution his rooms were much 
 fuller than before. He then put on his uniform, and 
 in many little ways showed much of the spirit of his 
 early days. His manners were always cordial, and 
 
AGE 73.] LAFAYETTE. 211 
 
 his face readily lighted up with smiles. He was tall 
 and had a good figure ; but his face was plain, though 
 his complexion preserved its freshness to the end of 
 his life. 
 
 The company on these occasions was not select, 
 but often included many distinguished persons. 
 Americans especially enjoyed them, as almost all 
 nations might be seen there. Poles, Greeks, Span- 
 iards, Italians, Portuguese, and Irish patriots, met on 
 friendly ground under Lafayette's roof. 
 
 The General was particularly fond of going to the 
 dinner given by the Americans in Paris every Fourth 
 of July. He would sometimes come up from La- 
 grange for the purpose, and always had a patriotic 
 toast ready. 
 
 In December the Guard was called out in great 
 force during the trial of Charles the Tenth's minis- 
 ters, for having ordered the troops to fire during the 
 three days of July. Order was maintained by great 
 efforts ; for the crowd who filled the streets were not 
 those who had fought at the barricades, but the dregs 
 of Paris. Lafayette was, however, respected by 
 them, and did not hesitate to go freely among the 
 groups and disperse them. It was expected that the 
 ministers would be condemned to death, but their 
 sentence was perpetual imprisonment. 
 
212 LAFAYETTE. [l830. 
 
 He received from the king most affectionate notes 
 of thanks for his own services and those of the Guard. 
 
 It was therefore an unpleasant surprise to him to 
 find that on the 24th of December a law was passed 
 forbidding the appointment of any such officer as 
 Commandant-general, and allowing only very small 
 divisions of the Guard to have a commandant. 
 
 Under such a law Lafayette could not hold his 
 office, and he refused the title of honorary Command- 
 ant which was offered him as a compensation. The 
 king accepted his resignation with many words of 
 regret. 
 
 In the Assembly Lafayette was soon engaged in 
 discussions respecting expenses, nobility, elections, 
 and above all the treatment of foreign nations. 
 The Revolution of July had been a sort of summons 
 to the discontented all over Europe to rise against 
 the governments. In Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, 
 Poland, and the north of Italy, there were either 
 revolutions or attempts at them, and Lafayette 
 wanted the French people to sympathize with and 
 help all who were struggling to be free. It seemed 
 to him only right; that those who had used barricades 
 to secure their own liberty should hold out their 
 hands to their brethren in other countries. When 
 
AGE 73.] LAFAYETTE. 213 
 
 the revolutions failed, lie desired that France should 
 be a place of refuge for all the unfortunate. 
 
 But Lafayette was destined always throughout his 
 long life to stand alone. His speeches were of 
 course listened to with respect on account of his age, 
 but he seldom saw one of his plans carried out. 
 The king and his ministers wei*e afraid of being 
 dragged into wars if they adopted his views, and 
 showed themselves rather more attached to the prin- 
 ciples of the last reign than to what Lafayette 
 thought the true meaning of the Revolution of July, 
 1830. 
 
 The activity of his mind was more surprising at 
 his age than that of his body. Nothing that con- 
 cerned France was in. any way a matter of indiffer- 
 ence to him, and he was as ready with a speech 
 about a new law as about the treatment of exiles. 
 
 The troubles of the summer of 1832 distressed 
 him much. At the funeral of a Deputy and distin- 
 guished general, M. Lamarque, some person unfor- 
 tunately carried in the procession a red flag with the 
 red cap of liberty above it, and the motto Liberty 
 or Death. These words and the cap were associated 
 in the minds of many Frenchmen with the horrors 
 of the Reign of Terror. Some wreaths were thrown 
 
214 LAFAYETTE. [l832. 
 
 upon the flag, and about the tomb there was more 
 excitement than Lafayette liked to sec. Some ad- 
 dresses were made ; he said a few words, and with- 
 drew. Not being able to find his carriage, he hired 
 a vehicle to go home in ; but the crowd, principally- 
 young men, took out the horses and insisted on drag- 
 ging him home. They urged him violently to give 
 the signal for an attack by the people, which he 
 refused to do. 
 
 The troops were called out, fighting hegan, and for 
 two days Paris was bristling with bayonets. The 
 king appeared on horseback, and ordered out the 
 cannon, in order, as he said, "to put an end to it 
 sooner ; " some persons were arrested, a few news- 
 papers stopped, and at last Paris was declared to be 
 in a state of siege.* 
 
 Lafayette thought a great deal of this show of 
 power very unnecessary, but blamed severely the 
 violence of the young men of the liberal party, and 
 the bringing forward of the odious red cap. 
 
 Another event which gave him much pain was the 
 arrest at Lagrange of a Mr. Llewel, a distinguished 
 Pole whom he had invited to his house after an order 
 
 * Under the government of officers, just as if there were an 
 enemy's army all around it. 
 
AGE 74.] LAFAYETTE. 215 
 
 from the ministers banished him from Paris. It was 
 suspected that Llewel had again shown himself in 
 the capital, and for this offence he was arrested. 
 
 Lafayette was faithful to his Polish friends at all 
 times. The last speech he made in the Assembly 
 was in support of petitions relating to Polish refugees. 
 
 His last appearance in public was at the funeral 
 of a Deputy, M. Dulong, in January, 1833. He 
 was on foot for several hours, and was, as usual, much 
 gratified by the expressions of the people. He seemed 
 tired after his return, and was soon taken ill. He bore 
 confinement to the house patiently, though he wished 
 to be at his place in the Assembly, and was disap- 
 pointed at not being allowed to see the many friends 
 who came to inquire after his health. He amused 
 himself with reading newspapers and pamphlets, 
 writing or dictating letters, and talking, when he was 
 not in pain, of America,* or his friends, or anything 
 except his own condition. He regained sufficient 
 strength to drive out, and his family hoped that he 
 might recover, or at least live comfortably for some 
 
 * In many trifles he showed his love for everything American. 
 When he was ordered to take a little Madeira wine, " Give me 
 that from Lagrange," he said; "it will do me more good." It 
 had been sent him from the "United States. 
 
21 G LAFAYETTE. [1834. 
 
 time. But on the 9th of May he took cold from 
 exposure to a thunder-shower during his drive, and 
 from that day there was no hope. The physicians 
 who attended him proposed consulting others, and 
 one of them said to Lafayette that they felt respon- 
 sible, not only to his family, but to the French 
 nation, of whom he was the father. "Yes," said the 
 General, with a smile, " their father on condition 
 that they never follow a syllable of my advice." 
 
 He submitted cheerfully to everything his phy- 
 sicians ordered, and was most gentle and grateful to 
 all who waited on him. 
 
 One of his last letters, dated May 1st, was on the 
 subject of the emancipation* of negroes. He spoke 
 hopefully of its progress hi the United States, begin- 
 ning Avith Maryland and Kentucky; congratulated 
 the English on their management in their colonies, 
 and regretted what had been done in the French 
 ones; he also expressed warm approval of -Liberia. 
 
 On the 20th of May, without having had much 
 suffering, Lafayette died peacefully. Just before he 
 drew his last breath, he opened his eyes and fixed 
 them on his children who stood about his bed, as if 
 to look the farewell he was no longer able to speak. 
 
 * Setting free. 
 
AGE 76-] LAFAYETTE. 217 
 
 Their gi'ief can be imagined at the loss of a father 
 so illustrious, so loving and tender. Mourning Avas 
 not confined to his own family, but was shared by 
 an immense circle of friends and admirers. 
 
 His funeral procession was long, and the streets 
 were lined with the National Guard. After services 
 hi the Church of the Assumption, he was buried, as 
 he had desired to be, in the cemetery of Picpus, by 
 his wife's side. Lamentations were general, espe- 
 cially from the poor. One person, who seemed to 
 be a stranger, observed that this must have been a 
 very rich person, who had so many people at his 
 funeral. "No," answered a laboring man, "but he 
 gave us everything ; the French people are not 
 ungrateful, and they are here to thank him." Another 
 poor man endeavored to make his way to the bier, 
 to walk directly behind it. " Don't you see," said 
 one of the National Guards, " that none but the 
 family are admitted there ? " " We all belong to his 
 family," replied the man, " for he loved us all as his 
 children." He was allowed to pass. 
 
 It was fitting that Lafayette's funeral train should 
 pass through the streets of Paris, the scene of his 
 greatest successes and hardest labors. He did not 
 obtain his heart's desire ; France is not to-day what 
 
218 LAFAYETTE. [l834. 
 
 he would wish to see her; and if we measure the 
 value of a life by its success, Lafayette's might be 
 pronounced a failure. But if we look deeper, we 
 shall see that his country owes to the Revolution of 
 1789 what is best in her present condition; and 
 turning to Lafayette's own character, we cannot 
 fail to be impressed with the beauty of his generous, 
 disinterested, enthusiastic, Moving, upright nature. 
 He was proof agahist many of the temptations 
 other men yielded to, and in his frank simplicity 
 went through the changes and trials of a most varied 
 life, always deserving the praise of seeking " what- 
 soever things are honest." 
 
 THE END.