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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lafayette, We Come!, by Rupert S. Holland
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-Title: Lafayette, We Come!
-       The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in
-       America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in France
-
-Author: Rupert S. Holland
-
-Release Date: September 29, 2013 [EBook #43843]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43843 ***
 
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43843 ***
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lafayette, We Come!, by Rupert S. Holland
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Lafayette, We Come!
-       The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in
-       America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in France
-
-Author: Rupert S. Holland
-
-Release Date: September 29, 2013 [EBook #43843]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAFAYETTE, WE COME! ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Fred Salzer, Greg Bergquist and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: LAFAYETTE MEETS WASHINGTON]
-
-
-
-
-  Lafayette, We Come!
-
-  The Story of How a Young
-  Frenchman Fought for Liberty
-  in America and How America
-  Now Fights for Liberty in France
-
-  By
-  RUPERT S. HOLLAND
-
-  _Author of "Historic Boyhoods," "The Knights
-  of the Golden Spur," etc._
-
-  [Illustration: Colophon]
-
-  PHILADELPHIA
-  GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
-  PUBLISHERS
-
-
-
-
-  Copyright, 1918, by
-  GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
-
-  _All rights reserved_
-  Printed in U. S. A.
-
-
-
-
-  _To
-  Those Men of the Great Republic
-  Who Have Answered
-  The Call of Lafayette,
-  Lover of Liberty_
-
-
-
-
-Illustrations
-
-
-  Lafayette meets Washington       _Frontispiece_
-
-                                    _Facing page_
-
-  Lafayette, a Prussian prisoner              226
-
-  "America's Answer"                          302
-
-
-
-
-Foreword
-
-
-In 1777 the young Marquis de Lafayette, only nineteen years old, came
-from France to the aid of the Thirteen Colonies of North America because
-he heard their cry for liberty ringing across the Atlantic Ocean. In
-1917 the United States of America drew the sword in defense of the
-sacred principle of liberty for which the country of Lafayette was
-fighting. The debt of gratitude had never been forgotten; the ideals of
-the gallant Frenchman and of the young Republic of the Western World
-were the same; what he had done for us we of America are now doing for
-him.
-
-It is a glorious story, and one never to be forgotten while men love
-liberty and truth. Every boy and girl should know it, for it is the
-story of a brave, generous, noble-minded youth, who gave such devoted
-service to America that he stands with Washington and Lincoln as one of
-the great benefactors of our land. "I'm going to America to fight for
-freedom!" he cried; and the cry still rings in our ears more than a
-century later. The message is the same one we hear to-day and that is
-carrying us across the Atlantic to France. From Lafayette's story we
-learn courage, fidelity to honor, loyalty to conviction, the qualities
-that make men free and great. The principles of "liberty, equality, and
-fraternity" of France are the same as those of our own Declaration of
-Independence, and the men of the countries of Washington and Lafayette
-now fight under a common banner. "Lafayette, we come!" was America's
-answer to the great man who offered all he had to us in the days of
-1777.
-
-
-
-
-Contents
-
-
-     I. THE LITTLE MARQUIS OF FRANCE                 7
-
-    II. "WAKE UP! I'M GOING TO AMERICA TO
-          FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!"                       25
-
-   III. HOW LAFAYETTE RAN AWAY TO SEA               45
-
-    IV. THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN REACHES
-          AMERICA                                   63
-
-     V. "I WILL FIGHT FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY
-          AS A VOLUNTEER!"                          82
-
-    VI. LAFAYETTE WINS THE FRIENDSHIP OF
-          WASHINGTON                               102
-
-   VII. THE FRENCHMAN IN THE FIELD AGAIN           123
-
-  VIII. THE MARQUIS AIDS THE UNITED STATES
-          IN FRANCE                                153
-
-    IX. HOW LAFAYETTE SOUGHT TO GIVE
-          LIBERTY TO FRANCE                        172
-
-     X. STORM-CLOUDS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION      194
-
-    XI. LAFAYETTE IN PRISON AND EXILE              225
-
-   XII. IN THE DAYS OF NAPOLEON                    248
-
-  XIII. THE UNITED STATES WELCOMES THE
-          HERO                                     272
-
-   XIV. THE LOVER OF LIBERTY                       287
-
-    XV. AMERICA'S MESSAGE TO FRANCE--"LAFAYETTE,
-          WE COME!"                                302
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THE LITTLE MARQUIS OF FRANCE
-
-
-In the mountains of Auvergne in Southern France, in what was for many
-centuries called the province of Auvergne, but what is now known as the
-department of Haute-Loire, or Upper Loire, stands a great fortified
-castle, the Château of Chavaniac. For six hundred years it has stood
-there, part fortress and part manor-house and farm, a huge structure,
-built piecemeal through centuries, with many towers and battlements and
-thick stone walls long overgrown with moss. Before it lies the valley of
-the Allier and the great rugged mountains of Auvergne. Love of freedom
-is deeply rooted in the country round it, for the people of Auvergne
-have always been an independent, proud and fearless race.
-
-In this old Château of Chavaniac there was born on September 6, 1757,
-the Marquis de Lafayette. He was baptized the next day, with all the
-ceremonies befitting a baby of such high rank, and the register of the
-little parish church in the neighboring village records the baptism
-as that of "the very noble and very powerful gentleman Monseigneur
-Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert Dumotier de Lafayette, the
-lawful son of the very noble and very powerful gentleman Monseigneur
-Michel-Louis-Christophle-Roch-Gilbert Dumotier, Marquis de Lafayette,
-Baron de Vissac, Seigneur de Saint-Romain and other places, and of
-the very noble and very powerful lady Madame Marie-Louise-Julie
-Delareviere."
-
-A good many names for a small boy to carry, but his family was very
-old, and it was the custom of France to give many family names to each
-child. He was called Gilbert Motier for short, however, though he was
-actually born with the title and rank of Marquis, for his father had
-been killed in battle six weeks before the little heir to Chavaniac was
-born.
-
-The family name of Motier could be traced back to before the year 1000.
-Then one of the family came into possession of a farm called the Villa
-Faya, and he lengthened his name to Motier of La Fayette. And as other
-properties came to belong to the family the men added new names and
-titles until in 1757 the heir to the old château had not only a long
-string of names but was also a marquis and baron and seigneur by right
-of his birth. There were few families in Auvergne of older lineage than
-the house of Lafayette.
-
-The little heir's father, Michel-Louis, Marquis de Lafayette, had been
-killed while leading a charge at the head of his regiment of French
-Grenadiers in the battle of Hastenbeck, one of the battles of what was
-known as the Seven Years' War in Europe, which took place at about
-the same time as the French and Indian War in America. Although only
-twenty-four years old Michel-Louis de Lafayette was already a colonel
-and a knight of the order of Saint Louis and had shown himself a true
-descendant of the old fighting stock of Auvergne nobles. Now the small
-baby boy, the new Marquis, succeeded to his father's titles as well as
-to the castle and several other even older manor-houses, for the most
-part in ruins, that were perched high up in the mountains.
-
-For all its blue blood, however, the family were what is known as "land
-poor." The little Marquis owned large farms in the mountains, but the
-crops were not very abundant and most of the money that had come in from
-them for some time had been needed to provide for the fighting men.
-Fortunately the boy's mother and grandmother and aunts, who all lived at
-Chavaniac, were strong and sturdy people, willing to live the simple,
-healthy, frugal life of their neighbors in the province and so save as
-much of the family fortune as they could for the time when the heir
-should make his bow at court.
-
-Without brothers or sisters and with few playmates, spending his time
-out-of-doors in the woods and fields of Chavaniac, the young Lafayette
-had a rather solitary childhood and grew up awkward and shy. He was a
-lean, long-limbed fellow with a hook nose, reddish hair, and a very
-bashful manner. But his eyes were bright and very intelligent; whenever
-anything really caught his attention he quickly became intensely
-interested in it, and he was devoted to all the birds and beasts of the
-country round about his home.
-
-Some of these beasts, however, were dangerous; there was a great gray
-wolf that the farmers said had been breaking into sheepfolds and doing
-great damage. The boy of eight years old heard the story and set out,
-sword in hand, to hunt and slay the wolf. There is no account of his
-ever coming up with that particular monster, but the peasants of the
-neighborhood liked to tell all visitors this story as proof of the
-courage of their young Marquis.
-
-But the family had no intention of keeping the head of their house in
-this far-off province of France. He must learn to conduct himself as a
-polished gentleman and courtier, he must go to Paris and prepare himself
-to take the place at the royal court that belonged to a son of his long,
-distinguished line. His family had rich and powerful relations, who
-were quite ready to help the boy, and so, when he was eleven years old,
-he left the quiet castle of Chavaniac and went to a school for young
-noblemen, the College du Plessis at Paris.
-
-Lafayette's mother's uncle, taking a liking to the boy, had him
-enrolled as a cadet in one of the famous regiments of France, "The
-Black Musketeers," and this gave the boy a proud position at school,
-and many a day he took some of his new friends to see the Musketeers
-drill and learn something of the Manual of Arms. The company of other
-boys, both at the College du Plessis in Paris and then at the Academy
-at Versailles, as well as the interest he took in his gallant Black
-Musketeers, made Lafayette less shy and awkward than he had been at
-Chavaniac, though he was still much more reserved and thoughtful than
-most boys of his age. He learned to write his own language well, and his
-compositions in school showed the practical common sense of his country
-bringing-up. He wrote a paper on the horse, and the chief point he
-brought out in it was that if you try to make a horse do too many things
-well he is sure to get restless and throw you, a bit of wisdom he had
-doubtless learned in Auvergne.
-
-The boy Marquis was at school in Paris when, in 1770, his devoted
-mother and the rich granduncle who had had him appointed a cadet of
-the Musketeers both died. The little Lafayette was now very much
-alone; his grandmother in the distant castle in the mountains was his
-nearest relation, and, though only a boy of thirteen, he had to decide
-important questions for himself. But the granduncle had been very fond
-of the lad, and in his will he left Lafayette all his fortune and
-estates. The fortune was very large, and as a result the boy Marquis,
-instead of being only a poor young country nobleman from Auvergne,
-became a very rich and important person.
-
-Immediately the proud and luxury-loving society of the French court
-took a great interest in Gilbert Motier de Lafayette. Every father and
-mother who had a daughter they wished to marry turned their attention
-to the boy. And Lafayette, who, like most boys of his age, paid little
-attention to girls, was beset with all sorts of invitations to parties
-and balls.
-
-In Europe in those days marriages were arranged by parents with little
-regard to the wishes of their children. Sometimes babies of noble
-families were betrothed to each other while they were still in the
-cradle. It was all a question of social standing and of money. So
-Lafayette's guardians put their heads together and looked around for the
-most suitable girl for him to marry.
-
-The guardians chose the second daughter of the Duke d'Ayen,
-Mademoiselle Marie-Adrienne-Françoise de Noailles, a girl twelve years
-old. The Duke was pleased with the proposal; the Marquis de Lafayette
-would make a most desirable husband for his daughter. But the little
-girl's mother had strong ideas of her own. When the Duke told her of the
-husband selected for Marie-Adrienne she objected.
-
-"It is too great a risk to run for Adrienne," she said. "The Marquis de
-Lafayette is very young, very rich, and very wilful. He seems to be a
-good boy, so far as his standing at school and his conduct in society
-are concerned; but with no one to guide him, no one to look after his
-fortune and hold him back from extravagance and foolishness, without a
-near relative, and with his character as yet unformed and uncertain, our
-daughter's marriage to him is out of the question, and I will not agree
-to it."
-
-Both the Duke and the Duchess were strong-willed; Adrienne's father
-insisted on the match and her mother opposed it more and more
-positively. At last they actually quarreled and almost separated over
-this question of the marriage of two children, neither of whom had
-been consulted in regard to their own feelings. At last, however, the
-Duke suggested a compromise; the marriage should not take place for two
-years, Adrienne should not leave her mother for three years, and in the
-meantime the Duke would look after the education of the boy and see that
-he became a suitable husband for their daughter.
-
-This suited the Duchess better. "If the boy is brought up in our home
-where I can see and study him," she said, "I will agree. Then, having
-taken all precautions, and having no negligence wherewith to reproach
-ourselves, we need do nothing but peacefully submit to the will of God,
-who knows best what is fitting for us."
-
-The shy boy came to the Duke's house and met the little girl. Adrienne
-was very attractive, sweet-natured, pretty, and delightful company.
-Before the two knew the plans that had been made concerning them they
-grew to like each other very much, became splendid companions, and
-were glad when they learned that they were to marry some day. As for
-Adrienne's mother, the more she saw of the boy the better she liked him;
-she took him into her house and heart as if he were her own son, trying
-to make up to him for the loss of his own mother. The Duke kept his
-agreement. He saw that Lafayette was properly educated at the Academy
-at Versailles where young noblemen were taught military duties and that
-in proper time he obtained his commission as an officer in the royal
-regiment of the Black Musketeers.
-
-Then, on April 11, 1774, Lafayette and Adrienne were married. The groom
-was sixteen years old and the bride fourteen, but those were quite
-proper ages for marriage among the French nobility. For a year the young
-husband and wife lived at the great house of the Duke d'Ayen in Paris,
-still under the watchful eye of the careful Duchess, and then they took
-a house for themselves in the capital, going occasionally to the old
-castle of Chavaniac in Auvergne.
-
-The boy Marquis never regretted his marriage to Adrienne. Through
-all the adventures of his later life his love for her was strong
-and enduring. And she was as fine and noble and generous a woman as
-Lafayette was a brave, heroic man.
-
-Rich, a marquis in his own right, married to a daughter of one of the
-greatest houses of France, Lafayette had the entrance to the highest
-circles at court, to the innermost circle in fact, that of the young
-King Louis XVI. and his Queen Marie Antoinette. And never was there a
-gayer court to be found; the youthful King and his beautiful wife and
-all their friends seemed to live for pleasure only; they were gorgeous
-butterflies who flitted about the beautiful gardens of the Palace at
-Versailles and basked in continual sunshine.
-
-But the boy of seventeen, son of a line of rugged Auvergne fighters,
-men of independent natures, did not take readily to the unceasing show
-and luxury of court. Balls and dramas, rustic dances and dinners and
-suppers, all the extravagant entertainments that the clever mind of the
-young Queen could devise, followed in endless succession. True it was
-that some of the courtiers had the fashion of talking a good deal about
-the rights of man and human liberty, but that was simply a fashion in a
-country where only the nobles had liberty and the talk of such things
-only furnished polite conversation in drawing-rooms. To Lafayette,
-however, liberty meant more than that; young though he was, he had seen
-enough of the world to wish that there might be less suffering among
-the poor and more liberality among the wealthy. The constant stream of
-pleasures at Versailles often gave him food for thought, and though he
-was very fond of the King and Queen and their youthful court, he had
-less and less regard for the older nobles, who appeared to him as vain
-and stiff and foolish as so many strutting peacocks.
-
-Sometimes, however, for all his thoughtfulness, he joined
-whole-heartedly in the revels the Queen devised. On one midsummer night
-Marie Antoinette gave a fête at Versailles, and Lafayette led the
-revels. The Queen had declared that she meant to have a _fête champêtre_
-in the gardens that should be different from anything the court of
-France had ever seen. All her guests should appear either as goblins
-or as nymphs. They should not be required to dance the quadrille or
-any other stately measure, but would be free to play any jokes that
-came into their heads. As Marie Antoinette outlined these plans to him
-Lafayette shook his head in doubt.
-
-"What will the lords in waiting say to this?" he asked, "and your
-Majesty's own ladies?"
-
-The pretty Queen laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Who cares?" she
-answered. "As long as Louis is King I shall do what pleases me."
-
-Then a new idea occurred to her and she clapped her hands with delight.
-"I shall go to Louis," she said, "and have him issue a royal order
-commanding every one who comes to the fête to dress as a goblin or a
-nymph. He will do it for me, I know."
-
-King Louis was too fond of his wife to deny her anything, so he issued
-the order she wanted, much though he feared that it might affront the
-older courtiers. And the courtiers were affronted and horrified. The
-Royal Chamberlain and the Queen's Mistress of the Robes went to the King
-in his workshop, for Louis was always busy with clocks and locks and
-keys, and told him that such a performance as was planned would make the
-court of France appear ridiculous.
-
-Louis listened to them patiently, and when they had left he sent for
-Marie Antoinette and her friends. They described how absurd the
-courtiers would look as nymphs and goblins and the King laughed till he
-cried. Then he dismissed the whole matter and went back to the tools on
-his work-table.
-
-So Marie Antoinette had her party, and the gardens of Versailles saw the
-strange spectacle of tall, stiff goblins wearing elaborate powdered wigs
-and jeweled swords, and stout wood-nymphs with bare arms and shoulders
-and glittering with gems. The Queen's friends, a crowd of hobgoblins,
-swooped down upon the stately Mistress of the Robes and carried her
-off to a summer-house on the edge of the woods, where they kept her a
-prisoner while they sang her the latest ballads of the Paris streets.
-The court was shocked and indignant, and the next day there was such a
-buzzing of angry bees about the head of the King that he had to lecture
-the Queen and her friends and forbid any more such revels.
-
-As the older courtiers regained their influence over Louis the young
-Lafayette went less and less often to Versailles. He was too independent
-by nature to bow the knee to the powdered and painted lords and ladies
-who controlled the court. Instead of seeking their society he spent
-more and more time with his regiment of Musketeers. But this did not
-satisfy his father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, who was eager for Lafayette
-to shine in the sun of royal favor. So the Duke went to the young Count
-de Segur, Lafayette's close friend and cousin, and begged him to try and
-stir the Marquis to greater ambition.
-
-The Count, who knew Lafayette well, had to laugh at the words of the
-Duke d'Ayen. "Indifferent! Indolent! Faith, my dear marshal, you do
-not yet know our Lafayette! I should say he has altogether too much
-enthusiasm. Why, it was only yesterday that he almost insisted on my
-fighting a duel with him because I did not agree with him in a matter of
-which I knew nothing, and of which he thought I should know everything.
-He is anything but indifferent and indolent, I can assure you!"
-
-Pleased with this information, and feeling that he had much
-misunderstood his son-in-law, the Duke made plans to have Lafayette
-attached to the suite of one of the princes of France, and picked out
-the Count of Provence, the scapegrace brother of Louis XVI. This Prince
-was only two years older than Lafayette, and famous for his overbearing
-manners. As a result, when the Duke told his son-in-law of the interview
-he had arranged for him with the Count of Provence, Lafayette at once
-determined that nothing should make him accept service with so arrogant
-a fellow.
-
-Having decided that he wanted no favors from that particular Prince,
-Lafayette set about to make his decision clear. His opportunity soon
-came. The King and Queen gave a masked ball at court, and the youthful
-Marquis was one of their guests. With his mask concealing his face he
-went up to the King's brother, the Count of Provence, and began to talk
-about liberty and equality and the rights of man, saying a great deal
-that he probably did not believe in his desire to make the Count angry.
-
-The plan succeeded beautifully. The Count tried to answer, but every
-time he opened his mouth Lafayette said more violent things and made
-more eloquent pleas for democracy. At last the young Prince could stand
-the tirade no longer. "Sir," said he, lifting his mask and staring at
-his talkative companion, "I shall remember this interview."
-
-"Sir," answered the young Marquis, also lifting his mask and bowing
-gracefully, "memory is the wisdom of fools."
-
-It was a rash remark to make to a royal prince, but it had the effect
-that Lafayette desired. With an angry gesture the Count of Provence
-turned on his heel and made it clear to every one about him that the
-Marquis was in disgrace. In later days the Count showed that he had
-remembered Lafayette's words to him.
-
-News of what the Marquis had said quickly flew through the court and
-speedily reached the ears of the Duke d'Ayen. He was horrified; his
-son-in-law had not only insulted the Prince and so lost his chance
-of becoming a gentleman of his suite, but had also made himself a
-laughing-stock. The Duke lectured the boy, and told him that he was
-throwing away all his chances for worldly advancement. But Lafayette
-answered that he cared nothing for princely favor and meant to follow
-the dictates of his own nature.
-
-So the Duke, finally despairing of doing anything with so independent
-a fellow, had him ordered to join his regiment, and Lafayette left
-Paris to seek his fortune elsewhere. Already, although he was only
-seventeen, the boy Marquis had shown that he was a true son of Auvergne,
-not a parasite of the King's court, as were most of his friends, but an
-independent, liberty-loving man.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-"WAKE UP! I'M GOING TO AMERICA TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!"
-
-
-Although the young Marquis had deliberately given up a career at court,
-there was every promise of his having a brilliant career in the army.
-Soon after his famous speech to the King's brother, in August, 1775, he
-was transferred from his regiment of Black Musketeers to a command in
-what was known as the "Regiment de Noailles," which had for its colonel
-a young man of very distinguished family, Monseigneur the Prince de
-Poix, who was a cousin of Lafayette's wife.
-
-The "Regiment de Noailles" was stationed at Metz, a garrison city some
-two hundred miles to the east of Paris. The commander of Metz was the
-Count de Broglie, a marshal and prince of France, who had commanded the
-French armies in the Seven Years' War, in one of the battles of which
-Lafayette's father had been killed. The Count de Broglie had known
-Lafayette's father and had greatly admired him, and he did all he could
-to befriend the son, inviting him to all the entertainments he gave.
-
-It happened that early in August the Count de Broglie gave a dinner in
-honor of a young English prince, the Duke of Gloucester, and Lafayette,
-in the blue and silver uniform of his rank, was one of the guests at
-the table. The Duke of Gloucester was at the time in disgrace with his
-brother, King George the Third of England, because he had dared to marry
-a wife whom King George disliked. The Duke was really in exile from
-England, and in the company of the French officers he had no hesitation
-in speaking his mind about his royal brother and even in poking fun at
-some of his plans. And the Duke made a special point of criticizing King
-George for his policy toward the colonists in America.
-
-In that very year of the dinner-party at Metz, in the spring of 1775, a
-rebellion had broken out in the colonies, and there had actually been a
-fight between American farmers and British regulars at the village of
-Lexington in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The Duke had received
-word of the obstinate resistance of the farmers--peasants, he called
-them--at Lexington and Concord, and of the retreat of Lord Percy and
-his troops to Boston. The Duke told the dinner-party all about the
-discomfiture of his royal brother, laughing heartily at it, and also
-related how in that same seaport of Boston the townspeople had thrown a
-cargo of tea into the harbor rather than pay the royal tax on it.
-
-The Duke talked and Lafayette listened. The Duke spoke admiringly of the
-pluck of the American farmers, but pointed out that it was impossible
-for the colonists to win against regular troops unless experienced
-officers and leaders should help them. "They are poor, they are ill
-led," said the Duke, "they have no gentlemen-soldiers to show them
-how to fight, and the king my brother is determined to bring them into
-subjection by harsh and forcible methods if need be. But my letters say
-that the Americans seem set upon opposing force with force, and, as the
-country is large and the colonies scattered, it certainly looks as if
-the trouble would be long and serious. If but the Americans were well
-led, I should say the rebellion might really develop into a serious
-affair."
-
-Most of the officers knew little about America; even Lafayette had only
-a vague idea about the colonies on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
-But the Duke's words stirred him deeply; he sat leaning far forward, his
-eyes shining with interest, his face expressing the closest attention.
-
-Finally, as the guests rose from the table, Lafayette burst forth
-impetuously. "But could one help these peasants over there beyond the
-seas, monseigneur?" he asked the Duke.
-
-The English prince smiled at the young Frenchman's eagerness. "One
-could, my lord marquis, if he were there," he answered.
-
-"Then tell me, I pray you," continued Lafayette, "how one may do it,
-monseigneur. Tell me how to set about it. For see, I will join these
-Americans; I will help them fight for freedom!"
-
-Again the Duke smiled; the words seemed extravagant on the lips of a
-French officer. But a glance at Lafayette's face showed how much the
-boy was in earnest. The words were no idle boast; the speaker plainly
-meant them. So the Duke answered, "Why, I believe you would, my lord. It
-wouldn't take much to start you across the sea,--if your people would
-let you."
-
-Lafayette smiled to himself. He had already done one thing that his
-family disapproved of, and he did not intend to let them prevent his
-embarking on such an enterprise as this, one that appealed so intensely
-to his love of liberty. He asked the Duke of Gloucester all the
-questions he could think of, and the Duke gave him all the information
-he had about America.
-
-The dinner-party broke up, and most of the officers soon forgot all the
-conversation; but not so the young Marquis; that evening had been one
-of the great events of his life. As he said afterward, "From that hour
-I could think of nothing but this enterprise, and I resolved to go to
-Paris at once to make further inquiries."
-
-His mind made up by what he had heard at Metz, Lafayette set off for
-Paris. But once there, it was hard to decide where he should turn for
-help. His father-in-law, he knew, would be even more scandalized by his
-new plan than he had been by the affront the young man had given the
-King's brother. His own wife was too young and inexperienced to give
-him wise counsel in such a matter. Finally he chose for his first real
-confidant his cousin and close friend, the Count de Segur. Lafayette
-went at once to his cousin's house, though it was only seven o'clock
-in the morning, was told that the Count was not yet out of bed, but,
-without waiting to be announced, rushed upstairs and woke the young man.
-
-The Count saw his cousin standing beside him and shaking him by the arm.
-In great surprise he sat up. "Wake up! wake up!" cried Lafayette. "Wake
-up! I'm going to America to fight for freedom! Nobody knows it yet; but
-I love you too much not to tell you."
-
-The Count sprang out of bed and caught Lafayette's hand. "If that is so,
-I will go with you!" he cried. "I will go to America too! I will fight
-with you for freedom! How soon do you start?"
-
-It was easier said than done, however. The two young men had breakfast
-and eagerly discussed this momentous matter. The upshot of their
-discussion was to decide to enlist a third friend in their cause, and so
-they set out to see Lafayette's brother-in-law, the Viscount Louis Marie
-de Noailles, who was a year older than the Marquis.
-
-The young Viscount, like the Count de Segur, heard Lafayette's news
-with delight, for he also belonged to that small section of the French
-nobility that was very much interested in what was called "the rights
-of man." So here were three young fellows,--hardly more than boys,--for
-none of the three was over twenty years old, all of high rank and large
-fortune, eager to do what they could to help the fighting farmers of the
-American colonies.
-
-At the very start, however, they ran into difficulties. France and
-England, though not on very friendly terms at that particular time,
-were yet keeping the peace between them, and the French prime minister
-was afraid that if the English government should learn that a number of
-young French aristocrats were intending to aid the rebellious American
-colonists it might cause ill-feeling between France and England. The
-prime minister, therefore, frowned on all such schemes as that of
-Lafayette, and so the three young liberty-loving conspirators had to
-set about their business with the greatest secrecy.
-
-Lafayette's next step was to hunt out a man who had been sent over to
-France from the American colonies as a secret agent, a representative of
-what was known as the American Committee of Secret Correspondence, of
-which Benjamin Franklin was a member. This man was Silas Deane of the
-colony of Connecticut. Deane was secretly sending arms and supplies from
-France to America, but he was so closely watched by the agents of the
-English Ambassador, Lord Stormont, that it was very difficult to see him
-without rousing suspicions.
-
-While the Marquis was studying the problem of how to get in touch with
-Deane he confided his secret to the Count de Broglie, his superior
-officer at Metz and his very good friend. The Count was at once opposed
-to any such rash venture. "You want to throw your life away in that land
-of savages!" exclaimed De Broglie. "Why, my dear Lafayette, it is the
-craziest scheme I ever heard of! And to what purpose?"
-
-"For the noblest of purposes, sir," answered the Marquis. "To help a
-devoted people win their liberty! What ambition could be nobler?"
-
-"It is a dream, my friend, a dream that can never be fulfilled," said
-the old soldier. "I will not help you to throw your life away. I saw
-your uncle die in the wars of Italy, I witnessed your brave father's
-death at the battle of Hastenbeck, and I cannot be a party to the
-ruin of the last of your name, the only one left of the stock of the
-Lafayettes!"
-
-But even the old Marshal could not withstand the ardor and enthusiasm of
-the youth. So vehemently did Lafayette set forth his wishes that finally
-the Count promised that he would not actively oppose his plans, and
-presently agreed to introduce the Marquis to a Bavarian soldier named De
-Kalb, who might be able to help him.
-
-"I will introduce you to De Kalb," said the Count. "He is in Paris
-now, and perhaps through him you may be able to communicate with this
-American agent, Monsieur Deane."
-
-De Kalb was a soldier of fortune who had been to America long before
-the Revolution and knew a great deal about the colonies. At present
-he was in France, giving what information he could to the government
-there. And the upshot of Lafayette's talk with the Count de Broglie
-was that the latter not only gave the Marquis a letter to De Kalb
-but also actually asked De Kalb to go to America and see if he could
-arrange things so that he, the Count de Broglie, might be invited by the
-American Congress to cross the ocean and become commander-in-chief of
-the American army! Perhaps it was natural that the veteran Marshal of
-France should think that he would make a better commander-in-chief than
-the untried George Washington.
-
-The Baron de Kalb arranged that the Count de Broglie should see Silas
-Deane of Connecticut. Silas Deane was impressed with the importance of
-securing such a powerful friend and leader for his hard-pressed people,
-and he at once agreed to see what he could do for De Broglie, and
-promised Baron de Kalb the rank of major-general in the American army
-and signed an agreement with him by which fifteen French officers should
-go to America on a ship that was fitting out with arms and supplies.
-
-This fell in beautifully with Lafayette's wishes. De Broglie introduced
-the Marquis to De Kalb, and De Kalb presented him to Silas Deane. This
-was in December, 1776, and Lafayette, only nineteen, slight of figure,
-looked very boyish for such an enterprise. But he plainly showed that
-his whole heart was in his plan, and, as he said himself, "made so
-much out of the small excitement that my going away was likely to
-cause," that the American agent was carried away by his enthusiasm,
-and in his own rather reckless fashion, wrote out a paper by which the
-young Marquis was to enter the service of the American colonies as a
-major-general.
-
-Deane's enthusiasm over Lafayette's offer of his services may be seen
-from what he wrote in the agreement. The paper he sent to Congress
-in regard to this volunteer ran as follows: "His high birth, his
-alliances, the great dignities which his family holds at this court, his
-considerable estates in this realm, his personal merit, his reputation,
-his disinterestedness, and, above all, his zeal for the liberty of our
-provinces, are such as have only been able to engage me to promise him
-the rank of major-general in the name of the United States. In witness
-of which I have signed the present this seventh of December, 1776. Silas
-Deane, Agent for the United States of America."
-
-By this time the colonies had issued their Declaration of Independence,
-and called themselves, as Silas Deane described them, the United States
-of America.
-
-Imagine Lafayette's joy at this result of his meeting with Silas Deane!
-It seemed as if his enthusiasm had already won him his goal. But there
-were other people to be considered, and his family were not as much
-delighted with his plans as the man from Connecticut had been.
-
-As a matter of fact his father-in-law, the powerful Duke d'Ayen, was
-furious, and so were most of the others of his family. His cousin, the
-Count de Segur, described the feelings of Lafayette's relations. "It
-is easy to conceive their astonishment," he wrote, "when they learned
-suddenly that this young sage of nineteen, so cool and so indifferent,
-had been so far carried away by the love of glory and of danger as to
-intend to cross the ocean and fight in the cause of American freedom."
-There was more of a storm at home than when the self-filled young
-Marquis had of his own accord disgraced himself at court.
-
-But his wife Adrienne, girl though she was, understood him far better
-than the rest of the family, and even sympathized with his great desire.
-"God wills that you should go," she said to her husband. "I have prayed
-for guidance and strength. Whatever others think, you shall not be
-blamed."
-
-Others, however, did have to be reckoned with. Lafayette's two friends,
-the Count de Segur and the Viscount de Noailles, both of whom had been
-so eager to go with him, had found that their fathers would not supply
-them with the money they needed and that the King would not consent to
-their going to America. Reluctantly they had to give up their plans. But
-Lafayette was rich, he had no need to ask for funds from any one; there
-was no difficulty for him on that score.
-
-He was, however, an officer of France, and it was on that ground that
-his father-in-law tried to put an end to his scheme. He went to the
-King with his complaint about the wilful Marquis. At the same time the
-English Ambassador, who had got wind of the matter, also complained
-to King Louis. And Louis XVI., who had never concerned himself much
-about liberty and took little interest in the rebel farmers across the
-Atlantic, said that while he admired the enthusiasm of the Marquis de
-Lafayette, he could not think of permitting officers of his army to
-serve with the men of America who were in rebellion against his good
-friend the King of England. Therefore he issued an order forbidding any
-soldier in his service taking part in the Revolution in America.
-
-The Duke d'Ayen was delighted. He went to Lafayette, and trying to put
-the matter on a friendly footing, said, "You had better return to your
-regiment at Metz, my dear son."
-
-Lafayette drew himself up, his face as determined as ever. "No Lafayette
-was ever known to turn back," he answered. "I shall do as I have
-determined."
-
-One of Lafayette's ancestors had adopted as his motto the words "_Cur
-non_," meaning "Why not?" and the Marquis now put these on his own coat
-of arms, the idea being, as he himself said, that they should serve him
-"both as an encouragement and a response."
-
-By this time the young republic in America had sent Benjamin Franklin
-to help Silas Deane in Paris. Franklin heard of Lafayette's desires and
-knew how much help his influence might bring the new republic. So he set
-about to see what he could do to further Lafayette's plans.
-
-At that moment things looked gloomy indeed for the Americans. Their
-army had been badly defeated at the battle of Long Island, and their
-friends in Europe were depressed. That, however, seemed to Lafayette
-all the more reason for taking them aid as quickly as he could, and
-when he heard that Benjamin Franklin was interested in him he made an
-opportunity to see the latter.
-
-Franklin was perfectly fair with Lafayette. He gave the young
-Frenchman the exact news he had received from America, information
-that Washington's army of three thousand ragged and suffering men were
-retreating across New Jersey before the victorious and well-equipped
-troops of General Howe. He pointed out that the credit of the new
-republic was certain to sink lower and lower unless Washington should be
-able to win a victory and that at present it looked as if any such event
-was far away. And in view of all this Franklin, and Silas Deane also,
-was frank enough to tell Lafayette that his plan of aiding the United
-States at that particular time was almost foolhardy.
-
-The Frenchman thanked them for their candor. "Until this moment,
-gentlemen," said he, "I have only been able to show you my zeal in your
-struggle; now the time has come when that zeal may be put to actual use.
-I am going to buy a ship and carry your officers and supplies to America
-in it. We must show our confidence in the cause, and it is in just such
-a time of danger as this that I want to share whatever fortune may have
-in store for you."
-
-Franklin was immensely touched by the generosity of the young Marquis
-and told him so. But, practical man as he was, although he gladly
-accepted Lafayette's offer, he pointed out that as the American agents
-were closely watched in Paris it would be better for Lafayette to work
-through third parties and in some other place than the French capital,
-if possible.
-
-Lafayette took these suggestions. At once he found that it was extremely
-difficult to secure a ship without discovery by the English Ambassador.
-Here the Count de Broglie again gave him aid. He introduced the Marquis
-to Captain Dubois, the brother of his secretary, an officer in one
-of the King's West Indian regiments, who happened to be at home on
-furlough at the time, and Lafayette engaged him as his agent. He sent
-him secretly to Bordeaux, the French seaport that was supposed to be
-safest from suspicion, and gave him the money to buy and supply a ship,
-the plan being that Captain Dubois should appear to be fitting out the
-vessel for the needs of his own regiment in the West Indies.
-
-The needed repairs to the ship would take some time, and meanwhile, in
-order to escape all possible suspicion of his plans, Lafayette arranged
-with his cousin, the Prince de Poix, to make a journey to England. The
-Marquis de Noailles, Lafayette's uncle, was the French Ambassador to
-England, and he welcomed the two young noblemen with delight. Every
-one supposed that Lafayette had at last given up his wild schemes,
-and all the great houses of London were thrown open to him. He wrote
-of the amusement he felt at being presented to King George III., and
-of how much he enjoyed a ball at the house of Lord George Germain, the
-secretary for the colonies. At the opera he met Sir Henry Clinton, with
-whom he had a pleasant, friendly chat. The next time Sir Henry and he
-were to meet was to be on the field of arms at the Battle of Monmouth.
-
-But he never took advantage of his hosts. He kept away from the English
-barracks and shipyards, though he was invited to inspect them. He was
-careful to a degree to avoid any act that might later be considered as
-having been in the nature of a breach of confidence. And after three
-weeks in the gay world of London he felt that he could brook no longer
-delay and told his uncle the Ambassador that he had taken a fancy to
-cross the Channel for a short visit at home.
-
-His uncle opposed this idea, saying that so abrupt a departure would
-be discourteous to the English court, but Lafayette insisted. So the
-Marquis de Noailles finally offered to give out the report that his
-nephew was sick until the latter should return to London. Lafayette
-agreed. "I would not have proposed this stratagem," he said later, "but
-I did not object to it."
-
-The voyage on the Channel was rough and Lafayette was seasick. As soon
-as he reached France he went to Paris and stayed in hiding at the house
-of Baron de Kalb. He had another interview with the American agents and
-sent out his directions to the men who were to sail with him. Then he
-slipped away to Bordeaux, where he found the sloop _Victory_, bought
-by Captain Dubois with Lafayette's money, and now ready for the voyage
-across the Atlantic.
-
-Lafayette, however, could not sail away from France under his own name,
-and as a permit was required of every one leaving the country, a special
-one had to be made out for him. This is still kept at Bordeaux, and
-describes the passenger on the sloop as "Gilbert du Mottie, Chevalier
-de Chavaillac, aged about twenty, rather tall, light-haired, embarking
-on the _Victory_, Captain Lebourcier commanding, for a voyage to the
-Cape on private business." His name was not very much changed, for he
-was really Gilbert du Motier and also the Chevalier de Chavaniac, but
-probably a careless clerk, who had no concern in this particular young
-man's affairs, made the mistakes in spelling, and so aided Lafayette's
-disguise.
-
-But all was not yet smooth sailing. Lord Stormont, the English
-Ambassador, heard of Lafayette's departure from Paris and also of his
-plans to leave France, and at once protested to the King. Lafayette's
-father-in-law likewise protested, and no sooner had the young nobleman
-arrived in Bordeaux than royal officers were on his track. The French
-government did not want him to sail, no matter how much it might
-secretly sympathize with the young republic across the ocean.
-
-Having come so far, however, the intrepid Marquis did not intend to be
-stopped. He meant to sail on his ship, he meant to carry out the brave
-words he had spoken to his cousin. "I'm going to America to fight for
-freedom!" he had said, and he was determined to accomplish that end.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-HOW LAFAYETTE RAN AWAY TO SEA
-
-
-Lafayette did actually run away to sea, with the officers of King Louis
-XVI. hot-foot after him. When he learned that his plans were known and
-that he would surely be stopped if he delayed he ordered the captain
-of the _Victory_ to set sail from Bordeaux without waiting for the
-necessary sailing-papers. His intention was to run into the Spanish port
-of Las Pasajes, just across the French frontier on the Bay of Biscay,
-and there complete his arrangements for crossing the Atlantic, for the
-sloop still needed some repairs before starting on such a voyage.
-
-At Las Pasajes, however, he found more obstacles and difficulties.
-Instead of the sailing-papers he expected letters and orders and French
-officers were waiting for him. The letters were from his family,
-protesting against his rash act, the orders were from Louis XVI.'s
-ministers, and charged him with deserting the army, breaking his oath
-of allegiance to the King, and involving France in difficulties with
-England. And the officers were from the court, with documents bearing
-the King's own seal, and commanding Lieutenant the Marquis de Lafayette
-of the regiment of De Noailles to go at once to the French port of
-Marseilles and there await further orders.
-
-The news that affected the runaway nobleman most was contained in
-the letters from home. He had had to leave Paris without telling his
-intentions to his wife, much as he hated to do this. He knew that she
-really approved of his plans and would do nothing to thwart them, but
-the letters said that she was ill and in great distress of mind. He
-would have braved the King's order of arrest and all the other threats,
-but he could not stand the idea of his wife being in distress on his
-account. So, with the greatest reluctance he said good-bye to his
-plans, left his ship in the Spanish port, and crossed the border back
-to France.
-
-It looked as if this was to be the end of Lafayette's gallant
-adventure. The Baron de Kalb, very much disappointed, wrote to his
-wife, "This is the end of his expedition to America to join the army of
-the insurgents."
-
-It might have been the end with another man, but not with Lafayette. He
-rode back to Bordeaux, and there found that much of the outcry raised
-against him was due to the wiles of his obstinate father-in-law, the
-Duke d'Ayen. It was true that the English Ambassador had protested to
-King Louis' ministers, but there was no real danger of Lafayette's
-sailing disturbing the relations between England and France. New letters
-told Lafayette that his wife was well and happy, though she missed
-him. The threats and the orders were due, not to the anger of his own
-government, but to the determination of the Duke that his son-in-law
-should not risk his life and fortune in such a rash enterprise.
-
-When he learned all this the Marquis determined to match the obstinacy
-of the Duke with an even greater obstinacy of his own. His first
-thought was to join his ship the _Victory_ at once, but he had no
-permit to cross into Spain, and if he should be caught disobeying the
-King's orders a second time he might get into more serious trouble.
-His father-in-law was waiting to see him at Marseilles, and so he now
-arranged to go to that city.
-
-In Bordeaux Lafayette met a young French officer, named Du Mauroy, who
-had also received from Silas Deane a commission in the American army,
-and who was very anxious to reach the United States. The two made their
-plans together, and the upshot of it was that they presently set out
-together in a post-chaise for Marseilles.
-
-They did not keep on the road to Marseilles long, however. No sooner
-were they well out of Bordeaux than they changed their course and drove
-in the direction of the Spanish border. In a quiet place on the road
-Lafayette slipped out of the chaise and hid in the woods. There he
-disguised himself as a post-boy or courier, and then rode on ahead, on
-horseback, as if he were the servant of the gentleman in the carriage.
-
-His companion, Du Mauroy, had a permit to leave France, and the plan
-was that he should try to get the Marquis across the Spanish frontier
-as his body-servant. The chaise went galloping along as fast as the
-horses could pull it, because the young men had good reason to fear
-that French officers would speedily be on their track, if they were
-not already pursuing them. They came to a little village, St. Jean de
-Luz, where Lafayette had stopped on his journey from Las Pasajes to
-Bordeaux a short time before, and there, as the Marquis, disguised as
-the post-boy, rode into the stable-yard of the inn the daughter of
-the innkeeper recognized him as the same young man she had waited on
-earlier.
-
-The girl gave a cry of surprise. "Oh, monsieur!" she exclaimed.
-
-Lafayette put his finger to his lips in warning. "Yes, my girl," he said
-quickly. "Monsieur my patron wants fresh horses at once. He is coming
-just behind me, and is riding post-haste to Spain."
-
-The girl understood. Perhaps she was used to odd things happening in a
-village so close to the border of France and Spain, perhaps she liked
-the young man and wanted to help him in his adventure. She called a
-stable-boy and had him get the fresh horses that were needed, and when
-the disguised Marquis and his friend were safely across the frontier and
-some French officers came galloping up to the inn in pursuit of them
-she told the latter that the post-chaise had driven off by the opposite
-road to the one it had really taken.
-
-At last, on April seventeenth, Lafayette reached the Spanish seaport of
-Las Pasajes again and went on board of his sloop the _Victory_. After
-six months of plotting and planning and all sorts of discouragements he
-was actually free to sail for America, and on the twentieth of April,
-1777, he gave the order to Captain Leboucier to hoist anchor and put out
-to sea. On the deck of the _Victory_ with him stood De Kalb and about
-twenty young Frenchmen, all, like their commander, eager to fight for
-the cause of liberty. The shores of Spain dropped astern, and Lafayette
-and his friends turned their eyes westward in the direction of the New
-World.
-
-When news of Lafayette's sailing reached Paris it caused the greatest
-interest. Though the King and the older members of his court might
-frown and shake their heads the younger people were frankly delighted.
-Coffee-houses echoed with praise of the daring Lieutenant, and whenever
-his name was mentioned in public it met with the loudest applause. In
-the world of society opinions differed; most of the luxury-loving
-nobility thought the adventure of the Marquis a wild-goose chase. The
-Chevalier de Marais wrote to his mother, "All Paris is discussing
-the adventure of a young courtier, the son-in-law of Noailles, who
-has a pretty wife, two children, fifty thousand crowns a year,--in
-fact, everything which can make life here agreeable and dear, but who
-deserted all that a week ago to join the insurgents. His name is M. de
-Lafayette."
-
-And the Chevalier's mother answered from her château in the country,
-"What new kind of folly is this, my dear child? What! the madness
-of knight-errantry still exists! It has disciples! Go to help the
-insurgents! I am delighted that you reassure me about yourself, for I
-should tremble for you; but since you see that M. de Lafayette is a
-madman, I am tranquil."
-
-A celebrated Frenchwoman, Madame du Deffand, wrote to the Englishman
-Horace Walpole, "Of course it is a piece of folly, but it does him no
-discredit. He receives more praise than blame." And that was the opinion
-of a large part of France. If a young man chose to do such a wild thing
-as to become a knight-errant he might be criticized for his lack of
-wisdom, but on the whole he was not to be condemned.
-
-Meantime, as the _Victory_ was spreading her sails on the broad
-Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin was writing to the American Congress. This
-was what he said: "The Marquis de Lafayette, a young nobleman of great
-family connections here and great wealth, is gone to America in a ship
-of his own, accompanied by some officers of distinction, in order to
-serve in our armies. He is exceedingly beloved, and everybody's good
-wishes attend him. We cannot but hope he may meet with such a reception
-as will make the country and his expedition agreeable to him. Those who
-censure it as imprudent in him, do, nevertheless, applaud his spirit;
-and we are satisfied that the civilities and respect that may be shown
-him will be serviceable to our affairs here, as pleasing not only to
-his powerful relations and the court, but to the whole French nation.
-He has left a beautiful young wife; and for her sake, particularly, we
-hope that his bravery and ardent desire to distinguish himself will be
-a little restrained by the General's prudence, so as not to permit his
-being hazarded much, except on some important occasion."
-
-The _Victory_ was not a very seaworthy ship. Lafayette had been swindled
-by the men who had sold the sloop to his agent; she was a very slow
-craft, and was poorly furnished and scantily armed. Her two small cannon
-and small stock of muskets would have been a poor defense in case she
-had been attacked by any of the pirates who swarmed on the high seas in
-those days or by the English cruisers who were looking for ships laden
-with supplies for America.
-
-In addition to the defects of his ship Lafayette soon found he had other
-obstacles to cope with. He discovered that the captain of the _Victory_
-considered himself a much more important person than the owner and meant
-to follow his own course.
-
-The papers with which the ship had sailed from Spain declared that her
-destination was the West Indies. But ships often sailed for other ports
-than those they were supposed to, and Lafayette wanted to reach the
-United States as quickly as he could. He went to the captain and said,
-"You will please make your course as direct as possible for Charlestown
-in the Carolinas."
-
-"The Carolinas, sir!" exclaimed the captain. "Why, I cannot do that. The
-ship's papers are made out for the West Indies and will only protect us
-if we sail for a port there. I intend to sail for the West Indies, and
-you will have to get transportation across to the colonies from there."
-
-Lafayette was amazed. "This ship is mine," he declared, "and I direct
-you to sail to Charlestown."
-
-But the captain was obstinate. "I am the master of this ship, sir,"
-said he, "and responsible for its safety. If we should be caught by an
-English cruiser and she finds that we are headed for North America with
-arms and supplies, we shall be made prisoners, and lose our ship, our
-cargo, and perhaps our lives. I intend to follow my sailing-papers and
-steer for the West Indies."
-
-No one could be more determined than Lafayette, however. "You may
-be master of the _Victory_, Captain Leboucier," said he, "but I am
-her owner and my decision is final. You will sail at once and by the
-directest course for the port of Charlestown in the Carolinas or I shall
-deprive you instantly of your command and place the mate in charge of
-the ship. I have enough men here to meet any resistance on your part. So
-make your decision immediately."
-
-The captain in his turn was surprised. The young owner was very positive
-and evidently not to be cajoled or threatened. So Leboucier complained
-and blustered and argued a little, and finally admitted that it was
-not so much the ship's papers as her cargo that he was troubled about.
-He owned that he had considerable interest in that cargo, for he had
-smuggled eight or nine thousand dollars' worth of goods on board the
-_Victory_ and wanted to sell them in the West Indies and so make an
-extra profit on the side for himself. The real reason why he didn't want
-to be caught by an English cruiser was the danger of losing his smuggled
-merchandise.
-
-"Then why didn't you say so at first?" Lafayette demanded. "I would
-have been willing to help you out, of course. Sail for the port of
-Charlestown in the Carolinas; and if we are captured, searched, robbed,
-or destroyed by any English cruisers or privateers I will see that you
-don't lose a sou. I will promise to make any loss good."
-
-That satisfied Captain Leboucier. As long as his goods were safe he had
-no hesitation on the score of danger to the ship, and so he immediately
-laid his course for the coast of the Carolinas. Lafayette, however,
-realizing that the _Victory_ might be overtaken by enemy warships,
-arranged with one of his men, Captain de Bedaulx, that in case of attack
-and capture the latter should blow up the ship rather than surrender.
-With this matter arranged the Marquis went to his cabin and stayed there
-for two weeks, as seasick as one could be.
-
-The voyage across the Atlantic in those days was a long and tedious
-affair. It took seven weeks, and after Lafayette had recovered from his
-seasickness he had plenty of time to think of the hazards of his new
-venture and of the family he had left at home. He was devoted to his
-family, and as the _Victory_ kept on her westward course he wrote long
-letters to his wife, planning to send them back to France by different
-ships, so that if one was captured another might carry his message to
-Adrienne safely to her. In one letter he wrote, "Oh, if you knew what I
-have suffered, what weary days I have passed thus flying from everything
-that I love best in the world!" And then, in order to make his wife less
-fearful of possible dangers that might beset him, he said, "The post of
-major-general has always been a warrant of long life. It is so different
-from the service I should have had in France, as colonel, for instance.
-With my present rank I shall only have to attend councils of war.... As
-soon as I land I shall be in perfect safety."
-
-But this boy, nineteen years old, though he called himself a
-major-general, was not to be content with attending councils of war
-and keeping out of danger, as later events were to show. He was far
-too eager and impetuous for that, too truly a son of the wild Auvergne
-Mountains.
-
-And he showed that he knew that himself, for later in the same letter
-to Adrienne he compared his present journey with what his father-in-law
-would have tried to make him do had Lafayette met the Duke d'Ayen at
-Marseilles. "Consider the difference between my occupation and my
-present life," he wrote, "and what they would have been if I had gone
-upon that useless journey. As the defender of that liberty which I
-adore; free, myself, more than any one; coming, as a friend, to offer
-my services to this most interesting republic, I bring with me nothing
-but my own free heart and my own good-will,--no ambition to fulfil and
-no selfish interest to serve. If I am striving for my own glory, I am at
-the same time laboring for the welfare of the American republic. I trust
-that, for my sake, you will become a good American. It is a sentiment
-made for virtuous hearts. The happiness of America is intimately
-connected with the happiness of all mankind; she is destined to become
-the safe and worthy asylum of virtue, integrity, tolerance, equality,
-and peaceful liberty."
-
-This, from a boy not yet twenty years old, showed the prophetic instinct
-that burned like a clear flame in the soul of Lafayette.
-
-He knew very little of the English tongue, but that was the language of
-the people he was going to help, and so on shipboard he set himself to
-study it. "I am making progress with that language," he wrote to his
-wife. "It will soon become most necessary to me."
-
-The North Atlantic was stormy, the _Victory_ met with head winds, and
-through April and May she floundered on, her passengers eagerly scanning
-the horizon for a sight of land. On the seventh of June the Marquis
-wrote in a letter to Adrienne, "I am still out on this dreary plain,
-which is beyond comparison the most dismal place that one can be in....
-We have had small alarms from time to time, but with a little care, and
-reasonably good fortune, I hope to get through without serious accident,
-and I shall be all the more pleased, because I am learning every day to
-be extremely prudent."
-
-Then, on a June day, the _Victory_ suddenly became all excitement. The
-lookout reported to Captain Leboucier that a strange vessel was bearing
-down in their direction.
-
-Leboucier instantly crowded on sail and tried to run from the strange
-ship. But the _Victory_ was not built for fast sailing, and it was soon
-clear that the stranger would quickly overhaul her.
-
-"It's an English man-of-war!" was the message that ran from lip to
-lip. In that case the only choice would be between resistance and
-surrender. Leboucier looked doubtful as to the wisest course to pursue,
-but Lafayette and his companions made ready to fight. The two old cannon
-were loaded, the muskets distributed, and the crew ordered to their
-stations.
-
-The stranger drew nearer and nearer, sailing fast, and the _Victory_
-floundered along in desperation. Lafayette and De Bedaulx stood at the
-bow of the sloop, their eyes fixed on the rapidly-gaining pursuer. Then,
-just as escape appeared utterly out of the question, the oncoming ship
-went about, and as she turned she broke out from her peak a flag of
-red, white and blue, the stars and stripes of the new United States of
-America. A wild cheer greeted that flag, and the colors of France were
-run up to the peak of the _Victory_ in joyful greeting to the flag of
-Lafayette's ally.
-
-The _Victory_ headed about and tried to keep up with the fleet American
-privateer, but in a very short time two other sails appeared on the
-horizon. The American ship ran up a danger signal, declaring these new
-vessels to be English cruisers, scouting along the coast on the watch
-for privateers and blockade runners. Having given that information the
-American ship signaled "good-bye," and drew away from the enemy on a
-favoring tack.
-
-The _Victory_ could not draw away so easily, however, and it was clear
-that her two cannon would be little use against two well-armed English
-cruisers. In this new predicament luck came to the aid of the little
-sloop. The wind shifted and blew strongly from the north. This would
-send the _Victory_ nearer to the port of Charlestown, the outlines of
-which now began to appear on the horizon, and would also be a head wind
-for the pursuing cruisers. Captain Leboucier decided to take advantage
-of the shift in the wind, and instead of heading for Charlestown run
-into Georgetown Bay, which opened into the coast of the Carolinas almost
-straight in front of him.
-
-Fortune again favored him, for, although he knew very little of that
-coast, and nothing of these particular shoals and channels, he found
-the opening of the South Inlet of Georgetown Bay and sailed his ship
-into that sheltered roadstead. The English vessels, working against the
-north wind, soon were lost to sight. On the afternoon of June 13, 1777,
-Lafayette's little sloop ran past the inlet and up to North Island, one
-of the low sand-pits that are a fringe along the indented shore of South
-Carolina.
-
-The long sea-voyage was over, and Lafayette looked at last at the coast
-of the country he had come to help.
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN REACHES AMERICA
-
-
-The _Victory_ had anchored off North Island, a stretch of sand on the
-South Carolina coast, but neither the captain nor the owner nor the
-crew of the sloop knew much more about their location than that it was
-somewhere in North America. Charlestown they believed was the nearest
-port of any size, but it might be difficult to navigate through these
-shoal waters without a pilot who knew the channels. So Lafayette
-suggested to Baron de Kalb that they should land in one of the sloop's
-boats and see if they could get information or assistance.
-
-Early in the afternoon Lafayette, De Kalb, and a few of the other
-officers were rowed ashore in the _Victory's_ yawl. But the shore was
-merely a sand-flat, with no sign of human habitation. They put out again
-and rowed farther up the bay, keeping a sharp lookout for any house or
-farm. They found plenty of little creeks and islands, but the shores
-were simply waste stretches of sand and scrub-bushes and woods. The
-mainland appeared as deserted as though it had been a desert island far
-out in the sea.
-
-All afternoon they rowed about, poking the yawl's nose first into one
-creek and then into another, and nightfall found them still exploring
-the North Inlet. Then, when they had about decided that it was too
-dark to row further and that they had better return to the sloop, they
-suddenly saw a lighted torch on the shore. Heading for this they found
-some negroes dragging for oysters. Baron de Kalb, who knew more English
-than the others, called out and asked if there was good anchorage for
-a ship thereabouts and whether he could find a pilot to take them to
-Charlestown.
-
-The negroes, very much surprised at the sudden appearance of the yawl,
-thought the men on board might be Englishmen or Hessians, and instantly
-grew suspicious. One of them answered, "We belong to Major Huger, all of
-us belongs to him. He's our master."
-
-"Is he an officer in the American army?" De Kalb called back.
-
-The negro said that he was, and added that there was a pilot on the
-upper end of North Island, and then volunteered to show the men in the
-yawl where the pilot lived and also to take them to the house of the
-Major.
-
-Lafayette thought it would be best to find Major Huger at once; but the
-tide was falling fast, and when the rowers, unused to these shoals,
-tried to follow the negroes in the oyster-boat, they discovered that
-they were in danger of beaching their yawl. The only alternative was for
-some of them to go in the oyster-boat, and so Lafayette and De Kalb and
-one other joined the negroes, while the crew of the yawl rowed back to
-the _Victory_.
-
-Over more shallows, up more inlets the negroes steered their craft, and
-about midnight they pointed out a light shining from a house on the
-shore. "That's Major Huger's," said the guide, and he ran his boat up to
-a landing-stage. The three officers stepped out, putting their feet on
-American soil for the first time on this almost deserted coast and under
-the guidance of stray negro oystermen.
-
-But this desolate shore had already been the landing-place of English
-privateersmen, and the people who lived in the neighborhood were always
-in fear of attack. As Lafayette and his two friends went up toward the
-house the loud barking of dogs suddenly broke the silence. And as they
-came up to the dwelling a window was thrown open and a man called out,
-"Who goes there? Stop where you are or I'll fire!"
-
-"We are friends, sir; friends only," De Kalb hurriedly answered. "We are
-French officers who have just landed from our ship, which has come into
-your waters. We have come to fight for America and we are looking for a
-pilot to steer our ship to a safe anchorage and are also hunting shelter
-for ourselves."
-
-No sooner had the master of the house heard this than he turned and gave
-some orders. Lights shone out from the windows, and almost immediately
-the front door was unbarred and thrown open. The owner stood in the
-doorway, his hands stretched out in greeting, and back of him were a
-number of negro servants with candles.
-
-"Indeed, sirs, I am very proud to welcome you!" he said; and then
-stopped an instant to call to the dogs to stop their barking. "I am
-Major Huger of the American army, Major Benjamin Huger, and this is my
-house on the shore where we camp out in the summer. Please come in,
-gentlemen. My house and everything in it is at the service of the brave
-and generous Frenchmen who come to fight for our liberties."
-
-There was no doubt of the warmth of the strangers' welcome. The Major
-caught De Kalb's hand and shook it strenuously, while his small son, who
-had slipped into his clothes and hurried down-stairs to see what all the
-noise was about, seized Lafayette by the arm and tried to pull him into
-the lighted hall.
-
-"You are most kind, Major Huger," said De Kalb. "Let me introduce my
-friends. This gentleman is the leader of our expedition, the Seigneur
-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette; this is Monsieur Price of
-Sauveterre, and I am Johann Kalb."
-
-"He is the Baron de Kalb, monsieur," put in Lafayette. "A brigadier
-in the army of the King of France and aid to the Marshal the Count de
-Broglie."
-
-Major Huger had heard of the Marquis de Lafayette, for already news
-of the Frenchman's determination to fight for the young republic had
-crossed the Atlantic. He caught Lafayette by both hands. "The Marquis
-de Lafayette!" he cried. "My house is indeed honored by your presence!
-We have all heard of you. You have only to command me, sir, and I
-will do your bidding. I will look after your ship and your pilot. But
-to-night you must stay here as my guests, and to-morrow I will see to
-everything. This is my son, Francis Kinloch Huger. Now please come into
-my dining-room, gentlemen, and let me offer you some refreshment."
-
-Small Francis, still holding Lafayette's hand, drew the Marquis in at
-the door. The three guests, delighted at their welcome, went to the
-dining-room, and there toasts were drunk to the success of the cause of
-liberty. America was not so inhospitable to the weary travelers after
-all, and with the glow of the Major's welcome warming them, Lafayette
-and his two friends went to their rooms and slept in real beds for the
-first time in many weeks.
-
-Lafayette naturally was delighted at safely reaching his haven, and, as
-he put it in his own words, "retired to rest rejoiced that he had at
-last attained the haven of his wishes and was safely landed in America
-beyond the reach of his pursuers." Weary from his long voyage on the
-_Victory_, he slept soundly, and woke full of enthusiasm for this
-new country, which was to be like a foster-mother to him. "The next
-morning," he wrote, "was beautiful. The novelty of everything around me,
-the room, the bed with its mosquito curtains, the black servants who
-came to ask my wishes, the beauty and strange appearance of the country
-as I could see it from my window clothed in luxuriant verdure,--all
-conspired to produce upon me an effect like magic and to impress me with
-indescribable sensations."
-
-Major Huger had already sent a pilot to the _Victory_ and had done
-everything he could to assist Lafayette's companions. All the Major's
-family were so kind and hospitable that they instantly won Lafayette's
-heart. He judged that all Americans would be like them, and wrote to his
-wife, "the manners of this people are simple, honest, and dignified.
-The wish to oblige, the love of country, and freedom reign here together
-in sweet equality. All citizens are brothers. They belong to a country
-where every cranny resounds with the lovely name of Liberty. My sympathy
-with them makes me feel as if I had been here for twenty years." It was
-well for him that his first reception in America was so pleasant and
-that he remembered it with such delight, for he was later to find that
-some Americans were not so cordial toward him.
-
-If he was delighted with the Hugers, the Major and his son Francis were
-equally delighted with the young Frenchman. And, strangely enough, the
-little boy Francis, who had seized Lafayette's hand on that June night
-in 1777, was later to try to rescue his hero from a prison in Europe.
-
-The Marquis and his friends thought they had had quite enough of life
-on shipboard for the present, and so decided to go to Charlestown over
-the country roads. The pilot that had been furnished by Major Huger came
-back with word that there was not sufficient water for the _Victory_ to
-stay in Georgetown Bay, and Lafayette ordered the ship, in charge of
-the pilot, to sail to Charlestown. Meantime he and his companions, with
-horses of the Major's, rode to that seaport. As soon as he arrived there
-he heard that there were a number of English cruisers on that part of
-the coast, and so he at once sent word to Captain Leboucier to beach the
-_Victory_ and burn her, rather than let her be captured by the cruisers.
-
-The _Victory_, however, sailed safely into Charlestown without sighting
-a hostile sail, and the captain unloaded Lafayette's supplies and his
-own private cargo. Later the sloop was loaded with rice and set sail
-again, but was wrecked on a bar and became a total loss.
-
-No welcome could have been warmer than that Lafayette received in
-Charlestown. A dinner was given him, where the French officers met the
-American generals Gulden, Howe, and Moultrie. All houses were thrown
-open to him, and he was taken to inspect the fortifications and driven
-through the beautiful country in the neighborhood. How pleased he was he
-showed in a letter to Adrienne. "The city of Charlestown," he wrote,
-"is one of the prettiest and the best built that I have ever seen, and
-its inhabitants are most agreeable. The American women are very pretty,
-very unaffected, and exhibit a charming neatness,--a quality which is
-most studiously cultivated here, much more even than in England. What
-enchants me here is that all the citizens are brethren. There are no
-poor people in America, nor even what we call peasants. All the citizens
-have a moderate property, and all have the same rights as the most
-powerful proprietor. The inns are very different from those of Europe:
-the innkeeper and his wife sit at table with you, do the honors of a
-good repast, and on leaving, you pay without haggling. When you do not
-choose to go to an inn, you can find country houses where it is enough
-to be a good American to be received with such attentions as in Europe
-would be paid to friends."
-
-That certainly speaks well for the hospitality of South Carolina!
-
-He did not mean to tell his plans, however, until he should reach
-Philadelphia, where the Congress of the United States was sitting.
-"I have every reason to feel highly gratified at my reception in
-Charlestown," he wrote, "but I have not yet explained my plans to any
-one. I judge it best to wait until I have presented myself to the
-Congress before making a statement as to the projects I have in view."
-
-He had only one difficulty in the seaport town. When he started to sell
-the _Victory_ and her cargo he found that the men who had sold him the
-ship and Captain Leboucier had so entangled him with agreements and
-commissions, all of which he had signed without properly reading in his
-haste to sail from Bordeaux, that, instead of receiving any money, he
-was actually in debt. To pay this off and get the needed funds to take
-his companions and himself to Philadelphia he had to borrow money, but
-fortunately there were plenty of people in Charlestown who were ready to
-help him out of that difficulty.
-
-With the money borrowed from these well-disposed people Lafayette bought
-horses and carriages to take his party over the nine hundred miles
-that lay between Charlestown and Philadelphia. On June twenty-fifth
-the expedition started. In front rode a French officer dressed in
-the uniform of a hussar. Next came a heavy open carriage, in which
-sat Lafayette and De Kalb, and close behind it rode Lafayette's
-body-servant. Then there followed a chaise with two colonels, the
-counselors of the Marquis, another chaise with more French officers,
-still another with the baggage, and finally, as rear-guard, a negro on
-horseback.
-
-The country roads were frightful for travel; indeed for much of the
-way they could scarcely be called roads at all, being simply primitive
-clearings through the woods. The guide kept losing his way, and the
-carriages bumped along over roots and logs in a hot, blistering sun. As
-far as this particular journey went, the Frenchmen must have thought
-that travel was very much easier in their own country. One accident
-followed another; within four days the chaises had been jolted into
-splinters and the horses had gone lame. The travelers had to buy other
-wagons and horses, and to lighten their outfit kept leaving part of
-their baggage on the way. Sometimes they had to walk, often they
-went hungry, and many a night they slept in the woods. They began to
-appreciate that this new country, land of liberty though it was, had
-many disadvantages when it came to the matter of travel.
-
-From Petersburg in Virginia Lafayette wrote to Adrienne. "You have
-heard," said he, "how brilliantly I started out in a carriage. I have to
-inform you that we are now on horseback after having broken the wagons
-in my usual praiseworthy fashion, and I expect to write you before long
-that we have reached our destination on foot."
-
-Yet, in spite of all these discomforts, the Marquis was able to enjoy
-much of the journey. He studied the language of the people he met, he
-admired the beautiful rivers and the great forests, and he kept pointing
-out to his companions how much better the farmers here lived than the
-peasants of his own country. At least there was plenty of land for every
-one and no grasping overlords to take all the profits.
-
-The journey lasted a month. The party paid a visit to Governor Caswell
-in North Carolina and stopped at Petersburg and Annapolis, where
-Lafayette met Major Brice, who later became his aide-de-camp. On July
-twenty-seventh the travel-worn party reached Philadelphia, which was
-then the capital of the United States.
-
-The outlook for the Americans was gloomy enough then. New York was in
-the hands of the enemy, Burgoyne's army had captured Ticonderoga and was
-threatening to separate New England from the rest of the country, and
-Howe was preparing to attack Philadelphia with a much larger army than
-Washington could bring against him. It would have seemed just the time
-when any help from abroad should have been doubly welcome, and yet as a
-matter of fact the Congress was not so very enthusiastic about it.
-
-The reason for this was that already a great number of adventurers
-had come to America from the different countries of Europe and asked
-for high commands in the American army. Many of them were soldiers of
-considerable experience, and they all thought that they would make much
-better officers than the ill-trained men of the new republic. Some of
-them also quickly showed that they were eager for money, and one and all
-insisted on trying to tell Congress exactly what it ought to do. Quite
-naturally the Americans preferred to manage affairs in their own way.
-
-George Washington had already sent a protest to Congress. "Their
-ignorance of our language and their inability to recruit men," he
-said, "are insurmountable obstacles to their being ingrafted into our
-continental battalions; for our officers, who have raised their men,
-and have served through the war upon pay that has hitherto not borne
-their expenses, would be disgusted if foreigners were put over their
-heads; and I assure you, few or none of these gentlemen look lower than
-field-officers' commissions. To give them all brevets, by which they
-have rank, and draw pay without doing any service, is saddling the
-continent with vast expense; and to form them into corps would be only
-establishing corps of officers; for, as I have said before, they cannot
-possibly raise any men."
-
-It was true that Silas Deane had been instructed to offer commissions
-to a few French officers, whose experience might help the Americans,
-but he had scattered commissions broadcast, and some of these men had
-proved of little use. One of them, Du Coudray, had arrived and insisted
-on commanding the artillery with the rank of major-general, and had
-aroused so much opposition that Generals Greene, Sullivan, and Knox had
-threatened to resign if his demands were granted. Congress was therefore
-beginning to look askance at many of the men who bore Silas Deane's
-commissions.
-
-That was the state of affairs when Lafayette, confident of a warm
-welcome, reached Philadelphia and presented himself and his friends
-to John Hancock, the president of Congress. Hancock may have received
-letters concerning the young Frenchman from Deane and Benjamin Franklin
-in Paris, but, if he had, he had paid little attention to them, and
-was inclined to regard this young man of nineteen as simply another
-adventurer from Europe. With a scant word of welcome Hancock referred
-Lafayette to Gouverneur Morris, who, he said, "had such matters in
-charge."
-
-The Frenchmen went to see Morris, but to him also they appeared only a
-new addition to the many adventurers already hanging about, looking for
-high commands. He put off dealing with Lafayette and De Kalb. "Meet me
-to-morrow at the door of Congress, gentlemen," said he. "I will look
-over your papers in the meantime and will see what I can do for you."
-
-The two new arrivals kept the appointment promptly, but Morris was not
-on hand. After they had cooled their heels for some time he appeared,
-bringing with him Mr. Lovell, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign
-Affairs. "Matters that concern France are in Mr. Lovell's charge," said
-Morris. "Please deal with him after this."
-
-Lovell bowed to the strangers. "I understand, gentlemen," said he, "that
-you have authority from Mr. Deane?"
-
-"Certainly, sir," De Kalb answered. "Our papers and agreements show
-that."
-
-Lovell frowned. "This is very annoying," said he. "We authorized Mr.
-Deane to send us four French engineers, but instead he has sent us a
-number of engineers who are no engineers and some artillerists who
-have never seen service. Mr. Franklin, however, has sent us the four
-engineers we wanted. There is nothing for you to do here, gentlemen. We
-needed a few experienced officers last year, but now we have plenty, and
-can promise no more positions. I must bid you good-morning."
-
-Here was a dashing blow to all their eager wishes. Surprise and
-disappointment showed in their faces.
-
-"But, sir," began De Kalb, "Mr. Deane promised----"
-
-"Well, Mr. Deane has exceeded his authority," declared Lovell. "He has
-promised too much and we cannot recognize his authority. We haven't
-even a colonel's commission to give to any foreign officers, to say
-nothing of a major-general's. The Congress is very much annoyed by
-these constant demands, and General Washington says he won't be
-disturbed by any more requests. I am sorry to disappoint you, but under
-the circumstances I can promise you nothing. Again I must bid you
-good-morning."
-
-Lovell returned to Congress, leaving the Frenchmen much discomfited.
-De Kalb began to storm, and finally spoke angrily of the way they had
-been treated by Deane. "It is not to be borne!" he cried. "I will take
-action against Deane! I will have damages for this indignity he has put
-upon us!"
-
-Fortunately Lafayette was more even-tempered. In spite of this rebuff
-at the outset he meant to achieve his goal. He turned to the angry De
-Kalb and laid his hand restrainingly on the latter's arm. "Let us not
-talk of damages, my friend," he said. "It is more important for us to
-talk of doing. It is true that Congress didn't ask us to leave our
-homes and cross the sea to lead its army. But I will not go back now.
-If the Congress will not accept me as a major-general, I will fight for
-American liberty as a volunteer!"
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-"I WILL FIGHT FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY AS A VOLUNTEER!"
-
-
-Lafayette, standing outside the door of the American Congress in
-Philadelphia, refused the commission in the American army that had been
-promised him by Silas Deane, spoke these words of encouragement to his
-disappointed and indignant friends who had crossed with him from France.
-"If the Congress will not accept me as a major-general, I will fight
-for American liberty as a volunteer!" he said; and, having come to this
-decision, he immediately proceeded to put it into effect. He went to his
-lodgings and wrote a letter to John Hancock, president of Congress.
-
-Lafayette's letter explained the reasons why he had come to the United
-States and recounted the many difficulties he had had to overcome. He
-stated that he thought that the promise he had received from Silas
-Deane, the approval of Benjamin Franklin, and the sacrifices he had
-himself made ought to lead Congress to give a friendly hearing to his
-request. He said that he understood how Congress had been besieged by
-foreign officers seeking high rank in the army, but added that he only
-asked two favors. These were, in his own words, "First, that I serve
-without pay and at my own expense; and, the other, that I be allowed to
-serve at first as a volunteer."
-
-This letter was a great surprise to John Hancock and the other leaders
-of Congress. Here was a young French officer of family and wealth who
-was so deeply interested in their cause that he was eager to serve as
-an unpaid volunteer! He was a different type from the others who had
-come begging for favors. Hancock looked up the letter that Franklin
-had written about the Marquis, and read, "Those who censure him as
-imprudent do nevertheless applaud his spirit, and we are satisfied that
-the civilities and respect that may be shown him will be serviceable to
-our affairs here, as pleasing not only to his powerful relations and to
-the court, but to the whole French nation."
-
-Hancock was impressed; perhaps they had made a mistake in treating
-this Marquis de Lafayette in such cavalier fashion. So he sent another
-member of Congress to see the young Frenchman and instructed him
-to treat Lafayette with the greatest courtesy. And the result of
-this interview was that Hancock's emissary was quickly convinced of
-Lafayette's absolute honesty of purpose and intense desire to help the
-United States.
-
-Having reached this conclusion Hancock decided to make amends and do the
-honorable thing, and so, on July 31, 1777, Congress passed the following
-resolution: "Whereas, the Marquis de Lafayette, out of his great zeal
-to the cause of liberty, in which the United States are engaged, has
-left his family and connections, and, at his own expense, come over to
-offer his services to the United States, without pension or particular
-allowance, and is anxious to risk his life in our cause, therefore,
-Resolved, that his services be accepted, and that, in consideration of
-his zeal, illustrious family, and connections, he have the rank and
-commission of major-general in the army of the United States."
-
-How fortunate it was that Lafayette had not been daunted at the outset,
-or discouraged as De Kalb and his companions had been! His great dream
-had come true as a result of perseverance; he had been welcomed by
-Congress, and was, at nineteen, a major-general in the army of liberty!
-
-But he did not forget those companions who had crossed the sea with the
-same desires as his own. In the letter he wrote to Congress, penned
-in his own quaint English,--a letter now in the State Department at
-Washington,--after thanking "the Honorable mr. Hancok," as he spelled
-it, and expressing his gratitude to Congress, he said, "it is now
-as an american that I'l mention every day to congress the officers
-who came over with me, whose interests are for me as my own, and the
-consideration which they deserve by their merit, their ranks, their
-state and reputation in france."
-
-He was unable, however, to do much for these friends, though one of them
-said, "He did everything that was possible for our appointment, but in
-vain, for he had no influence. But if he had his way, De Kalb would have
-been major-general and we should all have had places."
-
-Congress felt that it could not give them all commissions. Captain de
-Bedaulx, who was a veteran officer, was made a captain in the American
-army, one other was engaged as a draughtsman and engineer, and Lafayette
-kept two as his own aides-de-camp. Most of the others were sent back
-to France, their expenses being paid by Congress. As for De Kalb, he
-had given up his plans for high rank and preferment and was on his way
-to take passage on a ship for Europe when a messenger reached him with
-word that Congress, voting for one more major-general in the army, had
-elected him.
-
-Lafayette, in his letter to Hancock, had said that he wished to serve
-"near the person of General Washington till such time as he may think
-proper to entrust me with a division of the army." Events soon gave him
-the chance to meet the commander-in-chief. The arrival of Howe's fleet
-at the mouth of the Delaware River seemed to threaten Philadelphia,
-and Washington left his camp in New Jersey to consult with Congress.
-Lafayette was invited to a dinner in Philadelphia to meet the
-commander-in-chief, and accepted eagerly. The Frenchman was greatly
-impressed. "Although General Washington was surrounded by officers and
-private citizens," he wrote, "the majesty of his countenance and of
-his figure made it impossible not to recognize him; he was especially
-distinguished also by the affability of his manners and the dignity with
-which he addressed those about him."
-
-Washington had already heard of Lafayette and found a chance for a long
-talk with him. On his part he was at once strongly attracted by the
-young Marquis. "You have made the greatest sacrifices for our cause,
-sir," Washington said, "and your evident zeal and generosity interest
-me deeply. I shall do my part toward making you one of us. I shall be
-greatly pleased to have you join my staff as a volunteer aid, and beg
-you to make my headquarters your home, until events place you elsewhere.
-I beg you to consider yourself at all times as one of my military
-family, and I shall be glad to welcome you at the camp as speedily
-as you think proper. Of course I cannot promise you the luxuries of
-a court, but, as you have now become an American soldier, you will
-doubtless accommodate yourself to the fare of an American army, and
-submit with a good grace to its customs, manners, and privations."
-
-The next day Washington invited Lafayette to accompany him on a tour of
-inspection of the fortifications about Philadelphia.
-
-The General liked the Marquis, but was not quite certain how the latter
-could best be employed. He wrote to Benjamin Harrison, who was a member
-of Congress, "As I understand the Marquis de Lafayette, it is certain
-that he does not conceive that his commission is merely honorary, but
-is given with a view to command a division of this army. It is true he
-has said that he is young and inexperienced; but at the same time he
-has always accompanied it with a hint that, so soon as I shall think
-him fit for the command of a division, he shall be ready to enter upon
-his duties, and in the meantime has offered his services for a smaller
-command. What the designs of Congress respecting this gentleman were,
-and what line of conduct I am to pursue to comply with their design and
-his expectations--I know not and beg to be instructed.... Let me beseech
-you, my good sir, to give me the sentiments of Congress on this matter,
-that I may endeavor, as far as it is in my power, to comply with them."
-
-Mr. Harrison answered that Congress intended Lafayette's appointment to
-be regarded merely as an honorary one, and that the commander-in-chief
-was to use his own judgment concerning him.
-
-In the meantime Lafayette set out from Philadelphia to join
-Washington's army. That army, early in August, had begun its march
-eastward, hoping to cut off any British move about New York; but the
-appearance of the British fleet off the Delaware had brought them to a
-halt, and Washington ordered them into camp near the present village of
-Hartsville, on the old York Road leading out of Philadelphia. Here, on
-August twenty-first, Lafayette joined the army, just as the commander,
-with Generals Stirling, Greene, and Knox, was about to review the
-troops.
-
-It was indeed a sorry-looking army, according to the standards of
-Europe. There were about eleven thousand men, poorly armed and
-wretchedly clad. Their clothes were old and ragged, hardly any two suits
-alike, and the men knew little enough about military tactics. Courage
-and resolution had to take the place of science; but there was no lack
-of either bravery or determination. Yet some of the foreign officers
-who had seen the American army had spoken very slightingly of it, and
-Washington said to Lafayette, "It is somewhat embarrassing to us to show
-ourselves to an officer who has just come from the army of France."
-
-Lafayette, always tactful, always sympathetic, smiled. "I am here to
-learn and not to teach, Your Excellency," he answered.
-
-A council of war followed the review, and the commander asked the
-Marquis to attend it. The council decided that if the British were
-planning to invade the Carolinas it was unwise to attempt to follow them
-south, and that the army had better try to recapture New York. But at
-that very moment a messenger brought word that the British fleet had
-sailed into Chesapeake Bay, and, hearing this, Washington concluded to
-march his army to the south of Philadelphia and prepare to defend that
-city.
-
-Ragged and out-at-elbows as the small American army was, it marched
-proudly through the streets of Philadelphia. With sprigs of green
-branches in their hats the soldiers stepped along to the tune of fife
-and drum, presenting, at least in the eyes of the townspeople, a very
-gallant appearance. Lafayette rode by the side of Washington, glad that
-the opportunity had come for him to be of service.
-
-Very soon he had a chance to share danger with his commander. When the
-troops arrived on the heights of Wilmington, Washington, with Lafayette
-and Greene, made a reconnaissance, and, being caught by a storm and
-darkness, was obliged to spend the night so near to the British lines
-that he might easily have been discovered by a scout or betrayed into
-the hands of the enemy.
-
-Meantime General Howe and Lord Cornwallis had landed eighteen thousand
-veteran troops near what is now Elkton in Maryland, and was advancing
-toward Philadelphia. To defend the city Washington drew up his forces on
-September ninth at Chadd's Ford on the Brandywine. One column of Howe's
-army marched to this place and on September eleventh succeeded in
-driving across the river to the American camp. The other column, under
-command of Cornwallis, made a long détour through the thickly wooded
-country, and bore down on the right and rear of Washington's army,
-threatening its total destruction.
-
-The American commander at once sent General Sullivan, with five thousand
-men, to meet this force on the right. Realizing that most of the
-fighting would be done there, Lafayette asked and was given permission
-to join General Sullivan. Riding up as a volunteer aid, he found the
-half-formed wings of the American army attacked by the full force under
-Cornwallis. The Americans had to fall back, two of General Sullivan's
-aids were killed, and a disorderly retreat began. Lafayette leaped from
-his horse, and, sword in hand, called on the soldiers to make a stand.
-
-He checked the retreat for a few moments; other troops came up, and the
-Americans offered gallant resistance. Lafayette was shot through the
-calf of the leg, but, apparently unconscious of the wound, continued
-to encourage his men. Then Cornwallis's brigades swept forward again,
-and Sullivan's troops had to give ground before the greater numbers. The
-battle became a general rout. Gimat, Lafayette's aid, saw that the young
-man was wounded, and helped him to mount his horse. The wounded man then
-tried to rejoin Washington, but soon after he had to stop to have his
-leg bandaged.
-
-The first British column had driven the American troops from Chadd's
-Ford, and the latter, together with Sullivan's men, fell back along
-the road to Chester. Washington attempted to cover the retreat with
-rear-guard fighting, but night found him pursued by both divisions of
-the enemy. In the retreat Lafayette came to a bridge, and made a stand
-until Washington and his aids reached him. Then together they rode on
-to Chester, and there the Frenchman's wound was properly dressed by a
-surgeon.
-
-The battle had been in one sense a defeat for the Americans, but it had
-shown General Howe the fine fighting quality of Washington's men, and
-the American commander had been able to save the bulk of his army, when
-Howe had expected to capture it entire. Today a little monument stands
-on a ridge near the Quaker meeting-house outside Chadd's Ford, erected,
-so the inscription says, "by the citizens and school children of Chester
-County," because, "on the rising ground a short distance south of this
-spot, Lafayette was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, September 11,
-1777." And the monument also bears these words of Lafayette: "The honor
-to have mingled my blood with that of many other American soldiers on
-the heights of the Brandywine has been to me a source of pride and
-delight."
-
-The battle-field of the Brandywine was only about twenty-six miles from
-Philadelphia, and the cannonade had been clearly heard in the city. The
-word the couriers brought filled the people with alarm; many citizens
-began to fly from the city and Congress took its departure, to meet at
-the town of York, one hundred miles to the west. The Americans wounded
-at the Brandywine were sent to Philadelphia, and Lafayette was conveyed
-there by water. From that city he was sent up the Delaware River to
-Bristol. There he met Henry Laurens, who had succeeded John Hancock as
-the president of Congress, and Laurens, being on his way to York, took
-Lafayette with him in his own carriage to the Old Sun Inn at Bethlehem,
-the quiet home of a people called the Moravians, fifty miles to the
-north of Philadelphia. In later times Henry Laurens, by one of those
-strange turns of the wheel of fate, became a prisoner in the Tower of
-London, and Madame de Lafayette repaid his kindness to her husband by
-seeking the aid of the French government to secure his release.
-
-There could have been no better place for a wounded man to recover his
-strength than in the peaceful little Moravian community at Bethlehem.
-For six weeks he stayed there, and the people tended him like one of
-themselves. He could not use his leg, but he spent part of his enforced
-idleness drawing up plans for the invasion of the British colonies in
-the West Indies. He also wrote long letters to his wife in France. "Be
-entirely free from anxiety as to my wound," he said in one of these,
-"for all the doctors in America are aroused in my behalf. I have a
-friend who has spoken for me in a way to ensure my being well taken care
-of; and that is General Washington. That estimable man, whose talents
-and whose virtues I admired before, whom I venerate the more now as I
-learn to know him, has been kind enough to me to become my intimate
-friend. His tender interest in me quickly won my heart.... When he sent
-his surgeon-in-chief to me, he directed him to care for me as I were his
-son, because he loved me so much; and having learned that I wanted to
-join the army too soon again, he wrote me a letter full of tenderness in
-which he admonished me to wait until I should be entirely well."
-
-Wonderful it was that Washington, beset and harassed with all the
-burdens of a commander-in-chief, could yet find the time to pay so much
-attention to his wounded French aid!
-
-Lafayette knew well that matters looked dark then for the American
-republic. In another letter to Adrienne he said, "Now that you are
-the wife of an American general officer, I must give you a lesson.
-People will say, 'They have been beaten.' You must answer, 'It is
-true, but with two armies equal in number, and on level ground, old
-soldiers always have an advantage over new ones; besides, the Americans
-inflicted a greater loss than they sustained.' Then, people will add,
-'That's all very well; but Philadelphia, the capital of America, the
-highroad of liberty, is taken.' You will reply politely, 'You are fools!
-Philadelphia is a poor city, open on every side, of which the port was
-already closed. The presence of Congress made it famous, I know not why;
-that's what this famous city amounts to, which, by the way, we shall
-retake sooner or later.' If they continue to ply you with questions,
-send them about their business in terms that the Vicomte de Noailles
-will supply you with."
-
-It was true that General Howe had taken Philadelphia while Lafayette
-had to nurse his wounded leg at Bethlehem. It was not until the latter
-part of October that the Marquis was able to rejoin the army, and then
-his wound had not sufficiently healed to allow him to wear a boot. The
-battle of Germantown, by which Washington hoped to dislodge the British
-from Philadelphia, had been fought, and the year's campaign was about to
-close. Two battles had been lost by the Americans in the south, but in
-the north the British general Burgoyne had been obliged to surrender.
-Washington's headquarters were now at Methacton Hill, near the
-Schuylkill River, and there Lafayette went, hoping for active service.
-
-His chance for service came soon. Cornwallis had entered New Jersey
-with five thousand men, and General Greene was sent to oppose him
-with an equal number. Lafayette joined Greene as a volunteer, and at
-Mount Holly he was ordered to reconnoitre. On November twenty-fifth he
-found the enemy at Gloucester. Their forage wagons were crossing the
-river to Philadelphia, and Lafayette, in order to make a more thorough
-examination of their position, went dangerously far out on a tongue of
-land. Here he might easily have been captured, but he was quick enough
-to escape without injury. Later, at four o'clock in the afternoon, he
-found himself before a post of Hessians, four hundred men with cannon.
-Lafayette had one hundred and fifty sharpshooters under Colonel Butler,
-and about two hundred militiamen and light-horse. He did not know the
-strength of the enemy, but he attacked, and drove them back so boldly
-that Cornwallis, thinking he must be dealing with all of Greene's
-forces, allowed his troops to retreat to Gloucester with a loss of sixty
-men.
-
-This was the first real opportunity Lafayette had had to show his
-skill in leading men, and he had done so well that General Greene was
-delighted. In the report he sent to Washington he said, "The Marquis
-is charmed with the spirited behavior of the militia and rifle corps.
-They drove the enemy about a mile and kept the ground until dark.... The
-Marquis is determined to be in the way of danger."
-
-Lafayette had shown himself to be a daring and skilful officer; more
-than that, he had endeared himself to the men under his command. And
-this was more than could be said for most of the foreign officers in the
-American army; many of them devoted the larger part of their time to
-criticizing everything about them. Baron de Kalb expressed his opinion
-of these adventurers from across the Atlantic in forceful terms. "These
-people," said he, "think of nothing but their incessant intrigues
-and backbitings. They hate each other like the bitterest enemies, and
-endeavor to injure each other whenever an opportunity offers. Lafayette
-is the sole exception.... Lafayette is much liked and is on the best of
-terms with Washington."
-
-It was natural, therefore, that Washington, having had such a good
-account of the young Frenchman at the skirmish at Gloucester, should
-be willing to gratify his desire for a regular command in the army. So
-the commander-in-chief wrote to Congress concerning the Marquis. "There
-are now some vacant positions in the army," said Washington, "to one of
-which he may be appointed, if it should be the pleasure of Congress.
-I am convinced he possesses a large share of that military ardor that
-characterizes the nobility of his country."
-
-And Congress agreed with Washington, and voted that "the Marquis de
-Lafayette be appointed to the command of a division in the Continental
-Army." On December 4, 1777, the Frenchman was given the command of
-the Virginia division. He was twenty years old, and it was only a
-little more than a year since he had first heard from the Duke of
-Gloucester about the fight of the American farmers for liberty. He had
-accomplished a great deal in that year, and had won his spurs by pluck,
-by perseverance, and by ability.
-
-Naturally he was delighted at this evidence of the confidence that
-Washington and the American Congress placed in him. He wrote to his
-father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, the man who had tried his best to keep
-him from coming to America, "At last I have what I have always wished
-for,--the command of a division. It is weak in point of numbers; it is
-almost naked, and I must make both clothes and recruits; but I read, I
-study, I examine, I listen, I reflect, and upon the result of all this
-I make an effort to form my opinion and to put into it as much common
-sense as I can ... for I do not want to disappoint the confidence that
-the Americans have so kindly placed in me."
-
-Events were soon to test both his ability and his mettle.
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-LAFAYETTE WINS THE FRIENDSHIP OF WASHINGTON
-
-
-In December, 1777, Washington's army went into winter quarters at
-Valley Forge. That winter was to test the courage and endurance
-of the soldiers, for they were ill-clad, ill-provisioned, and the
-road to victory appeared a long and weary one. Fortunately the
-commander-in-chief was a man of intrepid soul, one who could instill
-confidence into the men about him.
-
-Lafayette quickly found that all the people of the young republic were
-not in agreement about the war. Men called Tories joined the British
-army, and in countless other ways hampered the work of Congress.
-Business was at such a standstill that it was almost impossible to
-obtain clothing, shoes, and the other supplies that were so urgently
-needed, and as Congress had no power to impose and collect taxes
-it was hard to raise any money. The different states had each its
-jealousies of the others and each its own ends to serve, and indeed in
-1777 the union was so loosely knitted that it was a wonder that it held
-together at all.
-
-Washington had chosen Valley Forge as his winter quarters because from
-there he could watch the enemy, keep the British to their own picket
-lines, and cut off supplies going into Philadelphia. Otherwise, however,
-the place had little to recommend it. The farmhouses in the neighborhood
-could hold only a few of the two thousand men who were on the sick-list,
-whose shoeless feet were torn and frozen from marching and who were ill
-from hunger and exposure. For the rest the soldiers had to build their
-own shelters, and they cut logs in the woods, covered them with mud,
-and made them into huts, each of which had to house fourteen men. There
-the American troops, lacking necessary food and blankets, shivered and
-almost starved during the long winter.
-
-There were times when Washington would have liked to make a sortie or
-an attack on the enemy, but his men were not in condition for it.
-Constantly he wrote to Congress, urging relief for his army. Once a
-number of members of Congress paid a visit to Valley Forge, and later
-sent a remonstrance to the commander-in-chief, urging him not to keep
-his army in idleness but to march on Philadelphia. To this Washington
-answered, "I can assure those gentlemen that it is a much easier and
-less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room, by
-a good fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under
-frost and snow, without clothes or blankets. However, although they seem
-to have little feeling for the naked and distressed soldiers, I feel
-superabundantly for them; and from my soul I pity those miseries, which
-it is neither in my power to relieve nor prevent."
-
-All those hardships Lafayette also shared, setting his men an example of
-patience and fortitude that did much to help them through the rigorous
-winter, and winning again and again the praise of his commander for his
-devotion.
-
-In the meantime some men of influence, known as the "Conway Cabal,"
-from the name of one of the leaders, plotted to force Washington from
-the chief command, and put General Greene in his place. They wanted
-to use Lafayette as a catspaw, and decided that the first step was to
-separate him from Washington's influence. With this object in view they
-planned an invasion of Canada, the command of the expedition to be given
-to Lafayette. But Lafayette saw through the plotting, and refused to
-lead the expedition except under Washington's orders and with De Kalb
-as his second in command. He also showed where he stood when he was
-invited to York to meet some of the members of Congress and generals who
-were opposing his leader. At a dinner given in his honor he rose, and,
-lifting his glass, proposed a toast to "The health of George Washington,
-our noble commander-in-chief!" The party had to drink the toast, and
-they saw that the Frenchman was not to be swerved from his loyalty to
-his chief.
-
-Congress had decided on the expedition to Canada, though the
-conspirators now saw that their plot had failed, and so Lafayette
-set out for Albany in February, 1778, to take command of the army
-of invasion. But when he got there he found that nothing had been
-done by way of preparation, and that none of those in authority were
-able to help him. Twelve hundred ill-provided men were all he could
-raise, altogether too few and too poorly armed for such an ambitious
-enterprise. Very much disappointed, he had to give up the idea of
-leading such an army. More and more he grew convinced that all the hopes
-of America rested on Washington.
-
-That Washington might know his feelings, Lafayette wrote to him. "Take
-away for an instant," he said, "that modest diffidence of yourself
-(which, pardon my freedom, my dear general, is sometimes too great,
-and I wish you could know, as well as myself, what difference there is
-between you and any other man), and you would see very plainly that, if
-you were lost for America, there is no one who could keep the army and
-the revolution for six months.... I am now fixed to your fate, and I
-shall follow it and sustain it as well by my sword as by all means in my
-power. You will pardon my importunity in favor of the sentiment which
-dictated it."
-
-Washington was no less devoted to Lafayette. When the latter returned
-disappointed from Albany the commander said to him, "However sensibly
-your ardor for glory may make you feel this disappointment you may be
-assured that your character stands as fair as it ever did, and that no
-new enterprise is necessary to wipe off an imaginary stain."
-
-And Washington's view was now so strongly held by Congress that it
-immediately voted that it had "a high sense of the prudence, activity,
-and zeal of the Marquis de Lafayette," and that it was "fully persuaded
-nothing has, or would have been, wanting on his part or on the part
-of the officers who accompanied him to give the expedition the utmost
-possible effect."
-
-Lafayette went back to Valley Forge to cheer his soldiers, and there,
-early in May, 1778, news came that Benjamin Franklin had succeeded in
-his efforts in France and that the government of Louis XVI. had decided
-on "armed interference" in the affairs of America, and that a treaty of
-alliance had been signed between the United States and the French king.
-
-The army at Valley Forge was wild with delight at this news. How it must
-have cheered Lafayette to know that his own country now stood with the
-young republic of the west! Washington proclaimed a holiday and held a
-review of his troops. Then the commander planned a new and more vigorous
-campaign.
-
-The British, now foreseeing possible French as well as American attack,
-decided to give up Philadelphia and fall back on New York. Washington
-learned of this, and in order to keep a check on the movements of his
-opponents, he sent Lafayette with a strong force of two thousand picked
-men to keep as close to the British lines as possible.
-
-Lafayette joyfully led his command to a ridge called Barren Hill that
-overlooked the Schuylkill. From here he could watch the road from
-Philadelphia, and he at once fortified his camp. British scouts brought
-reports of this to their generals, and the latter decided it would
-be a capital plan to defeat the Frenchman's forces and capture the
-Marquis. This they considered so easy to accomplish that Generals Howe
-and Clinton sent out invitations to their friends to a dinner at their
-headquarters "to meet Monsieur the Marquis de Lafayette."
-
-On the morning of May twentieth eight thousand British and Hessian
-soldiers with fifteen pieces of artillery marched out of Philadelphia
-by one road to take Lafayette in the rear, while by another road a
-force of grenadiers and cavalry marched to attack his right wing, and
-a third column, commanded by Generals Howe and Clinton in person, with
-the admiral, Lord Howe, accompanying them as a volunteer, took a third
-road to attack the Marquis in front. In this way the enemy forces were
-completely surrounding the American position, except on the side of the
-river, by which they considered escape impossible.
-
-Lafayette was talking with a young woman who had agreed to go into
-Philadelphia and try to obtain information on the pretext of visiting
-her relations there, when word was brought him that redcoats had been
-seen in the rear. He was expecting a small force of dragoons, and his
-first idea was that it was these who were approaching. But, being
-a prudent commander, he at once sent out scouts, and these quickly
-reported the advance of a large force. Immediately he made a change of
-front under cover of the stone houses and the woods. Then messengers
-dashed up with news of the real state of affairs. His little command was
-about to be attacked in a three-cornered fight by an overwhelming number
-of the enemy.
-
-It was a ticklish position, and Lafayette came within a hair's breadth
-of being trapped and captured. His men called out to him that he was
-completely surrounded. In the confusion of the moment he had to keep on
-smiling, as he afterward said. It was a test fit to try the skill of a
-much more experienced general than the young Frenchman. But this one had
-studied his ground thoroughly, and lost not a moment in deciding on his
-course. Back of his men was a road, hidden from the British by trees,
-which led to a little-used crossing known as Matson's Ford, a place
-unknown to the enemy, though they were, as a matter of fact, much nearer
-to it than Lafayette was.
-
-The Marquis quickly threw out "false heads of columns," that is, a few
-men here and there, who were to march through the woods at different
-points, and give the impression that his whole army was advancing to
-battle. The British general saw these "false heads" and, taking them
-to be the advance guards of the Americans, halted to form his lines.
-Meantime Lafayette sent all his other troops at the double-quick down
-the hidden road and across the ford, bringing up the rear himself and
-waiting until he was joined by the men who had formed the false columns.
-
-The small American army was almost all across the ford before the
-enemy realized his mistake and began to attack. Then, as the three
-British columns climbed the hill to crush the Americans according to
-their plans, they met only each other. They tried to make an attack on
-Lafayette's rear, but by that time he was out of their reach. He crossed
-the Schuylkill and reached the camp at Valley Forge without the loss of
-a single man, to the great delight and relief of Washington, who had
-heard of the danger in which Lafayette stood and had ordered signal guns
-fired to warn him of it.
-
-Lafayette had a good story to tell the commander-in-chief on his return.
-A small body of Indian warriors had been stationed in ambush to attack
-any stray parties of the enemy. As the Indians lay in the bushes they
-saw a company of grenadiers in tall bearskin hats and scarlet coats
-coming up the road. Never having seen such men as these before the
-Indians were seized with terror, threw down their arms, and yelling as
-loud as they could, made a dash for the river. The grenadiers, on their
-part, seeing the painted faces and hearing the yells, thought they had
-come on a crowd of devils, and hurried away as fast as they could in the
-opposite direction.
-
-Washington complimented Lafayette on what had really amounted to a
-victory, the bringing his men in safety from an attack by overwhelming
-forces, and advised Congress of the Frenchman's "timely and handsome
-retreat in great order."
-
-And so Generals Howe and Clinton were unable to present to their guests
-at the dinner at their headquarters that evening "Monsieur the Marquis
-de Lafayette," as they had intended.
-
-If the British generals meant to use their armies in the field it was
-clear that they could not stay in Philadelphia indefinitely. As Franklin
-said, instead of their having taken Philadelphia, Philadelphia had
-taken them. They had spent the winter there in idleness, and unless
-they purposed to spend the summer there in the same fashion they must
-be on the move. Washington foresaw this, and called a council of war
-to decide on plans for his forces, and at this council General Charles
-Lee, who was then second in command, insisted that the Americans were
-not strong enough to offer effective opposition to the enemy, although
-Generals Greene, Wayne, Cadwalader, and Lafayette expressed contrary
-opinions. Then, early in the morning of June 18, 1778, General Howe's
-army evacuated Philadelphia, and crossed the Delaware on their way to
-New York.
-
-Washington instantly prepared to follow. General Maxwell was sent out
-in advance with a division of militia to impede the enemy's progress
-by burning bridges and throwing trees across the roads. The bulk of
-the American army followed, and when they arrived near Princeton, in
-New Jersey, Washington called another council. Here Lafayette made a
-stirring plea for immediate action. But Lee again opposed this, and the
-council decided, against Washington's own judgment, not to bring on a
-general engagement with the enemy.
-
-Almost immediately, however, the advance of General Clinton threatened
-one of the American detachments, and Lee was ordered to check this.
-He declined to do so, saying it was contrary to the decision of the
-council of war. At once the command was given to Lafayette, who took the
-appointment with the greatest eagerness.
-
-But the Marquis had hardly more than planned his advance when General
-Lee interfered again. The latter saw that if the movement was successful
-all the honor of it would go to Lafayette, and this was not at all
-according to his wishes. So he appealed to Washington to replace him in
-his command, and also went to Lafayette and asked the latter to retire
-in his favor. "I place my fortune and my honor in your hands," he said;
-"you are too generous to destroy both the one and the other."
-
-He was right; Lafayette was too chivalrous to refuse such a request.
-Lee had placed Washington in an awkward situation, but the Frenchman's
-tact and good-feeling, qualities which had already greatly endeared him
-to all the Americans he had met, relieved the commander-in-chief of
-the need of offending Lee. Lafayette immediately wrote to Washington,
-"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 useful to
-the good of the service and the honor of General Lee to send him down
-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."
-
-No wonder Washington liked a man who could be so unselfish as that! He
-gave the command back to Lee, and arranged that Lafayette should lead
-the advance.
-
-Early the following morning Washington ordered an attack on the British
-at Monmouth Court House, and on June 28, 1778, the battle of Monmouth
-was fought. The result might have been very different if Lafayette, and
-not Lee, had been in command. For Lee delayed, and when he did finally
-move forward he assaulted what he thought was a division of the enemy,
-but what turned out to be the main body. He was driven back, tried
-another attack, got his officers confused by his contradictory orders,
-and at last gave the word for a retreat, which threatened to become a
-rout. At this point Washington rode up, questioned the officers, got no
-satisfactory answer as to what had happened, and was so indignant that
-when he reached General Lee he took the latter to task in the strongest
-terms. Then he gave instant orders to make a stand, and by his superb
-control of the situation succeeded in having his men repulse all further
-attacks.
-
-Lafayette meantime had led his cavalry in a charge, had done his best
-to stem the retreat, and when Washington arrived reformed his line upon
-a hill, and with the aid of a battery drove back the British. By his
-efforts and those of the commander-in-chief the day was finally partly
-saved and the American army man[oe]uvred out of disaster.
-
-Night came on and the troops camped where they were. Washington, wrapped
-in his cloak, slept at the foot of a tree, with Lafayette beside him.
-And when they woke in the morning they found that the enemy had stolen
-away, leaving their wounded behind them.
-
-So the honors of war at Monmouth, in spite of General Lee, lay with
-Washington. The enemy, however, escaped across New Jersey and reached
-New York without any further attacks by the Americans.
-
-When Sir Henry Clinton arrived near Sandy Hook he found the English
-fleet riding at anchor in the lower bay, having just come from the
-Delaware. Heavy storms had broken through the narrow strip of sand that
-connects Sandy Hook with the mainland, and it was now divided by a deep
-channel. A bridge was made of the ships' boats, and Clinton's army
-crossed over to the Hook, and was distributed on Long Island, Staten
-Island, and in New York. In the meantime Washington moved his troops
-from Monmouth to Paramus, where the Americans rested.
-
-Now a French fleet of fourteen frigates and twelve battle-ships, under
-the command of Count d'Estaing, reached the mouth of the Delaware at
-about that time. Monsieur Gérard, the minister sent to the United
-States by the court of France, and Silas Deane, were on board, and when
-D'Estaing heard that Lord Howe's squadron had left the Delaware he sent
-Gérard and Deane up to Philadelphia in a frigate, and sailed along the
-coast to Sandy Hook, where he saw the English fleet at anchor inside.
-He had considerable advantage over Lord Howe in point of strength,
-and at once prepared to attack the enemy squadron. Anticipating this,
-Washington crossed the Hudson River at King's Ferry, and on July
-twentieth took up a position at White Plains.
-
-The French fleet, however, could not make the attack. They could find no
-pilots who were willing to take the large ships into New York harbor,
-for all the pilots agreed that there was not enough water there, and the
-French admiral's own soundings confirmed their opinion.
-
-Washington and D'Estaing therefore agreed on a joint expedition against
-Newport, in Rhode Island. Washington sent orders to General Sullivan at
-Providence to ask the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode
-Island to supply enough militia to make up an army of five thousand men.
-At the same time he sent Lafayette with two thousand men from the Hudson
-to Providence to support the French naval attack.
-
-On July twenty-ninth the French fleet reached Point Judith and anchored
-about five miles from Newport. General Sullivan and Lafayette and some
-other officers went on board to make plans for the joint attack. The
-British troops numbered about six thousand men, and they were strongly
-intrenched. The allies had some four thousand men on the French ships
-and between nine and ten thousand Americans at Providence.
-
-Disputes arose as to the best plan of campaign; it was argued whether
-the men of the two nations would fight better separately or together.
-Then the English fleet appeared in the distance, and D'Estaing,
-considering that it was his chief business to destroy the enemy
-squadron, at once stood out to sea. A violent storm came up, driving the
-two fleets apart, and doing great damage to ships on both sides. When
-the storm subsided D'Estaing insisted on sailing his fleet to Boston to
-make needed repairs, and so the joint expedition came to an end, without
-having struck a blow. General Sullivan's plans were in confusion.
-Lafayette rode to Boston and begged the French admiral to come back as
-soon as he could. At last D'Estaing promised to land his sailors and
-march them overland to Newport; but before he could do this the British
-were strongly reinforced, and Lafayette had to gallop back to protect
-his own rear-guard forces. The Americans were in peril, but again, as at
-Monmouth, he was able to save them from defeat.
-
-There was great disappointment over the failure of the attack on
-Newport, and this was increased by the feeling that there had been
-disputes between the American and French commanders. Lafayette had
-all he could do to make each side appreciate the other. In this he
-was greatly helped by Washington, who wrote to both the French and
-the American generals, soothing their discontent, patching up their
-differences, and urging future union for the sake of the common cause.
-
-It was now autumn, and there was little prospect of a further campaign
-that year. Wearied by the many misunderstandings, distressed by the
-failure of the joint attack, homesick and sad over the news of the death
-of his little daughter in France, Lafayette decided to ask for a leave
-of absence and go back to France on furlough. In October he reached
-Philadelphia and presented his request. Washington, much as he disliked
-to lose Lafayette's services even for a short time, seconded his
-wishes. And Congress, which only sixteen months before had hesitated
-to accept his services, now did all it could to pay him the greatest
-honor. It thanked him for his high assistance and zeal, it directed
-the American minister in Paris to present him with a sword of honor,
-and it ordered its best war-ship, the frigate _Alliance_, to convey
-him to France. Henry Laurens, the president of Congress, wrote to King
-Louis XVI. that Congress could not allow Lafayette to depart without
-testifying its appreciation of his courage, devotion, patience, and the
-uniform excellence of conduct which had won the confidence of the United
-States and the affection of its citizens.
-
-And finally Monsieur Gérard, the French minister at Philadelphia, wrote
-to his government in Paris, "You know how little inclined I am to
-flattery, but I cannot resist saying that the prudent, courageous, and
-amiable conduct of the Marquis de Lafayette has made him the idol of the
-Congress, the army, and the people of America."
-
-With words like these ringing in his ears, Lafayette said good-bye to
-George Washington in October, 1778, and rode away from camp, bound for
-Boston, where he was to board the frigate _Alliance_.
-
-
-
-
-VII
-
-THE FRENCHMAN IN THE FIELD AGAIN
-
-
-Lafayette, on his way to board the _Alliance_, rode into the town
-of Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, and there fell ill of fever. He had been
-entertained by people all the way from Philadelphia to the camp on the
-Hudson, and these constant receptions, combined with chilly and wet
-weather, brought on malaria. The Marquis was very sick; Washington
-rode daily from his camp eight miles away to inquire about Lafayette's
-condition, and insisted on his own physician taking charge of the
-patient. And when the young Frenchman recovered the commander-in-chief
-sent his physician on to Boston with him, and wrote him, "I am
-persuaded, my dear marquis, that there is no need of fresh proofs to
-convince you either of my affection for you personally or of the high
-opinion I entertain of your military talents and merit."
-
-The strongest affection bound these two men, so different in many
-respects, so alike in their love of liberty and honor. On board his ship
-in Boston Harbor Lafayette added a postscript to a letter to Washington.
-"The sails are just going to be hoisted, my dear general," he said,
-"and I have but time to take my last leave of you.... Farewell. I hope
-your French friend will ever be dear to you; I hope I shall soon see
-you again, and tell you myself with what emotion I now leave the coast
-you inhabit and with what affection and respect I am forever, my dear
-general, your respectful and sincere friend, Lafayette."
-
-On January 11, 1779, the _Alliance_ sailed for France, having had so
-much difficulty in making up its crew that a number of English prisoners
-and deserters had been pressed into service as sailors. This makeshift
-crew came very near to proving disastrous for the Marquis. An English
-law offered to pay the full value of any American ship to the crew that
-would bring it into an English port, and there were considerably more
-English prisoners and deserters in the crew of the _Alliance_ than there
-were American and French sailors. The _Alliance_ was approaching the
-French coast, having just weathered a storm, when a sailor ran into
-the cabin where the officers were sitting. He said that the prisoners
-and deserters who had been pressed into service had planned a mutiny,
-and that, taking him for an Irishman, they had offered him the command
-in case of success. A lookout was to give the signal "Sail ho!" and as
-the officers came on deck in a group they were to be shot down by cannon
-loaded with grape-shot and the ship sailed into an English port, where
-the mutineers would divide the profits. The loyal American sailor said
-that the signal would be given in about an hour.
-
-Immediately the officers seized their swords, and, rushing on deck,
-called the Americans and Frenchmen together. The thirty-three mutineers,
-taken by surprise, were captured and clapped into irons, and the rest of
-the crew sailed the _Alliance_ into the French harbor of Brest a week
-later.
-
-Here Lafayette was welcomed with delight. The young fellow who had run
-away to sea in the _Victory_ was returning like a hero in a war-ship
-of the new American republic. In triumph he landed at Brest, and as he
-hurried to Paris to see his family he was greeted by joyful crowds
-all along his route. He stopped at the royal palace of Versailles, and
-his old friend Marie Antoinette came out into the gardens to hear him
-tell his adventures. King Louis sent for him, and ordered him under
-arrest as a deserter, but with a twinkling eye declared that his prison
-should be his father-in-law's great house in Paris, and his jailer his
-wife Adrienne. Then the King forgave him for running away to America,
-congratulated him, and, with his ministers, consulted the Marquis about
-affairs in the United States. Lafayette said, "I had the honor of being
-consulted by all the ministers and, what was a great deal better, of
-being kissed by all the women."
-
-The welcome he cared for the most was that from his wife, who had
-followed him in her thoughts all the time he had been in America, and
-had always sympathized with him and wished success for his plans. The
-Duke d'Ayen was delighted to see him and welcomed him to his house with
-open arms. Whenever the Marquis appeared on the street he was cheered by
-admiring throngs. The actors in the theatres put special words in their
-parts to honor Lafayette; poems were written about him; and the young
-man of twenty-one became the lion of Paris.
-
-In a sense he represented the connecting link in the alliance that now
-united the two countries, and that alliance was in great favor with the
-people. He also stood for that ideal of "liberty" which was rapidly
-becoming the ruling thought of France. It would have been easy for him
-to rest on his laurels now, and feel that he had accomplished all that
-was needed of him.
-
-But instead he used all this hero-worship to further his one aim--more
-help for the young republic across the sea. "In the midst of the whirl
-of excitement by which I was carried along," he said, "I never lost
-sight of the revolution, the success of which still seemed to me to
-be extremely uncertain; accustomed as I was to seeing great purposes
-accomplished with slender means, I used to say to myself that the cost
-of a single fête would have equipped the army of the United States, and
-in order to provide clothes for them I would gladly have stripped the
-palace at Versailles."
-
-With this desire to help the United States ever in his thoughts he went
-to see Benjamin Franklin, and with Franklin and the American sea-captain
-John Paul Jones he planned an expedition against England in which he
-should lead the land forces and Paul Jones command the fleet. While they
-were arranging this the French government suggested a greater plan.
-Spain was to unite with France in defense of America. Details were being
-worked out when John Paul Jones embarked in his ship, the _Bon Homme
-Richard_, and had his famous sea-fight with the _Serapis_. But the
-Spanish government delayed and at last the French gave up the idea of a
-joint attack on England.
-
-Meantime Lafayette joined the French army again and was commissioned a
-colonel of the King's Dragoons. While he was waiting at Havre he was
-presented by Franklin's grandson with the sword that the Congress of the
-United States had ordered should be given to him. It was a beautiful
-sword; the handle was of gold, exquisitely wrought, and decorated, as
-well as the blade, with figures emblematical of Lafayette's career in
-America, with his coat of arms and his motto, "_Cur non?_"
-
-And while he waited he was always impatient to be of help to his friends
-across the Atlantic. To Washington he wrote, "However happy I find
-myself in France, however well treated by my country and my king, I am
-so accustomed to being near to you, I am bound to you, to America, to my
-companions in arms by such an affection, that the moment when I sail for
-your country will be among the happiest and most wished for of my life."
-
-His great work during that year he spent in France was the winning of
-a French army, under the Count de Rochambeau, to fight by the side
-of the Americans. There was opposition to this at first, for neither
-Louis XVI. nor Marie Antoinette nor the royal princes who surrounded
-them cared to encourage the spirit of liberty too far. But the people,
-backed by their hero, Lafayette, demanded it, and at last their
-persistency won the day. The government of France decided to send an
-army, commanded by Rochambeau, lieutenant-general of the royal forces,
-with a fleet of warships and transports and six thousand soldiers, to
-the aid of America.
-
-Lafayette was sent ahead to carry the welcome news to Washington and
-Congress, and to let them know that there would be no more of the
-jealousies and disputes that had hindered the success of the French
-and Americans in the field before. For Lafayette had arranged that the
-French troops should be under Washington's orders, that they should
-accept the leadership of the American officers on the latter's own
-ground, and that officers of the United States should be recognized as
-having equal rank with those of France. This harmony that Lafayette
-secured had a great deal to do with the final successful outcome of the
-American Revolution.
-
-He sailed on the French frigate _Hermione_, and reached Boston on April
-28, 1780. The people of Boston escorted him with cheers to the house of
-Governor John Hancock on Beacon Hill. This was the same John Hancock
-who had once turned Lafayette over to Gouverneur Morris with scarcely a
-word of welcome, but he greeted him differently now. Instead of being
-an adventurous foreign recruit the Marquis was a major-general in the
-American army and the official representative of the court of France.
-
-From Boston he went to Morristown, where Washington had his
-headquarters, and there the two friends discussed the situation.
-Lafayette told of the coming of the French fleet and army, which brought
-the greatest joy to the commander-in-chief, because he could only
-speak of the hardships his soldiers had borne during the winter, the
-difficulty of securing recruits, and the general discouragement of the
-country. Greatly cheered himself, he sent Lafayette to Philadelphia to
-make his report to Congress, and set himself to the work of rousing his
-army and the people to welcome the men from France.
-
-In Philadelphia Lafayette received the thanks of Congress for his
-services in Europe, and then busied himself with the equipment of the
-army. Washington's troops certainly needed some attention. Half-fed and
-half-clothed, with only four thousand out of six thousand soldiers fit
-for duty, they presented so sorry an appearance that Lafayette said to
-the president of Congress, "though I have been directed to furnish the
-French court and the French generals with early and minute intelligence,
-I confess that pride has stopped my pen and, notwithstanding past
-promises, I have avoided entering into any details till our army is put
-in a better and more decent situation."
-
-But Washington roused Congress and the country, and by the time the
-French fleet arrived the American army was in much better condition.
-
-On July 10, 1780, the Count de Rochambeau, with the French army, reached
-Newport, and the French commander, informing Washington of his arrival,
-declared, as his government had instructed him, "We are now, sir, under
-your command."
-
-Plans had to be laid, arrangements made for the union of the French and
-American armies, and much time was taken up in military discussions. One
-of Lafayette's pet schemes was broached again, the invasion of Canada
-by the joint forces, and the details of this invasion were entrusted
-to General Benedict Arnold, who was to be in command. On September
-twentieth Washington, with Lafayette and General Knox, met the Count
-de Rochambeau and Admiral de Terney, who commanded the French fleet,
-and final arrangements were made. But at this very moment events were
-taking place which were to frustrate the scheme.
-
-For at the very moment when Washington and Rochambeau were in conference
-at Hartford Benedict Arnold and Major John André, of the British
-army, were holding a secret meeting, the object of which was to give
-Washington's plans to the enemy. It so happened that Washington, when
-he left Hartford with Knox and Lafayette, took a roundabout road in
-order to show the Marquis the fortifications which had been built at
-West Point in his absence. On the morning of September twenty-fourth the
-party of American officers arrived within a mile of the Robinson house,
-where Mrs. Benedict Arnold was expecting them at breakfast.
-
-Washington, absorbed in his work, was about to ride on when Lafayette
-reminded him of Mrs. Arnold's invitation. The commander-in-chief
-laughed. "Ah, Marquis," he said, "you young men are all in love with
-Mrs. Arnold. I see you are eager to be with her as soon as possible. Go
-and breakfast with her, and tell her not to wait for me. I must ride
-down and examine the redoubts on this side of the river, but will be
-with her shortly."
-
-Lafayette and Knox, however, preferred to ride on with the General, and
-the message was sent to the Robinson house by Colonel Hamilton and Major
-McHenry. Mrs. Arnold, who had lately joined her husband there with her
-baby, welcomed her guests and entertained them at breakfast. It was a
-trying situation for her husband, for it happened that that was the very
-day on which he was to make his final arrangements with the British.
-
-While they sat at the breakfast-table a messenger galloped up to the
-door with a letter for Arnold. He opened it and read that André had
-been captured, and the secret papers found upon him had been sent to
-Washington. Arnold rose from the table and beckoned his wife to follow
-him to her room. There he told her that he was a ruined man and must
-fly for his life. Leaving her fainting on the floor, he left the house,
-mounted the messenger's horse, and dashed down to the river through a
-ravine. There he boarded his boat, and was rowed rapidly down the river
-to the English ship _The Vulture_.
-
-Almost immediately after Arnold's hurried departure Washington,
-Lafayette, and Knox reached the Robinson house. The commander supposed
-that Arnold had gone to West Point to prepare for his reception, and,
-having eaten a hasty breakfast, Washington and his companions crossed
-the river. No salute, however, was fired at their approach, and Colonel
-Lamb, the officer in command, came and apologized, saying that he had
-received no information of Washington's visit.
-
-"Is not General Arnold here?" Washington inquired.
-
-"No, sir," said Lamb. "He has not been here for two days, nor have I
-heard from him in that time."
-
-Somewhat surprised, but still unsuspicious, Washington and the others
-spent the morning examining the works.
-
-As they rode back to the Robinson house about noon they were met by
-Colonel Hamilton, who took Washington aside, and handed him the secret
-papers that had been found on André. At once the whole plot was clear.
-Washington sent Hamilton immediately to arrest Arnold, but the Colonel
-found that the man had already flown. Then the commander-in-chief told
-the news to Lafayette and Knox, and, saying how much he had always
-trusted General Arnold, added, "Whom can we trust now?"
-
-It was Lafayette who later tried to comfort Mrs. Arnold, when the full
-realization of her husband's disgrace almost drove her to despair.
-And he sat with the other general officers at a court-martial in the
-headquarters at Tappan on the Hudson when John André, adjutant-general
-of the British army, after a fair trial, was convicted of being a spy
-and was sentenced to be hung. But Lafayette was a very generous judge,
-and wrote of André later, "He was a very interesting man; he conducted
-himself in a manner so frank, so noble, and so delicate, that I cannot
-help feeling for him an infinite pity."
-
-The treason of Benedict Arnold prevented the invasion of Canada, and
-Lafayette saw no active service for some time. He spent the autumn
-in camp on the Hudson and in New Jersey, and part of the winter in
-Philadelphia. A number of French officers had gathered here, and they,
-used to the gayeties of the most brilliant court in Europe, added much
-to the amusements of the American capital. Every one liked the French
-guests, and the foreign officers, on their part, liked and admired their
-new allies. Sometimes the self-denying seriousness of the Americans,
-which was an element of their national strength, amused and surprised
-the gayer Frenchmen. One of the latter, the Marquis de Chastellux, told
-a story about Philadelphia in his volume of "Travels." He said that at
-balls in Philadelphia it was the custom to have a Continental officer
-as the master of ceremonies, and that at one party he attended that
-position was held by a Colonel Mitchell, who showed the same devotion to
-duty in the ballroom that he showed on the field of battle. This Colonel
-saw a young girl so busily talking that she could pay little attention
-to the figures of the quadrille, so he marched up to her and said to her
-severely, "Take care what you are doing; do you suppose you are there
-for your pleasure?"
-
-Naturally the Marquis de Chastellux and his friends, fresh from the
-world of Marie Antoinette, where pleasure was always the first aim, had
-many a laugh at the people of this new world. But with the laugh there
-always went respect and admiration.
-
-So Lafayette passed the time until the campaign of 1781 opened. He wrote
-often to his wife, and sent her a long letter by his friend Colonel
-Laurens, when the latter went on a mission to the court of France.
-Another child had been born to the Marquis and Adrienne, a son, who
-was given the name of George Washington. "Embrace our children," wrote
-Lafayette, "thousands of times for me. Although a vagabond, their father
-is none the less tender, less constantly thoughtful of them, less happy
-to hear from them. My heart perceives, as in a delicious perspective,
-the moment when my dear children will be presented to me by you, and
-when we can kiss and caress them together. Do you think that Anastasie
-will recognize me?" And, as he could never write without thinking of the
-brave army he commanded, he added, "Only _citizens_ could support the
-nakedness, the hunger, the labors, and the absolute lack of pay which
-constitute the conditions of our soldiers, the most enduring and the
-most patient, I believe, of any in the world."
-
-In January, 1781, word came to Washington's headquarters that General
-Benedict Arnold had landed in Virginia with a good-sized army, was
-laying waste the country, and had already destroyed the valuable stores
-collected at Richmond. If Arnold's campaign should succeed the result
-would be to place all the Southern States in the hands of the enemy.
-Let him defeat the few American troops in Virginia and he could march
-to join the English General Cornwallis, who was pressing General Greene
-very hard in the Carolinas.
-
-Indeed Cornwallis already appeared to hold the south in his grasp. He
-had beaten the small contingents of American troops in that country,
-and at the battle of Camden, in South Carolina, Lafayette's old
-companion, the Baron de Kalb, had fallen in battle. It was of the
-utmost importance, therefore, to defeat or capture Arnold, who had been
-rewarded for his treason by being made a general in the British army,
-and Washington at once planned to send a detachment from his main army
-against Arnold by land, and a naval force to Chesapeake Bay to cut off
-his escape by sea. The French admiral ordered a ship-of-the-line and
-two frigates to the Chesapeake, and Washington placed twelve hundred
-light infantry under Lafayette with instructions to aid the fleet.
-This command, of the greatest importance, showed the confidence and
-trust that the commander-in-chief felt in the military ability of the
-Frenchman.
-
-Lafayette marched rapidly south and reached the Head of the Elk on March
-second, three days earlier than had been expected. Here he embarked
-his troops on small boats and descended to Annapolis. Seeing no signs
-of the French squadron, he concluded that they had been delayed by
-adverse winds, and, leaving his army at Annapolis, he went with a few
-officers to consult with Baron Steuben and seek his aid. He secured some
-companies of militia at Williamsburg, near the York River, and proceeded
-to the camp of General Muhlenberg, near Suffolk, to have a look at
-Benedict Arnold's defenses at Portsmouth.
-
-Meantime a large fleet appeared in Chesapeake Bay. Lafayette, and Arnold
-also, thought that this must be the French squadron, but the American
-commander soon received word that the ships were English. It turned
-out that the first French squadron had found there was too little water
-in the bay for them, and had sailed back to Newport, while a second
-squadron had been driven off by the English. The result was that General
-Arnold's forces were relieved from danger, and the enemy reinforced by
-two new regiments under General Phillips, who now took command of all
-the English armies in Virginia.
-
-Washington's orders to Lafayette had been that he was to try to capture
-Arnold, and that if the French fleet should be defeated he should march
-his men back to headquarters without further risk. So he now sent his
-militia to Williamsburg and forwarded orders to Annapolis to have the
-troops prepared for immediate departure. When he reached Annapolis he
-found there were great difficulties in the way of transporting his men
-to Elk. There were very few horses or wagons or small boats for crossing
-the ferries, and the port was blocked by English ships. He had resort
-to a clever stratagem. He put two eighteen-pounders on a small sloop,
-which, with another ship under Commodore Nicholson, sailed out toward
-the enemy vessels, firing their guns as if about to attack. The two
-English ships on guard withdrew a considerable distance down the bay,
-and then Lafayette embarked his troops on his own boats and got them out
-of the harbor and up the bay to Elk. They reached there safely during
-the night, followed by Lafayette and Nicholson in the sloop.
-
-When Washington heard of General Phillips' arrival in Virginia his
-anxiety was great. The situation in the south was extremely perilous.
-General Greene was having all he could do to oppose Lord Cornwallis
-in North Carolina. Unless strong opposition could be brought against
-Phillips the latter could quickly overrun Virginia and unite with
-Cornwallis. In this predicament the commander-in-chief determined to put
-the defense of Virginia in the hands of Lafayette.
-
-Lafayette heard of this new appointment as soon as he reached Elk. The
-task was a great one. His men lacked proper equipment and even necessary
-clothing, and they were much disheartened by the unsuccessful campaign
-in the south. He borrowed ten thousand dollars from the merchants
-of Baltimore on his personal security and bought his army food and
-supplies. Then he told his men that his business was to fight an enemy
-greatly superior in numbers, through difficulties of every sort, and
-that any soldier who was unwilling to accompany him might avoid the
-penalties of desertion by applying for a pass to the North. His men,
-placed on their mettle, stood by him cheerfully. Immediately Lafayette
-marched on Richmond, reaching that place a day ahead of General
-Phillips. And General Phillips was so much impressed by Lafayette's
-show of strength that he gave up his intention of seizing Richmond and
-retreated down the James River.
-
-Cornwallis heard of this, and, vowing that he would defeat "that boy
-Lafayette," as he called the Marquis, stopped his campaign against
-Greene in North Carolina and determined that he would himself take
-command in Virginia. Cornwallis, a major-general and an officer of great
-experience, expected an easy task when he sent word to Phillips to await
-his arrival at the town of Petersburg.
-
-When he heard that Cornwallis was moving north and that Phillips was
-on the march Lafayette guessed that they intended to join forces, and
-hurried toward Petersburg to prevent it. Phillips, however, was nearer
-to that town and reached it before Lafayette, who was obliged to fall
-back on Richmond, but who sent out Colonel Gimat, with artillery, to
-keep the enemy busy.
-
-On May thirteenth General Phillips died at Petersburg. It was before
-this general's guns that Lafayette's father had fallen at the battle
-of Hastenbeck. Benedict Arnold was second in command, and on taking
-Phillips' place he sent a letter to Lafayette under a flag of truce.
-When the latter learned the name of the writer he at once informed the
-men who brought Arnold's communication that while he would be glad
-to treat with any other English officer he could not read a message
-from this one. This placed General Arnold in a difficult position
-and was resented by a threat to send all American prisoners to the
-West Indies. But when the people heard of it they were delighted, and
-Washington wrote to the Marquis, "Your conduct upon every occasion
-meets my approbation, but in none more than in your refusing to hold a
-correspondence with Arnold."
-
-On May 24, 1781, Cornwallis, having joined his army to that of Arnold
-at Petersburg and having rested his men, marched out with his whole
-force to attack Lafayette at Richmond. At Byrd's Plantation, where the
-British commander had his quarters, he wrote of his opponent, "The boy
-cannot escape me."
-
-Lafayette, on his part, knew that his enemy had a fine fighting
-force, and that he must be wary to avoid him. The Marquis said, "Lord
-Cornwallis marches with amazing celerity. But I have done everything
-I could, without arms or men, at least to impede him by local
-embarrassments."
-
-And he did embarrass the Earl. He led him a dance through the country
-about Richmond, he retreated across the Chickahominy River to
-Fredericksburg, time and again he just escaped the swiftly pursuing
-British. He knew he could not venture on fighting without the aid of
-more troops, and he kept up his retreat until he was joined by General
-Wayne with Pennsylvania soldiers on June tenth. Then he planned to take
-the offensive, and rapidly crossed the Rapidan River in the direction of
-Cornwallis.
-
-Cornwallis would have liked a direct battle with the Americans, but
-again Lafayette proved wary. While the British army blocked the road to
-Albemarle, Lafayette discovered an old unused road and under cover of
-night marched his men along it and took up a strong position before the
-town. There militia joined him from the neighboring mountains, and he
-was able to show so strong a front that the British commander did not
-dare to attack him. In his turn Cornwallis retreated, first to Richmond
-and then to Williamsburg, near the coast, and left the greater part of
-Virginia in the control of the Americans.
-
-Lafayette now became the pursuer instead of the pursued, and harried
-Cornwallis on the rear and flanks. The famous cavalry officer, Colonel
-Tarleton, serving under Cornwallis, described the pursuit: "The Marquis
-de Lafayette, who had previously practised defensive man[oe]uvres with
-skill and security, being now reinforced by General Wayne and about
-eight hundred Continentals and some detachments of militia, followed
-the British as they proceeded down the James River. This design,
-being judiciously arranged and executed with extreme caution, allowed
-opportunity for the junction of Baron Steuben, confined the small
-detachments of the King's troops, and both saved the property and
-animated the drooping spirits of the Virginians."
-
-Lafayette was proving that Washington's confidence in him was well
-placed and showing himself an extraordinarily able commander in the
-field.
-
-At Williamsburg Cornwallis received word from General Clinton in New
-York that a part of the British troops in Virginia were to be sent
-north. In order to embark these troops he set out for Portsmouth on
-July fourth. Knowing that the enemy would be obliged to cross the James
-River at James Island, Lafayette decided to attack their rear as soon as
-a considerable number should have passed the ford. Cornwallis foresaw
-this, and sending his baggage-wagons across arranged his men to surprise
-the Americans.
-
-Toward sunset on July sixth Lafayette crossed the causeways that led to
-the British position and opened an attack. General Wayne, whose popular
-nickname was "Mad Anthony," led the advance with a thousand riflemen,
-dragoons, and two pieces of artillery. Lafayette, with twelve hundred
-infantry, was ready to support him. But at Wayne's first advance he
-found that the whole British army was before him; he attacked with
-the greatest vigor; Lafayette, however, realizing that Cornwallis had
-prepared a surprise, ordered a retreat to General Muhlenberg's station a
-half mile in the rear. Had Cornwallis pursued he must have defeated the
-American forces, which had to cross long log bridges over marshy land,
-but in his turn he feared an ambush, and was content to bring his men
-safely across the James and proceed to Portsmouth.
-
-The British were now at Portsmouth and the rest of Virginia in the
-Americans' hands. Lafayette wrote a description of the situation to
-Washington, and added, "Should a French fleet now come into Hampton
-Roads, the British army would, I think, be ours." Hardly had his letter
-reached Washington when a French ship arrived at Newport with word that
-the fleet of the French Count de Grasse had left the West Indies bound
-for Chesapeake Bay. Instantly Washington saw that he ought not now to
-direct his attack against Clinton in New York, but against Cornwallis
-in Virginia.
-
-Cornwallis, wanting to take up a strong position with easy access to
-the sea, began to move his army to Yorktown on August first. At the
-same time Lafayette arranged his forces so as to cut off any retreat
-of the enemy. And while this was going on, and the fleet of the Count
-de Grasse was nearing the coast, Washington and Rochambeau met in the
-old Livingston manor-house at Dobb's Ferry on the Hudson on August
-fourteenth and planned their joint campaign against Yorktown.
-
-Then the two armies marched south. The Continental troops, many ragged
-and poorly armed, but with green sprigs in their caps, passed through
-Philadelphia on September second, and the French, more sprucely and
-gaily uniformed, followed them the next day. On September twelfth
-Washington reached Mount Vernon, which he had not seen for six years,
-and there entertained Rochambeau and other French officers. Two days
-later he took command of the allied forces at Williamsburg, and on the
-seventeenth visited De Grasse on his flag-ship, and completed plans for
-the siege. The army held the mainland, the French fleet blocked the
-path to the sea, and Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown.
-
-The end of the drama came swiftly. The American and French entrenchments
-drew closer and closer to the British lines until they were only three
-hundred yards apart. Then, on October fourteenth, Lafayette's men, led
-by Colonel Alexander Hamilton, charged the British works on the left,
-while the French grenadiers stormed a redoubt on the right. The outer
-works were won in this attack, which proved to be the last battle of the
-Revolution.
-
-The next night Cornwallis tried to cut his way out from Yorktown and
-escape across the York River to Gloucester. Watchful outposts drove him
-back. On October seventeenth a British drummer appeared on Yorktown's
-ramparts and beat a parley. An American and a French officer met two
-British officers at a farmhouse, and articles of surrender were drawn
-up and accepted. Two days later, on October 19, 1781, the army of
-Cornwallis marched out of Yorktown and passed between the American and
-French troops, commanded respectively by Washington and Rochambeau.
-
-The French officer who had prepared the articles of surrender at the
-farmhouse was Lafayette's brother-in-law, the Vicomte de Noailles, one
-of the two young men to whom Lafayette had taken the word that he meant
-to go "to America to fight for liberty!" Now the Vicomte saw that the
-ardent hopes of the young enthusiast had borne such glorious fruit!
-
-There stands a monument on the heights above the York River, in
-Virginia, and on one side of it are these words: "At York, on October
-19, 1781, after a siege of nineteen days, by 5,500 American and 7,000
-French Troops of the Line, 3,500 Virginia Militia under command of
-General Thomas Nelson and 36 French ships of war, Earl Cornwallis,
-Commander of the British Forces at York and Gloucester, surrendered his
-army, 7,251 officers and men, 840 seamen, 244 cannons and 24 standards
-to His Excellency George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Combined
-Forces of America and France, to His Excellency the Comte de Rochambeau,
-commanding the auxiliary Troops of His Most Christian Majesty in
-America, and to His Excellency the Comte de Grasse, commanding in chief
-the Naval Army of France in Chesapeake."
-
-It was largely due to Lafayette that the French fleet and the army of
-Rochambeau had crossed the ocean and that the Americans in Virginia had
-succeeded in bottling up Cornwallis at Yorktown and so bringing an end
-to the Revolution. Close to Washington he must forever stand as one of
-the great men who won liberty for the United States!
-
-
-
-
-VIII
-
-THE MARQUIS AIDS THE UNITED STATES IN FRANCE
-
-
-Word of the surrender at Yorktown was received all through the thirteen
-States with the greatest joy. Watchmen calling the hours of the night
-in the cities cried, "Twelve o'clock! All's well, and Cornwallis has
-surrendered!" Everywhere the people hailed this event as heralding the
-close of the long and distressing war. When one thinks of what they had
-endured since 1775 there is no wonder at the hymns of thanksgiving.
-And a ship at once sailed across the Atlantic to France with the glad
-tidings.
-
-The surrender at Yorktown did mark the beginning of the end of the
-Revolution, though the conflict went on in a desultory fashion for two
-years more, and it was not until November 25, 1783, that the British
-evacuated New York City. But after Yorktown many of the French officers
-went home, and among them Lafayette. He wrote to the French minister,
-"The play is over, Monsieur le comte; the fifth act has just come to
-an end. I was somewhat disturbed during the former acts, but my heart
-rejoices exceedingly at this last, and I have no less pleasure in
-congratulating you upon the happy ending of our campaign."
-
-Both Lafayette and Congress felt that the Marquis could now help the
-country greatly by his presence in France in case more men and money
-should be needed for further campaigns. So, with Washington's approval,
-Congress agreed that "Major-General the Marquis de Lafayette have
-permission to go to France and that he return at such time as shall be
-most convenient to him." And Congress also voted that Lafayette "be
-informed that, on a review of his conduct throughout the past campaign
-and particularly during the period in which he had the chief command in
-Virginia, the many new proofs which present themselves of his zealous
-attachment to the cause he has espoused, and of his judgment, vigilance,
-gallantry, and address in its defense, have greatly added to the high
-opinion entertained by Congress of his merits and military talents."
-
-He took his leave of Washington, the man he admired more than any other
-in the world, and the commander-in-chief, who looked on the young
-Frenchman as if the latter was his own son, said in his dignified
-fashion, "I owe it to your friendship and to my affectionate regard for
-you, my dear marquis, not to let you leave this country without carrying
-with you fresh marks of my attachment to you and new expressions of the
-high sense I entertain of your military conduct and other important
-services in the course of the last campaign, although the latter are too
-well known to need the testimony of my approbation, and the former, I
-persuade myself, you believe is too well riveted to undergo diminution
-or change."
-
-The Frenchman was not so reserved as the American. His ardent spirit
-shows in the letter he wrote his commander. "Adieu, my dear general," he
-said. "I know your heart so well that I am sure that no distance can
-alter your attachment to me. With the same candor I assure you that my
-love, my respect, my gratitude for you are above expression; that, at
-the moment of leaving you, I feel more than ever the struggle of those
-friendly ties that forever bind me to you, and that I anticipate the
-pleasure, the most wished-for pleasure, to be again with you, and, by my
-zeal and services, to gratify the feelings of my respect and affection."
-
-On December 23, 1781, Lafayette sailed from Boston on the same frigate
-_Alliance_ that had carried him back to France the first time. He was
-to be received in his native land like a conquering hero. Already
-Vergennes, the Secretary of State of France, had written to him. "Our
-joy is very great here and throughout the nation," said Vergennes, "and
-you may be assured that your name is held in veneration.... I have been
-following you, M. le Marquis, step by step, throughout your campaign in
-Virginia; and I should frequently have been anxious for your welfare if
-I had not been confident of your wisdom. It required a great deal of
-skill to maintain yourself, as you did, for so long a time, in spite of
-the disparity of your forces, before Lord Cornwallis, whose military
-talents are well known. It was you who brought him to the fatal ending,
-where, instead of his making you a prisoner of war, as he probably
-expected to do, you forced him to surrender."
-
-He landed in France on January 17, 1782. If his former arrival had been
-a succession of triumphs, this one was doubly so. When he reached the
-house of the Duke de Noailles in Paris his wife was attending a fête
-at the Hôtel de Ville in honor of the birth of the Dauphin. As soon as
-his arrival became known the Queen took Madame de Lafayette in her own
-carriage and went with her to welcome the Marquis. Louis XVI. announced
-that he had promoted Lafayette to the high rank of "Maréchal de camp,"
-and wrote to him, through his minister of war, "The King, having been
-informed, sir, of the military skill of which you have given repeated
-proof in the command of the various army corps entrusted to you in
-America, of the wisdom and prudence which have marked the services that
-you have performed in the interest of the United States, and of the
-confidence which you have won from General Washington, his Majesty has
-charged me to announce to you that the commendations which you most
-fully deserve have attracted his notice, and that your conduct and your
-success have given him, sir, the most favorable opinion of you, such as
-you might wish him to have, and upon which you may rely for his future
-good-will."
-
-Every one delighted to entertain and praise him; the Marshal de
-Richelieu invited him to dine with all the marshals of France, and at
-the dinner the health of Washington was drunk with every honor. And if
-the King and the nobles were loud in their acclaim, the people were
-no less so; they called Lafayette by such extravagant titles as the
-"Conqueror of Cornwallis" and "the Saviour of America with Washington."
-Had it not been that Lafayette had a remarkably level head the things
-that people said and wrote about him might almost have made him believe
-that he had won the Revolution in America single-handed.
-
-Naturally he enjoyed being with his dear wife and children again, but
-he was not a man who could contentedly lead the idle life of a nobleman
-in Paris. Soon he was busy doing what he could to help the cause of
-the young American republic in France. He saw a great deal of John
-Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the commissioners of the United States to
-the French court, and Franklin wrote home concerning him, "The Marquis
-de Lafayette was, at his return hither, received by all ranks with
-all possible distinction. He daily gains in the general esteem and
-affection, and promises to be a great man here. He is extremely attached
-to our cause; we are on the most friendly and confidential footing with
-each other, and he is really very serviceable to me in my applications
-for additional assistance."
-
-He planned to return to America to rejoin the army. "In spite of all
-my happiness here," he wrote to Washington, "I cannot help wishing,
-ten times a day, to be on the other side of the Atlantic." But the
-Continental army was merely marking time, no active campaign was in
-progress, and neither Lafayette nor French troops were again needed to
-fight across the ocean.
-
-The negotiations for peace were long drawn out, and in the autumn of
-1782 France and Spain again planned a joint expedition against the
-English in America. A strong fleet of sixty battle-ships and an army
-of twenty-four thousand men were gathered with the purpose of sailing
-from the Spanish port of Cadiz to capture the English island of Jamaica
-and attack New York and Canada. Lafayette was made chief of staff of the
-combined expedition, and, wearing the uniform of an American general, he
-set sail from Brest early in December for Cadiz. But the grand fleet was
-still in port when a courier arrived with news that a treaty of peace
-had just been signed in Paris. So the fleet did not sail. A protocol, or
-provisional treaty, was drawn up, and on September 3, 1783, the final
-treaty was signed, by which Great Britain acknowledged the independence
-of the United States.
-
-As soon as he heard the good news, Lafayette borrowed a ship,
-appropriately named the _Triumph_, and sent it off to Philadelphia with
-the earliest word of peace. And by the same ship he despatched a letter
-to Washington. "As for you, my dear general," he wrote, "who can truly
-say that all this is your work, what must be the feelings of your good
-and virtuous heart in this happy moment! The eternal honor in which
-my descendants will glory, will be to have had an ancestor among your
-soldiers, to know that he had the good fortune of being a friend of
-your heart. To the eldest of them I bequeath, as long as my posterity
-shall endure, the favor that you have conferred upon my son George, by
-allowing him to bear your name."
-
-To Vergennes Lafayette wrote, "My great affair is settled; America is
-sure of her independence; humanity has gained its cause, and liberty
-will never be without a refuge."
-
-From Cadiz the Marquis went to Madrid, where he straightened out affairs
-between the United States and the court of Spain. Then he went back to
-Paris, made several visits to his old castle and estates in Auvergne,
-and helped Franklin and Adams and John Jay in putting the affairs of the
-new republic on a satisfactory footing.
-
-He wanted greatly to see that young republic, now that war was over
-and peace had come, and at last his wish was gratified. Washington
-had written him frequently, urging the Marquis to visit him, and had
-begged Madame de Lafayette to come with her husband. "Come then, let
-me entreat you," Washington wrote to Adrienne. "Call my cottage your
-own; for your own doors do not open to you with more readiness than
-would mine. You will see the plain manner in which we live, and meet
-with rustic civility; and you will taste the simplicity of rural life.
-It will diversify the scene, and may give you a higher relish for the
-gayeties of the court when you return to Versailles."
-
-Adrienne de Lafayette, however, was as much of a home-lover as George
-Washington. Versailles had never attracted her, and she liked to spend
-most of her time at the castle of Chavaniac. The voyage across the
-Atlantic was a long and trying experience in those days and so she
-answered that she preferred to stay in France. She also sent Washington
-a letter from her little daughter, born while her husband was in camp in
-America.
-
-Lafayette sailed from Havre on July 1, 1784, and reached New York,
-which he had never yet seen, on August fourth. Throngs, eager to sing
-his praises, met him at the harbor, and followed him everywhere on his
-travels. From New York he went to Philadelphia, and then to Richmond,
-where Washington met him. He visited the scenes of his great Virginia
-campaign at Williamsburg and Yorktown, and spent two happy weeks with
-his beloved friend George Washington at the latter's home at Mount
-Vernon. From there he went north again, to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and
-New York. Up the broad Hudson he traveled to Albany, where he went with
-American commissioners to a council with dissatisfied Mohawk chiefs.
-And to the sons of primitive America the young Frenchman, lover of
-liberty everywhere, spoke so appealingly that he quickly won them away
-from their enmity for their white neighbors. "Father," said the Mohawk
-chief, "we have heard thy voice and we rejoice that thou hast visited
-thy children to give to them good and necessary advice. Thou hast said
-that we have done wrong in opening our ears to wicked men, and closing
-our hearts to thy counsels. Father, it is all true; we have left the
-good path; we have wandered away from it and have been enveloped in
-a black cloud. We have now returned that thou mayest find in us good
-and faithful children. We rejoice to hear thy voice among us. It seems
-that the Great Spirit had directed thy footsteps to this council of
-friendship to smoke the calumet of peace and fellowship with thy
-long-lost children."
-
-Indeed it did seem that the Great Spirit directed the steps of this man
-to the places where he was the most needed.
-
-From Albany Lafayette went across country to Boston, where he was
-given a great reception and banquet in Faneuil Hall. A portrait of
-Washington was unveiled behind the Marquis at the table, and he sprang
-to his feet and led in the burst of cheers that followed. Through New
-England he went as far as Portsmouth in New Hampshire, and then turned
-south to make a second visit to Mount Vernon. Everywhere he went he
-was received as the man whom the United States especially desired to
-honor. Unquestionably he deserved all the praise and gratitude that was
-showered upon him, for he had left his wife, his home, his friends, his
-fortune, and had come to America in one of the darkest hours of her
-fight for independence, and by his confidence in her cause had done much
-to help her win her victory. He had brought French troops and money,
-but most of all he had brought that unselfish devotion which had so
-heartened the people. The United States did not forget what it owed
-to Lafayette in 1784, it has never forgotten it; the republic of the
-Western World has shown that it has a long and faithful memory.
-
-At Trenton Lafayette stopped to resign his commission in the American
-army, and Congress sent a committee made up of one representative from
-each State to express the thanks of the nation. Then he returned to
-Washington's estate on the banks of the Potomac, and there walked over
-the beautiful grounds of Mount Vernon, discussing agriculture with the
-owner, and sat with the latter in his library, listening to Washington's
-hopes concerning the young nation for which both men had done so much.
-History shows no more ideal friendship than that between the great
-American and the great Frenchman, a friendship of inestimable value for
-the two lands from which they sprang.
-
-When the time came for parting Washington drove his guest as far as
-Annapolis in his carriage. There the two friends separated, not to meet
-again. Washington went back to Mount Vernon, and there wrote a farewell
-letter to Lafayette. "In the moment of our separation," he said, "upon
-the road as I traveled 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.... It is unnecessary,
-I persuade myself, to repeat to you, my dear marquis, the sincerity
-of my regards and friendship, nor have I words which could express my
-affection for you, were I to attempt it. My fervent prayers are offered
-for your safe and pleasant passage, a happy meeting with Madame de
-Lafayette and family, and the completion of every wish of your heart."
-
-Lafayette answered after he had gone on board the _Nymphe_ at New York.
-"Adieu, adieu, my dear general," said he. "It is with inexpressible
-pain that I feel I am going to be severed from you by the Atlantic.
-Everything that admiration, respect, gratitude, friendship, and filial
-love can inspire is combined in my affectionate heart to devote me most
-tenderly to you. In your friendship I find a delight which words cannot
-express. Adieu, my dear general. It is not without emotion that I write
-this word. Be attentive to your health. Let me hear from you every
-month. Adieu, adieu."
-
-On Christmas Day, 1784, Lafayette sailed for France, expecting to return
-to his adopted country in a few years. He was not to return, however,
-for a long time, and in the interval much was to happen to himself and
-his own land.
-
-In the following summer the Marquis made a journey through Germany and
-Austria, where he was received not only as a French field-marshal, but
-as an informal representative of America and a friend of Washington, who
-could answer the questions about the new republic which every one was
-eager to ask. At Brunswick he visited the duke who was later to lead the
-German troops against the army of revolutionary France. At Potsdam he
-was entertained by Frederick the Great, who happened on one occasion to
-place Lafayette between the English Duke of York and Lord Cornwallis at
-table. Lafayette was, as always, delightful company, and the general he
-had defeated at Yorktown wrote home to a friend in England, "Lafayette
-and I were the best friends possible in Silesia."
-
-The Frenchman saw reviews of the Prussian armies, and was much impressed
-by the discipline of Frederick the Great. But he did not like that
-ruler, and spoke of his "despotic, selfish, and harsh character," and
-he liked his military system still less. He wrote to General Knox, "The
-mode of recruiting is despotic; there is hardly any provision for old
-soldiers, and although I found much to admire, I had rather be the last
-farmer in America than the first general in Berlin."
-
-From Prussia he went to Austria, where he met the emperor, and there, as
-in all his travels, he told every one of his admiration for the United
-States and for Washington, and tried to make them see how much the young
-republic had already accomplished for the happiness of men.
-
-The love of liberty was the dominant motive of Lafayette's life. He
-had told Washington of his desire to find some means of securing the
-freedom of slaves, and he wrote to John Adams in 1786, "Whatever be
-the complexion of the enslaved, it does not in my opinion alter the
-complexion of the crime the enslaver commits,--a crime much blacker than
-any African face. It is to me a matter of great anxiety and concern
-to find that this trade is sometimes perpetrated under the flag of
-liberty, our dear and noble stripes to which virtue and glory have been
-constant standard-bearers." So, on his return to France, he bought a
-plantation in Cayenne, and brought many negroes there, who, after being
-educated in self-government according to his directions, were to receive
-their freedom. He also tried to improve the condition of the French
-Protestants, who were very much persecuted, and ardently pleaded their
-cause before the King at Versailles.
-
-In the meantime he constantly gave his help to furthering the affairs
-of America. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of
-Independence, who had been Governor of Virginia when Lafayette had
-fought his campaign there, was now the United States Minister to France.
-Jefferson wrote to Washington, "The Marquis de Lafayette is a most
-valuable auxiliary to me. His zeal is unbounded and his weight with
-those in power is great.... He has a great deal of sound genius, is well
-remarked by the King, and rising in popularity. He has nothing against
-him but the suspicion of republican principles. I think he will one day
-be of the ministry."
-
-The United States at that time especially needed aid in establishing
-trade relations with France, and it was here that Lafayette proved
-himself very valuable. He obtained concessions in regard to the
-importing and sale of oil and tobacco, and his efforts on behalf of
-the American whale fishery were so successful that the citizens of
-Nantucket voted at a town-meeting that every man on the island who owned
-a cow should give all of one day's milk toward making a cheese to weigh
-five hundred pounds, and that the cheese should be "transmitted to the
-Marquis de Lafayette, as a feeble, but not less sincere, testimonial of
-their affection and gratitude."
-
-The cheese was greatly appreciated, as was also the action of the State
-of Virginia, which ordered two busts of the Marquis to be made by the
-sculptor Houdon, one to be placed in the State Capitol at Richmond and
-the other in the Hôtel de Ville in Paris.
-
-The United States had won its independence, though its statesmen
-were now perplexed with the problem of making one united nation out
-of thirteen separate states. But France had yet to deal with its own
-problem of liberty. There were many men who dreamed of equality in that
-nation and who hoped for it, but the King and the court were despotic,
-the peasants yoked to the soil, bowed down by unjust taxes, crushed by
-unfair laws. There was a spirit abroad that was destined to bring a
-temporary whirlwind. So the thinking men of France, and Lafayette one of
-the chief among them, turned their attention to affairs at home.
-
-
-
-
-IX
-
-HOW LAFAYETTE SOUGHT TO GIVE LIBERTY TO FRANCE
-
-
-The people of the thirteen American colonies that became the United
-States had always had more liberty than the people of France. Most of
-the colonies had been settled by men who had left Europe and gone to
-America in order that they might enjoy civil or religious independence.
-They largely made their own laws, and by the time of the Revolution had
-become so well educated in self-government that they were able to draw
-up a Constitution and live by its terms with extremely little friction
-or unrest. The success that followed the forming of the republic of
-the West was a marvel to Europe; that success was mainly due to the
-lessons of self-restraint and the real appreciation of what liberty
-meant that had come to the colonists before the Revolution. Progress
-that is to be real progress must begin right, and Washington and
-Jefferson and Franklin were far-sighted and clear-headed builders. The
-people of France had been putting up with wrongs a thousandfold worse
-than those the Americans had borne, but they had never been educated
-in self-government, and so when they tried to win liberty they plunged
-headlong into turmoil.
-
-France was still governed very much as it had been in the Middle Ages.
-The peasants were reduced to the very lowest form of living, starvation
-and ignorance were common through the country. The business classes were
-hampered by unjust laws. The nobility were idle, corrupt, and grossly
-extravagant. Almost all power lay in the King, and Louis XVI., amiable
-though he was, followed the lines of his Bourbon ancestors, Louis XIV.
-and Louis XV., the former of whom had said, "The State, it is I," and
-had ruled by that principle.
-
-Unhappily for Louis XVI., however, the world had progressed from the
-view-point of the Middle Ages, and men were beginning to talk of
-constitutions and of the duties that sovereigns owed their people. He
-shut his ears to such talk as well as he could, and his courtiers
-helped him to ignore the protests. The court continued to spend money
-on entertainments as if it was water, while the peasants starved. Then
-it was found that the expense of aiding the United States in the war
-had added enough to the nation's debt to make it impossible to pay
-the interest and to find means to carry on the government. Either the
-court's expenses must be lessened or new taxes must be levied. The
-nobles furiously resisted the first alternative, and the people resisted
-the second. Toward the end of 1786 Calonne, the Minister of Finance,
-had to admit that the treasury was bankrupt and advise the King to
-call a meeting of the Assembly of Notables to find some way out of the
-difficulty.
-
-The Assembly was made up almost entirely of men of the highest rank,
-who failed to appreciate the distresses of the country. Lafayette was
-known to hold very liberal views, he was constantly talking of the
-American Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and at first a
-part of the court opposed his membership in the Assembly. He was given
-his seat there, however, and with one or two others tried to convince
-the council of the need of reforming the laws. But the nobles would not
-listen. They were immovably arrogant and autocratic; they would hear
-nothing of reforms or constitutions or the rights of the people.
-
-The Assembly of Notables reached no satisfactory conclusion. When
-it adjourned conditions grew steadily worse. The affairs of the
-country were in a terrible muddle, each class in the land thought
-only of itself, and each was divided, envious and hostile to the
-others. Lafayette fought heroically to bring them to the point of
-view of Washington's countrymen. The Marquis, however, was too much
-of an enthusiast and too little of a statesman to see that the long
-downtrodden peasants of France were a different type from the educated
-American farmers. Americans in France, John Adams and Gouverneur
-Morris, realized better than he did that the people of France were
-not yet fitted to govern themselves; but he would not listen to these
-statesmen's opinions. His rôle was that of a popular leader, not that
-of a far-seeing statesman in very difficult times. But the sufferings
-of the people were always present to him, and he took the most direct
-course he could to relieve and satisfy them.
-
-When he saw that the Assembly of Notables would accomplish nothing to
-help the situation Lafayette startled the meeting by asking that they
-beg the King to summon a National Assembly of the States-General, a
-council that had not met for one hundred and seventy-three years and the
-existence of which had almost been forgotten.
-
-The Notables were amazed. "What, sir!" exclaimed the Count d'Artois,
-who was presiding at the meeting. "You ask the convocation of the
-States-General?"
-
-"Yes, monseigneur," said Lafayette, "and even more than that."
-
-"You wish that I write," said the Count, "and that I carry to the King,
-'Monsieur de Lafayette moves to convoke the States-General'?"
-
-"Yes, monseigneur," was Lafayette's answer.
-
-The proposal was sent to the King, with Lafayette's name the only one
-attached to the request. But as soon as the news of his petition became
-known the people hailed the idea with delight.
-
-The States-General was a much more representative body than the Assembly
-of Notables, and Louis XVI. was loath to summon it. The situation of
-the country was so unsatisfactory, however, that he finally yielded and
-ordered the States-General to meet in May, 1789.
-
-Lafayette had great hopes of this new parliament. He wrote to
-Washington, describing the situation. "The King is all-powerful," he
-said. "He possesses all the means of compulsion, of punishment, and
-of corruption. The ministers naturally incline and believe themselves
-bound to preserve despotism. The court is filled with swarms of vile
-and effeminate courtiers; men's minds are enervated by the influence
-of women and the love of pleasure; the lower classes are plunged in
-ignorance. On the other hand, French character is lively, enterprising,
-and inclined to despise those who govern. The public mind begins to
-be enlightened by the works of philosophers and the example of other
-nations." And when the state of affairs grew even more disturbed he
-wrote again to the same friend, "In the midst of these troubles and
-this anarchy, the friends of liberty strengthen themselves daily, shut
-their ears to every compromise, and say that they shall have a national
-assembly or nothing. Such is, my dear general, the improvement in our
-situation. For my part, I am satisfied with the thought that before long
-I shall be in an assembly of representatives of the French nation or at
-Mount Vernon."
-
-Elections were held throughout the country to choose the members of
-the States-General, which was composed of representatives of the three
-orders, the nobles, the clergy, and what was known as the third estate,
-or the middle class. Lafayette went to Auvergne to make his campaign for
-election, and was chosen as deputy to represent the nobility of Riom.
-On May 2, 1789, the States-General paid their respects to the King, and
-on May fourth they marched in procession to hear Mass at the Church of
-St. Louis. The third estate marched last, dressed in black, and in their
-ranks were men destined before long to upset the old order, Mirabeau,
-Danton, Marat, Guillotin, Desmoulins, Robespierre.
-
-On May fifth the States-General formally met for business. Then began
-continual struggles between the orders of nobles and clergy on the one
-hand and the third estate on the other, finally ending by a declaration
-of the latter that if the first two orders would not act in agreement
-with them they would organize themselves, without the other two, as the
-States-General of France.
-
-On June twelfth the third estate met and called the roll of all the
-deputies, but none of the nobles or clergy answered to their names. Next
-day, however, three clerical members appeared, and the meeting felt
-itself sufficiently bold, under the leadership of Mirabeau, to declare
-itself positively the National Assembly of France. The indignant nobles
-answered this by inducing the King to suspend all meetings until a
-"royal session" could be held on June twentieth. But the third estate,
-having had a taste of power, would not bow to command so easily, and
-when they found that the hall where they had been meeting was closed
-they withdrew to the tennis-court, where they took the famous oath not
-to separate until they had given a constitution to France.
-
-At their next meeting the third estate were joined by a large number of
-the clerical members of the States-General and by two of the nobles.
-This gave them greater assurance. At the "royal session" on June
-twentieth, however, the King tried to ignore the power that the third
-estate had claimed, and the latter had to decide between submitting to
-the royal orders or rebelling. They decided to take the second course
-and stand firmly on their rights as representatives of the people. When
-the master of ceremonies tried to clear the hall where they had gathered
-Mirabeau said defiantly, "The commons of France will never retire except
-at the point of the bayonet."
-
-The King, although surrounded by weak and selfish advisers, at last
-yielded to the demands of the third estate, and the nobles and clergy
-joined the meetings of the National Assembly.
-
-Lafayette, who had been elected as a deputy of the nobility, had found
-his position extremely difficult. He had thought of resigning and trying
-to be elected a second time as a deputy of the people, although Thomas
-Jefferson, the American minister, had urged him to take his stand
-outright with the third estate, arguing that his well-known liberal
-views would prevent his gaining any influence with his fellow-nobles
-and that if he delayed in taking up the cause of the people the latter
-might regard him with suspicion. This difficulty was solved when, at the
-King's command, the deputies of the nobles finally joined with the third
-estate.
-
-The States-General, or the National Assembly, as it was now generally
-called, went on with its meetings which took on more and more a
-revolutionary color. There was rioting in Paris and Versailles, and the
-King ordered troops to guard both places. The Assembly considered that
-the soldiers were meant to intimidate their sessions and requested that
-they be sent away. The King refused this request, and as a result the
-breach between the crown and the parliament was still further widened.
-
-Soon afterward Lafayette presented to the Assembly what he called his
-"Declaration of Rights," which was based on Jefferson's Declaration of
-Independence of the United States. This occasioned long discussion,
-for the nobles thought its terms were revolutionary in the extreme
-while many of the third estate considered that it did not go nearly
-far enough. And all the time the King continued his policy of trying
-to overawe the Assembly, and finally appointed the Marshal de Broglie
-commander of the troops that were gathering in Paris and Versailles,
-planning to bring the third estate to its senses and show the mob in
-Paris who was the real ruler of France.
-
-Events followed rapidly. July eleventh the King dismissed Necker and
-the ministers who had been trying to bring order out of confusion. The
-Assembly, fearing that the King would next dissolve their meetings,
-declared itself in permanent session, and elected Lafayette its
-vice-president. The royal court, blind as usual, paid no attention to
-the storm the King's course was rousing, and a grand ball was held at
-the palace on the evening of July thirteenth. Next day, as if in answer
-to rulers who could dance while the people starved, the mob in Paris
-stormed the prison of the Bastille and captured that stronghold of royal
-tyranny.
-
-The storm had broken at last. The Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
-hurried to Versailles, entered the King's chamber, and told him the
-news. "Why," exclaimed Louis XVI., "this is a revolt!"
-
-"No, sire," answered the Duke, "it is a revolution!"
-
-Next morning the Marshal de Broglie, who found that instead of a
-competent army, he had only a few disorganized troops at his command,
-resigned. The King, seeing his army melting away, decided that his only
-chance of restoring order lay in making friends with the Assembly, and
-appeared before it, begging it to aid him, and promising to recall the
-dismissed ministers.
-
-The Assembly, delighted at this evidence of its power, agreed to aid the
-King, and sent Lafayette, with fifty other deputies, to see what could
-be done to quiet the people in Paris. They found the city in the wildest
-confusion. Shops were closed, barricades blocked the streets, and gangs
-of ruffians were fighting everywhere. The deputies brought some order,
-Lafayette made a speech to the people at the Hôtel de Ville, and told
-them that the Assembly was glad that they had won liberty. Then it
-was decided that a mayor must be chosen to govern Paris and a National
-Guard formed to preserve order. Moreau de Saint Méry, who was presiding,
-pointed to the bust of Lafayette that the State of Virginia had sent
-to the city of Paris. His gesture was understood and Lafayette was
-immediately chosen to command the National Guard. Bailly was by a like
-unanimous vote elected mayor.
-
-So, at thirty-two, Lafayette gave up his seat in the National Assembly
-and became Commander of the National Guard.
-
-The deputies, on their return to Versailles, told their fellow-members
-that the only way in which confidence could be restored in the crown was
-for the King personally to visit Paris. This Louis XVI. agreed to do on
-July seventeenth. In the meantime Lafayette had collected the nucleus
-of a guard, had restored some sort of order, and made arrangements to
-receive the King. When Louis arrived at the city gates he was met by
-the mayor, Bailly, who handed him the keys of Paris, saying, "They are
-the same keys that were presented to Henry IV. He had reconquered his
-people; now it is the people who have reconquered their king."
-
-The King was escorted to the Hôtel de Ville through a double line of
-National Guards. There he was given the new national cockade, which
-he fixed in his hat. Afterward speeches were made and then King Louis
-rode back to Versailles. He was still the sovereign in name, but his
-real power was gone, shorn from him by the obstinacy of his nobles and
-himself.
-
-Lafayette had no easy task in keeping order in Paris. His Guards obeyed
-his commands, but many of the mob, having tasted revolt, continued on a
-wild course, and they were now joined by many of the worst element from
-the provinces. Two innocent men were murdered in spite, and Lafayette
-could do nothing to prevent it. Disgusted at the trend of events he soon
-resigned his office of Commander, but since no one else appeared able to
-fill it he finally consented to resume it.
-
-Meantime the Assembly was uprooting the old feudal laws and doing away
-with almost all forms of taxation. Their object was to tear down, not
-to build up; and the result was that in a very short time people
-throughout France were making their own laws in every city and village
-and paying no attention to the needs of the nation.
-
-As autumn approached the population of Paris became restless. The
-Assembly at Versailles was not sufficiently under the people's thumb,
-the lower classes especially were eager to get both Assembly and King
-and Queen in their power. A reception given by Louis to the National
-Guards at Versailles roused great indignation. The court, so the people
-said, was as frivolous and extravagant as ever, and was trying to win
-the Guards over to its side. The excitement reached its climax when, on
-October fifth, Maillard, a leader of the mob, called on the people of
-Paris to march to Versailles. At once the cry "To Versailles!" echoed
-through the city, and men and women flocked to answer the cry.
-
-Lafayette heard of the plan and sent couriers to Versailles to warn the
-King and the Assembly of what was in the air. All day he tried his best
-to quiet the people and induce them to give up the march. He forbade the
-National Guards to leave their posts, and at first they obeyed him. But
-presently deputation after deputation came to him. "General," said one
-of his men, "we do not think you a traitor; but we think the government
-betrays you. It is time that this end. We cannot turn our bayonets
-against women crying to us for bread. The people are miserable; the
-source of the mischief is at Versailles; we must go seek the King and
-bring him to Paris."
-
-That was the view of the Guards, and it grew more and more positive.
-Armed crowds were leaving the city, dragging cannon, and at last the
-Guards surrounded their commander and declared their intention to march
-and to take him with them. So finally Lafayette set out for Versailles,
-preceded and followed by an immense rabble of men and women.
-
-Meantime the couriers sent by Lafayette to Versailles had reported the
-news of the march of the mob. The Assembly could think of nothing that
-would pacify the people, and contented itself with sending messengers to
-the King, who happened to be hunting in the Versailles forests. Louis
-returned to his palace to find his body-guards, the Swiss and the
-Flanders Regiment, drawn up in the courtyards as though to withstand a
-siege.
-
-In the middle of the afternoon the first crowd of women, led by Maillard
-beating his drum, arrived at Versailles. Some marched to the Assembly
-and shouted to the deputies to pass laws at once that should lower the
-price of bread. Others paraded through the streets, and still others
-went to the palace to see the King, who received them very kindly and
-tried to assure them that he entirely agreed with all their wishes.
-
-But the royal family had taken alarm and wanted to fly from the
-palace. Their carriages were ordered out, and the body-guards placed
-in readiness to serve as escort. This plan became known, however, and
-when the carriages drove out from the great stables some of the National
-Guards themselves seized the horses' heads and turned them back.
-
-The National Assembly itself was in an uproar. The President, Mounier,
-left the chamber to see the King, and when he came back he found a fat
-fishwoman making a speech to the crowd from his own chair. The Assembly
-had taken power and authority away from the King; now the mob was bent
-on doing the same thing to the Assembly.
-
-At eleven o'clock that evening Lafayette reached Versailles with his
-National Guards and the rest of the rabble from Paris. On the way he
-had tried to curb the rougher part of the crowd and had made his troops
-stop and renew their oaths of allegiance "to the nation, the law, and
-the King." He went at once to the palace to receive King Louis' orders,
-but the Swiss guards would not let him enter until he agreed to go
-in without any of the people from Paris. When he did enter he found
-the halls and rooms filled with courtiers. One of them, seeing him,
-exclaimed, "Here is Cromwell!" Lafayette answered instantly, "Cromwell
-would not have entered alone."
-
-The King received him cordially, and told him to guard the outside
-of the palace, leaving the inside to the protection of the royal
-body-guards. Lafayette then saw that his men were bivouacked for the
-night, quieted noisy marchers, and felt that, at least for the time,
-Versailles was at rest. Worn out with the day's exertions the Marquis
-finally got a chance to sleep.
-
-Early next day, however, the mob burst forth again. A crowd fell to
-disputing with the royal body-guards at one of the gates to the palace,
-rushed the soldiers, and broke into the inner court. Up the stairs they
-streamed, killing the guards that tried to oppose them. Marie Antoinette
-had barely time to fly from her room to that of the King before the
-rioters reached her apartment, crying out threats against her.
-
-As soon as he heard of all this Lafayette sent two companies of soldiers
-to clear the mob from the palace. When he arrived himself he found the
-people all shouting "To Paris!" He saw at once that his National Guards
-were not to be trusted to oppose the crowd, and urged the King to agree
-to go to Paris. Louis consented, and Lafayette went out on the balcony
-and announced the King's decision.
-
-This appeased the throng somewhat, and Lafayette asked the King to
-appear on the balcony with him. Louis stepped out and was greeted with
-cheers of "_Vive le roi!_" Then Lafayette said to the Queen, "What are
-your intentions, madame?"
-
-"I know the fate which awaits me," answered Marie Antoinette, "but my
-duty is to die at the feet of the King and in the arms of my children."
-
-"Well, madame, come with me," said Lafayette.
-
-"What! Alone on the balcony? Have you not seen the signs which have been
-made to me?"
-
-"Yes, madame, but let us go."
-
-Marie Antoinette agreed, and stepped out with her children. The crowd
-cried, "No children!" and they were sent back. The mob was making too
-much noise for Lafayette to speak to them, so instead he took the
-Queen's hand, and, bowing low, kissed it. The crowd, always ready to go
-from one extreme to another, immediately set up shouts of "Long live the
-General! Long live the Queen!"
-
-King Louis then asked Lafayette about the safety of his body-guards.
-Lafayette stuck a tricolor cockade in the hat of one of these soldiers,
-and taking him on to the balcony, embraced him. The mob's answer was
-cheers of "_Vive les gardes du corps!_"
-
-So peace was restored for the time. Fifty thousand people marched back
-to Paris, the King and the royal family in their carriage, Lafayette
-riding beside them. Close to them marched the royal body-guards, and
-close to the latter came the National Guards. And the crowd shouted with
-exultation at having forced their sovereign to do their will.
-
-At the gates of the city the mayor met the procession and made a
-patriotic address. From there they went to the Hôtel de Ville, where
-more speeches were made, and it was late in the day before Louis XVI.
-and Marie Antoinette and their children were allowed to take refuge in
-the Palace of the Tuileries.
-
-Lafayette, who had played with the Queen and her friends in the gardens
-at Versailles when he was a boy, had stood by her loyally on that day
-when the mob had vowed vengeance against her. He believed in liberty and
-constitutional government, but he also believed in order. He wanted to
-protect the weak and defenseless, and he hated the excesses of the mob.
-He thought he could reproduce in France what he had seen accomplished
-in America. But conditions were too different. The people of France had
-been ground down too long by their nobles. Their first taste of liberty
-had gone to their heads like strong wine. So, like a boat that has lost
-its rudder, the ship of state of France plunged on to the whirlpool of
-the French Revolution.
-
-
-
-
-X
-
-STORM-CLOUDS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
-
-
-King Louis XVI., Queen Marie Antoinette, and their children were now
-virtually prisoners in the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris, the nobles
-were leaving France for their own safety, and the Assembly was trying
-to govern the country. But the Assembly was very large and unwieldy,
-and its members were more interested in making speeches denouncing the
-present laws than in trying to frame new ones. Lafayette was commander
-of the National Guard, and so in a way the most powerful man in France,
-although the most able statesman and leader was Mirabeau. Occasionally
-Lafayette found time to attend the meetings of the Assembly, and at one
-of these sessions a deputy demanded that all titles of nobility should
-be abolished. Another member objected, saying that merit ought to be
-recognized, and asking what could be put in the place of the words,
-"Such a one has been made noble and count for having saved the State on
-such a day."
-
-Lafayette rose at once to answer. "Suppress the words 'made noble and
-count,'" said he; "say only, 'Such a one saved the State on such a day.'
-It seems to me that these words have something of an American character,
-precious fruit of the New World, which ought to aid much in rejuvenating
-the old one."
-
-The measure was carried immediately, and Lafayette dropped from his
-name both the "marquis" and the "de." He never used them again; and
-when, after the French Revolution was over, all titles were restored,
-Lafayette, steadfast to his convictions, never called himself or allowed
-himself to be addressed as the Marquis de Lafayette, but was always
-known simply as General Lafayette.
-
-Lafayette did all he could to ease the difficult position of King
-Louis, though relations between the two men were necessarily strained,
-since the King could hardly look with pleasure on the commander of the
-National Guard, who held his office from the Assembly and people and
-not from the crown. Louis chafed at having to stay in the Tuileries and
-wanted to go hunting in the country, but the people would not allow
-this. And it fell to Lafayette to urge the King to show as little
-discontent as possible, which naturally made the sovereign resentful
-toward the General.
-
-During the winter of 1789-90 Lafayette was busy trying to keep order
-in Paris and drilling the Guard. He sent the Duke of Orleans, who had
-been stirring up the worst elements to dethrone Louis XVI. and make him
-king instead, in exile from the country. Violent bread riots broke out
-and mobs tried to pillage the convents, but Lafayette and his Guards
-prevented much damage being done. It took all his tact and perseverance
-to handle these soldiers under his command; they were quick-tempered
-and restive under any authority, and only too ready to follow the last
-excitable speaker they had heard. Lafayette said to his officers,
-"We are lost if the service continues to be conducted with such great
-inexactitude. We are the only soldiers of the Revolution; we alone
-should defend the royal family from every attack; we alone should
-establish the liberty of the representatives of the nation; we are the
-only guardians of the public treasury. France, all Europe, have fixed
-their eyes on the Parisians. A disturbance in Paris, an attack made
-through our negligence on these sacred institutions, would dishonor us
-forever, and bring upon us the hatred of the provinces."
-
-He did not want any great office or power for himself, his desires were
-always very much like those of George Washington, he simply wanted to
-serve the sacred cause of liberty. Yet he was at that time the most
-powerful and the most popular man in France. The court, though it
-disliked him as the representative of the people, depended on him for
-its personal safety. The Assembly relied on him as its guardian, the
-soldiers trusted him as their commander, and the people considered him
-their bulwark against any return to the old despotism.
-
-Through all this time he wrote regularly to Washington, and when, by his
-orders, the Bastille was torn down he sent the keys of the fortress to
-his friend at Mount Vernon. The keys were sent, he wrote, as a tribute
-from "a son to an adopted father, an aide-de-camp to his general, a
-missionary of liberty to her patriarch."
-
-On the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, July 14,
-1790, a great celebration was held in Paris. A vast crowd of more than
-three hundred thousand persons, including the court, the Assembly, the
-National Guard, and men from the provinces as well as from the city, met
-in the amphitheatre of the Champs de Mars to swear obedience to the new
-constitution which was to govern them all. First Louis XVI. took the
-oath, and then Lafayette, who was made for that day commander-in-chief
-of all the armed forces of France, stepped forward, placed the point of
-his sword on the altar, and took the oath as the representative of the
-French people. A great roar of voices greeted the commander's words.
-
-But although Lafayette meant to remain faithful to the principles of a
-constitutional monarchy, the mass of his countrymen soon showed that
-they had no such intention. Disorder and rioting grew more frequent,
-the people demanded more of the Assembly than the latter felt it could
-grant, the Guards grew increasingly unpopular as the symbol of a law
-and order the mob did not like. Within the Assembly itself there were
-many quarrels and wrangles; sometimes the mob vented its feelings on
-an unpopular member by attacking his house. And as often as not the
-National Guards, when they were sent to protect property, joined with
-the crowd and helped to destroy it instead.
-
-In February, 1791, a crowd from Paris attacked the fortress of
-Vincennes, which had once been a state prison, but had been unused
-for some time. Lafayette, with his staff and a considerable number of
-National Guards, marched out to the place, quelled the disturbance, and
-arrested sixty of the ringleaders. When he brought his prisoners back to
-the city he found the gates of the Faubourg St. Antoine closed against
-him, and he had to threaten to blow the gates open with cannon before
-the people would allow him to enter. All the way to the Conciergerie,
-where he took his prisoners, the General and his soldiers were targets
-for the abuse of the crowds.
-
-On the same day some of the nobles who lived in the neighborhood of the
-royal palace of the Tuileries, hearing of the attack at Vincennes,
-thought that the King might also be in danger, and went to the palace,
-armed with pistols and daggers. This angered the National Guards who
-were posted about the Tuileries and who thought that the noblemen were
-poaching on their territory. The King had to appear in person to settle
-the dispute, and even then some of the nobles were maltreated by the
-soldiers. Immediately revolutionary orators made use of the incident
-to inflame the people's mind, representing that the King's friends had
-planned to murder officers of the Guards.
-
-It was clear that the National Guards were growing less and less
-trustworthy, and equally evident that the people of Paris were becoming
-more and more hostile to their King. Louis disliked staying at the
-Tuileries, where he was constantly under the eyes of enemies, and at
-Easter decided to go to the palace of St. Cloud, which was near Paris,
-and celebrate the day there. Word of this got abroad, and the people
-grumbled; more than that they said that Louis should not go to St.
-Cloud.
-
-On the morning of April eighteenth the King and his family entered their
-traveling-carriage, only to have an angry crowd seize the horses' heads
-and forbid the King to move. Louis appealed to the National Guards
-who were in attendance, but the soldiers took the side of the people
-and helped to block the way. The mob swarmed close to the carriage,
-insulting the King and his servants. Louis had courage. He put his head
-out at the window and cried, "It would be an astonishing thing, if,
-after having given liberty to the nation, I myself should not be free!"
-
-At this point Lafayette and the mayor, Bailly, arrived, and urged
-the mob and the Guards to keep the peace and disperse. The crowd was
-obstinate; most of the Guards were openly rebellious. Then Lafayette
-went to the royal carriage, and offered to use force to secure the
-King's departure if Louis would give the word. The King answered
-promptly, "It is for you, sir, to see to what is necessary for the due
-fulfilment of your constitution." Again Lafayette turned to the mob and
-addressed it, but it showed no intention of obeying his orders, and at
-last he had to tell Louis that it would be dangerous for him to drive
-forth. So the King and his family returned to the Tuileries, fully
-aware now that they were prisoners of the people and could not count on
-the protection of the troops.
-
-Everywhere it was now said that the King must obey "the supreme will of
-the people." Louis protested; he went to the National Assembly and told
-the deputies that he expected them to protect his liberty; but Mirabeau,
-the leader who had used his influence on behalf of the sovereign in
-earlier meetings, was dead, and the party of Robespierre held the upper
-hand. The Assembly had no intention of opposing the people, and paid
-little heed to the King's demands.
-
-Lafayette saw that a general whose troops would not obey him was a
-useless officer, and sent in his resignation as commander of the Guards.
-But the better element in Paris wanted him to stay, and the more loyal
-of the troops begged him to resume his command. No one could fill his
-place, and so he agreed to take the office again. He went to the Commune
-of Paris and addressed its members. "We are citizens, gentlemen, we
-are free," said he; "but without obedience to the law, there is only
-confusion, anarchy, despotism; and if this capital, the cradle of
-the Revolution, instead of surrounding with intelligence and respect
-the depositaries of national power, should besiege them with tumult,
-or fatigue them with violence, it would cease to be the example of
-Frenchmen, it would risk becoming their terror."
-
-The Commune applauded his words, and he went forth again as
-Commander-in-chief, the Guards taking a new oath to obey the laws. But
-at the same time the Jacobins, or revolutionaries, placarded the walls
-of Paris with praises of the soldiers who had rebelled and feasted them
-as models of patriotism.
-
-Meantime King Louis and his closest friends determined that the royal
-family must escape from the Tuileries. Careful plans were laid and
-a number of the nobles were told of them. Rumors of the intended
-escape got abroad, but such rumors had been current for the past year.
-Lafayette heard them and spoke of them to the King, who assured him that
-he had no such design. Lafayette went to the mayor, Bailly, and the two
-men discussed the rumor, concluding that there was nothing more to it
-than to the earlier stories.
-
-The night of June twentieth was the time chosen by the King and his
-intimate friends. Marie Antoinette placed her children in the care of
-Madame de Tourzel, her companion, saying, "The King and I, madame, place
-in your hands, with the utmost confidence, all that we hold dear in the
-world. Everything is ready; go." Madame de Tourzel and the children went
-out to a carriage, driven by the Count de Fersen, and rode along the
-quays to a place that had been decided on as the rendezvous.
-
-Lafayette and Bailly had spent the evening with the King. As soon as
-they had gone, to disarm suspicion Louis undressed and got into bed.
-Then he got up again, put on a disguise, and walked down the main
-staircase and out at the door. He reached his carriage, and waited a
-short time for the Queen, who presently joined him; and then the royal
-couple drove out of Paris.
-
-The flight was not discovered until about six o'clock in the morning.
-Then Lafayette hurried to the Tuileries with Bailly. He found that a
-mob had already gathered there, vowing vengeance on all who had had
-charge of the King. With difficulty he rescued the officer who had
-been on guard the night before. He sent messengers in every direction
-with orders to stop the royal fugitives. He went to the Assembly, and
-addressed it. At the Jacobin Club, Danton, the fiery orator, declared,
-"The commander-general promised on his head that the King would not
-depart; therefore we must have the person of the King or the head of
-Monsieur the commander-general!" But Lafayette's reputation was still
-too great for him to be reached by his enemies.
-
-The unfortunate royal family were finally arrested at Varennes and
-brought back to Paris. Louis was received in an ominous silence by his
-people. Lafayette met him at the gates and escorted him back to the
-palace. There Lafayette said, "Sire, your Majesty is acquainted with my
-personal attachment; but I have not allowed you to be unaware that if
-you separated your cause from that of the people I should remain on the
-side of the people."
-
-"That is true," answered King Louis. "You have acted according to your
-principles; it is an affair of party. At present, here I am. I will tell
-you frankly, that up to these last days, I believed myself to be in a
-vortex of people of your opinion with whom you surrounded me, but that
-it was not the opinion of France. I have thoroughly recognized in this
-journey that I was mistaken, and that this opinion is the general one."
-
-When Lafayette asked the King for his orders, the latter laughed and
-said, "It seems to me that I am more at your orders than you are at
-mine."
-
-The commander did all that he could to soften the hard position of the
-royal captives, but he took care to see that the Tuileries was better
-guarded after that.
-
-Some Jacobins now petitioned the Assembly to dethrone the King, and
-a great meeting was held in the Champs de Mars on the seventeenth
-of July. As usual the meeting got out of hand and the mob turned to
-murder and pillage. Lafayette and Bailly rode to the field with some of
-their soldiers; Bailly proclaimed martial law and ordered the crowd to
-disperse. Jeers and threats followed, and at last Lafayette had to give
-his men the command to fire. A dozen of the mob were killed, and the
-rest took to flight.
-
-This seemed to bring peace again, but it was only the quiet that
-precedes the thunder-storm. The Assembly finished its work on the
-new constitution for France and the King signed it. Then Lafayette,
-tired with his constant labors, resigned his commission and stated his
-intention of retiring to private life. Paris voted him a medal and a
-marble statue of Washington, and the National Guards presented him with
-a sword forged from the bolts of the Bastille. At last he rode back
-to his country home at Chavaniac, looking forward to rest there as
-Washington looked for rest at his beloved Mount Vernon.
-
-To friends at his home in Auvergne the General said, "You see me
-restored to the place of my birth; I shall leave it only to defend or
-consolidate our common liberty, if attacked, and I hope to remain here
-for long." He believed that the new constitution would bring liberty
-and peace to his country. But the French Revolution had only begun its
-course, and he was destined soon to be called back to its turmoil.
-
-He had several months of rest in his home in the mountains, happy months
-for his wife, who for two years had hardly ever seen her husband leave
-their house in Paris without fearing that he might not return. She had
-been a wonderful helpmate for the General during the turbulent course
-of events since his return from America and had loyally entertained
-the guests of every varying shade of political opinion who had flocked
-to his house in the capital. But she liked to have her husband away
-from the alarms of Paris and safe in the quiet of his country home at
-Chavaniac. There he had more time to spend with her and their three
-children, Anastasie, George Washington, and Virginia, who had been named
-after the State where her father had won his military laurels.
-
-The Legislative Assembly of France, which was trying to govern the
-country under the new constitution, was finding the making of laws which
-should satisfy every one a very difficult task. There were countless
-cliques and parties, and each had its own pet scheme for making the
-land a Utopia. The court party hoped that the more reckless element
-would lose all hold on the people through its very extravagance, and so
-actually encouraged many wildly absurd projects. The royalists were
-always expecting that a counter-revolution would bring them back into
-power, and the nobles who had left the country filled the border-towns
-and plotted and conspired and used their influence to induce foreign
-sovereigns to interfere and restore the old order in France. Naturally
-enough news of these plots and conspiracies did not tend to make King
-Louis or his nobles any more popular with the lawgivers in Paris.
-
-In August, 1791, the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria met the
-Count d'Artois and the Marquis de Bouillé at the town of Pilnitz and
-formed an alliance against France, making the cause of Louis XVI. their
-own. The royalists who had emigrated were delighted, and filled Europe
-with statements of what they meant to do to the revolutionary leaders
-when they won back their power. The revolutionists grew more and more
-angry, and as they saw foreign troops gathering on the French frontiers
-they decided that it was high time to oppose force with force. Narbonne,
-the Minister of War, announced that the King and government meant to
-form three armies of fifty thousand men each, and that the country had
-chosen as commanding generals Rochambeau, Luckner, and Lafayette.
-
-Lafayette at once returned to Paris from Chavaniac, paid his respects
-to the King, and going to the Assembly thanked the members for his new
-appointment and declared his unalterable devotion to the maintenance and
-defense of the constitution. The president of the Assembly answered that
-"the French people, which has sworn to conquer or to die in the cause of
-liberty, will always confidently present to nations and to tyrants the
-constitution and Lafayette."
-
-In view of what happened afterward it is important to remember that
-Lafayette accepted his appointment under the constitution of France
-and that he felt himself bound to support and obey it under all
-circumstances.
-
-Then he departed from Paris for the frontier, the cheers of the people
-and the National Guards ringing in his ears. He was popular with all
-parties except those of the two extremes, the friends of the King
-considering him a rebel and the Jacobins calling him a courtier.
-
-At Metz Lafayette met Rochambeau, Luckner, and Narbonne, and it was
-arranged that the three generals should make their headquarters at
-Liège, Trèves, and Coblentz. News of these military measures somewhat
-cooled the ardor of the alliance against France and enemy troops stopped
-collecting along the border. Lafayette took advantage of this to prepare
-his raw recruits for a possible struggle. They needed this preparation,
-for the army of France, which had once been the proudest in Europe, had
-been allowed to scatter during the past few years.
-
-He accomplished much in the way of discipline, was called to Paris to
-consult on a plan of campaign, found the leaders there as much at odds
-as ever, and returned to his post at Metz. Again the emigrant nobles and
-their allies were uttering threats against the French government, and
-finally, on April 20, 1792, the government declared war on its enemies.
-
-Lafayette's orders were to proceed against the Netherlands, marching
-from Metz to Givet, and thence to Namur. Meantime Rochambeau's army
-was to attack the Austrians. But there was so much discord among
-Rochambeau's divisions that the attack turned into a retreat, and
-Lafayette, learning this when he arrived at Givet, was obliged to wait
-there instead of marching farther. The conduct of his soldiers so
-discouraged Rochambeau that he resigned his commission and the territory
-to be defended was divided between Lafayette and Luckner. The former
-concentrated his troops at Maubeuge, and spent the month of May drilling
-and occasionally making sorties.
-
-In Paris the cause of law and order was having a hard time. The Jacobins
-wanted to upset the constitution, dethrone the King, and establish
-a republic, and they were steadily growing stronger. The spirit of
-revolution was spreading through the country, and everywhere the
-people gave the greatest applause to the most revolutionary orators.
-The Assembly was treating Louis XVI. with insolence and the King was
-retaliating by regarding the deputies with unconcealed contempt. The
-monarchy and the constitution were fast falling to pieces, and the news
-of the defeat of the army on the frontier helped to hasten the climax.
-Gouverneur Morris wrote to Thomas Jefferson in June, 1792, "The best
-picture I can give of the French people is that of cattle before a
-thunder-storm." And a week later he wrote, "We stand on a vast volcano;
-we feel it tremble and we hear it roar; but how and where and when it
-will burst, and who may be destroyed by its irruption, are beyond the
-ken of mortal foresight to discover."
-
-Lafayette, in camp at Maubeuge, alarmed at the reports from Paris, felt
-that the cause of liberty and order would be lost unless some effective
-blow could be dealt at the power of the Jacobins. If some one would take
-the lead in opposing that group, or club, he believed that the Assembly
-and the rest of the people would follow. So he wrote a letter to the
-Assembly, and in this he said, "Can you hide from yourselves that a
-faction, and, to avoid vague terms, the Jacobite faction, has caused all
-these disorders? It is this club that I openly accuse." Then he went on
-to denounce the Jacobins as the enemies of all order.
-
-When the letter was read in the Assembly the Jacobins attacked it
-furiously, charging that the General wanted to make himself a dictator.
-His friends supported him, but the Jacobins were the more powerful.
-Through their clubs, their newspapers, and their street orators they
-soon led the fickle people to believe that Lafayette, their idol of a
-few years before, was now a traitor to them and their greatest enemy.
-
-Another quarrel arose between King Louis and the Assembly, and the
-former dismissed his ministers. The Jacobins seized on this to
-inaugurate a reign of terror. The streets were filled with mobs,
-passionate orators harangued the crowds, men and women pushed their way
-into the meetings of the Assembly and told the deputies what they wanted
-done. June twentieth was the anniversary of the Tennis Court Oath, and
-on that day a great rabble invaded the Assembly, denounced the King, and
-then marched to the Tuileries, where it found that the gates had been
-left open. The mob surged through the palace, singing the revolutionary
-song "_Ça ira_," and shouting "Down with the Austrian woman! Down with
-Marie Antoinette!" The Queen and her children fled to an inner room,
-protected by a few grenadiers. The King watched the crowd surge by him,
-his only concession to their demands being to put a liberty cap on his
-head. After three hours of uproar the leaders felt that Louis had been
-taught a sufficient lesson and led their noisy followers back to the
-streets.
-
-A story is told that a young and penniless lieutenant by the name of
-Napoleon Bonaparte was dining with a friend in the Palais Royal when
-the mob attacked the Tuileries. Taking a position on the bank of the
-Seine he watched the scene with indignation. When he saw the King at the
-window with the red liberty cap on his head, he exclaimed, "Why have
-they let in all that rabble? They should sweep off four or five hundred
-of them with cannon; the rest would then set off fast enough." But the
-time had not yet come for this lieutenant to show how to deal with the
-people.
-
-Lafayette heard of the mob's invasion of the Tuileries and decided to
-go to Paris to see what he could do to check the spirit of revolution.
-General Luckner had no objection to his leaving his headquarters at
-Maubeuge, but warned him that if the Jacobins once got him in their
-power they would cut off his head. Undaunted by this idea Lafayette
-went to the capital, and arrived at the house of his friend La
-Rochefoucauld, entirely unexpected, on the twenty-eighth of June.
-
-His visit caused great excitement. He went to the Assembly and made a
-stirring speech in which he said that the violence committed at the
-Tuileries had roused the indignation of all good citizens. His words
-were cheered by the more sober deputies, but the Jacobins protested
-loudly. One of the latter asked how it happened that General Lafayette
-was allowed to leave his army to come and lecture the Assembly on its
-duties. The General's speech had some influence in restoring order, but
-the power of the Jacobins was steadily increasing.
-
-Lafayette then went to the Tuileries, where he saw the royal family.
-Louis was ready to receive any assurance of help that the General
-could give him, for the King saw now that his only reliance lay in the
-constitution he had signed, and felt that might prove a slight support.
-Marie Antoinette, however, refused to forgive Lafayette for the part he
-had taken in the early days of revolution, and would have no aid at his
-hands.
-
-When he left the Tuileries some of his former National Guards followed
-his carriage with shouts of "Vive Lafayette! Down with the Jacobins!"
-and planted a liberty pole before his house. This gave Lafayette the
-idea of appealing to the whole force of the National Guard and urging
-them to stand by the constitution. He asked permission to speak to them
-at a review the next day, but the mayor, fearing Lafayette's influence,
-countermanded the review. Then the General held meetings at his house
-and did all he could to persuade Guards and citizens to oppose the
-Jacobins, who, if they had their way, would, in his opinion, ruin the
-country.
-
-At the end of June he returned to the army. Daily he heard reports of
-the growing power of his enemies, the Jacobins. Then he resolved to make
-one more attempt to save the King and the constitution. He received
-orders to march his troops by a town called La Capelle, which was about
-twenty miles from Compiègne, one of the King's country residences.
-His plan was that Louis XVI. should go to the Assembly and declare
-his intention of passing a few days at Compiègne; there Lafayette's
-army would meet him, and the King would proclaim that he was ready
-to send his troops against the enemies of France who had gathered on
-the frontiers and should reaffirm his loyalty to the constitution. The
-General thought that if the King would do this it would restore the
-confidence of the people in their sovereign.
-
-But neither the King nor the nobles who were with him at the Tuileries
-were attracted by this plan, which meant that Louis would openly
-declare his hostility toward those emigrant nobles who had gathered
-on the borders. And when the Jacobins learned that Lafayette had been
-communicating secretly with the King they used this news as fresh fuel
-for their fire. So the result of the scheme was only to add to the
-currents of suspicion and intrigue that were involving Paris in the
-gathering storm.
-
-The power of the Assembly grew weaker; its authority was more and more
-openly thwarted; the deputies wanted to stand by the constitution, but
-it appeared that the country did not care to live under its laws. The
-government of Paris was now entirely under the control of the Jacobins.
-They filled the ranks of the National Guards with ruffians in their
-pay. On July fourteenth the King reviewed soldiers who were secretly
-ready to tear the crown from his head and was forced to listen to bitter
-taunts and jibes.
-
-Then, at the end of July, the allied armies of Austria and Prussia,
-accompanied by a great many French noblemen, crossed the frontier and
-began their heralded invasion. The general in command, the Duke of
-Brunswick, issued a proclamation calling on the people of Paris to
-submit to their king, and threatening all sorts of dire things if they
-persisted in their rebellion. The proclamation acted like tinder to
-powder. The invasion united all parties for the moment. If the Duke of
-Brunswick succeeded, no man who had taken part in the Revolution could
-think his life or property secure, and France would return to the old
-feudal despotism, made worse by its dependence on foreign armies.
-
-The people of Paris and of France demanded immediate and vigorous
-action; the Assembly could not lead them, and the Jacobins seized their
-chance. Danton and his fellows addressed the crowds in the streets and
-told them that France would not be safe until the monarchy and the
-aristocracy had been exterminated. The people heard and believed, and by
-August first were ready to strike down any men their leaders pointed out
-to them.
-
-Danton and the Jacobins made their plans rapidly. They filled the floor
-and the galleries of the Assembly with men whose violent threats kept
-the deputies constantly in fear of physical force. They taught the
-people to hate all those who defended the constitution, and chief among
-the latter Lafayette, whom the Jacobins feared more than any other man
-in France. So great was their fury against him that Gouverneur Morris
-wrote to Jefferson at the beginning of August, "I verily believe that if
-M. de Lafayette were to appear just now in Paris unattended by his army,
-he would be torn in pieces."
-
-On August tenth the mob, armed with pikes, surrounded the Tuileries.
-The King looked out on a crowd made up of the most vicious elements of
-the city. He tried to urge the National Guards to protect him, but they
-were demoralized by the shouts of the throngs. Finally he decided to
-take refuge with the National Assembly, and with the Queen and their
-children succeeded in reaching the Assembly chamber.
-
-The Swiss guards at the Tuileries attempted to make some resistance, but
-the mob drove them from their posts and killed many of them. The reign
-of terror spread. Nobles or citizens who had opposed the Jacobins were
-hunted out and murdered. When the Assembly adjourned the deputies found
-armed bands at the doors, waiting to kill all those who were known to
-have supported the constitution.
-
-Meantime the royal family had found the Assembly a poor refuge. A
-deputy had moved that the King be dethroned and a convention summoned
-to determine the future government of the country. The measure was
-instantly carried. Louis XVI. and his family were handed over to
-officers who took them to the Temple, which then became their prison.
-
-The Jacobins had won the day by force and violence. They formed a
-government called the "Commune of August 10th," filled it with their
-own men, drove all respectable soldiers out of the National Guard and
-placed Jacobin pikemen in their places. All nobles and friends of the
-King who were found in Paris were thrown into the prisons, which were
-soon crammed. The Reign of Terror had begun in fact. Only a short time
-later the prisoners were being tried and sent to the guillotine.
-
-Lafayette heard of the events of August tenth and begged his troops to
-remain true to the King and the constitution. Then the Commune of Paris
-sent commissioners to the armies to announce the change of government
-and to demand allegiance to the Commune. Lafayette met the commissioners
-at Sedan, heard their statements, and declaring them the agents of a
-faction that had unlawfully seized on power, ordered them imprisoned.
-
-News of Lafayette's arrest of the commissioners added to the turmoil
-in Paris. Some Jacobins wanted to have him declared a traitor at once;
-others, however, feared that his influence with the army might be too
-great for them to take such a step safely. But troops in the other parts
-of France had come over to the Commune, and so, on the nineteenth of
-August the Jacobin leaders felt their power strong enough to compel the
-Assembly to declare Lafayette a traitor.
-
-Lafayette now had to face a decision. France had declared for the
-Commune of Paris and overthrown King and constitution. He had three
-choices. He might accept the rule of the Jacobins and become one of
-their generals; he might continue to oppose them and probably be
-arrested by his own soldiers and sent to the guillotine; he might leave
-the country, seek refuge in some neutral land, and hope that some day
-he could again be of service to liberty in France. To accept the first
-course was impossible for him, because he had no confidence in Jacobin
-rule. To take the second would be useless. Therefore the third course
-was the one he decided on.
-
-He turned his troops over to other officers, and with a few friends,
-who, like himself, had been declared traitors because they had supported
-the constitution, rode away from Sedan and crossed the border into
-Belgium at the little town of Bouillon. He was now an exile from his
-own country. The cause of liberty that he had fought so hard for had
-now become the cause of lawlessness. His dream of France, safe and
-prosperous under a constitution like that of the young republic across
-the sea, had come to an end, at least for the time being. He could do
-nothing but wash his hands of the Reign of Terror that followed on the
-footsteps of the Revolution he had helped to start.
-
-
-
-
-XI
-
-LAFAYETTE IN PRISON AND EXILE
-
-
-Lafayette knew that he could expect to find no place of refuge on either
-side of the French frontier; on the one hand were the Jacobin soldiers
-of the Reign of Terror who held him to be a traitor, and on the other
-the emigrant noblemen and their allies who regarded him as in large part
-responsible for all the troubles that had befallen Louis XVI. and his
-court. He had got himself into a position where both sides considered
-him an enemy; and his best course seemed to be to make his way to
-England and there take ship for America, where he was always sure to
-meet a friendly welcome.
-
-Austrian and Prussian troops held the northern border of France and
-garrisoned the outpost towns of Belgium. Lafayette and his companions
-crossed the frontier on their road to Brussels, but were stopped at the
-town of Rochefort because they had no passports. One of the party,
-Bureaux de Pusy, rode to Namur, the nearest large town, to try to get
-the necessary papers, but when he told the officer in charge there that
-the passports were wanted for General Lafayette and several friends
-there was great commotion. "Passports for Lafayette, the enemy of the
-King and of order!" the Austrian officer exclaimed. Lafayette was too
-important a man to let escape in any such fashion. And at once the
-command was given to arrest the Frenchman and his companions.
-
-They were found at Liège and arrested. Lafayette protested that he
-and his friends were now non-combatants, and moreover were on neutral
-territory in Belgium. In spite of that they were held as prisoners,
-although a secret message was sent to Lafayette that he could have
-his freedom if he would forswear his republican principles and give
-certain information about conditions in France. Indignantly he refused
-to buy his liberty in any such way, and then was sent to the Prussian
-fortress of Wesel on the Rhine. On the journey there he was questioned
-several times about the French army he had commanded, but the haughty
-contempt with which he refused to make any answers quickly showed his
-captors the sort of man they had to deal with. At one town an officer
-of the Duke of Saxe Teschen came to him and demanded that Lafayette
-turn over to the Duke the treasure chest of his army that his enemies
-supposed he had taken with him. At first Lafayette thought the request a
-joke; but when the demand was repeated he turned on the officer. "I am
-to infer, then, that if the Duke of Saxe Teschen had been in my place,
-he would have stolen the military chest of the army?" said he. The
-officer backed out of the room in confusion, and afterward no one dared
-to doubt the Frenchman's honesty.
-
-[Illustration: LAFAYETTE, A PRUSSIAN PRISONER]
-
-The prison at Wesel was mean and unhealthy, and the cells so small and
-cold and damp that the prisoners suffered greatly. Yet to every protest
-of Lafayette the only answer vouchsafed was that he should have better
-treatment if he would tell his captors the military plans of the army
-of France. His reply was always the same, an indignant refusal. The
-Jacobins had declared him a traitor to the government of the Commune,
-but he never repaid them by any treachery.
-
-The Prussians and Austrians, arch-enemies of liberty, felt that in
-Lafayette they had caught the chief apostle of freedom in all Europe,
-and for greater security they presently moved him from the prison at
-Wesel to the stronger fortress at Magdeburg on the Elbe. There Lafayette
-had a cell about eight feet by four in size, under the outer rampart,
-never lighted by a ray of sun. Its walls were damp with mould, and
-two guards constantly watched the prisoner. Even the nobles in Paris,
-victims of the Terror, were treated better than the Prussians treated
-Lafayette. For five months he stayed there, with no chance for exercise
-or change, proof against every threat and bribe. Then the King of
-Prussia, seeing that he would soon have to make peace with France, and
-unwilling that this leader of liberty should be set free, decided to
-hand Lafayette and his comrades over to the Emperor of Austria, the
-bitterest foe of freedom and of France.
-
-So Lafayette and several of the others were secretly transferred across
-the frontier to the fortress of Olmutz, a town of Moravia in central
-Austria. Here they were given numbers instead of names, and only a few
-officials knew who the prisoners were or where they were kept. Lafayette
-practically disappeared, as many other famous prisoners had disappeared
-in Austrian dungeons. Neither his wife and friends in France nor
-Washington in America had any inkling of what had become of him.
-
-When he had first left France on his way to Brussels he had written to
-his wife at Chavaniac. "Whatever may be the vicissitudes of fortune,
-my dear heart," he said, "you know that my soul is not of the kind to
-give way; but you know it too well not to have pity on the suffering
-that I experienced on leaving my country.... There is none among you who
-would wish to owe fortune to conduct contrary to my conscience. Join me
-in England; let us establish ourselves in America. We shall find there
-the liberty which exists no longer in France, and my tenderness will
-seek to recompense you for all the enjoyments you have lost." Later,
-in his first days in prison, he wrote to a friend in England, using a
-tooth-pick with some lemon juice and lampblack for pen and ink. "A
-prison," he said, "is the only proper place for me, and I prefer to
-suffer in the name of the despotism I have fought, than in the name of
-the people whose cause is dear to my heart, and which is profaned to-day
-by brigands."
-
-For as brigands he thought of Robespierre and his crew who were making
-of France a country of horror and fear. From time to time he had news
-of the execution in Paris of friends who had been very near and dear to
-him. When Louis XVI. was beheaded he wrote of it as "the assassination
-of the King, in which all the laws of humanity, of justice, and of
-national faith were trampled under foot." When his old friend La
-Rochefoucauld had fallen at the hands of the Terror he said, "The name
-of my unhappy friend La Rochefoucauld ever presents itself to me. Ah,
-that crime has most profoundly wounded my heart! The cause of the people
-is not less sacred to me; for that I would give my blood, drop by drop;
-I should reproach myself every instant of my life which was not devoted
-to that cause; _but the charm is lost_."
-
-The lover of liberty saw anarchy in the land he had worked to set free;
-king, nobles and many citizens swept away by the fury of a mob that
-mistook violence for freedom. Few things are more bitter than for a man
-who has labored for a great cause to see that cause turn and destroy his
-ideals.
-
-Meantime Madame Lafayette was suffering also. She was arrested at the
-old castle of Chavaniac and for a time imprisoned, persecuted, and even
-threatened with death. The state had denounced Lafayette as an _émigré_,
-or runaway, and had confiscated all his property. Yet through all these
-trials his wife remained calm and determined, her one purpose being to
-learn where her husband was and secure his release if possible. She
-wrote to Washington, who was then the President of the United States,
-begging him to intercede for her husband, and when she finally managed
-to find out where Lafayette was imprisoned she urged the Austrians to
-allow her to share his captivity.
-
-The Emperor of Austria turned a deaf ear to all requests made on behalf
-of Lafayette. The United States, however, was able to do something for
-the man who had befriended it, and deposited two thousand florins in
-Prussia, subject to his order, and obtained permission of the King of
-Prussia that Lafayette should be informed that his wife and children
-were alive.
-
-The prisoner might well have thought that his own family had shared the
-fate of so many of their relatives and friends. The name of Lafayette
-was no protection to them, rather an added menace in a land where the
-Jacobins held sway. On September 2, 1792, when the Reign of Terror was
-in full flood in Paris, Minister Roland ordered that Madame Lafayette
-should be arrested at Chavaniac. She was taken, with her aunt and her
-elder daughter, who refused to leave her, as far as the town of Puy, but
-there she wrote such vigorous letters of protest to Roland and other
-officials that she was allowed to return to her home on parole. In
-October of the next year she was again arrested, this time under the new
-law that called for the arrest of all persons who might be suspected of
-hostility to the government, and now she was actually put into a country
-prison. In June, 1794, Robespierre's agents brought her to Paris, and
-she was imprisoned in the College du Plessis, where her husband had
-gone to school as a boy. From there her next journey, according to the
-custom of that time, would have been to the guillotine.
-
-At this point, however, Gouverneur Morris, the Minister of the United
-States, stepped upon the scene. He had already advanced Madame Lafayette
-large sums of money, when her property had been confiscated; now when
-he heard that she was to be condemned to the guillotine by the butchers
-of the Revolution he immediately bearded those butchers in their den.
-He wrote to the authorities, the Committee of Safety, as the officials
-grotesquely called it, and told them that the execution of Madame
-Lafayette would make a very bad impression in America.
-
-The Committee of Safety were not disposed to listen to reason from any
-quarter. Yet, when they heard Gouverneur Morris say, "If you kill the
-wife of Lafayette all the enemies of the Republic and of popular liberty
-will rejoice; you will make America hostile, and justify England in
-her slanders against you," they hesitated and postponed ordering her
-execution. But, because of his protests against such violent acts of
-the Reign of Terror, Gouverneur Morris was sent back to America, on the
-ground that he had too much sympathy with the victims of "liberty!"
-
-Madame Lafayette was brought into court, and the Committee of Safety did
-its best to insult her. Said the Chief Commissioner, "I have old scores
-against you. I detest you, your husband, and your name!"
-
-Madame Lafayette answered him fearlessly, "I shall always defend my
-husband; and as for a name--there is no wrong in that."
-
-"You are insolent!" shouted the Commissioner, and was about to order her
-execution when he remembered Morris's words and sent her back to her
-prison instead.
-
-With her husband in prison in Austria, her young children left
-unprotected and far away from her, the plight of Madame Lafayette was
-hard indeed. But she was very brave, though she knew that any day might
-take her to the scaffold. Almost all the old nobility were brave.
-While Robespierre and his rabble made liberty and justice a mockery
-the prisoners maintained their old contempt for their jailers and
-held their heads as high as in the old days when they had taken their
-pleasure at Versailles.
-
-On July 22, 1794, Madame Lafayette's grandmother, the Maréchale de
-Noailles, her mother, the Duchess d'Ayen, and her sister, the Vicomtesse
-de Noailles, were beheaded by the guillotine, victims of the popular
-rage against all aristocrats. A few days later the Reign of Terror came
-to a sudden end, the prey of the very excesses it had committed.
-
-The people were sick of blood; even the judges and executioners were
-weary. On July twenty-eighth Robespierre and his supporters were
-declared traitors and were carted off to the guillotine in their turn.
-The new revolution opened the prison doors to most of the captives,
-but it was not until February, 1795, that Madame Lafayette obtained
-her freedom, and then it was largely owing to the efforts of the new
-Minister of the United States, James Monroe. At once she flew to her
-children, and sent her son George to America to be under the protection
-of Washington. A friend had bought Chavaniac and gave it back to her,
-but another Reign of Terror seemed imminent and Madame Lafayette
-wanted to leave France. A passport was obtained for her, and with her
-daughters she went by sea to Hamburg. There the American consul gave her
-another passport, made out in the name of "Madame Motier, of Hartford,
-in Connecticut." Then she went to Austria and at Vienna presented
-herself to the grand chamberlain, the Prince of Rosemberg, who was an
-old acquaintance of her family. He took her to the Emperor, and from the
-latter she finally won permission to share her husband's captivity at
-Olmutz.
-
-Meantime Lafayette's health had suffered under his long imprisonment. In
-the dark damp fortress, deprived of exercise, of company, of books, he
-had passed many weary days. But the Fourth of July he remembered as the
-birthday of American freedom and spent the hours recollecting the happy
-time he had known in the young republic across the Atlantic.
-
-At last his wife and daughters joined him in his prison and told him
-of what had happened in France. Imprisonment was easier to bear now
-that his family was with him, but the confinement was hard on all of
-them, and presently the prison authorities, seeing Lafayette in need of
-exercise, gave him more liberty, allowing him to walk or ride each day,
-but always strongly guarded.
-
-His friends in America were not idle. Washington had earlier sent
-a letter to Prussia asking the liberation of Lafayette as a favor.
-But the prisoner had already been transferred to Austria. In May,
-1796, Washington wrote to the Emperor of Austria, and the American
-Minister, John Jay, presented the letter. "Permit me only to submit
-to your Majesty's consideration," wrote Washington, "whether his long
-imprisonment and the confiscation of his estate and the indigence and
-dispersion of his family, and the painful anxieties incident to all
-these circumstances, do not form an assemblage of sufferings which
-recommend him to the mediation of humanity. Allow me, sir, on this
-occasion, to be its organ; and to entreat that he may be permitted to
-come to this country, on such conditions and under such instructions as
-your Majesty may think it expedient to prescribe."
-
-Austria, however, did not intend to release the prisoner. She had too
-much fear of him as a leader of liberty. When at an earlier time a
-friend of Lafayette had asked for his release an official of Frederick
-the Great had refused the request on the same ground that Austria's
-emperor now took. "Monsieur de Lafayette," said this official, "is too
-fanatic on the subject of liberty; he does not hide it; all his letters
-show it; he could not keep quiet, if out of prison. I saw him when he
-was here, and still remember a statement of his, which surprised me very
-much at that time: 'Do you believe,' said he to me, 'that I went to
-America to make a military reputation for myself? I went for the sake of
-liberty. When a man loves it, he can rest only when he has established
-it in his own country.'"
-
-Before Madame Lafayette had joined her husband in the prison at Olmutz a
-friend had tried to help the captive to escape. At the time the Austrian
-officials were allowing Lafayette a little more freedom, although he
-was practically never out of the watchful sight of guards. The friend
-was a young man who had come to Vienna to try to find out where the
-famous Frenchman was imprisoned, the young American, Francis Kinloch
-Huger, who, as a small boy, had stood in the doorway of his father's
-house in South Carolina at midnight and helped to welcome Lafayette and
-his companions when they first reached American soil. Francis Huger's
-father had been attached to Lafayette's command during the campaign in
-Virginia, and the son had retained so deep an admiration for his hero
-that he had come to Europe to help him if he could.
-
-After he had been in Vienna some time Francis Huger met a German
-physician, Doctor Bollman, who was as great an admirer of Lafayette as
-the young American. Bollman said to Francis Huger, "Lafayette is in
-Olmutz," and then explained how he had found out the place where their
-hero was hidden. He had become acquainted with the physician who was
-visiting the Frenchman in prison, and had used this doctor, who knew
-nothing of his plans, as a go-between. By means of chemically-prepared
-paper and sympathetic ink he had actually communicated with Lafayette
-and had arranged a method of escape to be attempted some day when the
-prisoner was outdoors.
-
-Francis Huger entered eagerly into the plot, and the two conspirators
-made ready their horses and signals and other preparations for escape.
-Lafayette had learned part of their plans. As he rode out one day in
-November, 1794, accompanied by an officer and two soldiers, his two
-friends were ready for him. Lafayette and the officer got out of the
-carriage to walk along the road. The carriage, with the two soldiers,
-drove on. When it was far ahead, Huger and Bollman, who had been
-watching from their saddles, charged on the officer, while Lafayette
-turned on the latter, snatched at his unsheathed sword, and tried to
-disarm him.
-
-The Austrian officer fought gamely, and while Huger held the horses
-Bollman ran to the aid of the Frenchman, whose strength had been sapped
-by his long imprisonment. The two soldiers, alarmed at the sudden
-assault, made no effort to help their officer, but drove away for aid.
-Meantime the officer was thrown to the ground and held there by Doctor
-Bollman.
-
-Francis Huger, holding the restive horses with one hand, helped to gag
-the Austrian officer with his handkerchief. Then one of the horses
-broke from his grasp and dashed away. Bollman thrust a purse full
-of money into Lafayette's hand, and, still holding the struggling
-Austrian, called to Lafayette in English, so that the officer should not
-understand, "Get to Hoff! Get to Hoff!"
-
-Lafayette, who was very much excited, was too intent on escaping to pay
-special attention to Bollman's directions. He thought the latter was
-merely shouting, "Get off; get off!" and so, with the help of Francis
-Huger, he sprang to the saddle of the remaining horse and galloped away
-as fast as he could go. He did not take the road to Hoff, where his
-rescuers had arranged to have fresh horses waiting, but took another
-road which led to Jagerndorf on the German frontier. Before he reached
-Jagerndorf his horse gave out, and while he was trying to get a fresh
-mount he was recognized, arrested, and taken back to his prison at
-Olmutz.
-
-So the attempted escape failed. Huger and Bollman were arrested while
-they were hunting for the lost Lafayette. They were thrown into
-prison, put in chains, and nearly starved to death. And for some time
-after that the officials made Lafayette's life in prison even more
-uncomfortable than it had been before.
-
-Fortunately neither Huger nor Bollman died in their Austrian prison.
-After eight months in their cells they were set free and sent out of
-the country. Both went to America, where in time Doctor Bollman became
-a political adventurer and aided Aaron Burr in those schemes which
-ultimately brought Burr to trial for treason. Then Bollman might have
-been punished had not Lafayette remembered what he had done at Olmutz
-and begged President Jefferson to set him free. Francis Huger was among
-the Americans who welcomed Lafayette to the United States in 1824.
-
-The Frenchman, however, had to continue in prison in Austria. After his
-wife and daughters joined him the imprisonment grew less hard. But after
-a time his daughters fell ill of prison-fever, and soon their mother was
-sick also. She appealed to the Emperor for permission to go to Vienna to
-see a doctor. The Emperor answered that she could go to Vienna "only on
-condition that you do not go back to Olmutz."
-
-She would not desert her husband. "I will never expose myself to the
-horrors of another separation from my husband," she declared; and so
-she and her daughters stayed with Lafayette, enduring all manner of
-privations and sufferings for his sake.
-
-The world, however, had not forgotten Lafayette. America worked
-constantly to free him, Washington and Jefferson and Jay, Morris and
-Marshall and Monroe used all their influence with Austria, but America
-was not loved in the tyrannical court of Vienna and the appeals of her
-statesmen passed unheeded. England was generous also toward the man
-who had once fought against her. The general who had commanded the
-forces against him at the Brandywine moved Parliament again and again
-to interfere on behalf of the French hero, and Charles James Fox,
-the great English orator, pleaded in favor, as he said, "of a noble
-character, which will flourish in the annals of the world, and live in
-the veneration of posterity, when kings, and the crowns they wear, will
-be no more regarded than the dust to which they must return."
-
-Help finally came from his own land, though in a very strange guise.
-While Lafayette lay in his cell at Olmutz a new star was rising in the
-skies, a planet succeeding to the confusion of the Reign of Terror in
-France. A Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, was winning wonderful
-laurels as a general. From victory he strode to victory, and by the
-spring of 1797 he had broken the power of Austria, had crossed the
-Italian Alps, and in sight of the Emperor's capital was ready to
-dictate the terms of the treaty of Campo Formio. Then he remembered
-that a Frenchman, Lafayette, was still in an Austrian dungeon. Neither
-Bonaparte nor the Directory that now governed France wanted Lafayette
-to return to that country, but both were determined that Austria must
-give him up. Napoleon wrote that demand into the treaty. The Austrian
-Emperor objected, but Napoleon insisted and finally threatened, and he
-held the upper hand. The Emperor sent an officer to demand a written
-acknowledgment of his past good treatment from Lafayette and a promise
-never to enter Austria again. Lafayette refused to say anything about
-his past treatment but agreed to the second condition. Dissatisfied
-with this the Austrians represented to General Bonaparte that the
-prisoner had been set free and urged him to sign the treaty. Bonaparte
-saw through the ruse. He sent an officer to see that Lafayette was
-liberated, and only when he was satisfied of this would he make peace
-with the crafty Emperor.
-
-On September 17, 1797, Lafayette, after five years in prison, walked out
-of Olmutz with his wife and daughters a free man. Even then, however,
-the Emperor did not hand him over to the French; instead he had him
-delivered to the American consul, with the statement that "Monsieur the
-Marquis de Lafayette was released from imprisonment simply because of
-the Emperor's desire to favor and gratify America."
-
-The French Revolution had swept away Lafayette's estates and fortune,
-but his friends came to his assistance and helped to provide for him.
-Especially Americans were eager to show their appreciation of what
-he had done for their country. Washington, who had been caring for
-Lafayette's son at Mount Vernon, now sent him back to Europe, with a
-letter showing that the great American was as devoted as ever to the
-great Frenchman.
-
-Lafayette knew that his liberation was due to the brilliant young
-general, Bonaparte, and he wrote a letter to the latter expressing his
-gratitude. But there was considerable jealousy in the French government
-at that time; the letter was distasteful to some of the Directory, and
-they took their revenge by confiscating the little property that still
-belonged to Lafayette. Two Englishwomen, however, had left money to the
-Frenchman as a tribute to his "virtuous and noble character," and this
-enabled him to tide over the period until he could get back some of his
-native estates.
-
-The Netherlands offered Lafayette a home, and he went to the little
-town of Vianen, near Utrecht, to live. Here he wrote many letters to
-his friends in America, studied the amazing events that had happened
-in France since the day on which the States-General had first met at
-Versailles, and watched the wonderful course of the new leader, Napoleon
-Bonaparte, across the fields of Europe. Bonaparte puzzled him; he was
-not sure whether the Corsican was a liberator or a despot; but he saw
-that the General was restoring order to a France that was greatly in
-need of it, and hoped that he might accomplish some of the ends for
-which Lafayette and his friends had worked. Presently the time came when
-the exile felt that he might safely return to his home.
-
-
-
-
-XII
-
-IN THE DAYS OF NAPOLEON
-
-
-After the treaty of Campo Formio with Austria, which had secured the
-liberation of Lafayette, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris the
-leading man of France. The government in Paris, which had gone through
-one change after another since the end of the Reign of Terror, was now
-in the hands of what was known as the Directory. But the members of
-this, divided in their views, were not very popular with the people,
-who were so tired of disorder that they desired above everything else a
-strong hand at the helm of the state. The people were already looking to
-the brilliant young general as such a helmsman, and the Directors knew
-this, and so grew increasingly jealous of Bonaparte.
-
-Having settled his score with Austria Bonaparte suggested to the
-French government that he should strike a blow at England by invading
-Egypt. The Directory, glad to have him out of the country, agreed to
-this, and in May, 1798, Bonaparte departed on such an expedition. As
-soon as Bonaparte was safely away the enemies of France resumed their
-attacks, and when the French people saw that the Corsican was their
-surest defender they began to clamor more loudly against the Directory.
-Bonaparte kept himself informed of what was happening at home, and when
-he thought that the proper moment had come he left his army in Egypt
-and appeared in France. His welcome there made it clear that the people
-wanted him for their leader; they were weary of turmoil and constant
-changes in government, they were ready for a strong and able dictator.
-
-France had known ten years of disorder, bloodshed, anarchy, democratic
-misrule, financial ruin, and political failure, and the people were no
-longer so much concerned about liberty as they had once been. Bonaparte
-was crafty; he pretended that he wanted power in order to safeguard
-the principles that had been won in the Revolution. He went to Paris,
-and there, on November 9, 1799, was made First Consul, and the real
-dictator of France. The country was still a republic in name, but at
-once the First Consul began to gather all the reins of authority in his
-own hands.
-
-Under the Directory Lafayette had been an exile, forbidden to enter
-French territory. But with Napoleon in power conditions changed.
-Lafayette felt the greatest gratitude to the man who had freed him from
-Olmutz, he had the deepest admiration for the general who had won so
-many brilliant victories for France, and he was disposed to believe that
-Napoleon really intended to secure liberty for the country. When he
-heard of Napoleon's return from Egypt he wrote to his wife, who was in
-France at the time, "People jealous of Bonaparte see in me his future
-opponent; they are right, if he wishes to suppress liberty; but if he
-have the good sense to promote it, I will suit him in every respect. I
-do not believe him to be so foolish as to wish to be only a despot."
-
-He also sent a letter to Napoleon, in which he said, "The love of
-liberty and country would suffice for your arrival to fill me with joy
-and hope. To this desire for public happiness is joined a lively and
-profound sentiment for my liberator. Your greetings to the prisoners of
-Olmutz have been sent to me by her whose life I owe to you. I rejoice in
-all my obligations to you, citizen-general, and in the happy conviction
-that to cherish your glory and to wish your success is an act of civism
-as much as of attachment and gratitude."
-
-Friends procured the exile a passport and he returned to Paris. But
-Bonaparte was not glad to have him come back; the First Consul was in
-reality no friend of the principles of the Revolution, and he felt
-that such a man as Lafayette must inevitably oppose him and might even
-prejudice the people against him. He showed his anger unreservedly when
-friends told him of Lafayette's arrival, and the friends immediately
-advised the latter that he had better return to the Netherlands. But
-Lafayette, having made up his mind to come, would not budge now. "You
-should be sufficiently acquainted with me," he said to the men who
-brought him the news from the First Consul, "to know that this imperious
-and menacing tone would suffice to confirm me in the course which I have
-taken." And he added, "It would be very amusing for me to be arrested
-at night by the National Guard of Paris and imprisoned in the Temple the
-next day by the restorer of the principles of 1789."
-
-Madame Lafayette called on the First Consul, who received her kindly.
-She pleaded so eloquently for her husband, pointing out his natural
-desire to be in France, that Napoleon's anger vanished. He said that
-he regretted Lafayette's return only because it would "retard his
-progress toward the reëstablishment of Lafayette's principles, and
-would force him to take in sail." "You do not understand me, madame,"
-he continued, "but General Lafayette will understand me; and not having
-been in the midst of affairs, he will feel that I can judge better than
-he. I therefore conjure him to avoid all publicity; I leave it to his
-patriotism." Madame Lafayette answered that that was her husband's wish.
-
-Believing that Lafayette had no desire to oppose him, Napoleon soon
-restored him to citizenship. Different as the two men were, each admired
-the strong qualities of the other. The First Consul could appreciate
-Lafayette's devotion to the cause of liberty, and Lafayette said to
-Napoleon, "I have but one wish, General,--a free government and you at
-the head of it."
-
-Napoleon, however, had no real liking for a free government. He had
-forgotten any belief in liberty that he might have had in the days
-when he was a poor and obscure lieutenant. He had tasted power, and
-was already looking forward to the time when he should be not only the
-most powerful man in France but in the whole world. To do that he must
-make his countrymen forget their recently won liberties. He must keep
-Lafayette, the greatest apostle of freedom, in the background, and
-not allow him to remind the people of his liberal dreams. So Napoleon
-adopted a policy of silence toward Lafayette. In February, 1800, the
-celebrated French orator Fontanes delivered a public eulogy on the
-character of Washington, who had lately died. Napoleon forbade the
-orator to mention the name of Lafayette in his address, and saw to it
-that Lafayette was not invited to the ceremony, nor any Americans. The
-bust of Washington was draped in banners that the First Consul had taken
-in battle.
-
-Lafayette's son George applied for and was given a commission in one of
-Napoleon's regiments of hussars. When his name was erased from the list
-of exiles Lafayette himself was restored to his rank of major-general
-in the French army, but he did not ask for any command. He went to
-Lagrange, an estate that his wife had inherited from her mother, and
-set himself to the work of trying to pay off the debts that had piled
-up while he was in prison in Austria. Like all the old aristocracy
-that returned to France after the Revolution he found that most of his
-property had been taken by the state and now had new owners and that the
-little that was left was burdened by heavy taxes.
-
-Chavaniac and a few acres near it came into his possession, but there
-were relatives who needed it as a home more than he did and he let them
-live there. He himself cultivated the farm at Lagrange, and was able in
-a few years to pay off his French creditors. But he was still greatly
-in debt to Gouverneur Morris and other Americans who had helped his
-wife with money when she had need of it, and these were loans that were
-difficult to pay.
-
-Lafayette was living quietly on his farm when Napoleon returned with
-fresh triumphs from Italy. The man who had been a general could not help
-but admire the great military genius of the First Consul. The latter
-felt that he had little now to fear from Lafayette, and the relations
-between the two men became quite friendly. Had they only been able to
-work together they might have accomplished a great deal for the good of
-France, but no two men could have been more fundamentally different in
-their characters and ideals than Lafayette and Napoleon.
-
-Occasionally they discussed their views on government, and Lafayette
-once said to the First Consul, "I do not ignore the effect of the crimes
-and follies which have profaned 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; it is from you that it is expected." Napoleon smiled; he had his own
-notions about liberty, and he felt himself strong enough to force those
-notions upon France.
-
-Yet the First Consul did wish for the good opinion and support of
-Lafayette. It was at his suggestion that certain friends urged the
-latter to become a Senator. Lafayette felt that, disapproving as he did
-of some of the policies of the new government, he must decline, and did
-so, stating his reasons frankly. Then Napoleon's minister Talleyrand
-offered to send him as the French representative to the United States,
-but this Lafayette declined also. His political views and the need
-of cultivating the farm at Lagrange were sufficient to keep him from
-accepting office.
-
-Lafayette enjoyed his talks with Napoleon, though the latter was often
-inclined to be domineering. Lord Cornwallis came to Paris in 1802 to
-conclude the Treaty of Amiens between France and England, and Lafayette
-met his old opponent at dinner at the house of Joseph Bonaparte, the
-brother of Napoleon. The next time Napoleon and Lafayette met the former
-said, "I warn you that Lord Cornwallis gives out that you are not cured
-yet."
-
-"Of what?" answered Lafayette. "Is it of loving liberty? What could have
-disgusted me with it? The extravagances and crimes of the tyranny of the
-Terror? They only make me hate still more every arbitrary system, and
-attach me more and more to my principles."
-
-Napoleon said seriously, "I should tell you, General Lafayette, and I
-see with regret, that by your manner of expressing yourself on the acts
-of this government you give to its enemies the weight of your name."
-
-"What better can I do?" asked Lafayette. "I live in retirement in the
-country, I avoid occasions for speaking; but whenever any one comes to
-ask me whether your system is conformant to my ideas of liberty, I shall
-answer that it is not; for, General, I certainly wish to be prudent, but
-I shall not be false."
-
-"What do you mean," said Napoleon, "with your arbitrary system? Yours
-was not so, I admit; but you had against your adversaries the resource
-of riots.... I observed you carefully.... You had to get up riots."
-
-"If you call the national insurrection of July, 1789, a riot," Lafayette
-answered, "I lay claim to that one; but after that period I wanted no
-more. I have repressed many; many were gotten up against me; and, since
-you appeal to my experience regarding them, I shall say that in the
-course of the Revolution I saw no injustice, no deviation from liberty,
-which did not injure the Revolution itself."
-
-Napoleon ended the conversation by saying, "After all, I have spoken to
-you as the head of the government, and in this character I have cause to
-complain of you; but as an individual, I should be content, for in all
-that I hear of you, I have recognized that, in spite of your severity
-toward the acts of the government, there has always been on your part
-personal good-will toward myself."
-
-And this in truth expressed Lafayette's attitude toward Napoleon,
-admiration and friendship for the General, but opposition to the growing
-love of power of the First Consul.
-
-That love of power soon made itself manifest in Napoleon's election
-to the new office of "Consul for life." Meantime Lafayette was busy
-cultivating his farm, work which he greatly enjoyed. And to Lagrange
-came many distinguished English and American visitors, eager to meet the
-owner and hear him tell of his adventurous career on two continents.
-
-The United States treated him well. While he was still in prison at
-Olmutz he was placed on the army list at full pay. Congress voted to
-him more than eleven thousand acres on the banks of the Ohio, and when
-the great territory of Louisiana was acquired a tract near the city
-of New Orleans was set aside for him and he was informed that the
-government of Louisiana was destined for him. But Madame Lafayette's
-health had been delicate ever since those trying days in Austria, and
-that, combined with Lafayette's own feeling that he ought to remain in
-France, led him to decline the eager invitations that were sent him to
-settle in America.
-
-Napoleon's star led the Corsican on, farther and farther away from the
-path that Lafayette hoped he would follow. In May, 1804, the man who
-was "Consul for life" became the Emperor of France, and seated himself
-on the most powerful throne in Europe. Lafayette was tremendously
-disappointed at this step. Again Napoleon's friends made overtures to
-the General, and the latter's own cousin, the Count de Segur, who had
-wanted to go with him to America to fight for freedom, and who was now
-the Grand Master of Ceremonies at the new Emperor's court, wrote to him
-asking him to become one of the high officers of the Legion of Honor.
-Lafayette refused the invitation, and from that time the friendship
-between him and Napoleon ceased. The Emperor had now no use for the
-lover of liberty, and carried his dislike for the latter so far that
-Lafayette's son George, though a brave and brilliant officer in the
-army, was forced to resign his commission.
-
-Napoleon went on and on, his victories over all the armies of Europe
-dazzling the eyes of his people. Those who had been aristocrats under
-Louis XVI. and those who had been Jacobins during the Reign of Terror
-were glad to accept the smallest favors from the all-powerful Emperor.
-But Lafayette stayed away from Paris and gave all his attention to his
-farm, which began to prove productive. In his house portraits of his
-great friends, Washington, Franklin, La Rochefoucauld, Fox, kept fresh
-the memory of more stirring times.
-
-But France, and even the Emperor, had not forgotten him. Once in an
-angry speech to his chief councilors about the men who had brought about
-the French Revolution, Napoleon exclaimed, "Gentlemen, this talk is not
-aimed at you; I know your devotion to the throne. Everybody in France is
-corrected. I was thinking of the only man who is not,--Lafayette. He has
-never retreated an inch."
-
-And at another time, when a conspiracy against the life of the Emperor
-was discovered, Napoleon was inclined to charge Lafayette with having
-been concerned in it. "Don't be afraid," said Napoleon's brother Joseph.
-"Wherever there are aristocrats and kings you are certain not to find
-Lafayette."
-
-Meantime at Lagrange Madame Lafayette fell ill and died in December,
-1807. No husband and wife were ever more devoted to each other, and
-Lafayette expressed his feelings in regard to her in a letter to his
-friend Maubourg. "During the thirty-four years of a union, in which
-the love and the elevation, the delicacy and the generosity of her
-soul charmed, adorned, and honored my days," he wrote, "I was so
-much accustomed to all that she was to me, that I did not distinguish
-her from my own existence. Her heart wedded all that interested me. I
-thought that I loved her and needed her; but it is only in losing her
-that I can at last clearly see the wreck of me that remains for the rest
-of my life; for there only remain for me memories of the woman to whom I
-owed the happiness of every moment, undimmed by any cloud."
-
-Madame Lafayette deserved the tribute. Never for one moment in the
-course of all the storms of her husband's career had she wavered in her
-loyal devotion to his ideals and interests. The little girl who had met
-him first in her father's garden in Paris had stood by him when all
-her family and friends opposed him, had been his counselor in the days
-of the French Revolution, and had gone to share his prison in Austria.
-History rarely says enough about the devoted wives of the great men who
-have helped the world. No hero ever found greater aid and sympathy when
-he needed it most than Lafayette had from his wife Adrienne.
-
-From his home at Lagrange the true patriot of France watched the
-wonderful course of the Emperor of France. It was a course amazing in
-its victories. The men who had been an undrilled rabble in the days of
-the Revolution were now the veterans of the proudest army in Europe.
-The people did not have much more liberty than they had enjoyed under
-Louis XVI.; they had exchanged one despotic government for another, but
-Napoleon fed them on victories, dazzled their vision, swept them off
-their feet by his long succession of triumphs.
-
-The treaty of Tilsit, made in July, 1807, followed the great victories
-of Eylau and Friedland, which crushed the power of Prussia and changed
-Russia into an ally of France. Napoleon's might reached its zenith then.
-No European nation dared to contest his claim of supremacy. He was the
-ruler of France, of Northern Italy, of Eastern Germany; he had made
-Spain a dependency, and placed his brothers on the thrones of Holland,
-Naples, and Westphalia. For five years his power remained at this
-height. In 1812 he set out to invade Russia with an army of five hundred
-thousand men, gathered from half the countries of Europe. He stopped at
-Dresden, and kings of the oldest lineage, who only held their crowns at
-his pleasure, came to do homage to the little Corsican soldier who had
-made himself the most powerful man in the world. Only one country still
-dared to resist him, England, who held control of the seas, but who was
-feeling the effect of the commercial war he was waging against her.
-
-But the very size of Napoleon's dominion was a source of weakness. The
-gigantic power he had built up depended on the life and abilities of one
-man. No empire can rest for long on such a foundation. When Napoleon
-left the greater part of the grand army in the wilderness of Russia
-and hurried back to Paris the first ominous signs of cracks in the
-foundation of his empire began to appear. France was almost exhausted
-by his campaigns, but the Emperor needed more triumphs and demanded
-more men. He won more victories, but his enemies increased. The French
-people were tired of war; there came a time when they were ready to
-barter Napoleon for peace. The allied armies that were ranged against
-him occupied the hills about Paris in March, 1814, and on April fourth
-of that year the Emperor Napoleon abdicated his throne at Fontainebleau.
-
-The illness of relatives brought Lafayette to Paris at the same time,
-and seeing the storms that again threatened his country he did what
-he could to bring order out of confusion. His son and his son-in-law
-Lasteyrie enlisted in the National Guard, and his other son-in-law,
-Maubourg, joined the regular army. When the allies entered Paris
-Lafayette witnessed the downfall of the Empire with mixed emotions.
-He had never approved of Napoleon, but he knew that he had at least
-given the country a stable government. And when the allies placed the
-brother of Lafayette's old friend Louis XVI. on the throne, with the
-title of Louis XVIII., he hoped that the new king might rule according
-to a liberal constitution, and hastened to offer his services to that
-sovereign.
-
-The people, tired of Napoleon's wars, wanting peace now as they had
-wanted it after the Revolution, agreed passively to the change of
-rulers. But Louis XVIII., a true Bourbon, soon showed that he had
-learned nothing from the misfortunes of his family. Lafayette met the
-Emperor of Russia in Paris, and the latter spoke to him with misgiving
-of the fact that the Bourbons appeared to be returning as obtuse and
-illiberal as ever. "Their misfortunes should have corrected them," said
-Lafayette.
-
-"Corrected!" exclaimed the Emperor. "They are uncorrected and
-incorrigible. There is only one, the Duke of Orleans, who has any
-liberal ideas. But from the others expect nothing at all."
-
-Lafayette soon found that was true. The new king proved the saying about
-his family, that the Bourbons never learned nor forgot. Louis XVIII. was
-that same Count of Provence whom Lafayette had taken pains to offend
-at Versailles when he did not want to be attached as a courtier to his
-staff. The King remembered that incident, and when Lafayette offered to
-serve him now showed his resentment and anger very plainly.
-
-Seeing that there was nothing he could do in Paris, Lafayette retired
-again to Lagrange, and there watched the course of events. Napoleon, in
-exile on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, was watching too, and
-he soon saw that France was not satisfied with her new sovereign. Agents
-brought him word that the people were only waiting for him to overthrow
-the Bourbon rule, and on March 1, 1815, he landed on the shores of
-Provence with a few hundred soldiers of his old Guard to reconquer his
-empire.
-
-He had judged the situation rightly. As he advanced the people rose to
-greet him, the cities opened their gates, the soldiers sent to oppose
-him rallied to his standard. As Napoleon neared Paris Louis XVIII. fled
-across the frontier.
-
-Again Lafayette went to the capital. "I had no faith in the conversion
-of Napoleon," he said, "and I saw better prospects in the awkward
-and pusillanimous ill-will of the Bourbons than in the vigorous and
-profound perversity of their adversary." But he found that the people of
-Paris wanted Napoleon again, and he heard with hope that the restored
-Emperor had agreed to a constitution and had established a Senate and a
-Representative Assembly elected by popular vote. These decisions sounded
-well, and as a result of them Lafayette allowed himself to be elected a
-member of the Representative Assembly, or Chamber of Deputies.
-
-The other nations of Europe were furious when they heard of Napoleon's
-return. They collected their armies again and prepared for a new
-campaign. Exhausted though France was, the Emperor was able to raise
-a new army of six hundred thousand men. With these he tried to defeat
-his enemies, but on the field of Waterloo on June 18, 1814, he was
-decisively beaten and hurried back to Paris to see what could be done to
-retrieve defeat.
-
-He found the Chamber of Deputies openly hostile; its members wanted
-him to abdicate. He held meetings with the representatives, among whom
-Lafayette now held a chief place. At last the Assembly gave Napoleon
-an hour in which to abdicate the throne. Finally he agreed to abdicate
-in favor of his son. The Assembly did not want the young Napoleon as
-Emperor, and decided instead on a government by a commission of five
-men. Napoleon's hour was over, his star had set; he was sent a prisoner
-to the far-distant island of St. Helena to end his days.
-
-Lafayette wanted to see the new government adopt the ideas he had
-had in mind when France had first wrung a constitution from Louis
-XVI., and would have liked to serve on the commission that had charge
-of the country. Instead he was sent to make terms of peace with the
-allied armies that had been fighting Napoleon. And while he was away
-on this business the commission in Paris was dickering behind his
-back to restore Louis XVIII. The allies had taken possession of the
-French capital with their soldiers, the white flag of the Bourbons was
-everywhere replacing the tricolor of the Empire, and when Lafayette
-returned he found the King again upon his throne. Lafayette was
-disgusted with what he considered the folly and selfishness of the
-rulers of his country; he protested against the return of the old
-autocratic Bourbons, but the people were now more than ever eager for
-peace and harmony and accepted meekly whomever their leaders gave them.
-
-Louis XVIII. was a weak, despotic ruler; the members of his house
-were equally narrow-minded and overbearing. Lafayette opposed their
-government in every way he could. In 1819 he was elected a member of
-the new Assembly, and for four years as a deputy he fought against
-the encroachments of the royal power. He took part in a conspiracy to
-overthrow the King, and when his friends cautioned him that he was
-risking his life and his property he answered, "Bah! I have already
-lived a long time, and it seems to me that I would worthily crown my
-political career by dying on a scaffold in the cause of liberty."
-
-That conspiracy failed, and although Lafayette was known to have been
-connected with the plot, neither the King nor his ministers dared to
-imprison him or even to call him to account. A year later he joined with
-other conspirators against the Bourbons, but again the plans failed
-through blunders. The Chamber of Deputies attempted to investigate the
-affair, but Lafayette so boldly challenged a public comparison of his
-own and the government's course that the royalists shrank from pursuing
-the matter further. They knew what the people thought of their champion
-and did not dare to lay a hand upon him.
-
-He retired from public life after this second conspiracy and went
-to live with his children and grandchildren at his country home of
-Lagrange. From there he wrote often to Thomas Jefferson and his other
-friends in the United States. If the Revolution in France had failed to
-bring about that republic he dreamed of the struggle in America had at
-least borne good fruits. More and more he thought of the young nation
-across the sea, in the birth of which he had played a great part, and
-more and more he wished to visit it again. So when he was invited by
-President Monroe in 1824 he gladly accepted, and for the fourth time set
-out across the Atlantic.
-
-
-
-
-XIII
-
-THE UNITED STATES WELCOMES THE HERO
-
-
-The first half century of American independence was drawing near, and
-the Congress of the United States, mindful of the days when Lafayette
-had offered his sword in defense of liberty, voted unanimously that
-President Monroe be requested to invite the General to visit America as
-the guest of the nation. President Monroe joyfully acted as Congress
-requested, and placed at Lafayette's service an American war-ship.
-The Frenchman, now sixty-seven years old, was eager to accept, but he
-declined the use of the war-ship, and sailed instead, with his son
-George Washington Lafayette and his private secretary on the American
-merchantman _Cadmus_, leaving Havre on July 13, 1824.
-
-As he sailed out of Havre the American ships in the harbor ran up their
-flags in his honor and fired their guns in salute, an intimation of the
-welcome that was awaiting him on the other side of the Atlantic. The
-_Cadmus_ reached Staten Island on August fifteenth, and the guest landed
-in the midst of cheering throngs. Most of the men who had taken part
-with him in the birth of the country had now passed off the scene, and
-to Americans Lafayette was a tradition, one of the few survivors of the
-nation's early days of strife and triumph. He was no longer the slim and
-eager boy of 1777; he was now a large, stout man, slightly lame, but his
-smile was still the same, and so was the delight with which he greeted
-the people.
-
-The United States had grown prodigiously in the interval between this
-visit and his last. Instead of thirteen separate colonies there were
-now twenty-four united States. The population had increased from three
-to twelve millions. What had been wilderness was now ripe farmland;
-backwoods settlements had grown into flourishing towns built around
-the church and the schoolhouse. Agriculture and commerce were thriving
-everywhere, and everywhere Lafayette saw signs of the wisdom, honesty,
-and self-control which had established a government under which men
-could live in freedom and happiness.
-
-His visit carried him far and wide through the United States. From New
-York he went by way of New Haven and Providence to Boston, from there
-to Portsmouth by the old colonial road through Salem, Ipswich, and
-Newburyport. From there he returned to New York by Lexington, Worcester,
-Hartford, and the Connecticut River. The steamer _James Kent_ took him
-to the old familiar scenes on the banks of the Hudson, reminding him
-of the day when he and Washington had ridden to the house of Benedict
-Arnold.
-
-Starting again from New York he traveled through New Jersey to
-Philadelphia, the scene of the stirring events of his first visit, and
-thence to Baltimore and Washington. He went to Mount Vernon, Yorktown,
-Norfolk, Monticello, Raleigh, Charleston, and Savannah. In the spring of
-1825 he was at New Orleans, and from there he ascended the Mississippi
-and Ohio Rivers, sailed up Lake Erie, saw the Falls of Niagara, went
-through Albany and as far north as Portland, Maine. Returning by Lake
-Champlain he reached New York in time for the great celebration of the
-Fourth of July in 1825. He had made a very comprehensive tour of the
-United States.
-
-The whole of this long journey was one triumphal progress. He constantly
-drove through arches bearing the words "Welcome, Lafayette!" Every
-house where he stopped became a Mecca for admiring crowds. The country
-had never welcomed any man as it did the gallant Frenchman. Balls,
-receptions, dinners, speeches, gifts of every kind were thrust upon him;
-and the leading men of the republic were constantly by his side.
-
-He was present at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill
-Monument and heard the great oration of Daniel Webster. "Fortunate,
-fortunate man!" exclaimed the orator turning toward Lafayette. "With
-what measure of devotion will you not thank God for the circumstances
-of your extraordinary life! You are connected with both hemispheres and
-with two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain that the electric spark
-of liberty should be conducted, through you, from the New World to the
-Old; and we, who are now here to perform this duty of patriotism, have
-all of us long ago received it from our fathers to cherish your name and
-your virtues. You now behold the field, the renown of which reached you
-in the heart of France and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom. You see
-the lines of the little redoubt, thrown up by the incredible diligence
-of Prescott, defended to the last extremity by his lion-hearted valor,
-and within which the corner-stone of our monument has now taken its
-position. You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner,
-M'Cleary, Moore, and other early patriots fell with him. Those who
-survived that day, and whose lives have been prolonged to the present
-hour, are now around you. Some of them you have known in the trying
-scenes of the war. Behold, they now stretch forth their feeble arms to
-embrace you! Behold, they raise their trembling voices to invoke the
-blessing of God on you and yours forever!"
-
-The welcome he received in New York and New England was equaled by that
-of Philadelphia and Baltimore and the South. At Charleston Colonel
-Huger, the devoted friend who had tried to rescue Lafayette from his
-Olmutz prison, was joined with him in demonstrations of the people's
-regard. A great military celebration was given in Lafayette's honor at
-Yorktown, and in the course of it a box of candles was found which had
-formed part of the stores of Lord Cornwallis, and the candles were used
-to furnish the light for the evening's entertainment.
-
-Lafayette first went to Washington in October, 1824. He was met by
-twenty-five young girls dressed in white and a military escort. After
-a short reception at the Capitol he was driven to the White House.
-There President Monroe, the members of his cabinet, and officers of the
-army and navy were gathered to receive him. As the guest of the nation
-entered, all rose, and the President advanced and welcomed him in the
-name of the United States. Lafayette stayed in Washington several days
-and then went to make some visits in the neighborhood.
-
-During his absence Congress met and received a message from the
-President which set forth Lafayette's past services to the country, the
-great enthusiasm with which the people had welcomed him, and recommended
-that a gift should be made him which should be worthy of the character
-and greatness of the American nation. Senator Hayne described how the
-rights and pay belonging to his rank in the army had never been claimed
-by Lafayette and how the land that had been given him in 1803 had
-afterward through a mistake been granted to the city of New Orleans.
-Then Congress unanimously passed a bill directing the treasurer of the
-United States to pay to General Lafayette, as a recognition of services
-that could never be sufficiently recognized or appreciated, the sum of
-two hundred thousand dollars.
-
-When he returned to Washington he went to the Capitol, where Congress
-received him in state, every member springing to his feet in welcome
-to the nation's guest. Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House of
-Representatives, held out his hand to the gallant Frenchman. "The vain
-wish has been sometimes indulged," said Henry Clay to Lafayette,
-"that Providence would allow the patriot, after death, to return to
-his country and to contemplate the immediate changes which had taken
-place; to view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains
-leveled, the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress of the
-arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of population.
-General, your present visit to the United States is a realization of
-the consoling object of that wish. You are in the midst of posterity.
-Everywhere you must have been struck with the great changes, physical
-and moral, which have occurred since you left us. Even this very city,
-bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to us, has since
-emerged from the forest which then covered its site. In one respect you
-behold us unaltered, and this is the sentiment of continued devotion to
-liberty, and of ardent affection and profound gratitude to your departed
-friend, the Father of his Country, and to you, and to your illustrious
-associates in the field and in the Cabinet, for the multiplied blessings
-which surround us, and for the very privilege of addressing you which
-I now exercise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished by more than ten
-millions of people, will be transmitted with unabated vigor down the
-tide of time, through the countless millions who are destined to inhabit
-this continent to the latest posterity."
-
-Henry Clay was a great prophet as well as a great orator. We know now
-how the affection of the United States for Lafayette has grown and grown
-during the century in which the republic has stretched from the Atlantic
-to the Pacific and its people increased from ten millions to more than a
-hundred millions.
-
-In his journey through the country Lafayette passed through thousands
-of miles of wilderness and had several opportunities to renew his old
-acquaintance with the Indians. He had won their friendship during the
-Revolution by his sympathy for all men. Now he found that they had
-not forgotten the young chief whom they had called Kayoula. A girl of
-the Southern Creeks showed him a paper she had kept as a relic which
-turned out to be a letter of thanks written to her father by Lafayette
-forty-five years before. In western New York he met the famous chief Red
-Jacket, who reminded him that it was he who had argued the cause of the
-Indians at the council at Fort Schuyler in 1784. Lafayette remembered,
-and it delighted him greatly that the Indians were as eager to greet him
-as their white brothers.
-
-Only one mishap occurred during the many journeys which might easily
-have proved full of perils. While ascending the Ohio River on his way to
-Louisville his steamer struck on a snag on a dark and rainy night. The
-boat immediately began to fill. Lafayette was hurried into a small boat
-and rowed ashore, in spite of his protests that he would not leave the
-steamer until he secured a snuff-box that Washington had given him. His
-secretary went below and got the snuff-box and his son George saved some
-other articles of value. All the party were safely landed, but they had
-to spend some hours on the river-bank with no protection from the rain
-and only a few crackers to eat. The next morning a freight steamer took
-them off and they proceeded on their journey.
-
-When he was in Washington Lafayette made a visit to Mount Vernon, and
-spent some time in the beautiful house and grounds where he had once
-walked with the man whose friendship had been so dear to him. Like
-Washington, almost all the men of the Revolution had departed. The
-Frenchman found few of the soldiers and statesmen he had known then.
-One, however, Colonel Nicholas Fish, who had been with him at the
-storming of the redoubt at Yorktown, welcomed him in New York and went
-with him up the Hudson. "Nick," said Lafayette, pointing out a certain
-height to Colonel Fish, "do you remember when we used to ride down that
-hill with the Newburgh girls on an ox-sled?" Many places along the
-Hudson served to remind him of incidents of the time when Washington had
-made his headquarters there.
-
-In New York the Frenchman visited the widow of General Montgomery and
-Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. He found some old friends in Philadelphia and
-Baltimore. In Boston he saw again the venerable John Adams, who had been
-the second President of the country. He went to Thomas Jefferson's home
-of Monticello in Virginia, and passed some days with the man whom he
-revered almost as much as he did Washington. With Jefferson he talked
-over the lessons that were to be learned from the French Revolution and
-the career of Napoleon. And he met foreigners in the United States who
-called to mind the recent eventful days in his own land. He visited
-Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, at Bordentown in New Jersey. At
-Baltimore he found Dubois Martin, the man who as secretary to the Duke
-de Broglie had helped Lafayette to secure the ship in which he had first
-sailed to America. And at Savannah he discovered Achille Murat, the son
-of Joachim, the ex-king of Naples, one of the men Napoleon had placed
-upon a temporary throne, and learned that Murat was now cultivating an
-orange-orchard in Florida.
-
-A man named Haguy came one hundred and fifty miles to see the General,
-and proved to be one of the sailors who had crossed on the _Victory_
-with him and had later fought under him in the Continental Army. Here
-and there he found veterans of his campaign in Virginia, and Lafayette
-was as glad to see his old soldiers as they were to welcome him.
-
-Before he left for Europe John Quincy Adams, the son of the second
-President, was elected to succeed Monroe. The new President invited
-Lafayette to dine at the White House in company with the three
-ex-Presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, all of them old and
-trusted friends of the Frenchman. What a dinner that must have been,
-with five such men at the table!
-
-Perhaps the thing that delighted him most in America was the
-self-reliant independence that marked the people everywhere. This type
-of democracy was most inspiring to a man who had seen the constant
-turmoil and bickerings of the Revolution and Napoleonic era in France.
-America was young and her citizens were too busy developing their
-country to pay much attention to class distinctions or the social
-ambitions that were so prominent in Europe. They felt quite able to run
-their government to suit themselves, and it seemed to Lafayette that
-they were working out their problems in a most satisfactory manner.
-
-In 1824 he witnessed a Presidential election with four candidates,
-Adams, Jackson, Clay, and Crawford. Party feelings ran high, and there
-was great excitement. But when the election was over the people settled
-down to their work again in remarkable harmony and the government
-continued its course serenely. This Lafayette, with his knowledge of
-other countries, regarded as evidence of a most unusual genius for
-self-control in the American nation.
-
-All parties, all classes of men, praised and venerated him as they
-praised and venerated the founders of their republic. His tour was a
-tremendous popular success, the greatest reception ever given to a
-guest by the United States. It must have made up to him for the many
-disappointments of his career in France. And when he sailed for home he
-knew that the country to which he had given all he had in youth would
-never cease to love and honor him.
-
-President John Quincy Adams at the White House, standing beside
-Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, said to Lafayette, "You are ours,
-sir, by that unshaken sentiment of gratitude for your services which
-is a precious portion of our inheritance; ours by that tie of love,
-stronger than death, which has linked your name for the endless ages
-of time with the name of Washington. At the painful moment of parting
-with you we take comfort in the thought that, wherever you may be, to
-the last pulsation of your heart, our country will ever be present to
-your affections. And a cheering consolation assures us that we are not
-called to sorrow,--most of all that we shall see your face no more,--for
-we shall indulge the pleasing anticipation of beholding our friend
-again. In the name of the whole people of the United States, I bid you a
-reluctant and affectionate farewell."
-
-An American frigate, named the _Brandywine_, in compliment to
-Lafayette's first blow for liberty in America, carried the guest of the
-nation back to France. And the memory of that visit, and of what it
-stood for, has been kept green in American history ever since.
-
-
-
-
-XIV
-
-THE LOVER OF LIBERTY
-
-
-The frigate _Brandywine_ reached Havre on October 5, 1825. The French
-people had heard of the wonderful reception given Lafayette by the
-United States and now they, in their turn, wanted to welcome the
-returning hero of liberty. But the Bourbon king who sat on the throne
-of France and the royalists disliked Lafayette so much that they did
-their best to prevent the people from greeting him. It was only after
-a long discussion that the forts of the harbor at Havre were permitted
-to return the salute of the _Brandywine_, and at Rouen, while citizens
-were serenading their hero beneath the windows of the house where he
-was staying, officials of the government ordered a troop of soldiers to
-charge upon the crowd and disperse it with drawn swords. The people,
-however, insisted on honoring their famous fellow-countryman. They,
-as well as the Bourbon king, saw in him the patriot and champion of
-independence. Louis XVIII. had been succeeded on the throne by his
-brother, Charles X., and the latter said of Lafayette, "There is a man
-who never changes." And the people knew this, and honored the General
-for his lifelong devotion to their cause.
-
-He went back to his quiet family life at Lagrange. Prominent statesmen
-came to him for advice, but he rarely went to Paris. The nobility had
-been restored to their ancient social standing, and Lafayette was urged
-to resume his title of marquis. He refused to do this, however, and the
-refusal embittered the royalists even more against him. The Bourbon
-government feared his influence in 1825, just as the aristocrats had
-feared it in 1785, the Jacobins in 1795, and Napoleon in 1805.
-
-Yet Charles X. could not always conceal the fact that he had a strong
-personal liking for the old republican. One day in 1829 the newspapers
-announced that Lafayette was ill. The King met several members of the
-Chamber of Deputies. "Have you any news of Monsieur de Lafayette?" asked
-King Charles. "How is he?"
-
-"Much better, sire," answered a deputy.
-
-"Ah! I am very glad of it!" said the King. "That is a man whom I like
-much, and who has rendered services to our family that I do not forget.
-We have always encountered each other, although moving in opposite
-directions; we were born in the same year; we learned to ride on
-horseback together at the Versailles riding-school, and he belonged
-to my bureau in the Assembly of the Notables. I take a great deal of
-interest in him."
-
-King Charles and his friends, however, paid no attention to the new
-spirit that was awake in France. The people had won a constitution, but
-the King tried to limit it as far as he could and to override it in some
-ways. He roused the resentment of the country by trying to bring back
-the old extravagance of his ancestors, and he even dared to attempt to
-intimidate the Chamber of Deputies. In 1829 he dissolved the National
-Assembly and appointed as ministers men who had won the hatred of the
-nation for their autocratic views. The gauntlet was thrown down between
-king and people, and the latter were not slow to pick it up.
-
-At this time Lafayette happened to be traveling to Chavaniac, where
-his son now lived. He was greeted at every town with the usual marks
-of respect. At Puy he was given a public dinner, and toasts were drunk
-to "The charter, to the Chamber of Deputies, the hope of France!" When
-he reached the city of Grenoble he was met by a troop of horsemen, who
-escorted him to the gates. There citizens presented him with a crown
-of oak leaves made of silver "as a testimony of the gratitude of the
-people, and as an emblem of the strength with which the inhabitants
-of Grenoble, following his example, will sustain their rights and the
-constitution."
-
-All along his route he was greeted with cheers and expressions that
-showed the people looked to him to protect their rights. At Lyons a
-speaker protested against the recent unlawful acts of the King and spoke
-of the situation as critical. "I should qualify as critical the present
-moment," Lafayette replied, "if I had not recognized everywhere on my
-journey, and if I did not perceive in this powerful city, the calm and
-even scornful firmness of a great people which knows its rights, feels
-its strength, and will be faithful to its duties."
-
-Through the winter of 1829-30 the hostile attitude of Charles X. to his
-people continued. The new Chamber of Deputies was rebellious, and again
-the King dissolved it and ordered fresh elections. The country elected
-new deputies who were even more opposed to the King than the former
-ones had been. Then King Charles, urged on by his ministers, resolved
-to take a decisive step, to issue four edicts revoking the liberty of
-the press and taking from the deputies their legal powers. "Gentlemen,"
-said the King to his ministers as he signed the edicts, "these are grave
-measures. You can count upon me as I count upon you. Between us, this is
-now a matter of life and death."
-
-The King had virtually declared war on the country. The country answered
-by taking up arms. The royal troops in Paris, moving to take control
-of important points in the city, were met by armed citizens who fought
-them in the streets. Marmont, head of the King's military household,
-sent word to Charles, "It is no longer a riot, it is a revolution. It
-is urgent that your Majesty should adopt measures of pacification. The
-honor of the crown may yet be saved; to-morrow perhaps it will be too
-late."
-
-King Charles paid no heed. The citizens defeated the royal troops, and
-in a few days had them besieged in their headquarters. Then the deputies
-turned to Lafayette and urged him to accept the position of commander
-of the National Guard, the same position he had held many years before.
-"I am invited," he answered, "to undertake the organization of the
-defense. It would be strange and even improper, especially for those who
-have given former pledges of devotion to the national cause, to refuse
-to answer the appeals addressed to them. Instructions and orders are
-demanded from me on all sides. My replies are awaited. Do you believe
-that in the presence of the dangers which threaten us immobility suits
-my past and present life? No! My conduct at seventy-three years of age
-shall be what it was at thirty-two."
-
-Lafayette took command of the Guards and quickly had the city of Paris
-in his possession. Only then did King Charles, fearing alike for
-his crown and his life now, consent to sign a new ordinance revoking
-his former edicts. Commissioners brought the ordinance of the King
-to Lafayette at the Hôtel de Ville. "It is too late now," Lafayette
-declared. "We have revoked the ordinances ourselves. Charles X. has
-ceased to reign."
-
-The question now was as to the new form of government for the country.
-The people still remembered the days of the Reign of Terror and were
-not ready for a real republic. The Duke of Orleans, who had opposed
-King Charles, was very popular, and it was decided to appoint him
-lieutenant-general of the nation. The people would have liked to have
-Lafayette as their governor. The French captain of the ship that carried
-the fugitive Charles X. away from France, said to the ex-King, "If
-Lafayette, during the recent events, had desired the crown, he could
-have obtained it. I myself was a witness to the enthusiasm that the
-sight of him inspired among the people."
-
-But Lafayette did not want the crown, nor even to be the constitutional
-head of the nation. It seemed to him best that the Duke of Orleans
-should receive the crown, not as an inheritance, but as a free gift of
-the people accompanied by proper limitations. So he took steps to have
-the country accept the Duke as its new ruler.
-
-The people of France had at last become an important factor in deciding
-on their own form of government. The Duke of Orleans, better known as
-Louis Philippe, did not seize the crown, as earlier kings had done;
-he waited until the Chamber of Deputies and Lafayette, representing
-the nation, offered it to him, and then he accepted it as a republican
-prince. The deputies marched with the Duke to the Hôtel de Ville, and
-as they went through the streets there were more shouts of "_Vive la
-liberté!_" than there were of "_Vive le Duc d'Orléans!_" Liberty meant
-far more to the people now than a king did, and Prince Louis Philippe
-knew it. As he went up the stairs of the Hôtel de Ville he said
-conciliatingly to the armed men among whom he passed, "You see a former
-National Guard of 1789, who has come to visit his old general."
-
-Lafayette had always wanted a constitutional monarchy for France; he
-knew Louis Philippe well, being allied to him through marriage with
-the Noailles family, and he believed that the Duke would make a capable
-ruler, his authority being limited by the will of the people. So when
-Louis Philippe came to him at the Hôtel de Ville Lafayette placed
-a tricolored flag in the Duke's hand, and leading him to a window,
-embraced him in full sight of the great throng in the street. The people
-had been undecided; they did not altogether trust any royal prince; but
-when they saw Lafayette's act, they immediately followed his lead, and
-cheers for the constitution and the Duke greeted the men at the window.
-
-Lafayette had given France her new ruler, declining the crown for
-himself, even as Washington had done in the United States. He made it
-clear to the new king that he expected him to rule according to the
-laws. He said to Louis Philippe, "You know that I am a republican and
-that I regard the Constitution of the United States as the most perfect
-that has ever existed."
-
-"I think as you do," answered Louis Philippe. "It is impossible to have
-passed two years in America and not to be of that opinion. But do you
-believe that in the present situation of France and in accordance with
-general opinion that it would be proper to adopt it?"
-
-"No," said Lafayette; "what the French people want to-day is a popular
-throne surrounded by republican institutions."
-
-"Such is my belief," Louis Philippe agreed.
-
-Charles X. had fled from his kingdom before Lafayette and the people
-even as his brother Louis XVIII. had once fled from it before Napoleon
-and the people. On August 9, 1830, the Duke of Orleans entered the
-Palais Bourbon, where the Chambers were assembled, as lieutenant-general
-of the kingdom, and left it as Louis Philippe, King of the French. The
-constitution which he had sworn to obey was not, like former charters, a
-favor granted by the throne, but was the organic law of the land, to the
-keeping of which the sovereign was as much bound as the humblest of his
-subjects. Lafayette and the people had at last won a great victory for
-independence after all the ups and downs of the Revolution and the days
-of Napoleon.
-
-As Lafayette marched his reorganized National Guard, thirty thousand
-strong, in review before the King, it was clear that the General was the
-most popular, as well as the most powerful, man in France. And at the
-public dinner that the city of Paris gave him on August fifteenth, when
-he congratulated his fellow-citizens on the success and valor with which
-they had defended their liberties and besought them to preserve the
-fruits of victory by union and order, he could justly feel that a life
-devoted to the cause of freedom had not been spent in vain.
-
-The coming years were to show that the people of France had much yet
-to learn about self-government, but when one contrasts the results of
-the revolution of 1830 with that of 1789 one sees how far they had
-progressed in knowledge.
-
-Lafayette's presence was needed at Louis Philippe's court to act as a
-buffer between the sovereign and the people, and again and again he saw
-revealed the truth of the old adage, "Uneasy lies the head that wears
-a crown." Presently a revolution in Belgium left the throne of that
-country vacant and it was offered to Lafayette. "What would I do with
-a crown!" he exclaimed. "Why, it would suit me about as much as a ring
-would become a cat!"
-
-The duties of his office as Commander of the National Guard, the tact
-that was constantly required of him as intermediary between the people
-and the royal court began to wear upon him, and he soon resigned his
-position as Commander. Then, as a member of the Chamber of Deputies,
-he continued his political labors. In time he saw many incidents that
-pointed in the direction of new aggressions on the part of the King,
-and he even came to believe that the fight for liberty was not yet
-won and never would be so long as a Bourbon occupied the throne of
-France. But he wanted the desired end to be reached by peaceful means,
-constantly preached loyalty to the government they had founded as the
-chief duty of the nation, and when, in 1832, a new revolution seemed
-imminent he would have no part in it and by his indignant words quickly
-brought the attempt to an end. He was now seventy-seven years old and
-great-grandchildren played about his knees at his home at Lagrange.
-
-His work for France and for America and for the world was done. In the
-spring of 1834 he caught a severe cold, which sapped his strength. On
-May twentieth of that year he died, having worked almost to the last
-on problems of government. As his funeral wound through the streets
-of Paris to the little cemetery of Picpus, in the center of the city,
-a great throng followed. On that day church-bells tolled in France,
-Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, and England. All nations that loved
-liberty honored the great apostle of it. In the United States the
-government and the army and navy paid to Lafayette's memory the same
-honors they had given to Washington, the Congress of the United States
-went into mourning for thirty days and most of the people of the nation
-followed its example. America vowed never to forget the French hero; and
-America never has.
-
-Men have sometimes said that Lafayette's enthusiasm was too impulsive,
-his confidence in others too undiscriminating, his goal too far beyond
-the reach of his times; but these were the marks of his own sincere and
-ardent nature. He was remarkably consistent in all the sudden shiftings
-of an age full of changes. Other men had sought favor of the Jacobins,
-of Napoleon, and of Louis XVIII. as each came into power; but Lafayette
-never did. All men knew where he stood. As Charles X. said of him,
-"There is a man who never changes." He stood fast to his principles, and
-by standing fast to them saw them ultimately succeed.
-
-He was a man who made and held strong friends. Washington, Jefferson,
-and Fox loved him as they loved few others. Napoleon and Charles X.
-could not resist the personal attraction of this man whom neither could
-bribe and whom both feared. Honesty was the key-note of his character,
-and with it went a simplicity and generosity that drew the admiration of
-enemies as well as of friends.
-
-He had done a great deal for France, he had done as much for the United
-States. His love of liberty bound the two nations together, and when, in
-1917, one hundred and forty years after his coming to America to fight
-for freedom, the United States proclaimed war as an ally of France in
-that same great cause, the thought of Lafayette sprang to every mind.
-The cause for which he had fought was again imperiled. The America
-in which Lafayette had believed was now to show that he had not been
-mistaken in his vision of her.
-
-
-
-
-XV
-
-AMERICA'S MESSAGE TO FRANCE--"LAFAYETTE, WE COME!"
-
-
-There have been many great changes in all the countries of the world
-since the time of Lafayette, and in most nations liberty has become more
-and more the watchword and the goal. The French Revolution was like a
-deep chasm between the era of feudalism and the era of the rights of
-man, and though the pendulum has sometimes seemed to swing backward for
-a short time it has almost constantly swung farther and farther forward
-in the direction of independence. The right of the common man to life,
-liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has gradually taken the place of
-the so-called divine right of kings to do as they pleased with their
-subjects.
-
-In a sense the United States blazed the trail and led the way. The men
-of 1776 proclaimed the principles of liberty and drew up a constitution
-which has required few changes to the present day. They were
-remarkably wise men; and the people of America were almost as wise,
-for they appreciated the laws under which they lived and showed no
-disposition to thwart or overthrow the statesmen they themselves elected
-to guide the nation. The United States grew and grew, crossed the
-Mississippi, crossed the Rocky Mountains, reached the Pacific coast, and
-fronted on two oceans. As pioneers from the east had pushed out into
-the middle of the continent, cleared the wilderness, and filled it with
-prosperous cities and villages, so pioneers from the middle-west went
-on across the deserts and the mountains and made the far west flourish
-like the rose. The great northern territory of Alaska became part of the
-republic; to the south Porto Rico; far out in the Pacific Hawaii and the
-Philippines joined the United States; the Panama Canal was cut between
-the two oceans; and the republic that had begun as thirteen small states
-along the Atlantic seaboard became one of the most powerful nations in
-the world. Her natural resources were almost limitless and the energy of
-her people made the most of what nature had provided.
-
-[Illustration: "AMERICA'S ANSWER"]
-
-The republic fought several wars. That with Mexico settled boundary
-disputes. The Civil War between the North and the South resulted in
-the abolition of slavery and made the country a united whole, no State
-having a right to secede from the rest. The war with Spain freed Cuba
-and other Spanish possessions in the western hemisphere. But none of
-these wars changed the system of government of the country. The United
-States was still the great republic during all the eventful happenings
-of the Nineteenth Century.
-
-Meantime what had happened in France? Louis Philippe had shown himself
-in his true lights as a Bourbon, had been driven from his throne, and
-had been followed by various kinds of government. A new Napoleon, the
-nephew of the first one, had come into power, had made himself Emperor
-as Napoleon III., and had tried to restore the glories of the First
-Empire. For a time France seemed to prosper under his rule, but it came
-to a sudden end when the King of Prussia defeated the armies of France
-in 1871 and drove Napoleon III. into exile. France lost her provinces of
-Alsace and Lorraine and William I. of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor
-of Germany in the great hall of Versailles. There followed in Paris
-the days of the Commune, which almost equaled the Reign of Terror for
-lawlessness. Gradually order was evolved under a new constitution with a
-President at the head of the government, and ever since France has been
-a real republic. From much turmoil and bloodshed she had won the liberty
-that Lafayette had dreamed of.
-
-Other countries in Europe had won independence too. England required
-no revolution; by peaceful means she grew more liberal; her sovereign
-became largely a figurehead, and the House of Commons, elected by the
-people, was the real seat of government. Italy, which in Lafayette's
-time was mainly a collection of small kingdoms and duchies, ruled by
-Austrian archdukes or by the Pope, united under the leadership of Victor
-Emmanuel, the King of Savoy, drove out the Austrians, deprived the
-Papacy of its temporal power, and became a nation under a constitutional
-king. The west of Europe was really republican, like the United States;
-it was only in the east that the ideas of feudalism still held sway.
-
-Russia had her Czar, an autocrat of the worst type, Turkey her Sultan,
-a relic of the Dark Ages, Austria her Hapsburg Emperor, a thorough
-Bourbon, who learned nothing and forgot nothing. And Germany had her
-Hohenzollern and Prussian Emperor, the descendant of a long line of
-autocratic rulers, the sovereign made by Bismarck, "the man of blood and
-iron," the stanch believer in the old doctrine of the divine right of
-kings. Germany had become an empire by the power of the sword, and her
-Emperor never allowed his people to forget that fact.
-
-Power goes to the head of a nation like strong wine. The true test of
-the greatness of a nation is its ability to use its power for the good
-of the world rather than for selfish ends. Prussia had always been
-selfish. She had fought a number of successful wars, against Denmark,
-against Austria, and against France, and each time she had taken
-territory from her adversary. Her statesmen regarded her power only as
-a means to gain greater material strength, and from the birth of the
-empire they trained the people to think only of that end.
-
-It was inevitable that the forces of freedom and those of autocracy
-should come into conflict some day. Germany knew this, and her autocrats
-carefully prepared themselves for the coming strife with the lovers of
-freedom. They paid little or no attention to programs for peace offered
-by other nations, they refused to agree to limit their armaments, they
-openly showed their contempt for the conferences at the Hague. Like a
-fighter who feels his strength they were constantly wanting to force
-other people to acknowledge their power; time and again they could
-barely restrain themselves from leaping at some opponent; they only
-waited for the most auspicious moment to strike.
-
-What they regarded as the right moment came in July, 1914. The
-assassination of the heir apparent to the Austrian throne by a Servian
-gave the rulers of Germany a pretext to make war on the world. Austria,
-always haughty, always greedy, always weak and blind, was simply the
-catspaw of the Hohenzollerns. Austria sent an overbearing message to
-Servia, and Russia, taking the rôle of protector of the small Balkan
-states, made it clear that she sided with Servia. Germany pretended to
-take fright and warned Russia not to attempt to oppose Austria. England
-and France tried to keep peace in Europe by suggesting a conference to
-discuss the matter. But the Kaiser of Germany and his generals did not
-want peace; they wanted to show the world how strong they were, they
-wanted the world to bow down absolutely before them; they precipitated
-the crisis and, pretending that they acted in self-defense, declared war
-on Russia, France, and England.
-
-In the first days of August, 1914, the enemy of liberty began its march.
-With a ruthlessness that has no counterpart except in the acts of those
-barbarian hordes that swept across Europe in the Dark Ages Germany
-marched into Belgium, a small and peaceful country, giving as the only
-excuse for her wanton invasion the fact that the easiest road to France
-lay across that land. She expected Belgium to submit. The giant, swollen
-with power, would do as it pleased with the pigmy. And when the British
-Ambassador remonstrated with the German Chancellor over this illegal
-treatment of a nation that all the powers of Europe had promised to
-protect the Chancellor answered that the treaty of Germany with Belgium
-was simply "a scrap of paper." Germany knew no treaties that opposed her
-desires; Germany has cared for nothing but her own selfish goal. And the
-great German people consented to this infamous course, because they had
-been taught that their first duty was blind obedience to the will of the
-Fatherland, which meant the will of the House of Hohenzollern. Never in
-history has a people,--and in this case a people that was supposed to be
-civilized and thoughtful,--bowed its neck so meekly to the yoke of its
-overlords.
-
-But as the hordes of power-drunk Germans,--whom civilization has rightly
-named the Huns, in memory of those earlier barbarian invaders of western
-Europe,--advanced through the peaceful fields of little Belgium they
-found, to their great surprise, that the Belgian people did not intend
-to submit to such an outrage without protest. Led by their heroic king,
-Albert, the Belgians threw themselves in the path of the Huns and
-checked them for a few days. They could not save their country, but they
-saved precious days for the French and English, and the Huns found
-that their march to Paris was not the easy, triumphal progress they had
-planned.
-
-Yet the German army was a mighty and effective machine in that autumn of
-1914, built by men who had devoted their lives to perfecting instruments
-of destruction. It rolled on and on, across Belgium, southward and
-westward into France, crushing the small Belgian army, forcing the
-outnumbered British into retreat, driving back the French by sheer
-weight of cannon and men. The Kaiser thought to repeat the act of his
-grandfather and make the French sign a treaty with him at Versailles,
-taking more territory and wealth from them as the next step toward
-making the House of Hohenzollern the greatest power in the world. As the
-Huns drove on their over-mastering pride and self-conceit grew and grew,
-inflating them like over-swollen frogs, until a chorus of what the rest
-of the world had formerly considered intelligent professors, scientists,
-and writers, actually dared to announce that the German will to victory
-was the supreme achievement of the ages. Cæsar, Charlemagne, Napoleon,
-at the height of their power, never lost some sense of proportion, some
-human notion of justice; it was left to this Germany of 1914 to show how
-blind, how mad, how intolerant the mind of man can be.
-
-Rapidly the Huns marched toward Paris; and then something happened. The
-French turned at bay, held, drove the invaders back. Over the ground
-they had crossed in triumph the Huns retreated, back and back until they
-had reached the line of the River Marne. And when the French General
-Joffre drove them back to the Marne he won one of the greatest victories
-for civilization in the annals of history.
-
-Meantime Russia was attacking in the east and the Germans had to look
-to the protection of their own territory. Europe was now ablaze,
-England was training men, France was digging trenches, the flames of
-war, lighted by Germany's reckless torch, were spreading across the
-world. Italy, true to the principles of her great leaders of the last
-century, Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel, hating that
-power of Austria whose history had been one long record of deceit and
-enslavement, joined hands with the countries that stood for liberty
-and justice. The Turk, true to his nature, united with the Hun. The war
-raged back and forth, its battle-fields the greater part of Europe.
-
-The issue was clearly drawn between liberty and tyranny. The Germans
-were now the Bourbons, the Allied Powers were the true descendants of
-Lafayette and Washington. The land of Lafayette lay next to the Menace
-and her fair breast had been the first to bear the scars of war. The
-land of Washington, however, lay far across the Atlantic, and one of
-her guiding principles had been to avoid taking part in the affairs of
-Europe. Some of her sons, loving Lafayette's country for what she meant
-to the world, volunteered in the French army, joined the French flying
-corps, worked in the hospital service; but the great republic across the
-sea proclaimed herself a neutral, although the hopes of her people lay
-on the side of France and England.
-
-But Germany knew no law, either that of Christ or man. The Sermon on the
-Mount, the merciful provisions of the Hague Conventions, might never
-have been given to the world as far as she was concerned. See what
-some of her writers, men supposedly human, dared to say. "Might is
-right and ... is decided by war. Every youth who enters a beer-drinking
-and dueling club will receive the true direction of his life. War in
-itself is a good thing. God will see to it that war always recurs. The
-efforts directed toward the abolition of war must not only be termed
-foolish, but absolutely immoral. The peace of Europe is only a secondary
-matter for us. The sight of suffering does one good; the infliction of
-suffering does one more good. This war must be conducted as ruthlessly
-as possible." And another German said, "They call us barbarians. What of
-it? The German claim must be: ... Education to hate.... Organization of
-hatred.... Education to the desire for hatred. Let us abolish unripe and
-false shame.... To us is given faith, hope, and hatred; but hatred is
-the greatest among them."
-
-This was indeed a strange religion for a nation that was supposed to
-have heard of the Sermon on the Mount; a religion that might have been
-made by Satan himself, with hate for its foundation instead of love. Yet
-this was the German religion; if any one dare to deny that the words of
-these writers truly represent Germany let him look at Germany's acts,
-let him think of the treatment of Belgium, the bombing of unprotected
-cities and towns, the enslavement of women and children, the destruction
-of hospital ships and of Red Cross camps, the murder of Edith Cavell,
-the sinking of the _Lusitania_!
-
-The submarine captain who fired the torpedo that sank the _Lusitania_
-was a true son of Germany. He sent non-combatants to their death in the
-sea as ruthlessly as might a demon of darkness. There was no humanity in
-him, nor in those who commanded the deed. But there is no act of evil
-that does not bear its own just consequences. The innocent men, women
-and children who went down with the _Lusitania_ called forth the hate
-of the world on the Huns, and set America on fire with indignation. For
-every victim there Germany was to pay a thousandfold in time.
-
-The United States had a great President, a man who knew the temper
-of his people far better than those who criticized him. He knew the
-history of the country, he knew that its people loved peace and hated
-war, that Europe was far from the vision of most of them, and that they
-still cherished Washington's advice against the making of "entangling
-alliances." He tried to be patient, even with Germany, though he
-knew her for what she was; he waited, urging her to obey the laws of
-civilization, hoping that he might act as a peacemaker between the
-warring nations, feeling that peace might lie in the power of America,
-provided she kept neutral. But his efforts meant nothing to Germany; she
-believed in insincerity and the piling of lies on lies.
-
-In many ways the United States had been very successful. It had grown
-tremendously, it had carried out many of the ideals of its founders.
-But in some ways it had fallen from its true course. Special privileges
-had allowed some men to grow enormously rich at the expense of their
-neighbors, city governments were too often the playthings of grafting
-politicians, men were often apt to prefer the liberty of the individual
-to the welfare of the state. The real question of the country was not
-as to whether we had won success, but as to whether liberty was still
-worth striving for. A nation is very much like an individual, and an
-individual often loses his ideals as he wins material success. Had
-America grown to be like a rich and torpid man who cares more for his
-ease and comfort than for the dreams of his youth? Had America forgotten
-Lafayette's vision of her, forgotten that liberty is the one priceless
-gift? Were the youths, few in number but great in spirit, who were
-offering their lives for freedom in the airplanes and trenches of Europe
-the only part of the nation that still saw the vision clear?
-
-Woodrow Wilson never doubted his people in that time of stress and
-strain. He knew what their answer must be when the call came to them.
-They had forgotten their heritage no more than he. The Declaration of
-Independence was still their testament; the hundred millions were the
-true sons of the few millions of the days of Washington. And when the
-German Menace dared to forbid Americans to travel in safety on the seas
-the answer of America came instantly. Yes, there was something better
-than comfort and peace and wealth; there was freedom, there was the
-goal of helping humanity to throw off the beasts of prey! The world
-must be made safe for all men! The mailed fist must be shown that might
-_does not_ make right!
-
-Germany notified the United States that she intended to carry on
-unrestricted submarine warfare, to become the lawless pirate of the
-seas. President Wilson handed the German Ambassador his passports and
-waited to see if Germany intended to carry out her threat. As usual, the
-House of Hohenzollern would not listen to reason. Germany turned pirate,
-throwing away the last vestige of any respect for law. And when this was
-plain the President went to Congress on April 2, 1917, and advised the
-representatives of the nation to accept the challenge of war thrust upon
-us by the German Empire.
-
-"Let us be very clear," said the President, "and make very clear to
-all the world what our motives and our objects are.... Our object ...
-is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the
-world as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst
-the really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert
-of purpose and of action as will henceforth ensure the observance of
-those principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where
-the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and
-the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic
-governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by
-their will, not by the will of their people....
-
-"We are now about to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to
-liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation
-to check and nullify its pretentions and its power.... The world must
-be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested
-foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We
-desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves,
-no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are
-but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied
-when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom
-of nations can make them."
-
-Let us be thankful that our President could voice the same spirit in
-1917 that Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence and that
-Lincoln proclaimed on the field at Gettysburg. Our country bore malice
-toward none, we wanted to be friends to all, we had no selfish desires
-for power or dominion. But as Lafayette heard the call to battle for the
-freedom of men in America in 1776, so America now heard the same call
-from the fields of Europe. On April 6, 1917, the United States formally
-declared war against the autocracy of Germany.
-
-What were we fighting against? Against the old idea of feudalism that
-the ruler need respect no rights of the ruled, against the old Bourbon
-theory that the sovereign need obey none of the laws that govern the
-rest of humankind, against the principles of Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns
-that the people exist solely for the benefit of the ruling dynasties.
-All this Prussia had converted into the principle that the Fatherland
-is supreme, and that the people must obey the Fatherland in everything;
-and the autocrats of Prussia had made the Fatherland a savage monster,
-ruthless, unjust and cruel, devouring all it could to satisfy its greed.
-If you look back through history you will see that the crimes of all
-the despots are the crimes of Germany to-day and that whenever men were
-fighting tyranny, rapacity and cruelty they were fighting the same
-battle that America and her allies fight to-day.
-
-More than that. In fighting for freedom we are fighting for our
-preservation. The world cannot exist one half slave, the other half
-free. Let tyranny succeed in Europe and it can only be a short time
-before it will look hungrily at America. The Menace must be destroyed
-before it grows so powerful that none can withstand it. "The time has
-come," wrote President Wilson shortly after the declaration of war, "to
-conquer or submit." Submission would have been to surrender all the
-principles of the republic, the country to which lovers of liberty had
-looked for more than a century to prove the actual realization of their
-dreams.
-
-It is the German machine-made government, the autocratic ruling military
-caste, the idea that might makes right, and that small nations have no
-rights that big nations need respect, it is all these old and hideous
-beliefs of the Dark Ages and the era of despots that the liberty-loving
-nations are fighting to-day. The individual German is, after all, a
-human being like ourselves, though warped and twisted in his ideas of
-what is right and wrong by his selfish and barbarous government. The
-individual German may become a civilized man again, provided he can come
-to see the monstrous tyranny of his government. And for this reason
-President Wilson said to Congress in his speech of April 2, 1917, "We
-have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling toward them
-but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse that
-their government acted in entering this war. It was not with their
-previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars
-used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were
-nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in
-the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were
-accustomed to use their fellow-men as pawns and tools."
-
-It was a war in fact deliberately determined upon and brought about
-by that same dark enemy of liberty that thrust Lafayette into an
-Austrian dungeon a century ago, that oppressed the people of Italy and
-wantonly imprisoned some of the noblest patriots that ever lived, that
-tore Alsace-Lorraine from France, and that has rattled its sabre and
-clanked its spurs and declared that war and destruction are the noblest
-objects of man. But the people have let themselves be treated like
-galley-slaves, have allowed that dark enemy of liberty to chain them to
-the benches and make them row that ship of state which is nothing less
-than a pirate bark upon the seas of the world. The people have been
-blind. Our President has tried to help them to see the light of freedom.
-
-Treachery, deceit, lies, these have been the watchwords of the rulers
-of the Huns. When our government was still at peace with Germany her
-statesmen tried to make a secret agreement with Mexico that in case we
-should declare war the latter country should attack us and take our
-southwestern states. Again and again they lied to our Ambassador at
-Berlin and tried to intimidate him. Nothing has been sacred to them.
-They talk of religion and God and in the same breath outrage every
-teaching of Christianity. They have no respect for the great works
-of art of the world; cathedrals, libraries are destroyed without a
-thought other than to impress the enemy peoples with the frightfulness
-of their warfare. The world must be taught to fear them is their creed.
-And they have no more sense of humor than a stone. Over the slaughter
-of thousands of poor slave-driven soldiers the Kaiser can still send
-decorations to his sons, complimenting them and extolling their valor
-and generalship while all the world knows them to be mere pawns and
-puppets tricked out in the gaudy dress of the Hohenzollerns. Neither
-Kaiser nor generals nor statesmen have the least sense of humor, and a
-sense of humor is more than a saving grace, it is the mark of a sanity
-of judgment. But how can any sane judgment be found in a nation that
-thinks to frighten the rest of the world into submission by bombing
-hospital camps and Red Cross workers? There is no health in the monster.
-All the poisons of the past ages have collected in his blood.
-
-America has never forgotten Lafayette. As John Quincy Adams said to
-him, he was ours "by that unshaken sentiment of gratitude for ...
-services which is a precious portion of our inheritance; ours by that
-tie of love, stronger than death, which has linked" Lafayette's "name
-for the endless ages of time with the name of Washington." In 1916
-the old Château of Chavaniac, Lafayette's birthplace, one hundred and
-fifty miles to the south of Paris, was put up for sale by the owner,
-a grandson of George Washington Lafayette. Patriotic Americans bought
-it, desiring to make a French Mount Vernon of the historic castle and
-grounds. At first it was intended to convert the château into a museum,
-to be filled with relics of Lafayette and Washington and the American
-Revolution, but the great needs that were facing France led to a change
-of plan. The castle should become more than a museum; it should be a
-home and school for as many children of France as could be provided
-for. This would have been Lafayette's own wish, and in doing this the
-American society known as the French Heroes Lafayette Memorial has paid
-the noblest tribute to the great patriot. And the people of France, the
-most appreciative people in the world, have welcomed the gift and the
-spirit that underlay it.
-
-Anatole France, the great French writer, has summed up the sentiment
-of his nation in glowing words. "American thought," he says, "has
-had a beautiful inspiration in choosing the cradle of Lafayette, in
-which to preserve memoirs of American independence and to establish
-an institution for the public good. In preserving in the Château de
-Chavaniac d'Auvergne the testimonies and relics of the war which united
-under the banner of liberty, Washington and Rochambeau, and in founding
-the Lafayette museum, ties which have bound the two great democracies to
-an eternal friendship have been commemorated. But this was not enough
-for the inexhaustible liberality of the Americans. It went further,
-and it was decided that upon this illustrious corner of France, the
-children of those who died in defense of liberty, should find a refuge
-and home, and that, deprived of their natural protection, some of these
-children should be adopted by the great American people, while others of
-delicate constitution should recover health and strength on this robust
-land. It is a large heart that these men reveal in preserving a grateful
-remembrance of past services, and in coming to the assistance of the
-orphaned of a past generation who fought for their cause a hundred and
-forty years ago. May I venture, as an aged Frenchman and a lover of
-liberty, to proffer to America the tribute of my heartfelt homage?"
-
-And so the castle where Lafayette was born and the fields and woods he
-knew so well in his boyhood among the Auvergne Mountains are now to be
-the home of generations of French children whose fathers gave their
-lives that the world might be set free from tyrants and war cease to be.
-What could be more fitting! It is one of the beautiful things of history
-that Americans could do this for France. It is in such ways that the
-spirit of brotherly love may some day encircle the earth.
-
-For all wise men know that it is not riches, nor material possessions
-nor great territories that make either men or nations noble. The United
-States might cover half the globe, her wealth be beyond what man has
-ever dreamed of, her population run into the hundreds of millions, and
-yet our country be only hated and feared by other peoples. That was the
-future the rulers of Germany had been planning for their nation; so
-they might possess material things they were willing, nay, they were
-glad that the rest of the world should hate them. They had no wisdom at
-all; they had forgotten all the lessons of history. Christ might never
-have taught, churches never been more than bricks and stone, patriots
-and poets never have striven to show men their ideals, so far as these
-rulers, and through them their people, were concerned. Lafayette knew
-the truth, but the spirit of Lafayette was what Germany and Austria most
-hated; they are trying to-day to imprison that spirit just as they did
-imprison the man himself when they had the chance.
-
-Nations, like men, live to serve, not to conquer for the lust of power.
-Only when nations have learned that are they worthy of admiration.
-Had America drawn her cloak about her, said "I am safe between my two
-oceans," made money out of the sufferings of other peoples, held fast
-to safety and ease, then America would have betrayed every ideal of her
-founders, every hope of the men who have loved and worshipped their
-"land of the free." Only when America said there were greater things
-than ease and safety, that the liberty of all peoples was indissolubly
-bound up with her own freedom, did she show herself as the great
-republic in spirit as well as in name; only when she was willing to
-serve others did she rise to the true heights of her national soul.
-
-One of our poets, James Russell Lowell, has written the beautiful line,
-"'Tis man's perdition to be safe, when for the truth he ought to die!"
-The truth of that was known to the farmers of 1775 who took their guns
-and at Lexington and Concord fired "the shot heard round the world." And
-the same truth was known to the men of 1861 who went out to keep the
-republic their fathers had given them. For we have all received a great
-legacy from those who have gone before, and now we know what it is, and
-have again gone forth to fight for truth.
-
-We know that this is the greatest of all crusades. We know that men must
-be set free. Tyrants, whether they be emperors and kings or governments
-that place greed above justice, must be cleared from the earth. This
-last and greatest of tyrants, this league of the Hohenzollerns and
-Hapsburgs, has by its very brutality and injustice opened men's
-eyes and let loose a new spirit in the world. Russia was autocratic,
-her ruling house of Romanoff was in many ways true brother of the
-other tyrants, but the people of Russia felt the new spirit and have
-already driven their Czar from his throne. When we think of the French
-Revolution, the Reign of Terror, Napoleon, and all that France had to
-endure on the hard road to liberty we may well imagine that dark days
-lie before the Russian people, but in time France rose like a ph[oe]nix
-from the ashes of revolt, and when we see what France is to-day we may
-look confidently to the future of this other great people.
-
-For the spirit liveth! The truest words that were ever spoken! And the
-spirit that fills France to-day, the spirit that fills England and
-Belgium and America and all the allies, yes, even that same spirit in
-Russia, will carry mankind a long way on the road to liberty. For no one
-can conquer that spirit; it is the immortal part of man.
-
-Let us read again the glorious lines of Julia Ward Howe in "The
-Battle-Hymn of the Republic," lines as true in this crusade as they
-were in the crusade against slavery for which they were written.
-
-   "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
-    He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
-    He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
-                His truth is marching on.
-
-   "I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
-    They have builded Him an altar in the evening's dews and damps;
-    I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.
-                His day is marching on.
-
-   "I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:
-   'As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
-    Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
-                Since God is marching on.'
-
-   "He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
-    He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
-    Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
-                Our God is marching on.
-
-   "In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,
-    With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
-    As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
-                While God is marching on."
-
-America heard the call; America saw that there were no limits to the
-evils of the powers of darkness unless the powers of light should fight
-them; and on April 6, 1917, America declared her purpose to do so. As
-the small American republic once heard with rejoicing and confidence the
-word that Lafayette and Rochambeau were to bring aid westward across the
-Atlantic, so now the great French republic heard with the same emotions
-the declaration that American soldiers were to bring succor to them
-eastward across the same sea. The last great neutral nation, immense in
-power of men and wealth and energy, had cast in its lot with the forces
-that were fighting for freedom. The Allies, weary and worn with more
-than two years of fighting, looked to this fresh, great people to bring
-them victory.
-
-A month after we joined the cause of liberty French generals and
-statesmen came to America. At their head was Marshal Joffre, the hero
-of the Marne. He visited Mount Vernon and laid a wreath on the tomb of
-Washington; he traveled through the country and everywhere he found
-statues of Lafayette and Joan of Arc and memories of great Frenchmen.
-To America Joffre stood for the ideals of France, courage, endurance,
-nobility of thought and action. Not since Lafayette's visit in 1824 had
-the people of the United States welcomed any visitor with such love and
-admiration.
-
-The tour of Marshal Joffre was the outward symbol of the new union.
-Instantly the United States, a peaceful nation with a very small
-standing army, an insignificant merchant marine, its farms devoted
-to supplying its own needs, its factories busy with the commerce of
-peace, changed to a nation at war. It faced a stupendous problem. From
-its untrained men it must create great armies, fitted to cope with and
-defeat the fighting machine that the enemy had spent years in building.
-It must have the ships to carry those millions of soldiers to Europe and
-it must supply them in Europe with the food, the clothing, the guns,
-the ammunition they would need. That in itself was a task beside which
-the greatest military achievements in history paled into insignificance.
-Napoleon crossed the Alps, but he could feed his army on the supplies
-of the countries on the other side of the mountains. We must supply
-everything, must transport America into Europe, and then keep America
-there by an unending bridge of boats.
-
-More than that, we must do our part in building ships to provision our
-allies, ships that should replace those the pirates of the sea were
-sinking daily. And we must feed not only our own people, but the people
-of starving countries, and particularly the people of Belgium, whom
-we had helped since the war began. Here in the broad and fertile land
-that lay between the two oceans was to be the granary and factory and
-training-camp that were to make liberty victorious. The nation turned
-to its new task with the same indomitable energy that had conquered the
-wilderness in the days of the pioneers.
-
-At the call of the love of country men instantly volunteered. Congress
-passed the Conscription Act, and young men who had dreamed of peaceful
-occupations went to be trained as soldiers. Ceaselessly, tirelessly
-the great work went on. Americans landed in France to reinforce the
-volunteers who were already there as engineers, as motor-drivers, as
-aviators. Railroads had to be built, and docks and factories; the most
-skilled men in every line of work hurried to be in the vanguard. Then
-General Pershing reached France as commander-in-chief of the vast
-American army that was to come. As we had received Joffre so France now
-welcomed Pershing. And he went to Lafayette's tomb and laid a wreath
-upon it, declaring that America had come to the aid of France.
-
-Great armies are not built in a day, nor are gigantic fleets of merchant
-ships. Mistakes must always be made, and there are always critics. But
-in spite of critics and mistakes the American government, and under it
-the people, went on with the work in hand. Men became skilled soldiers
-and ships were launched, and at the end of the first year after our
-entrance into the war our troops were in the trenches, fighting side by
-side with their allies, and a steady stream of more troops flowed day
-by day from west to east. America had already thrown the first part of
-her power into the conflict and given earnest of the greater power to
-come.
-
-Americans have already given their lives for freedom. First there were
-the eager, intrepid young spirits who volunteered as flying-men, in the
-French Foreign Legion, in the regiments of England, in the driving of
-ambulances at the call of mercy. How gloriously their sacrifices will
-live in the pages of history and in the hearts of their countrymen! And
-then there have been men of the first American army, such men as the
-private soldiers Hay, Enright, and Gresham, above whose graves in France
-is the inscription "Here lie the first soldiers of the Illustrious
-Republic of the United States who fell on French soil for Justice and
-Liberty November 3, 1917." Truly have they proved the truth of the Latin
-motto, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
-
-What is the lesson of Lafayette, of Washington, of Lincoln, of all men
-who have put the ideal of justice and liberty above their material
-wants, of the men who have fought in France and in all parts of the
-world for the cause of freedom? The lesson is simply this, that service
-and self-sacrifice for others is the noblest goal of man, that life is
-given us not to keep but to spend, and that to follow the teachings of
-Christ is the only road to happiness for men or nations.
-
-"Where there is no vision the people perish." History is filled with
-instances of the truth of that; the greatest empires of the world became
-decadent, were defeated by enemies, and vanished from the earth when
-their rulers and people saw no vision beyond wealth and power. Nineveh
-and Babylon and Troy, Byzantium, Persia, the Macedonia of Alexander the
-Great, Carthage and Imperial Rome all fell because gold and possessions
-had blinded their eyes. Material power, and the wealth that often goes
-with it, has been as dangerous to nations as it has been to individual
-men. It is only too apt to lead to the greed for greater and greater
-power, to bend other peoples to its will, to magnify itself at the
-expense of everything else in the world. It is easy for power to make
-nations forget their dreams of nobler things, of freedom and justice,
-of the rights of men everywhere to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
-happiness." Strength is a splendid thing, but it must be used to help
-other and weaker people, not to aggrandize oneself.
-
-That the great nations of the ancient world forgot, and that such
-empires as the Ottoman Turks and Austria-Hungary have never known.
-Has the Turk ever held any vision of helping other peoples? Have the
-rulers of Austria ever cared for the welfare of their subject races?
-The history of both empires shows that the men in power have thought
-only of themselves. And what vision those countries have ever known has
-been that of a few devoted patriots who struggled for liberty and were
-suppressed.
-
-Now in the past century Germany has been blinded by her growing
-power. Her rulers lost their vision, they made might their God; then
-her people were tempted, as Satan tempted Christ with a prospect of
-the world's dominion, and the people fell and were blinded, and so
-the spirit perished in them as it has perished in other and greater
-peoples. They talked of German "culture," of the blessings of German
-civilization; and they wanted to thrust it by force on the rest of the
-world, not for the good of that world, but for the glory of Germany
-alone. Their God became the God of the savage tribe, a God who belonged
-to them and to them only.
-
-There are times when all peoples are apt to forget the vision, times
-when ease and plenty wrap them about. Few men are like Lafayette, who
-from youth to old age hold fast to their ideals, no matter what comes.
-Then, in a time of stress, the question is put to them: What will you
-do? Take the easy road of blindness or follow the rough road of vision?
-Belgium had her choice; she chose to lose all her worldly possessions
-rather than lose her soul. France had her choice, and England and Italy:
-to each the vision of liberty was greater than safety of life. And as
-each has had to pay in countless suffering so the soul of each nation
-has risen to greater heights. Their people do not perish like the blind;
-they have seen the vision of a more Christlike world when the tyrants
-have been destroyed.
-
-America had her choice. Under all the power and wealth that her hundred
-years and more had brought her she had kept her vision; she too knew
-that liberty is priceless, immeasurably above all things else in the
-world. And this is the America that we all love. For unless we would go
-the way of the great nations of the old world, the nations that have
-perished in their blindness, we must have ever in mind the sacred duty
-to set and keep all men free. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
-And lasting peace comes only with liberty to men and nations.
-
-We cannot read the story of Lafayette without feeling that in his
-generous youth he gave us the best he had, his love and devotion, his
-courage and perseverance, his dauntless spirit that would not be denied
-its purpose to fight for liberty. All this Lafayette gave us because
-he saw in us the hope of the world. And now our precious opportunity
-has come to repay that great debt. It is for us to give the land of
-Lafayette all that he brought to us, and we do it for the same reason,
-because we see in France and her allies the present hope of the world.
-
-It is for youth to fight, for age to counsel and help youth in the
-combat. Glorious is the opportunity that lies before the youth of our
-country now; as glorious as was the opportunity that called to the boy
-of seventeen in the days of Louis XVI. We may not all accomplish as much
-as he did, but we can all thrill to the same generous impulses, see the
-same great vision, resolve that we will do all that lies within our
-power to win the crusade of freedom against tyrants. Every boy and man
-in America should learn the lesson of Lafayette's life and then go into
-the struggle with the feeling that he is following in the footsteps of
-that great idealist, that great patriot whose country was not limited to
-his own nation but to all men who yearned for liberty. The greatest gift
-of patriots is not the material things they may build, but the devotion
-to ideals they show to other men. We may each be Lafayettes in our own
-way.
-
-"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
-beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock."
-So is liberty built; founded upon a rock; as unconquerable as the soul
-of man. Liberty must win after floods and storms; its beacon-light must
-in the time to come illumine the whole world. Its enemies are strong and
-well-prepared; they call to their aid all the powers and devices of
-darkness; but as truth is greater than falsehood so is liberty greater
-than all the oppressors of man can bring against it.
-
-America answers France and her answer is clear and dauntless. It is
-as ringing as the Declaration of Independence, the rock upon which
-America built her house. The power of Prussia, the power of the Hun,
-the power of tyrants, must be utterly crushed before the world can be
-free. Germany sought this war in all wickedness and greed; to satisfy
-her ambition she has pulled down all the piers that support the house of
-civilization that men have been building for ages; she would destroy the
-world in her purpose to dominate it. And America intends that Germany
-shall have war until all the devils are driven out of her.
-
-America can do it. America came to this conflict with clean hands and a
-clean soul; no selfishness was in her; she fights for no ends of her own
-save the highest end to make the world safe for democracy. And as she
-has truth and justice on her side she fights with a spirit unknown to
-the servile bondsmen of autocracy. She is young and immensely strong,
-she is still the land of freedom. And when she rises in full, relentless
-might, thrice armed in that she has a just cause, she will destroy the
-serpent and cast him from the earth. The greatest page in our history is
-being written; we shall write it so that the better world to come shall
-call us blessed.
-
-"We are coming, Lafayette!" What a call to victory is that! We have
-already come. We have joined with the descendants of that youth of
-France who came to us in our hour of need. The spirit of Washington must
-glory in that fact. The great Father of our country loved the Frenchman
-as his son. To what nobler end could Washington's children dedicate
-themselves than to help their brethren? And the spirit of Lafayette must
-rejoice to see his dreams fulfilled, his dreams of the great republic
-and of the dawn of the brotherhood of men!
-
-Lover of liberty and justice, we salute you! The time has come for us
-to show that what you hoped of us we now are, and to show it to the end
-that liberty shall not perish from the earth, that all men be free,
-and that in truth man was endowed by his Creator with the inalienable
-rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
-
-
-
-
-TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
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-inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as noted below.
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-Obvious printer's errors have been silently corrected.
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-
-Text in italics in the original work is represented herein as _text_.
-
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-capitals.
-
-The oe ligature is shown herein as [oe].
-
-
-
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-End of Project Gutenberg's Lafayette, We Come!, by Rupert S. Holland
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-Title: Lafayette, We Come!
-       The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in
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-Author: Rupert S. Holland
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+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43843 ***</div>
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lafayette, We Come!, by Rupert S. Holland
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Lafayette, We Come!
-       The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in
-       America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in France
-
-Author: Rupert S. Holland
-
-Release Date: September 29, 2013 [EBook #43843]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAFAYETTE, WE COME! ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Fred Salzer, Greg Bergquist and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
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-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: LAFAYETTE MEETS WASHINGTON]
-
-
-
-
-  Lafayette, We Come!
-
-  The Story of How a Young
-  Frenchman Fought for Liberty
-  in America and How America
-  Now Fights for Liberty in France
-
-  By
-  RUPERT S. HOLLAND
-
-  _Author of "Historic Boyhoods," "The Knights
-  of the Golden Spur," etc._
-
-  [Illustration: Colophon]
-
-  PHILADELPHIA
-  GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
-  PUBLISHERS
-
-
-
-
-  Copyright, 1918, by
-  GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
-
-  _All rights reserved_
-  Printed in U. S. A.
-
-
-
-
-  _To
-  Those Men of the Great Republic
-  Who Have Answered
-  The Call of Lafayette,
-  Lover of Liberty_
-
-
-
-
-Illustrations
-
-
-  Lafayette meets Washington       _Frontispiece_
-
-                                    _Facing page_
-
-  Lafayette, a Prussian prisoner              226
-
-  "America's Answer"                          302
-
-
-
-
-Foreword
-
-
-In 1777 the young Marquis de Lafayette, only nineteen years old, came
-from France to the aid of the Thirteen Colonies of North America because
-he heard their cry for liberty ringing across the Atlantic Ocean. In
-1917 the United States of America drew the sword in defense of the
-sacred principle of liberty for which the country of Lafayette was
-fighting. The debt of gratitude had never been forgotten; the ideals of
-the gallant Frenchman and of the young Republic of the Western World
-were the same; what he had done for us we of America are now doing for
-him.
-
-It is a glorious story, and one never to be forgotten while men love
-liberty and truth. Every boy and girl should know it, for it is the
-story of a brave, generous, noble-minded youth, who gave such devoted
-service to America that he stands with Washington and Lincoln as one of
-the great benefactors of our land. "I'm going to America to fight for
-freedom!" he cried; and the cry still rings in our ears more than a
-century later. The message is the same one we hear to-day and that is
-carrying us across the Atlantic to France. From Lafayette's story we
-learn courage, fidelity to honor, loyalty to conviction, the qualities
-that make men free and great. The principles of "liberty, equality, and
-fraternity" of France are the same as those of our own Declaration of
-Independence, and the men of the countries of Washington and Lafayette
-now fight under a common banner. "Lafayette, we come!" was America's
-answer to the great man who offered all he had to us in the days of
-1777.
-
-
-
-
-Contents
-
-
-     I. THE LITTLE MARQUIS OF FRANCE                 7
-
-    II. "WAKE UP! I'M GOING TO AMERICA TO
-          FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!"                       25
-
-   III. HOW LAFAYETTE RAN AWAY TO SEA               45
-
-    IV. THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN REACHES
-          AMERICA                                   63
-
-     V. "I WILL FIGHT FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY
-          AS A VOLUNTEER!"                          82
-
-    VI. LAFAYETTE WINS THE FRIENDSHIP OF
-          WASHINGTON                               102
-
-   VII. THE FRENCHMAN IN THE FIELD AGAIN           123
-
-  VIII. THE MARQUIS AIDS THE UNITED STATES
-          IN FRANCE                                153
-
-    IX. HOW LAFAYETTE SOUGHT TO GIVE
-          LIBERTY TO FRANCE                        172
-
-     X. STORM-CLOUDS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION      194
-
-    XI. LAFAYETTE IN PRISON AND EXILE              225
-
-   XII. IN THE DAYS OF NAPOLEON                    248
-
-  XIII. THE UNITED STATES WELCOMES THE
-          HERO                                     272
-
-   XIV. THE LOVER OF LIBERTY                       287
-
-    XV. AMERICA'S MESSAGE TO FRANCE--"LAFAYETTE,
-          WE COME!"                                302
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THE LITTLE MARQUIS OF FRANCE
-
-
-In the mountains of Auvergne in Southern France, in what was for many
-centuries called the province of Auvergne, but what is now known as the
-department of Haute-Loire, or Upper Loire, stands a great fortified
-castle, the Chateau of Chavaniac. For six hundred years it has stood
-there, part fortress and part manor-house and farm, a huge structure,
-built piecemeal through centuries, with many towers and battlements and
-thick stone walls long overgrown with moss. Before it lies the valley of
-the Allier and the great rugged mountains of Auvergne. Love of freedom
-is deeply rooted in the country round it, for the people of Auvergne
-have always been an independent, proud and fearless race.
-
-In this old Chateau of Chavaniac there was born on September 6, 1757,
-the Marquis de Lafayette. He was baptized the next day, with all the
-ceremonies befitting a baby of such high rank, and the register of the
-little parish church in the neighboring village records the baptism
-as that of "the very noble and very powerful gentleman Monseigneur
-Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert Dumotier de Lafayette, the
-lawful son of the very noble and very powerful gentleman Monseigneur
-Michel-Louis-Christophle-Roch-Gilbert Dumotier, Marquis de Lafayette,
-Baron de Vissac, Seigneur de Saint-Romain and other places, and of
-the very noble and very powerful lady Madame Marie-Louise-Julie
-Delareviere."
-
-A good many names for a small boy to carry, but his family was very
-old, and it was the custom of France to give many family names to each
-child. He was called Gilbert Motier for short, however, though he was
-actually born with the title and rank of Marquis, for his father had
-been killed in battle six weeks before the little heir to Chavaniac was
-born.
-
-The family name of Motier could be traced back to before the year 1000.
-Then one of the family came into possession of a farm called the Villa
-Faya, and he lengthened his name to Motier of La Fayette. And as other
-properties came to belong to the family the men added new names and
-titles until in 1757 the heir to the old chateau had not only a long
-string of names but was also a marquis and baron and seigneur by right
-of his birth. There were few families in Auvergne of older lineage than
-the house of Lafayette.
-
-The little heir's father, Michel-Louis, Marquis de Lafayette, had been
-killed while leading a charge at the head of his regiment of French
-Grenadiers in the battle of Hastenbeck, one of the battles of what was
-known as the Seven Years' War in Europe, which took place at about
-the same time as the French and Indian War in America. Although only
-twenty-four years old Michel-Louis de Lafayette was already a colonel
-and a knight of the order of Saint Louis and had shown himself a true
-descendant of the old fighting stock of Auvergne nobles. Now the small
-baby boy, the new Marquis, succeeded to his father's titles as well as
-to the castle and several other even older manor-houses, for the most
-part in ruins, that were perched high up in the mountains.
-
-For all its blue blood, however, the family were what is known as "land
-poor." The little Marquis owned large farms in the mountains, but the
-crops were not very abundant and most of the money that had come in from
-them for some time had been needed to provide for the fighting men.
-Fortunately the boy's mother and grandmother and aunts, who all lived at
-Chavaniac, were strong and sturdy people, willing to live the simple,
-healthy, frugal life of their neighbors in the province and so save as
-much of the family fortune as they could for the time when the heir
-should make his bow at court.
-
-Without brothers or sisters and with few playmates, spending his time
-out-of-doors in the woods and fields of Chavaniac, the young Lafayette
-had a rather solitary childhood and grew up awkward and shy. He was a
-lean, long-limbed fellow with a hook nose, reddish hair, and a very
-bashful manner. But his eyes were bright and very intelligent; whenever
-anything really caught his attention he quickly became intensely
-interested in it, and he was devoted to all the birds and beasts of the
-country round about his home.
-
-Some of these beasts, however, were dangerous; there was a great gray
-wolf that the farmers said had been breaking into sheepfolds and doing
-great damage. The boy of eight years old heard the story and set out,
-sword in hand, to hunt and slay the wolf. There is no account of his
-ever coming up with that particular monster, but the peasants of the
-neighborhood liked to tell all visitors this story as proof of the
-courage of their young Marquis.
-
-But the family had no intention of keeping the head of their house in
-this far-off province of France. He must learn to conduct himself as a
-polished gentleman and courtier, he must go to Paris and prepare himself
-to take the place at the royal court that belonged to a son of his long,
-distinguished line. His family had rich and powerful relations, who
-were quite ready to help the boy, and so, when he was eleven years old,
-he left the quiet castle of Chavaniac and went to a school for young
-noblemen, the College du Plessis at Paris.
-
-Lafayette's mother's uncle, taking a liking to the boy, had him
-enrolled as a cadet in one of the famous regiments of France, "The
-Black Musketeers," and this gave the boy a proud position at school,
-and many a day he took some of his new friends to see the Musketeers
-drill and learn something of the Manual of Arms. The company of other
-boys, both at the College du Plessis in Paris and then at the Academy
-at Versailles, as well as the interest he took in his gallant Black
-Musketeers, made Lafayette less shy and awkward than he had been at
-Chavaniac, though he was still much more reserved and thoughtful than
-most boys of his age. He learned to write his own language well, and his
-compositions in school showed the practical common sense of his country
-bringing-up. He wrote a paper on the horse, and the chief point he
-brought out in it was that if you try to make a horse do too many things
-well he is sure to get restless and throw you, a bit of wisdom he had
-doubtless learned in Auvergne.
-
-The boy Marquis was at school in Paris when, in 1770, his devoted
-mother and the rich granduncle who had had him appointed a cadet of
-the Musketeers both died. The little Lafayette was now very much
-alone; his grandmother in the distant castle in the mountains was his
-nearest relation, and, though only a boy of thirteen, he had to decide
-important questions for himself. But the granduncle had been very fond
-of the lad, and in his will he left Lafayette all his fortune and
-estates. The fortune was very large, and as a result the boy Marquis,
-instead of being only a poor young country nobleman from Auvergne,
-became a very rich and important person.
-
-Immediately the proud and luxury-loving society of the French court
-took a great interest in Gilbert Motier de Lafayette. Every father and
-mother who had a daughter they wished to marry turned their attention
-to the boy. And Lafayette, who, like most boys of his age, paid little
-attention to girls, was beset with all sorts of invitations to parties
-and balls.
-
-In Europe in those days marriages were arranged by parents with little
-regard to the wishes of their children. Sometimes babies of noble
-families were betrothed to each other while they were still in the
-cradle. It was all a question of social standing and of money. So
-Lafayette's guardians put their heads together and looked around for the
-most suitable girl for him to marry.
-
-The guardians chose the second daughter of the Duke d'Ayen,
-Mademoiselle Marie-Adrienne-Francoise de Noailles, a girl twelve years
-old. The Duke was pleased with the proposal; the Marquis de Lafayette
-would make a most desirable husband for his daughter. But the little
-girl's mother had strong ideas of her own. When the Duke told her of the
-husband selected for Marie-Adrienne she objected.
-
-"It is too great a risk to run for Adrienne," she said. "The Marquis de
-Lafayette is very young, very rich, and very wilful. He seems to be a
-good boy, so far as his standing at school and his conduct in society
-are concerned; but with no one to guide him, no one to look after his
-fortune and hold him back from extravagance and foolishness, without a
-near relative, and with his character as yet unformed and uncertain, our
-daughter's marriage to him is out of the question, and I will not agree
-to it."
-
-Both the Duke and the Duchess were strong-willed; Adrienne's father
-insisted on the match and her mother opposed it more and more
-positively. At last they actually quarreled and almost separated over
-this question of the marriage of two children, neither of whom had
-been consulted in regard to their own feelings. At last, however, the
-Duke suggested a compromise; the marriage should not take place for two
-years, Adrienne should not leave her mother for three years, and in the
-meantime the Duke would look after the education of the boy and see that
-he became a suitable husband for their daughter.
-
-This suited the Duchess better. "If the boy is brought up in our home
-where I can see and study him," she said, "I will agree. Then, having
-taken all precautions, and having no negligence wherewith to reproach
-ourselves, we need do nothing but peacefully submit to the will of God,
-who knows best what is fitting for us."
-
-The shy boy came to the Duke's house and met the little girl. Adrienne
-was very attractive, sweet-natured, pretty, and delightful company.
-Before the two knew the plans that had been made concerning them they
-grew to like each other very much, became splendid companions, and
-were glad when they learned that they were to marry some day. As for
-Adrienne's mother, the more she saw of the boy the better she liked him;
-she took him into her house and heart as if he were her own son, trying
-to make up to him for the loss of his own mother. The Duke kept his
-agreement. He saw that Lafayette was properly educated at the Academy
-at Versailles where young noblemen were taught military duties and that
-in proper time he obtained his commission as an officer in the royal
-regiment of the Black Musketeers.
-
-Then, on April 11, 1774, Lafayette and Adrienne were married. The groom
-was sixteen years old and the bride fourteen, but those were quite
-proper ages for marriage among the French nobility. For a year the young
-husband and wife lived at the great house of the Duke d'Ayen in Paris,
-still under the watchful eye of the careful Duchess, and then they took
-a house for themselves in the capital, going occasionally to the old
-castle of Chavaniac in Auvergne.
-
-The boy Marquis never regretted his marriage to Adrienne. Through
-all the adventures of his later life his love for her was strong
-and enduring. And she was as fine and noble and generous a woman as
-Lafayette was a brave, heroic man.
-
-Rich, a marquis in his own right, married to a daughter of one of the
-greatest houses of France, Lafayette had the entrance to the highest
-circles at court, to the innermost circle in fact, that of the young
-King Louis XVI. and his Queen Marie Antoinette. And never was there a
-gayer court to be found; the youthful King and his beautiful wife and
-all their friends seemed to live for pleasure only; they were gorgeous
-butterflies who flitted about the beautiful gardens of the Palace at
-Versailles and basked in continual sunshine.
-
-But the boy of seventeen, son of a line of rugged Auvergne fighters,
-men of independent natures, did not take readily to the unceasing show
-and luxury of court. Balls and dramas, rustic dances and dinners and
-suppers, all the extravagant entertainments that the clever mind of the
-young Queen could devise, followed in endless succession. True it was
-that some of the courtiers had the fashion of talking a good deal about
-the rights of man and human liberty, but that was simply a fashion in a
-country where only the nobles had liberty and the talk of such things
-only furnished polite conversation in drawing-rooms. To Lafayette,
-however, liberty meant more than that; young though he was, he had seen
-enough of the world to wish that there might be less suffering among
-the poor and more liberality among the wealthy. The constant stream of
-pleasures at Versailles often gave him food for thought, and though he
-was very fond of the King and Queen and their youthful court, he had
-less and less regard for the older nobles, who appeared to him as vain
-and stiff and foolish as so many strutting peacocks.
-
-Sometimes, however, for all his thoughtfulness, he joined
-whole-heartedly in the revels the Queen devised. On one midsummer night
-Marie Antoinette gave a fete at Versailles, and Lafayette led the
-revels. The Queen had declared that she meant to have a _fete champetre_
-in the gardens that should be different from anything the court of
-France had ever seen. All her guests should appear either as goblins
-or as nymphs. They should not be required to dance the quadrille or
-any other stately measure, but would be free to play any jokes that
-came into their heads. As Marie Antoinette outlined these plans to him
-Lafayette shook his head in doubt.
-
-"What will the lords in waiting say to this?" he asked, "and your
-Majesty's own ladies?"
-
-The pretty Queen laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Who cares?" she
-answered. "As long as Louis is King I shall do what pleases me."
-
-Then a new idea occurred to her and she clapped her hands with delight.
-"I shall go to Louis," she said, "and have him issue a royal order
-commanding every one who comes to the fete to dress as a goblin or a
-nymph. He will do it for me, I know."
-
-King Louis was too fond of his wife to deny her anything, so he issued
-the order she wanted, much though he feared that it might affront the
-older courtiers. And the courtiers were affronted and horrified. The
-Royal Chamberlain and the Queen's Mistress of the Robes went to the King
-in his workshop, for Louis was always busy with clocks and locks and
-keys, and told him that such a performance as was planned would make the
-court of France appear ridiculous.
-
-Louis listened to them patiently, and when they had left he sent for
-Marie Antoinette and her friends. They described how absurd the
-courtiers would look as nymphs and goblins and the King laughed till he
-cried. Then he dismissed the whole matter and went back to the tools on
-his work-table.
-
-So Marie Antoinette had her party, and the gardens of Versailles saw the
-strange spectacle of tall, stiff goblins wearing elaborate powdered wigs
-and jeweled swords, and stout wood-nymphs with bare arms and shoulders
-and glittering with gems. The Queen's friends, a crowd of hobgoblins,
-swooped down upon the stately Mistress of the Robes and carried her
-off to a summer-house on the edge of the woods, where they kept her a
-prisoner while they sang her the latest ballads of the Paris streets.
-The court was shocked and indignant, and the next day there was such a
-buzzing of angry bees about the head of the King that he had to lecture
-the Queen and her friends and forbid any more such revels.
-
-As the older courtiers regained their influence over Louis the young
-Lafayette went less and less often to Versailles. He was too independent
-by nature to bow the knee to the powdered and painted lords and ladies
-who controlled the court. Instead of seeking their society he spent
-more and more time with his regiment of Musketeers. But this did not
-satisfy his father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, who was eager for Lafayette
-to shine in the sun of royal favor. So the Duke went to the young Count
-de Segur, Lafayette's close friend and cousin, and begged him to try and
-stir the Marquis to greater ambition.
-
-The Count, who knew Lafayette well, had to laugh at the words of the
-Duke d'Ayen. "Indifferent! Indolent! Faith, my dear marshal, you do
-not yet know our Lafayette! I should say he has altogether too much
-enthusiasm. Why, it was only yesterday that he almost insisted on my
-fighting a duel with him because I did not agree with him in a matter of
-which I knew nothing, and of which he thought I should know everything.
-He is anything but indifferent and indolent, I can assure you!"
-
-Pleased with this information, and feeling that he had much
-misunderstood his son-in-law, the Duke made plans to have Lafayette
-attached to the suite of one of the princes of France, and picked out
-the Count of Provence, the scapegrace brother of Louis XVI. This Prince
-was only two years older than Lafayette, and famous for his overbearing
-manners. As a result, when the Duke told his son-in-law of the interview
-he had arranged for him with the Count of Provence, Lafayette at once
-determined that nothing should make him accept service with so arrogant
-a fellow.
-
-Having decided that he wanted no favors from that particular Prince,
-Lafayette set about to make his decision clear. His opportunity soon
-came. The King and Queen gave a masked ball at court, and the youthful
-Marquis was one of their guests. With his mask concealing his face he
-went up to the King's brother, the Count of Provence, and began to talk
-about liberty and equality and the rights of man, saying a great deal
-that he probably did not believe in his desire to make the Count angry.
-
-The plan succeeded beautifully. The Count tried to answer, but every
-time he opened his mouth Lafayette said more violent things and made
-more eloquent pleas for democracy. At last the young Prince could stand
-the tirade no longer. "Sir," said he, lifting his mask and staring at
-his talkative companion, "I shall remember this interview."
-
-"Sir," answered the young Marquis, also lifting his mask and bowing
-gracefully, "memory is the wisdom of fools."
-
-It was a rash remark to make to a royal prince, but it had the effect
-that Lafayette desired. With an angry gesture the Count of Provence
-turned on his heel and made it clear to every one about him that the
-Marquis was in disgrace. In later days the Count showed that he had
-remembered Lafayette's words to him.
-
-News of what the Marquis had said quickly flew through the court and
-speedily reached the ears of the Duke d'Ayen. He was horrified; his
-son-in-law had not only insulted the Prince and so lost his chance
-of becoming a gentleman of his suite, but had also made himself a
-laughing-stock. The Duke lectured the boy, and told him that he was
-throwing away all his chances for worldly advancement. But Lafayette
-answered that he cared nothing for princely favor and meant to follow
-the dictates of his own nature.
-
-So the Duke, finally despairing of doing anything with so independent
-a fellow, had him ordered to join his regiment, and Lafayette left
-Paris to seek his fortune elsewhere. Already, although he was only
-seventeen, the boy Marquis had shown that he was a true son of Auvergne,
-not a parasite of the King's court, as were most of his friends, but an
-independent, liberty-loving man.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-"WAKE UP! I'M GOING TO AMERICA TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!"
-
-
-Although the young Marquis had deliberately given up a career at court,
-there was every promise of his having a brilliant career in the army.
-Soon after his famous speech to the King's brother, in August, 1775, he
-was transferred from his regiment of Black Musketeers to a command in
-what was known as the "Regiment de Noailles," which had for its colonel
-a young man of very distinguished family, Monseigneur the Prince de
-Poix, who was a cousin of Lafayette's wife.
-
-The "Regiment de Noailles" was stationed at Metz, a garrison city some
-two hundred miles to the east of Paris. The commander of Metz was the
-Count de Broglie, a marshal and prince of France, who had commanded the
-French armies in the Seven Years' War, in one of the battles of which
-Lafayette's father had been killed. The Count de Broglie had known
-Lafayette's father and had greatly admired him, and he did all he could
-to befriend the son, inviting him to all the entertainments he gave.
-
-It happened that early in August the Count de Broglie gave a dinner in
-honor of a young English prince, the Duke of Gloucester, and Lafayette,
-in the blue and silver uniform of his rank, was one of the guests at
-the table. The Duke of Gloucester was at the time in disgrace with his
-brother, King George the Third of England, because he had dared to marry
-a wife whom King George disliked. The Duke was really in exile from
-England, and in the company of the French officers he had no hesitation
-in speaking his mind about his royal brother and even in poking fun at
-some of his plans. And the Duke made a special point of criticizing King
-George for his policy toward the colonists in America.
-
-In that very year of the dinner-party at Metz, in the spring of 1775, a
-rebellion had broken out in the colonies, and there had actually been a
-fight between American farmers and British regulars at the village of
-Lexington in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The Duke had received
-word of the obstinate resistance of the farmers--peasants, he called
-them--at Lexington and Concord, and of the retreat of Lord Percy and
-his troops to Boston. The Duke told the dinner-party all about the
-discomfiture of his royal brother, laughing heartily at it, and also
-related how in that same seaport of Boston the townspeople had thrown a
-cargo of tea into the harbor rather than pay the royal tax on it.
-
-The Duke talked and Lafayette listened. The Duke spoke admiringly of the
-pluck of the American farmers, but pointed out that it was impossible
-for the colonists to win against regular troops unless experienced
-officers and leaders should help them. "They are poor, they are ill
-led," said the Duke, "they have no gentlemen-soldiers to show them
-how to fight, and the king my brother is determined to bring them into
-subjection by harsh and forcible methods if need be. But my letters say
-that the Americans seem set upon opposing force with force, and, as the
-country is large and the colonies scattered, it certainly looks as if
-the trouble would be long and serious. If but the Americans were well
-led, I should say the rebellion might really develop into a serious
-affair."
-
-Most of the officers knew little about America; even Lafayette had only
-a vague idea about the colonies on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
-But the Duke's words stirred him deeply; he sat leaning far forward, his
-eyes shining with interest, his face expressing the closest attention.
-
-Finally, as the guests rose from the table, Lafayette burst forth
-impetuously. "But could one help these peasants over there beyond the
-seas, monseigneur?" he asked the Duke.
-
-The English prince smiled at the young Frenchman's eagerness. "One
-could, my lord marquis, if he were there," he answered.
-
-"Then tell me, I pray you," continued Lafayette, "how one may do it,
-monseigneur. Tell me how to set about it. For see, I will join these
-Americans; I will help them fight for freedom!"
-
-Again the Duke smiled; the words seemed extravagant on the lips of a
-French officer. But a glance at Lafayette's face showed how much the
-boy was in earnest. The words were no idle boast; the speaker plainly
-meant them. So the Duke answered, "Why, I believe you would, my lord. It
-wouldn't take much to start you across the sea,--if your people would
-let you."
-
-Lafayette smiled to himself. He had already done one thing that his
-family disapproved of, and he did not intend to let them prevent his
-embarking on such an enterprise as this, one that appealed so intensely
-to his love of liberty. He asked the Duke of Gloucester all the
-questions he could think of, and the Duke gave him all the information
-he had about America.
-
-The dinner-party broke up, and most of the officers soon forgot all the
-conversation; but not so the young Marquis; that evening had been one
-of the great events of his life. As he said afterward, "From that hour
-I could think of nothing but this enterprise, and I resolved to go to
-Paris at once to make further inquiries."
-
-His mind made up by what he had heard at Metz, Lafayette set off for
-Paris. But once there, it was hard to decide where he should turn for
-help. His father-in-law, he knew, would be even more scandalized by his
-new plan than he had been by the affront the young man had given the
-King's brother. His own wife was too young and inexperienced to give
-him wise counsel in such a matter. Finally he chose for his first real
-confidant his cousin and close friend, the Count de Segur. Lafayette
-went at once to his cousin's house, though it was only seven o'clock
-in the morning, was told that the Count was not yet out of bed, but,
-without waiting to be announced, rushed upstairs and woke the young man.
-
-The Count saw his cousin standing beside him and shaking him by the arm.
-In great surprise he sat up. "Wake up! wake up!" cried Lafayette. "Wake
-up! I'm going to America to fight for freedom! Nobody knows it yet; but
-I love you too much not to tell you."
-
-The Count sprang out of bed and caught Lafayette's hand. "If that is so,
-I will go with you!" he cried. "I will go to America too! I will fight
-with you for freedom! How soon do you start?"
-
-It was easier said than done, however. The two young men had breakfast
-and eagerly discussed this momentous matter. The upshot of their
-discussion was to decide to enlist a third friend in their cause, and so
-they set out to see Lafayette's brother-in-law, the Viscount Louis Marie
-de Noailles, who was a year older than the Marquis.
-
-The young Viscount, like the Count de Segur, heard Lafayette's news
-with delight, for he also belonged to that small section of the French
-nobility that was very much interested in what was called "the rights
-of man." So here were three young fellows,--hardly more than boys,--for
-none of the three was over twenty years old, all of high rank and large
-fortune, eager to do what they could to help the fighting farmers of the
-American colonies.
-
-At the very start, however, they ran into difficulties. France and
-England, though not on very friendly terms at that particular time,
-were yet keeping the peace between them, and the French prime minister
-was afraid that if the English government should learn that a number of
-young French aristocrats were intending to aid the rebellious American
-colonists it might cause ill-feeling between France and England. The
-prime minister, therefore, frowned on all such schemes as that of
-Lafayette, and so the three young liberty-loving conspirators had to
-set about their business with the greatest secrecy.
-
-Lafayette's next step was to hunt out a man who had been sent over to
-France from the American colonies as a secret agent, a representative of
-what was known as the American Committee of Secret Correspondence, of
-which Benjamin Franklin was a member. This man was Silas Deane of the
-colony of Connecticut. Deane was secretly sending arms and supplies from
-France to America, but he was so closely watched by the agents of the
-English Ambassador, Lord Stormont, that it was very difficult to see him
-without rousing suspicions.
-
-While the Marquis was studying the problem of how to get in touch with
-Deane he confided his secret to the Count de Broglie, his superior
-officer at Metz and his very good friend. The Count was at once opposed
-to any such rash venture. "You want to throw your life away in that land
-of savages!" exclaimed De Broglie. "Why, my dear Lafayette, it is the
-craziest scheme I ever heard of! And to what purpose?"
-
-"For the noblest of purposes, sir," answered the Marquis. "To help a
-devoted people win their liberty! What ambition could be nobler?"
-
-"It is a dream, my friend, a dream that can never be fulfilled," said
-the old soldier. "I will not help you to throw your life away. I saw
-your uncle die in the wars of Italy, I witnessed your brave father's
-death at the battle of Hastenbeck, and I cannot be a party to the
-ruin of the last of your name, the only one left of the stock of the
-Lafayettes!"
-
-But even the old Marshal could not withstand the ardor and enthusiasm of
-the youth. So vehemently did Lafayette set forth his wishes that finally
-the Count promised that he would not actively oppose his plans, and
-presently agreed to introduce the Marquis to a Bavarian soldier named De
-Kalb, who might be able to help him.
-
-"I will introduce you to De Kalb," said the Count. "He is in Paris
-now, and perhaps through him you may be able to communicate with this
-American agent, Monsieur Deane."
-
-De Kalb was a soldier of fortune who had been to America long before
-the Revolution and knew a great deal about the colonies. At present
-he was in France, giving what information he could to the government
-there. And the upshot of Lafayette's talk with the Count de Broglie
-was that the latter not only gave the Marquis a letter to De Kalb
-but also actually asked De Kalb to go to America and see if he could
-arrange things so that he, the Count de Broglie, might be invited by the
-American Congress to cross the ocean and become commander-in-chief of
-the American army! Perhaps it was natural that the veteran Marshal of
-France should think that he would make a better commander-in-chief than
-the untried George Washington.
-
-The Baron de Kalb arranged that the Count de Broglie should see Silas
-Deane of Connecticut. Silas Deane was impressed with the importance of
-securing such a powerful friend and leader for his hard-pressed people,
-and he at once agreed to see what he could do for De Broglie, and
-promised Baron de Kalb the rank of major-general in the American army
-and signed an agreement with him by which fifteen French officers should
-go to America on a ship that was fitting out with arms and supplies.
-
-This fell in beautifully with Lafayette's wishes. De Broglie introduced
-the Marquis to De Kalb, and De Kalb presented him to Silas Deane. This
-was in December, 1776, and Lafayette, only nineteen, slight of figure,
-looked very boyish for such an enterprise. But he plainly showed that
-his whole heart was in his plan, and, as he said himself, "made so
-much out of the small excitement that my going away was likely to
-cause," that the American agent was carried away by his enthusiasm,
-and in his own rather reckless fashion, wrote out a paper by which the
-young Marquis was to enter the service of the American colonies as a
-major-general.
-
-Deane's enthusiasm over Lafayette's offer of his services may be seen
-from what he wrote in the agreement. The paper he sent to Congress
-in regard to this volunteer ran as follows: "His high birth, his
-alliances, the great dignities which his family holds at this court, his
-considerable estates in this realm, his personal merit, his reputation,
-his disinterestedness, and, above all, his zeal for the liberty of our
-provinces, are such as have only been able to engage me to promise him
-the rank of major-general in the name of the United States. In witness
-of which I have signed the present this seventh of December, 1776. Silas
-Deane, Agent for the United States of America."
-
-By this time the colonies had issued their Declaration of Independence,
-and called themselves, as Silas Deane described them, the United States
-of America.
-
-Imagine Lafayette's joy at this result of his meeting with Silas Deane!
-It seemed as if his enthusiasm had already won him his goal. But there
-were other people to be considered, and his family were not as much
-delighted with his plans as the man from Connecticut had been.
-
-As a matter of fact his father-in-law, the powerful Duke d'Ayen, was
-furious, and so were most of the others of his family. His cousin, the
-Count de Segur, described the feelings of Lafayette's relations. "It
-is easy to conceive their astonishment," he wrote, "when they learned
-suddenly that this young sage of nineteen, so cool and so indifferent,
-had been so far carried away by the love of glory and of danger as to
-intend to cross the ocean and fight in the cause of American freedom."
-There was more of a storm at home than when the self-filled young
-Marquis had of his own accord disgraced himself at court.
-
-But his wife Adrienne, girl though she was, understood him far better
-than the rest of the family, and even sympathized with his great desire.
-"God wills that you should go," she said to her husband. "I have prayed
-for guidance and strength. Whatever others think, you shall not be
-blamed."
-
-Others, however, did have to be reckoned with. Lafayette's two friends,
-the Count de Segur and the Viscount de Noailles, both of whom had been
-so eager to go with him, had found that their fathers would not supply
-them with the money they needed and that the King would not consent to
-their going to America. Reluctantly they had to give up their plans. But
-Lafayette was rich, he had no need to ask for funds from any one; there
-was no difficulty for him on that score.
-
-He was, however, an officer of France, and it was on that ground that
-his father-in-law tried to put an end to his scheme. He went to the
-King with his complaint about the wilful Marquis. At the same time the
-English Ambassador, who had got wind of the matter, also complained
-to King Louis. And Louis XVI., who had never concerned himself much
-about liberty and took little interest in the rebel farmers across the
-Atlantic, said that while he admired the enthusiasm of the Marquis de
-Lafayette, he could not think of permitting officers of his army to
-serve with the men of America who were in rebellion against his good
-friend the King of England. Therefore he issued an order forbidding any
-soldier in his service taking part in the Revolution in America.
-
-The Duke d'Ayen was delighted. He went to Lafayette, and trying to put
-the matter on a friendly footing, said, "You had better return to your
-regiment at Metz, my dear son."
-
-Lafayette drew himself up, his face as determined as ever. "No Lafayette
-was ever known to turn back," he answered. "I shall do as I have
-determined."
-
-One of Lafayette's ancestors had adopted as his motto the words "_Cur
-non_," meaning "Why not?" and the Marquis now put these on his own coat
-of arms, the idea being, as he himself said, that they should serve him
-"both as an encouragement and a response."
-
-By this time the young republic in America had sent Benjamin Franklin
-to help Silas Deane in Paris. Franklin heard of Lafayette's desires and
-knew how much help his influence might bring the new republic. So he set
-about to see what he could do to further Lafayette's plans.
-
-At that moment things looked gloomy indeed for the Americans. Their
-army had been badly defeated at the battle of Long Island, and their
-friends in Europe were depressed. That, however, seemed to Lafayette
-all the more reason for taking them aid as quickly as he could, and
-when he heard that Benjamin Franklin was interested in him he made an
-opportunity to see the latter.
-
-Franklin was perfectly fair with Lafayette. He gave the young
-Frenchman the exact news he had received from America, information
-that Washington's army of three thousand ragged and suffering men were
-retreating across New Jersey before the victorious and well-equipped
-troops of General Howe. He pointed out that the credit of the new
-republic was certain to sink lower and lower unless Washington should be
-able to win a victory and that at present it looked as if any such event
-was far away. And in view of all this Franklin, and Silas Deane also,
-was frank enough to tell Lafayette that his plan of aiding the United
-States at that particular time was almost foolhardy.
-
-The Frenchman thanked them for their candor. "Until this moment,
-gentlemen," said he, "I have only been able to show you my zeal in your
-struggle; now the time has come when that zeal may be put to actual use.
-I am going to buy a ship and carry your officers and supplies to America
-in it. We must show our confidence in the cause, and it is in just such
-a time of danger as this that I want to share whatever fortune may have
-in store for you."
-
-Franklin was immensely touched by the generosity of the young Marquis
-and told him so. But, practical man as he was, although he gladly
-accepted Lafayette's offer, he pointed out that as the American agents
-were closely watched in Paris it would be better for Lafayette to work
-through third parties and in some other place than the French capital,
-if possible.
-
-Lafayette took these suggestions. At once he found that it was extremely
-difficult to secure a ship without discovery by the English Ambassador.
-Here the Count de Broglie again gave him aid. He introduced the Marquis
-to Captain Dubois, the brother of his secretary, an officer in one
-of the King's West Indian regiments, who happened to be at home on
-furlough at the time, and Lafayette engaged him as his agent. He sent
-him secretly to Bordeaux, the French seaport that was supposed to be
-safest from suspicion, and gave him the money to buy and supply a ship,
-the plan being that Captain Dubois should appear to be fitting out the
-vessel for the needs of his own regiment in the West Indies.
-
-The needed repairs to the ship would take some time, and meanwhile, in
-order to escape all possible suspicion of his plans, Lafayette arranged
-with his cousin, the Prince de Poix, to make a journey to England. The
-Marquis de Noailles, Lafayette's uncle, was the French Ambassador to
-England, and he welcomed the two young noblemen with delight. Every
-one supposed that Lafayette had at last given up his wild schemes,
-and all the great houses of London were thrown open to him. He wrote
-of the amusement he felt at being presented to King George III., and
-of how much he enjoyed a ball at the house of Lord George Germain, the
-secretary for the colonies. At the opera he met Sir Henry Clinton, with
-whom he had a pleasant, friendly chat. The next time Sir Henry and he
-were to meet was to be on the field of arms at the Battle of Monmouth.
-
-But he never took advantage of his hosts. He kept away from the English
-barracks and shipyards, though he was invited to inspect them. He was
-careful to a degree to avoid any act that might later be considered as
-having been in the nature of a breach of confidence. And after three
-weeks in the gay world of London he felt that he could brook no longer
-delay and told his uncle the Ambassador that he had taken a fancy to
-cross the Channel for a short visit at home.
-
-His uncle opposed this idea, saying that so abrupt a departure would
-be discourteous to the English court, but Lafayette insisted. So the
-Marquis de Noailles finally offered to give out the report that his
-nephew was sick until the latter should return to London. Lafayette
-agreed. "I would not have proposed this stratagem," he said later, "but
-I did not object to it."
-
-The voyage on the Channel was rough and Lafayette was seasick. As soon
-as he reached France he went to Paris and stayed in hiding at the house
-of Baron de Kalb. He had another interview with the American agents and
-sent out his directions to the men who were to sail with him. Then he
-slipped away to Bordeaux, where he found the sloop _Victory_, bought
-by Captain Dubois with Lafayette's money, and now ready for the voyage
-across the Atlantic.
-
-Lafayette, however, could not sail away from France under his own name,
-and as a permit was required of every one leaving the country, a special
-one had to be made out for him. This is still kept at Bordeaux, and
-describes the passenger on the sloop as "Gilbert du Mottie, Chevalier
-de Chavaillac, aged about twenty, rather tall, light-haired, embarking
-on the _Victory_, Captain Lebourcier commanding, for a voyage to the
-Cape on private business." His name was not very much changed, for he
-was really Gilbert du Motier and also the Chevalier de Chavaniac, but
-probably a careless clerk, who had no concern in this particular young
-man's affairs, made the mistakes in spelling, and so aided Lafayette's
-disguise.
-
-But all was not yet smooth sailing. Lord Stormont, the English
-Ambassador, heard of Lafayette's departure from Paris and also of his
-plans to leave France, and at once protested to the King. Lafayette's
-father-in-law likewise protested, and no sooner had the young nobleman
-arrived in Bordeaux than royal officers were on his track. The French
-government did not want him to sail, no matter how much it might
-secretly sympathize with the young republic across the ocean.
-
-Having come so far, however, the intrepid Marquis did not intend to be
-stopped. He meant to sail on his ship, he meant to carry out the brave
-words he had spoken to his cousin. "I'm going to America to fight for
-freedom!" he had said, and he was determined to accomplish that end.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-HOW LAFAYETTE RAN AWAY TO SEA
-
-
-Lafayette did actually run away to sea, with the officers of King Louis
-XVI. hot-foot after him. When he learned that his plans were known and
-that he would surely be stopped if he delayed he ordered the captain
-of the _Victory_ to set sail from Bordeaux without waiting for the
-necessary sailing-papers. His intention was to run into the Spanish port
-of Las Pasajes, just across the French frontier on the Bay of Biscay,
-and there complete his arrangements for crossing the Atlantic, for the
-sloop still needed some repairs before starting on such a voyage.
-
-At Las Pasajes, however, he found more obstacles and difficulties.
-Instead of the sailing-papers he expected letters and orders and French
-officers were waiting for him. The letters were from his family,
-protesting against his rash act, the orders were from Louis XVI.'s
-ministers, and charged him with deserting the army, breaking his oath
-of allegiance to the King, and involving France in difficulties with
-England. And the officers were from the court, with documents bearing
-the King's own seal, and commanding Lieutenant the Marquis de Lafayette
-of the regiment of De Noailles to go at once to the French port of
-Marseilles and there await further orders.
-
-The news that affected the runaway nobleman most was contained in
-the letters from home. He had had to leave Paris without telling his
-intentions to his wife, much as he hated to do this. He knew that she
-really approved of his plans and would do nothing to thwart them, but
-the letters said that she was ill and in great distress of mind. He
-would have braved the King's order of arrest and all the other threats,
-but he could not stand the idea of his wife being in distress on his
-account. So, with the greatest reluctance he said good-bye to his
-plans, left his ship in the Spanish port, and crossed the border back
-to France.
-
-It looked as if this was to be the end of Lafayette's gallant
-adventure. The Baron de Kalb, very much disappointed, wrote to his
-wife, "This is the end of his expedition to America to join the army of
-the insurgents."
-
-It might have been the end with another man, but not with Lafayette. He
-rode back to Bordeaux, and there found that much of the outcry raised
-against him was due to the wiles of his obstinate father-in-law, the
-Duke d'Ayen. It was true that the English Ambassador had protested to
-King Louis' ministers, but there was no real danger of Lafayette's
-sailing disturbing the relations between England and France. New letters
-told Lafayette that his wife was well and happy, though she missed
-him. The threats and the orders were due, not to the anger of his own
-government, but to the determination of the Duke that his son-in-law
-should not risk his life and fortune in such a rash enterprise.
-
-When he learned all this the Marquis determined to match the obstinacy
-of the Duke with an even greater obstinacy of his own. His first
-thought was to join his ship the _Victory_ at once, but he had no
-permit to cross into Spain, and if he should be caught disobeying the
-King's orders a second time he might get into more serious trouble.
-His father-in-law was waiting to see him at Marseilles, and so he now
-arranged to go to that city.
-
-In Bordeaux Lafayette met a young French officer, named Du Mauroy, who
-had also received from Silas Deane a commission in the American army,
-and who was very anxious to reach the United States. The two made their
-plans together, and the upshot of it was that they presently set out
-together in a post-chaise for Marseilles.
-
-They did not keep on the road to Marseilles long, however. No sooner
-were they well out of Bordeaux than they changed their course and drove
-in the direction of the Spanish border. In a quiet place on the road
-Lafayette slipped out of the chaise and hid in the woods. There he
-disguised himself as a post-boy or courier, and then rode on ahead, on
-horseback, as if he were the servant of the gentleman in the carriage.
-
-His companion, Du Mauroy, had a permit to leave France, and the plan
-was that he should try to get the Marquis across the Spanish frontier
-as his body-servant. The chaise went galloping along as fast as the
-horses could pull it, because the young men had good reason to fear
-that French officers would speedily be on their track, if they were
-not already pursuing them. They came to a little village, St. Jean de
-Luz, where Lafayette had stopped on his journey from Las Pasajes to
-Bordeaux a short time before, and there, as the Marquis, disguised as
-the post-boy, rode into the stable-yard of the inn the daughter of
-the innkeeper recognized him as the same young man she had waited on
-earlier.
-
-The girl gave a cry of surprise. "Oh, monsieur!" she exclaimed.
-
-Lafayette put his finger to his lips in warning. "Yes, my girl," he said
-quickly. "Monsieur my patron wants fresh horses at once. He is coming
-just behind me, and is riding post-haste to Spain."
-
-The girl understood. Perhaps she was used to odd things happening in a
-village so close to the border of France and Spain, perhaps she liked
-the young man and wanted to help him in his adventure. She called a
-stable-boy and had him get the fresh horses that were needed, and when
-the disguised Marquis and his friend were safely across the frontier and
-some French officers came galloping up to the inn in pursuit of them
-she told the latter that the post-chaise had driven off by the opposite
-road to the one it had really taken.
-
-At last, on April seventeenth, Lafayette reached the Spanish seaport of
-Las Pasajes again and went on board of his sloop the _Victory_. After
-six months of plotting and planning and all sorts of discouragements he
-was actually free to sail for America, and on the twentieth of April,
-1777, he gave the order to Captain Leboucier to hoist anchor and put out
-to sea. On the deck of the _Victory_ with him stood De Kalb and about
-twenty young Frenchmen, all, like their commander, eager to fight for
-the cause of liberty. The shores of Spain dropped astern, and Lafayette
-and his friends turned their eyes westward in the direction of the New
-World.
-
-When news of Lafayette's sailing reached Paris it caused the greatest
-interest. Though the King and the older members of his court might
-frown and shake their heads the younger people were frankly delighted.
-Coffee-houses echoed with praise of the daring Lieutenant, and whenever
-his name was mentioned in public it met with the loudest applause. In
-the world of society opinions differed; most of the luxury-loving
-nobility thought the adventure of the Marquis a wild-goose chase. The
-Chevalier de Marais wrote to his mother, "All Paris is discussing
-the adventure of a young courtier, the son-in-law of Noailles, who
-has a pretty wife, two children, fifty thousand crowns a year,--in
-fact, everything which can make life here agreeable and dear, but who
-deserted all that a week ago to join the insurgents. His name is M. de
-Lafayette."
-
-And the Chevalier's mother answered from her chateau in the country,
-"What new kind of folly is this, my dear child? What! the madness
-of knight-errantry still exists! It has disciples! Go to help the
-insurgents! I am delighted that you reassure me about yourself, for I
-should tremble for you; but since you see that M. de Lafayette is a
-madman, I am tranquil."
-
-A celebrated Frenchwoman, Madame du Deffand, wrote to the Englishman
-Horace Walpole, "Of course it is a piece of folly, but it does him no
-discredit. He receives more praise than blame." And that was the opinion
-of a large part of France. If a young man chose to do such a wild thing
-as to become a knight-errant he might be criticized for his lack of
-wisdom, but on the whole he was not to be condemned.
-
-Meantime, as the _Victory_ was spreading her sails on the broad
-Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin was writing to the American Congress. This
-was what he said: "The Marquis de Lafayette, a young nobleman of great
-family connections here and great wealth, is gone to America in a ship
-of his own, accompanied by some officers of distinction, in order to
-serve in our armies. He is exceedingly beloved, and everybody's good
-wishes attend him. We cannot but hope he may meet with such a reception
-as will make the country and his expedition agreeable to him. Those who
-censure it as imprudent in him, do, nevertheless, applaud his spirit;
-and we are satisfied that the civilities and respect that may be shown
-him will be serviceable to our affairs here, as pleasing not only to
-his powerful relations and the court, but to the whole French nation.
-He has left a beautiful young wife; and for her sake, particularly, we
-hope that his bravery and ardent desire to distinguish himself will be
-a little restrained by the General's prudence, so as not to permit his
-being hazarded much, except on some important occasion."
-
-The _Victory_ was not a very seaworthy ship. Lafayette had been swindled
-by the men who had sold the sloop to his agent; she was a very slow
-craft, and was poorly furnished and scantily armed. Her two small cannon
-and small stock of muskets would have been a poor defense in case she
-had been attacked by any of the pirates who swarmed on the high seas in
-those days or by the English cruisers who were looking for ships laden
-with supplies for America.
-
-In addition to the defects of his ship Lafayette soon found he had other
-obstacles to cope with. He discovered that the captain of the _Victory_
-considered himself a much more important person than the owner and meant
-to follow his own course.
-
-The papers with which the ship had sailed from Spain declared that her
-destination was the West Indies. But ships often sailed for other ports
-than those they were supposed to, and Lafayette wanted to reach the
-United States as quickly as he could. He went to the captain and said,
-"You will please make your course as direct as possible for Charlestown
-in the Carolinas."
-
-"The Carolinas, sir!" exclaimed the captain. "Why, I cannot do that. The
-ship's papers are made out for the West Indies and will only protect us
-if we sail for a port there. I intend to sail for the West Indies, and
-you will have to get transportation across to the colonies from there."
-
-Lafayette was amazed. "This ship is mine," he declared, "and I direct
-you to sail to Charlestown."
-
-But the captain was obstinate. "I am the master of this ship, sir,"
-said he, "and responsible for its safety. If we should be caught by an
-English cruiser and she finds that we are headed for North America with
-arms and supplies, we shall be made prisoners, and lose our ship, our
-cargo, and perhaps our lives. I intend to follow my sailing-papers and
-steer for the West Indies."
-
-No one could be more determined than Lafayette, however. "You may
-be master of the _Victory_, Captain Leboucier," said he, "but I am
-her owner and my decision is final. You will sail at once and by the
-directest course for the port of Charlestown in the Carolinas or I shall
-deprive you instantly of your command and place the mate in charge of
-the ship. I have enough men here to meet any resistance on your part. So
-make your decision immediately."
-
-The captain in his turn was surprised. The young owner was very positive
-and evidently not to be cajoled or threatened. So Leboucier complained
-and blustered and argued a little, and finally admitted that it was
-not so much the ship's papers as her cargo that he was troubled about.
-He owned that he had considerable interest in that cargo, for he had
-smuggled eight or nine thousand dollars' worth of goods on board the
-_Victory_ and wanted to sell them in the West Indies and so make an
-extra profit on the side for himself. The real reason why he didn't want
-to be caught by an English cruiser was the danger of losing his smuggled
-merchandise.
-
-"Then why didn't you say so at first?" Lafayette demanded. "I would
-have been willing to help you out, of course. Sail for the port of
-Charlestown in the Carolinas; and if we are captured, searched, robbed,
-or destroyed by any English cruisers or privateers I will see that you
-don't lose a sou. I will promise to make any loss good."
-
-That satisfied Captain Leboucier. As long as his goods were safe he had
-no hesitation on the score of danger to the ship, and so he immediately
-laid his course for the coast of the Carolinas. Lafayette, however,
-realizing that the _Victory_ might be overtaken by enemy warships,
-arranged with one of his men, Captain de Bedaulx, that in case of attack
-and capture the latter should blow up the ship rather than surrender.
-With this matter arranged the Marquis went to his cabin and stayed there
-for two weeks, as seasick as one could be.
-
-The voyage across the Atlantic in those days was a long and tedious
-affair. It took seven weeks, and after Lafayette had recovered from his
-seasickness he had plenty of time to think of the hazards of his new
-venture and of the family he had left at home. He was devoted to his
-family, and as the _Victory_ kept on her westward course he wrote long
-letters to his wife, planning to send them back to France by different
-ships, so that if one was captured another might carry his message to
-Adrienne safely to her. In one letter he wrote, "Oh, if you knew what I
-have suffered, what weary days I have passed thus flying from everything
-that I love best in the world!" And then, in order to make his wife less
-fearful of possible dangers that might beset him, he said, "The post of
-major-general has always been a warrant of long life. It is so different
-from the service I should have had in France, as colonel, for instance.
-With my present rank I shall only have to attend councils of war.... As
-soon as I land I shall be in perfect safety."
-
-But this boy, nineteen years old, though he called himself a
-major-general, was not to be content with attending councils of war
-and keeping out of danger, as later events were to show. He was far
-too eager and impetuous for that, too truly a son of the wild Auvergne
-Mountains.
-
-And he showed that he knew that himself, for later in the same letter
-to Adrienne he compared his present journey with what his father-in-law
-would have tried to make him do had Lafayette met the Duke d'Ayen at
-Marseilles. "Consider the difference between my occupation and my
-present life," he wrote, "and what they would have been if I had gone
-upon that useless journey. As the defender of that liberty which I
-adore; free, myself, more than any one; coming, as a friend, to offer
-my services to this most interesting republic, I bring with me nothing
-but my own free heart and my own good-will,--no ambition to fulfil and
-no selfish interest to serve. If I am striving for my own glory, I am at
-the same time laboring for the welfare of the American republic. I trust
-that, for my sake, you will become a good American. It is a sentiment
-made for virtuous hearts. The happiness of America is intimately
-connected with the happiness of all mankind; she is destined to become
-the safe and worthy asylum of virtue, integrity, tolerance, equality,
-and peaceful liberty."
-
-This, from a boy not yet twenty years old, showed the prophetic instinct
-that burned like a clear flame in the soul of Lafayette.
-
-He knew very little of the English tongue, but that was the language of
-the people he was going to help, and so on shipboard he set himself to
-study it. "I am making progress with that language," he wrote to his
-wife. "It will soon become most necessary to me."
-
-The North Atlantic was stormy, the _Victory_ met with head winds, and
-through April and May she floundered on, her passengers eagerly scanning
-the horizon for a sight of land. On the seventh of June the Marquis
-wrote in a letter to Adrienne, "I am still out on this dreary plain,
-which is beyond comparison the most dismal place that one can be in....
-We have had small alarms from time to time, but with a little care, and
-reasonably good fortune, I hope to get through without serious accident,
-and I shall be all the more pleased, because I am learning every day to
-be extremely prudent."
-
-Then, on a June day, the _Victory_ suddenly became all excitement. The
-lookout reported to Captain Leboucier that a strange vessel was bearing
-down in their direction.
-
-Leboucier instantly crowded on sail and tried to run from the strange
-ship. But the _Victory_ was not built for fast sailing, and it was soon
-clear that the stranger would quickly overhaul her.
-
-"It's an English man-of-war!" was the message that ran from lip to
-lip. In that case the only choice would be between resistance and
-surrender. Leboucier looked doubtful as to the wisest course to pursue,
-but Lafayette and his companions made ready to fight. The two old cannon
-were loaded, the muskets distributed, and the crew ordered to their
-stations.
-
-The stranger drew nearer and nearer, sailing fast, and the _Victory_
-floundered along in desperation. Lafayette and De Bedaulx stood at the
-bow of the sloop, their eyes fixed on the rapidly-gaining pursuer. Then,
-just as escape appeared utterly out of the question, the oncoming ship
-went about, and as she turned she broke out from her peak a flag of
-red, white and blue, the stars and stripes of the new United States of
-America. A wild cheer greeted that flag, and the colors of France were
-run up to the peak of the _Victory_ in joyful greeting to the flag of
-Lafayette's ally.
-
-The _Victory_ headed about and tried to keep up with the fleet American
-privateer, but in a very short time two other sails appeared on the
-horizon. The American ship ran up a danger signal, declaring these new
-vessels to be English cruisers, scouting along the coast on the watch
-for privateers and blockade runners. Having given that information the
-American ship signaled "good-bye," and drew away from the enemy on a
-favoring tack.
-
-The _Victory_ could not draw away so easily, however, and it was clear
-that her two cannon would be little use against two well-armed English
-cruisers. In this new predicament luck came to the aid of the little
-sloop. The wind shifted and blew strongly from the north. This would
-send the _Victory_ nearer to the port of Charlestown, the outlines of
-which now began to appear on the horizon, and would also be a head wind
-for the pursuing cruisers. Captain Leboucier decided to take advantage
-of the shift in the wind, and instead of heading for Charlestown run
-into Georgetown Bay, which opened into the coast of the Carolinas almost
-straight in front of him.
-
-Fortune again favored him, for, although he knew very little of that
-coast, and nothing of these particular shoals and channels, he found
-the opening of the South Inlet of Georgetown Bay and sailed his ship
-into that sheltered roadstead. The English vessels, working against the
-north wind, soon were lost to sight. On the afternoon of June 13, 1777,
-Lafayette's little sloop ran past the inlet and up to North Island, one
-of the low sand-pits that are a fringe along the indented shore of South
-Carolina.
-
-The long sea-voyage was over, and Lafayette looked at last at the coast
-of the country he had come to help.
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN REACHES AMERICA
-
-
-The _Victory_ had anchored off North Island, a stretch of sand on the
-South Carolina coast, but neither the captain nor the owner nor the
-crew of the sloop knew much more about their location than that it was
-somewhere in North America. Charlestown they believed was the nearest
-port of any size, but it might be difficult to navigate through these
-shoal waters without a pilot who knew the channels. So Lafayette
-suggested to Baron de Kalb that they should land in one of the sloop's
-boats and see if they could get information or assistance.
-
-Early in the afternoon Lafayette, De Kalb, and a few of the other
-officers were rowed ashore in the _Victory's_ yawl. But the shore was
-merely a sand-flat, with no sign of human habitation. They put out again
-and rowed farther up the bay, keeping a sharp lookout for any house or
-farm. They found plenty of little creeks and islands, but the shores
-were simply waste stretches of sand and scrub-bushes and woods. The
-mainland appeared as deserted as though it had been a desert island far
-out in the sea.
-
-All afternoon they rowed about, poking the yawl's nose first into one
-creek and then into another, and nightfall found them still exploring
-the North Inlet. Then, when they had about decided that it was too
-dark to row further and that they had better return to the sloop, they
-suddenly saw a lighted torch on the shore. Heading for this they found
-some negroes dragging for oysters. Baron de Kalb, who knew more English
-than the others, called out and asked if there was good anchorage for
-a ship thereabouts and whether he could find a pilot to take them to
-Charlestown.
-
-The negroes, very much surprised at the sudden appearance of the yawl,
-thought the men on board might be Englishmen or Hessians, and instantly
-grew suspicious. One of them answered, "We belong to Major Huger, all of
-us belongs to him. He's our master."
-
-"Is he an officer in the American army?" De Kalb called back.
-
-The negro said that he was, and added that there was a pilot on the
-upper end of North Island, and then volunteered to show the men in the
-yawl where the pilot lived and also to take them to the house of the
-Major.
-
-Lafayette thought it would be best to find Major Huger at once; but the
-tide was falling fast, and when the rowers, unused to these shoals,
-tried to follow the negroes in the oyster-boat, they discovered that
-they were in danger of beaching their yawl. The only alternative was for
-some of them to go in the oyster-boat, and so Lafayette and De Kalb and
-one other joined the negroes, while the crew of the yawl rowed back to
-the _Victory_.
-
-Over more shallows, up more inlets the negroes steered their craft, and
-about midnight they pointed out a light shining from a house on the
-shore. "That's Major Huger's," said the guide, and he ran his boat up to
-a landing-stage. The three officers stepped out, putting their feet on
-American soil for the first time on this almost deserted coast and under
-the guidance of stray negro oystermen.
-
-But this desolate shore had already been the landing-place of English
-privateersmen, and the people who lived in the neighborhood were always
-in fear of attack. As Lafayette and his two friends went up toward the
-house the loud barking of dogs suddenly broke the silence. And as they
-came up to the dwelling a window was thrown open and a man called out,
-"Who goes there? Stop where you are or I'll fire!"
-
-"We are friends, sir; friends only," De Kalb hurriedly answered. "We are
-French officers who have just landed from our ship, which has come into
-your waters. We have come to fight for America and we are looking for a
-pilot to steer our ship to a safe anchorage and are also hunting shelter
-for ourselves."
-
-No sooner had the master of the house heard this than he turned and gave
-some orders. Lights shone out from the windows, and almost immediately
-the front door was unbarred and thrown open. The owner stood in the
-doorway, his hands stretched out in greeting, and back of him were a
-number of negro servants with candles.
-
-"Indeed, sirs, I am very proud to welcome you!" he said; and then
-stopped an instant to call to the dogs to stop their barking. "I am
-Major Huger of the American army, Major Benjamin Huger, and this is my
-house on the shore where we camp out in the summer. Please come in,
-gentlemen. My house and everything in it is at the service of the brave
-and generous Frenchmen who come to fight for our liberties."
-
-There was no doubt of the warmth of the strangers' welcome. The Major
-caught De Kalb's hand and shook it strenuously, while his small son, who
-had slipped into his clothes and hurried down-stairs to see what all the
-noise was about, seized Lafayette by the arm and tried to pull him into
-the lighted hall.
-
-"You are most kind, Major Huger," said De Kalb. "Let me introduce my
-friends. This gentleman is the leader of our expedition, the Seigneur
-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette; this is Monsieur Price of
-Sauveterre, and I am Johann Kalb."
-
-"He is the Baron de Kalb, monsieur," put in Lafayette. "A brigadier
-in the army of the King of France and aid to the Marshal the Count de
-Broglie."
-
-Major Huger had heard of the Marquis de Lafayette, for already news
-of the Frenchman's determination to fight for the young republic had
-crossed the Atlantic. He caught Lafayette by both hands. "The Marquis
-de Lafayette!" he cried. "My house is indeed honored by your presence!
-We have all heard of you. You have only to command me, sir, and I
-will do your bidding. I will look after your ship and your pilot. But
-to-night you must stay here as my guests, and to-morrow I will see to
-everything. This is my son, Francis Kinloch Huger. Now please come into
-my dining-room, gentlemen, and let me offer you some refreshment."
-
-Small Francis, still holding Lafayette's hand, drew the Marquis in at
-the door. The three guests, delighted at their welcome, went to the
-dining-room, and there toasts were drunk to the success of the cause of
-liberty. America was not so inhospitable to the weary travelers after
-all, and with the glow of the Major's welcome warming them, Lafayette
-and his two friends went to their rooms and slept in real beds for the
-first time in many weeks.
-
-Lafayette naturally was delighted at safely reaching his haven, and, as
-he put it in his own words, "retired to rest rejoiced that he had at
-last attained the haven of his wishes and was safely landed in America
-beyond the reach of his pursuers." Weary from his long voyage on the
-_Victory_, he slept soundly, and woke full of enthusiasm for this
-new country, which was to be like a foster-mother to him. "The next
-morning," he wrote, "was beautiful. The novelty of everything around me,
-the room, the bed with its mosquito curtains, the black servants who
-came to ask my wishes, the beauty and strange appearance of the country
-as I could see it from my window clothed in luxuriant verdure,--all
-conspired to produce upon me an effect like magic and to impress me with
-indescribable sensations."
-
-Major Huger had already sent a pilot to the _Victory_ and had done
-everything he could to assist Lafayette's companions. All the Major's
-family were so kind and hospitable that they instantly won Lafayette's
-heart. He judged that all Americans would be like them, and wrote to his
-wife, "the manners of this people are simple, honest, and dignified.
-The wish to oblige, the love of country, and freedom reign here together
-in sweet equality. All citizens are brothers. They belong to a country
-where every cranny resounds with the lovely name of Liberty. My sympathy
-with them makes me feel as if I had been here for twenty years." It was
-well for him that his first reception in America was so pleasant and
-that he remembered it with such delight, for he was later to find that
-some Americans were not so cordial toward him.
-
-If he was delighted with the Hugers, the Major and his son Francis were
-equally delighted with the young Frenchman. And, strangely enough, the
-little boy Francis, who had seized Lafayette's hand on that June night
-in 1777, was later to try to rescue his hero from a prison in Europe.
-
-The Marquis and his friends thought they had had quite enough of life
-on shipboard for the present, and so decided to go to Charlestown over
-the country roads. The pilot that had been furnished by Major Huger came
-back with word that there was not sufficient water for the _Victory_ to
-stay in Georgetown Bay, and Lafayette ordered the ship, in charge of
-the pilot, to sail to Charlestown. Meantime he and his companions, with
-horses of the Major's, rode to that seaport. As soon as he arrived there
-he heard that there were a number of English cruisers on that part of
-the coast, and so he at once sent word to Captain Leboucier to beach the
-_Victory_ and burn her, rather than let her be captured by the cruisers.
-
-The _Victory_, however, sailed safely into Charlestown without sighting
-a hostile sail, and the captain unloaded Lafayette's supplies and his
-own private cargo. Later the sloop was loaded with rice and set sail
-again, but was wrecked on a bar and became a total loss.
-
-No welcome could have been warmer than that Lafayette received in
-Charlestown. A dinner was given him, where the French officers met the
-American generals Gulden, Howe, and Moultrie. All houses were thrown
-open to him, and he was taken to inspect the fortifications and driven
-through the beautiful country in the neighborhood. How pleased he was he
-showed in a letter to Adrienne. "The city of Charlestown," he wrote,
-"is one of the prettiest and the best built that I have ever seen, and
-its inhabitants are most agreeable. The American women are very pretty,
-very unaffected, and exhibit a charming neatness,--a quality which is
-most studiously cultivated here, much more even than in England. What
-enchants me here is that all the citizens are brethren. There are no
-poor people in America, nor even what we call peasants. All the citizens
-have a moderate property, and all have the same rights as the most
-powerful proprietor. The inns are very different from those of Europe:
-the innkeeper and his wife sit at table with you, do the honors of a
-good repast, and on leaving, you pay without haggling. When you do not
-choose to go to an inn, you can find country houses where it is enough
-to be a good American to be received with such attentions as in Europe
-would be paid to friends."
-
-That certainly speaks well for the hospitality of South Carolina!
-
-He did not mean to tell his plans, however, until he should reach
-Philadelphia, where the Congress of the United States was sitting.
-"I have every reason to feel highly gratified at my reception in
-Charlestown," he wrote, "but I have not yet explained my plans to any
-one. I judge it best to wait until I have presented myself to the
-Congress before making a statement as to the projects I have in view."
-
-He had only one difficulty in the seaport town. When he started to sell
-the _Victory_ and her cargo he found that the men who had sold him the
-ship and Captain Leboucier had so entangled him with agreements and
-commissions, all of which he had signed without properly reading in his
-haste to sail from Bordeaux, that, instead of receiving any money, he
-was actually in debt. To pay this off and get the needed funds to take
-his companions and himself to Philadelphia he had to borrow money, but
-fortunately there were plenty of people in Charlestown who were ready to
-help him out of that difficulty.
-
-With the money borrowed from these well-disposed people Lafayette bought
-horses and carriages to take his party over the nine hundred miles
-that lay between Charlestown and Philadelphia. On June twenty-fifth
-the expedition started. In front rode a French officer dressed in
-the uniform of a hussar. Next came a heavy open carriage, in which
-sat Lafayette and De Kalb, and close behind it rode Lafayette's
-body-servant. Then there followed a chaise with two colonels, the
-counselors of the Marquis, another chaise with more French officers,
-still another with the baggage, and finally, as rear-guard, a negro on
-horseback.
-
-The country roads were frightful for travel; indeed for much of the
-way they could scarcely be called roads at all, being simply primitive
-clearings through the woods. The guide kept losing his way, and the
-carriages bumped along over roots and logs in a hot, blistering sun. As
-far as this particular journey went, the Frenchmen must have thought
-that travel was very much easier in their own country. One accident
-followed another; within four days the chaises had been jolted into
-splinters and the horses had gone lame. The travelers had to buy other
-wagons and horses, and to lighten their outfit kept leaving part of
-their baggage on the way. Sometimes they had to walk, often they
-went hungry, and many a night they slept in the woods. They began to
-appreciate that this new country, land of liberty though it was, had
-many disadvantages when it came to the matter of travel.
-
-From Petersburg in Virginia Lafayette wrote to Adrienne. "You have
-heard," said he, "how brilliantly I started out in a carriage. I have to
-inform you that we are now on horseback after having broken the wagons
-in my usual praiseworthy fashion, and I expect to write you before long
-that we have reached our destination on foot."
-
-Yet, in spite of all these discomforts, the Marquis was able to enjoy
-much of the journey. He studied the language of the people he met, he
-admired the beautiful rivers and the great forests, and he kept pointing
-out to his companions how much better the farmers here lived than the
-peasants of his own country. At least there was plenty of land for every
-one and no grasping overlords to take all the profits.
-
-The journey lasted a month. The party paid a visit to Governor Caswell
-in North Carolina and stopped at Petersburg and Annapolis, where
-Lafayette met Major Brice, who later became his aide-de-camp. On July
-twenty-seventh the travel-worn party reached Philadelphia, which was
-then the capital of the United States.
-
-The outlook for the Americans was gloomy enough then. New York was in
-the hands of the enemy, Burgoyne's army had captured Ticonderoga and was
-threatening to separate New England from the rest of the country, and
-Howe was preparing to attack Philadelphia with a much larger army than
-Washington could bring against him. It would have seemed just the time
-when any help from abroad should have been doubly welcome, and yet as a
-matter of fact the Congress was not so very enthusiastic about it.
-
-The reason for this was that already a great number of adventurers
-had come to America from the different countries of Europe and asked
-for high commands in the American army. Many of them were soldiers of
-considerable experience, and they all thought that they would make much
-better officers than the ill-trained men of the new republic. Some of
-them also quickly showed that they were eager for money, and one and all
-insisted on trying to tell Congress exactly what it ought to do. Quite
-naturally the Americans preferred to manage affairs in their own way.
-
-George Washington had already sent a protest to Congress. "Their
-ignorance of our language and their inability to recruit men," he
-said, "are insurmountable obstacles to their being ingrafted into our
-continental battalions; for our officers, who have raised their men,
-and have served through the war upon pay that has hitherto not borne
-their expenses, would be disgusted if foreigners were put over their
-heads; and I assure you, few or none of these gentlemen look lower than
-field-officers' commissions. To give them all brevets, by which they
-have rank, and draw pay without doing any service, is saddling the
-continent with vast expense; and to form them into corps would be only
-establishing corps of officers; for, as I have said before, they cannot
-possibly raise any men."
-
-It was true that Silas Deane had been instructed to offer commissions
-to a few French officers, whose experience might help the Americans,
-but he had scattered commissions broadcast, and some of these men had
-proved of little use. One of them, Du Coudray, had arrived and insisted
-on commanding the artillery with the rank of major-general, and had
-aroused so much opposition that Generals Greene, Sullivan, and Knox had
-threatened to resign if his demands were granted. Congress was therefore
-beginning to look askance at many of the men who bore Silas Deane's
-commissions.
-
-That was the state of affairs when Lafayette, confident of a warm
-welcome, reached Philadelphia and presented himself and his friends
-to John Hancock, the president of Congress. Hancock may have received
-letters concerning the young Frenchman from Deane and Benjamin Franklin
-in Paris, but, if he had, he had paid little attention to them, and
-was inclined to regard this young man of nineteen as simply another
-adventurer from Europe. With a scant word of welcome Hancock referred
-Lafayette to Gouverneur Morris, who, he said, "had such matters in
-charge."
-
-The Frenchmen went to see Morris, but to him also they appeared only a
-new addition to the many adventurers already hanging about, looking for
-high commands. He put off dealing with Lafayette and De Kalb. "Meet me
-to-morrow at the door of Congress, gentlemen," said he. "I will look
-over your papers in the meantime and will see what I can do for you."
-
-The two new arrivals kept the appointment promptly, but Morris was not
-on hand. After they had cooled their heels for some time he appeared,
-bringing with him Mr. Lovell, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign
-Affairs. "Matters that concern France are in Mr. Lovell's charge," said
-Morris. "Please deal with him after this."
-
-Lovell bowed to the strangers. "I understand, gentlemen," said he, "that
-you have authority from Mr. Deane?"
-
-"Certainly, sir," De Kalb answered. "Our papers and agreements show
-that."
-
-Lovell frowned. "This is very annoying," said he. "We authorized Mr.
-Deane to send us four French engineers, but instead he has sent us a
-number of engineers who are no engineers and some artillerists who
-have never seen service. Mr. Franklin, however, has sent us the four
-engineers we wanted. There is nothing for you to do here, gentlemen. We
-needed a few experienced officers last year, but now we have plenty, and
-can promise no more positions. I must bid you good-morning."
-
-Here was a dashing blow to all their eager wishes. Surprise and
-disappointment showed in their faces.
-
-"But, sir," began De Kalb, "Mr. Deane promised----"
-
-"Well, Mr. Deane has exceeded his authority," declared Lovell. "He has
-promised too much and we cannot recognize his authority. We haven't
-even a colonel's commission to give to any foreign officers, to say
-nothing of a major-general's. The Congress is very much annoyed by
-these constant demands, and General Washington says he won't be
-disturbed by any more requests. I am sorry to disappoint you, but under
-the circumstances I can promise you nothing. Again I must bid you
-good-morning."
-
-Lovell returned to Congress, leaving the Frenchmen much discomfited.
-De Kalb began to storm, and finally spoke angrily of the way they had
-been treated by Deane. "It is not to be borne!" he cried. "I will take
-action against Deane! I will have damages for this indignity he has put
-upon us!"
-
-Fortunately Lafayette was more even-tempered. In spite of this rebuff
-at the outset he meant to achieve his goal. He turned to the angry De
-Kalb and laid his hand restrainingly on the latter's arm. "Let us not
-talk of damages, my friend," he said. "It is more important for us to
-talk of doing. It is true that Congress didn't ask us to leave our
-homes and cross the sea to lead its army. But I will not go back now.
-If the Congress will not accept me as a major-general, I will fight for
-American liberty as a volunteer!"
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-"I WILL FIGHT FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY AS A VOLUNTEER!"
-
-
-Lafayette, standing outside the door of the American Congress in
-Philadelphia, refused the commission in the American army that had been
-promised him by Silas Deane, spoke these words of encouragement to his
-disappointed and indignant friends who had crossed with him from France.
-"If the Congress will not accept me as a major-general, I will fight
-for American liberty as a volunteer!" he said; and, having come to this
-decision, he immediately proceeded to put it into effect. He went to his
-lodgings and wrote a letter to John Hancock, president of Congress.
-
-Lafayette's letter explained the reasons why he had come to the United
-States and recounted the many difficulties he had had to overcome. He
-stated that he thought that the promise he had received from Silas
-Deane, the approval of Benjamin Franklin, and the sacrifices he had
-himself made ought to lead Congress to give a friendly hearing to his
-request. He said that he understood how Congress had been besieged by
-foreign officers seeking high rank in the army, but added that he only
-asked two favors. These were, in his own words, "First, that I serve
-without pay and at my own expense; and, the other, that I be allowed to
-serve at first as a volunteer."
-
-This letter was a great surprise to John Hancock and the other leaders
-of Congress. Here was a young French officer of family and wealth who
-was so deeply interested in their cause that he was eager to serve as
-an unpaid volunteer! He was a different type from the others who had
-come begging for favors. Hancock looked up the letter that Franklin
-had written about the Marquis, and read, "Those who censure him as
-imprudent do nevertheless applaud his spirit, and we are satisfied that
-the civilities and respect that may be shown him will be serviceable to
-our affairs here, as pleasing not only to his powerful relations and to
-the court, but to the whole French nation."
-
-Hancock was impressed; perhaps they had made a mistake in treating
-this Marquis de Lafayette in such cavalier fashion. So he sent another
-member of Congress to see the young Frenchman and instructed him
-to treat Lafayette with the greatest courtesy. And the result of
-this interview was that Hancock's emissary was quickly convinced of
-Lafayette's absolute honesty of purpose and intense desire to help the
-United States.
-
-Having reached this conclusion Hancock decided to make amends and do the
-honorable thing, and so, on July 31, 1777, Congress passed the following
-resolution: "Whereas, the Marquis de Lafayette, out of his great zeal
-to the cause of liberty, in which the United States are engaged, has
-left his family and connections, and, at his own expense, come over to
-offer his services to the United States, without pension or particular
-allowance, and is anxious to risk his life in our cause, therefore,
-Resolved, that his services be accepted, and that, in consideration of
-his zeal, illustrious family, and connections, he have the rank and
-commission of major-general in the army of the United States."
-
-How fortunate it was that Lafayette had not been daunted at the outset,
-or discouraged as De Kalb and his companions had been! His great dream
-had come true as a result of perseverance; he had been welcomed by
-Congress, and was, at nineteen, a major-general in the army of liberty!
-
-But he did not forget those companions who had crossed the sea with the
-same desires as his own. In the letter he wrote to Congress, penned
-in his own quaint English,--a letter now in the State Department at
-Washington,--after thanking "the Honorable mr. Hancok," as he spelled
-it, and expressing his gratitude to Congress, he said, "it is now
-as an american that I'l mention every day to congress the officers
-who came over with me, whose interests are for me as my own, and the
-consideration which they deserve by their merit, their ranks, their
-state and reputation in france."
-
-He was unable, however, to do much for these friends, though one of them
-said, "He did everything that was possible for our appointment, but in
-vain, for he had no influence. But if he had his way, De Kalb would have
-been major-general and we should all have had places."
-
-Congress felt that it could not give them all commissions. Captain de
-Bedaulx, who was a veteran officer, was made a captain in the American
-army, one other was engaged as a draughtsman and engineer, and Lafayette
-kept two as his own aides-de-camp. Most of the others were sent back
-to France, their expenses being paid by Congress. As for De Kalb, he
-had given up his plans for high rank and preferment and was on his way
-to take passage on a ship for Europe when a messenger reached him with
-word that Congress, voting for one more major-general in the army, had
-elected him.
-
-Lafayette, in his letter to Hancock, had said that he wished to serve
-"near the person of General Washington till such time as he may think
-proper to entrust me with a division of the army." Events soon gave him
-the chance to meet the commander-in-chief. The arrival of Howe's fleet
-at the mouth of the Delaware River seemed to threaten Philadelphia,
-and Washington left his camp in New Jersey to consult with Congress.
-Lafayette was invited to a dinner in Philadelphia to meet the
-commander-in-chief, and accepted eagerly. The Frenchman was greatly
-impressed. "Although General Washington was surrounded by officers and
-private citizens," he wrote, "the majesty of his countenance and of
-his figure made it impossible not to recognize him; he was especially
-distinguished also by the affability of his manners and the dignity with
-which he addressed those about him."
-
-Washington had already heard of Lafayette and found a chance for a long
-talk with him. On his part he was at once strongly attracted by the
-young Marquis. "You have made the greatest sacrifices for our cause,
-sir," Washington said, "and your evident zeal and generosity interest
-me deeply. I shall do my part toward making you one of us. I shall be
-greatly pleased to have you join my staff as a volunteer aid, and beg
-you to make my headquarters your home, until events place you elsewhere.
-I beg you to consider yourself at all times as one of my military
-family, and I shall be glad to welcome you at the camp as speedily
-as you think proper. Of course I cannot promise you the luxuries of
-a court, but, as you have now become an American soldier, you will
-doubtless accommodate yourself to the fare of an American army, and
-submit with a good grace to its customs, manners, and privations."
-
-The next day Washington invited Lafayette to accompany him on a tour of
-inspection of the fortifications about Philadelphia.
-
-The General liked the Marquis, but was not quite certain how the latter
-could best be employed. He wrote to Benjamin Harrison, who was a member
-of Congress, "As I understand the Marquis de Lafayette, it is certain
-that he does not conceive that his commission is merely honorary, but
-is given with a view to command a division of this army. It is true he
-has said that he is young and inexperienced; but at the same time he
-has always accompanied it with a hint that, so soon as I shall think
-him fit for the command of a division, he shall be ready to enter upon
-his duties, and in the meantime has offered his services for a smaller
-command. What the designs of Congress respecting this gentleman were,
-and what line of conduct I am to pursue to comply with their design and
-his expectations--I know not and beg to be instructed.... Let me beseech
-you, my good sir, to give me the sentiments of Congress on this matter,
-that I may endeavor, as far as it is in my power, to comply with them."
-
-Mr. Harrison answered that Congress intended Lafayette's appointment to
-be regarded merely as an honorary one, and that the commander-in-chief
-was to use his own judgment concerning him.
-
-In the meantime Lafayette set out from Philadelphia to join
-Washington's army. That army, early in August, had begun its march
-eastward, hoping to cut off any British move about New York; but the
-appearance of the British fleet off the Delaware had brought them to a
-halt, and Washington ordered them into camp near the present village of
-Hartsville, on the old York Road leading out of Philadelphia. Here, on
-August twenty-first, Lafayette joined the army, just as the commander,
-with Generals Stirling, Greene, and Knox, was about to review the
-troops.
-
-It was indeed a sorry-looking army, according to the standards of
-Europe. There were about eleven thousand men, poorly armed and
-wretchedly clad. Their clothes were old and ragged, hardly any two suits
-alike, and the men knew little enough about military tactics. Courage
-and resolution had to take the place of science; but there was no lack
-of either bravery or determination. Yet some of the foreign officers
-who had seen the American army had spoken very slightingly of it, and
-Washington said to Lafayette, "It is somewhat embarrassing to us to show
-ourselves to an officer who has just come from the army of France."
-
-Lafayette, always tactful, always sympathetic, smiled. "I am here to
-learn and not to teach, Your Excellency," he answered.
-
-A council of war followed the review, and the commander asked the
-Marquis to attend it. The council decided that if the British were
-planning to invade the Carolinas it was unwise to attempt to follow them
-south, and that the army had better try to recapture New York. But at
-that very moment a messenger brought word that the British fleet had
-sailed into Chesapeake Bay, and, hearing this, Washington concluded to
-march his army to the south of Philadelphia and prepare to defend that
-city.
-
-Ragged and out-at-elbows as the small American army was, it marched
-proudly through the streets of Philadelphia. With sprigs of green
-branches in their hats the soldiers stepped along to the tune of fife
-and drum, presenting, at least in the eyes of the townspeople, a very
-gallant appearance. Lafayette rode by the side of Washington, glad that
-the opportunity had come for him to be of service.
-
-Very soon he had a chance to share danger with his commander. When the
-troops arrived on the heights of Wilmington, Washington, with Lafayette
-and Greene, made a reconnaissance, and, being caught by a storm and
-darkness, was obliged to spend the night so near to the British lines
-that he might easily have been discovered by a scout or betrayed into
-the hands of the enemy.
-
-Meantime General Howe and Lord Cornwallis had landed eighteen thousand
-veteran troops near what is now Elkton in Maryland, and was advancing
-toward Philadelphia. To defend the city Washington drew up his forces on
-September ninth at Chadd's Ford on the Brandywine. One column of Howe's
-army marched to this place and on September eleventh succeeded in
-driving across the river to the American camp. The other column, under
-command of Cornwallis, made a long detour through the thickly wooded
-country, and bore down on the right and rear of Washington's army,
-threatening its total destruction.
-
-The American commander at once sent General Sullivan, with five thousand
-men, to meet this force on the right. Realizing that most of the
-fighting would be done there, Lafayette asked and was given permission
-to join General Sullivan. Riding up as a volunteer aid, he found the
-half-formed wings of the American army attacked by the full force under
-Cornwallis. The Americans had to fall back, two of General Sullivan's
-aids were killed, and a disorderly retreat began. Lafayette leaped from
-his horse, and, sword in hand, called on the soldiers to make a stand.
-
-He checked the retreat for a few moments; other troops came up, and the
-Americans offered gallant resistance. Lafayette was shot through the
-calf of the leg, but, apparently unconscious of the wound, continued
-to encourage his men. Then Cornwallis's brigades swept forward again,
-and Sullivan's troops had to give ground before the greater numbers. The
-battle became a general rout. Gimat, Lafayette's aid, saw that the young
-man was wounded, and helped him to mount his horse. The wounded man then
-tried to rejoin Washington, but soon after he had to stop to have his
-leg bandaged.
-
-The first British column had driven the American troops from Chadd's
-Ford, and the latter, together with Sullivan's men, fell back along
-the road to Chester. Washington attempted to cover the retreat with
-rear-guard fighting, but night found him pursued by both divisions of
-the enemy. In the retreat Lafayette came to a bridge, and made a stand
-until Washington and his aids reached him. Then together they rode on
-to Chester, and there the Frenchman's wound was properly dressed by a
-surgeon.
-
-The battle had been in one sense a defeat for the Americans, but it had
-shown General Howe the fine fighting quality of Washington's men, and
-the American commander had been able to save the bulk of his army, when
-Howe had expected to capture it entire. Today a little monument stands
-on a ridge near the Quaker meeting-house outside Chadd's Ford, erected,
-so the inscription says, "by the citizens and school children of Chester
-County," because, "on the rising ground a short distance south of this
-spot, Lafayette was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, September 11,
-1777." And the monument also bears these words of Lafayette: "The honor
-to have mingled my blood with that of many other American soldiers on
-the heights of the Brandywine has been to me a source of pride and
-delight."
-
-The battle-field of the Brandywine was only about twenty-six miles from
-Philadelphia, and the cannonade had been clearly heard in the city. The
-word the couriers brought filled the people with alarm; many citizens
-began to fly from the city and Congress took its departure, to meet at
-the town of York, one hundred miles to the west. The Americans wounded
-at the Brandywine were sent to Philadelphia, and Lafayette was conveyed
-there by water. From that city he was sent up the Delaware River to
-Bristol. There he met Henry Laurens, who had succeeded John Hancock as
-the president of Congress, and Laurens, being on his way to York, took
-Lafayette with him in his own carriage to the Old Sun Inn at Bethlehem,
-the quiet home of a people called the Moravians, fifty miles to the
-north of Philadelphia. In later times Henry Laurens, by one of those
-strange turns of the wheel of fate, became a prisoner in the Tower of
-London, and Madame de Lafayette repaid his kindness to her husband by
-seeking the aid of the French government to secure his release.
-
-There could have been no better place for a wounded man to recover his
-strength than in the peaceful little Moravian community at Bethlehem.
-For six weeks he stayed there, and the people tended him like one of
-themselves. He could not use his leg, but he spent part of his enforced
-idleness drawing up plans for the invasion of the British colonies in
-the West Indies. He also wrote long letters to his wife in France. "Be
-entirely free from anxiety as to my wound," he said in one of these,
-"for all the doctors in America are aroused in my behalf. I have a
-friend who has spoken for me in a way to ensure my being well taken care
-of; and that is General Washington. That estimable man, whose talents
-and whose virtues I admired before, whom I venerate the more now as I
-learn to know him, has been kind enough to me to become my intimate
-friend. His tender interest in me quickly won my heart.... When he sent
-his surgeon-in-chief to me, he directed him to care for me as I were his
-son, because he loved me so much; and having learned that I wanted to
-join the army too soon again, he wrote me a letter full of tenderness in
-which he admonished me to wait until I should be entirely well."
-
-Wonderful it was that Washington, beset and harassed with all the
-burdens of a commander-in-chief, could yet find the time to pay so much
-attention to his wounded French aid!
-
-Lafayette knew well that matters looked dark then for the American
-republic. In another letter to Adrienne he said, "Now that you are
-the wife of an American general officer, I must give you a lesson.
-People will say, 'They have been beaten.' You must answer, 'It is
-true, but with two armies equal in number, and on level ground, old
-soldiers always have an advantage over new ones; besides, the Americans
-inflicted a greater loss than they sustained.' Then, people will add,
-'That's all very well; but Philadelphia, the capital of America, the
-highroad of liberty, is taken.' You will reply politely, 'You are fools!
-Philadelphia is a poor city, open on every side, of which the port was
-already closed. The presence of Congress made it famous, I know not why;
-that's what this famous city amounts to, which, by the way, we shall
-retake sooner or later.' If they continue to ply you with questions,
-send them about their business in terms that the Vicomte de Noailles
-will supply you with."
-
-It was true that General Howe had taken Philadelphia while Lafayette
-had to nurse his wounded leg at Bethlehem. It was not until the latter
-part of October that the Marquis was able to rejoin the army, and then
-his wound had not sufficiently healed to allow him to wear a boot. The
-battle of Germantown, by which Washington hoped to dislodge the British
-from Philadelphia, had been fought, and the year's campaign was about to
-close. Two battles had been lost by the Americans in the south, but in
-the north the British general Burgoyne had been obliged to surrender.
-Washington's headquarters were now at Methacton Hill, near the
-Schuylkill River, and there Lafayette went, hoping for active service.
-
-His chance for service came soon. Cornwallis had entered New Jersey
-with five thousand men, and General Greene was sent to oppose him
-with an equal number. Lafayette joined Greene as a volunteer, and at
-Mount Holly he was ordered to reconnoitre. On November twenty-fifth he
-found the enemy at Gloucester. Their forage wagons were crossing the
-river to Philadelphia, and Lafayette, in order to make a more thorough
-examination of their position, went dangerously far out on a tongue of
-land. Here he might easily have been captured, but he was quick enough
-to escape without injury. Later, at four o'clock in the afternoon, he
-found himself before a post of Hessians, four hundred men with cannon.
-Lafayette had one hundred and fifty sharpshooters under Colonel Butler,
-and about two hundred militiamen and light-horse. He did not know the
-strength of the enemy, but he attacked, and drove them back so boldly
-that Cornwallis, thinking he must be dealing with all of Greene's
-forces, allowed his troops to retreat to Gloucester with a loss of sixty
-men.
-
-This was the first real opportunity Lafayette had had to show his
-skill in leading men, and he had done so well that General Greene was
-delighted. In the report he sent to Washington he said, "The Marquis
-is charmed with the spirited behavior of the militia and rifle corps.
-They drove the enemy about a mile and kept the ground until dark.... The
-Marquis is determined to be in the way of danger."
-
-Lafayette had shown himself to be a daring and skilful officer; more
-than that, he had endeared himself to the men under his command. And
-this was more than could be said for most of the foreign officers in the
-American army; many of them devoted the larger part of their time to
-criticizing everything about them. Baron de Kalb expressed his opinion
-of these adventurers from across the Atlantic in forceful terms. "These
-people," said he, "think of nothing but their incessant intrigues
-and backbitings. They hate each other like the bitterest enemies, and
-endeavor to injure each other whenever an opportunity offers. Lafayette
-is the sole exception.... Lafayette is much liked and is on the best of
-terms with Washington."
-
-It was natural, therefore, that Washington, having had such a good
-account of the young Frenchman at the skirmish at Gloucester, should
-be willing to gratify his desire for a regular command in the army. So
-the commander-in-chief wrote to Congress concerning the Marquis. "There
-are now some vacant positions in the army," said Washington, "to one of
-which he may be appointed, if it should be the pleasure of Congress.
-I am convinced he possesses a large share of that military ardor that
-characterizes the nobility of his country."
-
-And Congress agreed with Washington, and voted that "the Marquis de
-Lafayette be appointed to the command of a division in the Continental
-Army." On December 4, 1777, the Frenchman was given the command of
-the Virginia division. He was twenty years old, and it was only a
-little more than a year since he had first heard from the Duke of
-Gloucester about the fight of the American farmers for liberty. He had
-accomplished a great deal in that year, and had won his spurs by pluck,
-by perseverance, and by ability.
-
-Naturally he was delighted at this evidence of the confidence that
-Washington and the American Congress placed in him. He wrote to his
-father-in-law, the Duke d'Ayen, the man who had tried his best to keep
-him from coming to America, "At last I have what I have always wished
-for,--the command of a division. It is weak in point of numbers; it is
-almost naked, and I must make both clothes and recruits; but I read, I
-study, I examine, I listen, I reflect, and upon the result of all this
-I make an effort to form my opinion and to put into it as much common
-sense as I can ... for I do not want to disappoint the confidence that
-the Americans have so kindly placed in me."
-
-Events were soon to test both his ability and his mettle.
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-LAFAYETTE WINS THE FRIENDSHIP OF WASHINGTON
-
-
-In December, 1777, Washington's army went into winter quarters at
-Valley Forge. That winter was to test the courage and endurance
-of the soldiers, for they were ill-clad, ill-provisioned, and the
-road to victory appeared a long and weary one. Fortunately the
-commander-in-chief was a man of intrepid soul, one who could instill
-confidence into the men about him.
-
-Lafayette quickly found that all the people of the young republic were
-not in agreement about the war. Men called Tories joined the British
-army, and in countless other ways hampered the work of Congress.
-Business was at such a standstill that it was almost impossible to
-obtain clothing, shoes, and the other supplies that were so urgently
-needed, and as Congress had no power to impose and collect taxes
-it was hard to raise any money. The different states had each its
-jealousies of the others and each its own ends to serve, and indeed in
-1777 the union was so loosely knitted that it was a wonder that it held
-together at all.
-
-Washington had chosen Valley Forge as his winter quarters because from
-there he could watch the enemy, keep the British to their own picket
-lines, and cut off supplies going into Philadelphia. Otherwise, however,
-the place had little to recommend it. The farmhouses in the neighborhood
-could hold only a few of the two thousand men who were on the sick-list,
-whose shoeless feet were torn and frozen from marching and who were ill
-from hunger and exposure. For the rest the soldiers had to build their
-own shelters, and they cut logs in the woods, covered them with mud,
-and made them into huts, each of which had to house fourteen men. There
-the American troops, lacking necessary food and blankets, shivered and
-almost starved during the long winter.
-
-There were times when Washington would have liked to make a sortie or
-an attack on the enemy, but his men were not in condition for it.
-Constantly he wrote to Congress, urging relief for his army. Once a
-number of members of Congress paid a visit to Valley Forge, and later
-sent a remonstrance to the commander-in-chief, urging him not to keep
-his army in idleness but to march on Philadelphia. To this Washington
-answered, "I can assure those gentlemen that it is a much easier and
-less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room, by
-a good fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under
-frost and snow, without clothes or blankets. However, although they seem
-to have little feeling for the naked and distressed soldiers, I feel
-superabundantly for them; and from my soul I pity those miseries, which
-it is neither in my power to relieve nor prevent."
-
-All those hardships Lafayette also shared, setting his men an example of
-patience and fortitude that did much to help them through the rigorous
-winter, and winning again and again the praise of his commander for his
-devotion.
-
-In the meantime some men of influence, known as the "Conway Cabal,"
-from the name of one of the leaders, plotted to force Washington from
-the chief command, and put General Greene in his place. They wanted
-to use Lafayette as a catspaw, and decided that the first step was to
-separate him from Washington's influence. With this object in view they
-planned an invasion of Canada, the command of the expedition to be given
-to Lafayette. But Lafayette saw through the plotting, and refused to
-lead the expedition except under Washington's orders and with De Kalb
-as his second in command. He also showed where he stood when he was
-invited to York to meet some of the members of Congress and generals who
-were opposing his leader. At a dinner given in his honor he rose, and,
-lifting his glass, proposed a toast to "The health of George Washington,
-our noble commander-in-chief!" The party had to drink the toast, and
-they saw that the Frenchman was not to be swerved from his loyalty to
-his chief.
-
-Congress had decided on the expedition to Canada, though the
-conspirators now saw that their plot had failed, and so Lafayette
-set out for Albany in February, 1778, to take command of the army
-of invasion. But when he got there he found that nothing had been
-done by way of preparation, and that none of those in authority were
-able to help him. Twelve hundred ill-provided men were all he could
-raise, altogether too few and too poorly armed for such an ambitious
-enterprise. Very much disappointed, he had to give up the idea of
-leading such an army. More and more he grew convinced that all the hopes
-of America rested on Washington.
-
-That Washington might know his feelings, Lafayette wrote to him. "Take
-away for an instant," he said, "that modest diffidence of yourself
-(which, pardon my freedom, my dear general, is sometimes too great,
-and I wish you could know, as well as myself, what difference there is
-between you and any other man), and you would see very plainly that, if
-you were lost for America, there is no one who could keep the army and
-the revolution for six months.... I am now fixed to your fate, and I
-shall follow it and sustain it as well by my sword as by all means in my
-power. You will pardon my importunity in favor of the sentiment which
-dictated it."
-
-Washington was no less devoted to Lafayette. When the latter returned
-disappointed from Albany the commander said to him, "However sensibly
-your ardor for glory may make you feel this disappointment you may be
-assured that your character stands as fair as it ever did, and that no
-new enterprise is necessary to wipe off an imaginary stain."
-
-And Washington's view was now so strongly held by Congress that it
-immediately voted that it had "a high sense of the prudence, activity,
-and zeal of the Marquis de Lafayette," and that it was "fully persuaded
-nothing has, or would have been, wanting on his part or on the part
-of the officers who accompanied him to give the expedition the utmost
-possible effect."
-
-Lafayette went back to Valley Forge to cheer his soldiers, and there,
-early in May, 1778, news came that Benjamin Franklin had succeeded in
-his efforts in France and that the government of Louis XVI. had decided
-on "armed interference" in the affairs of America, and that a treaty of
-alliance had been signed between the United States and the French king.
-
-The army at Valley Forge was wild with delight at this news. How it must
-have cheered Lafayette to know that his own country now stood with the
-young republic of the west! Washington proclaimed a holiday and held a
-review of his troops. Then the commander planned a new and more vigorous
-campaign.
-
-The British, now foreseeing possible French as well as American attack,
-decided to give up Philadelphia and fall back on New York. Washington
-learned of this, and in order to keep a check on the movements of his
-opponents, he sent Lafayette with a strong force of two thousand picked
-men to keep as close to the British lines as possible.
-
-Lafayette joyfully led his command to a ridge called Barren Hill that
-overlooked the Schuylkill. From here he could watch the road from
-Philadelphia, and he at once fortified his camp. British scouts brought
-reports of this to their generals, and the latter decided it would
-be a capital plan to defeat the Frenchman's forces and capture the
-Marquis. This they considered so easy to accomplish that Generals Howe
-and Clinton sent out invitations to their friends to a dinner at their
-headquarters "to meet Monsieur the Marquis de Lafayette."
-
-On the morning of May twentieth eight thousand British and Hessian
-soldiers with fifteen pieces of artillery marched out of Philadelphia
-by one road to take Lafayette in the rear, while by another road a
-force of grenadiers and cavalry marched to attack his right wing, and
-a third column, commanded by Generals Howe and Clinton in person, with
-the admiral, Lord Howe, accompanying them as a volunteer, took a third
-road to attack the Marquis in front. In this way the enemy forces were
-completely surrounding the American position, except on the side of the
-river, by which they considered escape impossible.
-
-Lafayette was talking with a young woman who had agreed to go into
-Philadelphia and try to obtain information on the pretext of visiting
-her relations there, when word was brought him that redcoats had been
-seen in the rear. He was expecting a small force of dragoons, and his
-first idea was that it was these who were approaching. But, being
-a prudent commander, he at once sent out scouts, and these quickly
-reported the advance of a large force. Immediately he made a change of
-front under cover of the stone houses and the woods. Then messengers
-dashed up with news of the real state of affairs. His little command was
-about to be attacked in a three-cornered fight by an overwhelming number
-of the enemy.
-
-It was a ticklish position, and Lafayette came within a hair's breadth
-of being trapped and captured. His men called out to him that he was
-completely surrounded. In the confusion of the moment he had to keep on
-smiling, as he afterward said. It was a test fit to try the skill of a
-much more experienced general than the young Frenchman. But this one had
-studied his ground thoroughly, and lost not a moment in deciding on his
-course. Back of his men was a road, hidden from the British by trees,
-which led to a little-used crossing known as Matson's Ford, a place
-unknown to the enemy, though they were, as a matter of fact, much nearer
-to it than Lafayette was.
-
-The Marquis quickly threw out "false heads of columns," that is, a few
-men here and there, who were to march through the woods at different
-points, and give the impression that his whole army was advancing to
-battle. The British general saw these "false heads" and, taking them
-to be the advance guards of the Americans, halted to form his lines.
-Meantime Lafayette sent all his other troops at the double-quick down
-the hidden road and across the ford, bringing up the rear himself and
-waiting until he was joined by the men who had formed the false columns.
-
-The small American army was almost all across the ford before the
-enemy realized his mistake and began to attack. Then, as the three
-British columns climbed the hill to crush the Americans according to
-their plans, they met only each other. They tried to make an attack on
-Lafayette's rear, but by that time he was out of their reach. He crossed
-the Schuylkill and reached the camp at Valley Forge without the loss of
-a single man, to the great delight and relief of Washington, who had
-heard of the danger in which Lafayette stood and had ordered signal guns
-fired to warn him of it.
-
-Lafayette had a good story to tell the commander-in-chief on his return.
-A small body of Indian warriors had been stationed in ambush to attack
-any stray parties of the enemy. As the Indians lay in the bushes they
-saw a company of grenadiers in tall bearskin hats and scarlet coats
-coming up the road. Never having seen such men as these before the
-Indians were seized with terror, threw down their arms, and yelling as
-loud as they could, made a dash for the river. The grenadiers, on their
-part, seeing the painted faces and hearing the yells, thought they had
-come on a crowd of devils, and hurried away as fast as they could in the
-opposite direction.
-
-Washington complimented Lafayette on what had really amounted to a
-victory, the bringing his men in safety from an attack by overwhelming
-forces, and advised Congress of the Frenchman's "timely and handsome
-retreat in great order."
-
-And so Generals Howe and Clinton were unable to present to their guests
-at the dinner at their headquarters that evening "Monsieur the Marquis
-de Lafayette," as they had intended.
-
-If the British generals meant to use their armies in the field it was
-clear that they could not stay in Philadelphia indefinitely. As Franklin
-said, instead of their having taken Philadelphia, Philadelphia had
-taken them. They had spent the winter there in idleness, and unless
-they purposed to spend the summer there in the same fashion they must
-be on the move. Washington foresaw this, and called a council of war
-to decide on plans for his forces, and at this council General Charles
-Lee, who was then second in command, insisted that the Americans were
-not strong enough to offer effective opposition to the enemy, although
-Generals Greene, Wayne, Cadwalader, and Lafayette expressed contrary
-opinions. Then, early in the morning of June 18, 1778, General Howe's
-army evacuated Philadelphia, and crossed the Delaware on their way to
-New York.
-
-Washington instantly prepared to follow. General Maxwell was sent out
-in advance with a division of militia to impede the enemy's progress
-by burning bridges and throwing trees across the roads. The bulk of
-the American army followed, and when they arrived near Princeton, in
-New Jersey, Washington called another council. Here Lafayette made a
-stirring plea for immediate action. But Lee again opposed this, and the
-council decided, against Washington's own judgment, not to bring on a
-general engagement with the enemy.
-
-Almost immediately, however, the advance of General Clinton threatened
-one of the American detachments, and Lee was ordered to check this.
-He declined to do so, saying it was contrary to the decision of the
-council of war. At once the command was given to Lafayette, who took the
-appointment with the greatest eagerness.
-
-But the Marquis had hardly more than planned his advance when General
-Lee interfered again. The latter saw that if the movement was successful
-all the honor of it would go to Lafayette, and this was not at all
-according to his wishes. So he appealed to Washington to replace him in
-his command, and also went to Lafayette and asked the latter to retire
-in his favor. "I place my fortune and my honor in your hands," he said;
-"you are too generous to destroy both the one and the other."
-
-He was right; Lafayette was too chivalrous to refuse such a request.
-Lee had placed Washington in an awkward situation, but the Frenchman's
-tact and good-feeling, qualities which had already greatly endeared him
-to all the Americans he had met, relieved the commander-in-chief of
-the need of offending Lee. Lafayette immediately wrote to Washington,
-"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 useful to
-the good of the service and the honor of General Lee to send him down
-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."
-
-No wonder Washington liked a man who could be so unselfish as that! He
-gave the command back to Lee, and arranged that Lafayette should lead
-the advance.
-
-Early the following morning Washington ordered an attack on the British
-at Monmouth Court House, and on June 28, 1778, the battle of Monmouth
-was fought. The result might have been very different if Lafayette, and
-not Lee, had been in command. For Lee delayed, and when he did finally
-move forward he assaulted what he thought was a division of the enemy,
-but what turned out to be the main body. He was driven back, tried
-another attack, got his officers confused by his contradictory orders,
-and at last gave the word for a retreat, which threatened to become a
-rout. At this point Washington rode up, questioned the officers, got no
-satisfactory answer as to what had happened, and was so indignant that
-when he reached General Lee he took the latter to task in the strongest
-terms. Then he gave instant orders to make a stand, and by his superb
-control of the situation succeeded in having his men repulse all further
-attacks.
-
-Lafayette meantime had led his cavalry in a charge, had done his best
-to stem the retreat, and when Washington arrived reformed his line upon
-a hill, and with the aid of a battery drove back the British. By his
-efforts and those of the commander-in-chief the day was finally partly
-saved and the American army man[oe]uvred out of disaster.
-
-Night came on and the troops camped where they were. Washington, wrapped
-in his cloak, slept at the foot of a tree, with Lafayette beside him.
-And when they woke in the morning they found that the enemy had stolen
-away, leaving their wounded behind them.
-
-So the honors of war at Monmouth, in spite of General Lee, lay with
-Washington. The enemy, however, escaped across New Jersey and reached
-New York without any further attacks by the Americans.
-
-When Sir Henry Clinton arrived near Sandy Hook he found the English
-fleet riding at anchor in the lower bay, having just come from the
-Delaware. Heavy storms had broken through the narrow strip of sand that
-connects Sandy Hook with the mainland, and it was now divided by a deep
-channel. A bridge was made of the ships' boats, and Clinton's army
-crossed over to the Hook, and was distributed on Long Island, Staten
-Island, and in New York. In the meantime Washington moved his troops
-from Monmouth to Paramus, where the Americans rested.
-
-Now a French fleet of fourteen frigates and twelve battle-ships, under
-the command of Count d'Estaing, reached the mouth of the Delaware at
-about that time. Monsieur Gerard, the minister sent to the United
-States by the court of France, and Silas Deane, were on board, and when
-D'Estaing heard that Lord Howe's squadron had left the Delaware he sent
-Gerard and Deane up to Philadelphia in a frigate, and sailed along the
-coast to Sandy Hook, where he saw the English fleet at anchor inside.
-He had considerable advantage over Lord Howe in point of strength,
-and at once prepared to attack the enemy squadron. Anticipating this,
-Washington crossed the Hudson River at King's Ferry, and on July
-twentieth took up a position at White Plains.
-
-The French fleet, however, could not make the attack. They could find no
-pilots who were willing to take the large ships into New York harbor,
-for all the pilots agreed that there was not enough water there, and the
-French admiral's own soundings confirmed their opinion.
-
-Washington and D'Estaing therefore agreed on a joint expedition against
-Newport, in Rhode Island. Washington sent orders to General Sullivan at
-Providence to ask the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode
-Island to supply enough militia to make up an army of five thousand men.
-At the same time he sent Lafayette with two thousand men from the Hudson
-to Providence to support the French naval attack.
-
-On July twenty-ninth the French fleet reached Point Judith and anchored
-about five miles from Newport. General Sullivan and Lafayette and some
-other officers went on board to make plans for the joint attack. The
-British troops numbered about six thousand men, and they were strongly
-intrenched. The allies had some four thousand men on the French ships
-and between nine and ten thousand Americans at Providence.
-
-Disputes arose as to the best plan of campaign; it was argued whether
-the men of the two nations would fight better separately or together.
-Then the English fleet appeared in the distance, and D'Estaing,
-considering that it was his chief business to destroy the enemy
-squadron, at once stood out to sea. A violent storm came up, driving the
-two fleets apart, and doing great damage to ships on both sides. When
-the storm subsided D'Estaing insisted on sailing his fleet to Boston to
-make needed repairs, and so the joint expedition came to an end, without
-having struck a blow. General Sullivan's plans were in confusion.
-Lafayette rode to Boston and begged the French admiral to come back as
-soon as he could. At last D'Estaing promised to land his sailors and
-march them overland to Newport; but before he could do this the British
-were strongly reinforced, and Lafayette had to gallop back to protect
-his own rear-guard forces. The Americans were in peril, but again, as at
-Monmouth, he was able to save them from defeat.
-
-There was great disappointment over the failure of the attack on
-Newport, and this was increased by the feeling that there had been
-disputes between the American and French commanders. Lafayette had
-all he could do to make each side appreciate the other. In this he
-was greatly helped by Washington, who wrote to both the French and
-the American generals, soothing their discontent, patching up their
-differences, and urging future union for the sake of the common cause.
-
-It was now autumn, and there was little prospect of a further campaign
-that year. Wearied by the many misunderstandings, distressed by the
-failure of the joint attack, homesick and sad over the news of the death
-of his little daughter in France, Lafayette decided to ask for a leave
-of absence and go back to France on furlough. In October he reached
-Philadelphia and presented his request. Washington, much as he disliked
-to lose Lafayette's services even for a short time, seconded his
-wishes. And Congress, which only sixteen months before had hesitated
-to accept his services, now did all it could to pay him the greatest
-honor. It thanked him for his high assistance and zeal, it directed
-the American minister in Paris to present him with a sword of honor,
-and it ordered its best war-ship, the frigate _Alliance_, to convey
-him to France. Henry Laurens, the president of Congress, wrote to King
-Louis XVI. that Congress could not allow Lafayette to depart without
-testifying its appreciation of his courage, devotion, patience, and the
-uniform excellence of conduct which had won the confidence of the United
-States and the affection of its citizens.
-
-And finally Monsieur Gerard, the French minister at Philadelphia, wrote
-to his government in Paris, "You know how little inclined I am to
-flattery, but I cannot resist saying that the prudent, courageous, and
-amiable conduct of the Marquis de Lafayette has made him the idol of the
-Congress, the army, and the people of America."
-
-With words like these ringing in his ears, Lafayette said good-bye to
-George Washington in October, 1778, and rode away from camp, bound for
-Boston, where he was to board the frigate _Alliance_.
-
-
-
-
-VII
-
-THE FRENCHMAN IN THE FIELD AGAIN
-
-
-Lafayette, on his way to board the _Alliance_, rode into the town
-of Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, and there fell ill of fever. He had been
-entertained by people all the way from Philadelphia to the camp on the
-Hudson, and these constant receptions, combined with chilly and wet
-weather, brought on malaria. The Marquis was very sick; Washington
-rode daily from his camp eight miles away to inquire about Lafayette's
-condition, and insisted on his own physician taking charge of the
-patient. And when the young Frenchman recovered the commander-in-chief
-sent his physician on to Boston with him, and wrote him, "I am
-persuaded, my dear marquis, that there is no need of fresh proofs to
-convince you either of my affection for you personally or of the high
-opinion I entertain of your military talents and merit."
-
-The strongest affection bound these two men, so different in many
-respects, so alike in their love of liberty and honor. On board his ship
-in Boston Harbor Lafayette added a postscript to a letter to Washington.
-"The sails are just going to be hoisted, my dear general," he said,
-"and I have but time to take my last leave of you.... Farewell. I hope
-your French friend will ever be dear to you; I hope I shall soon see
-you again, and tell you myself with what emotion I now leave the coast
-you inhabit and with what affection and respect I am forever, my dear
-general, your respectful and sincere friend, Lafayette."
-
-On January 11, 1779, the _Alliance_ sailed for France, having had so
-much difficulty in making up its crew that a number of English prisoners
-and deserters had been pressed into service as sailors. This makeshift
-crew came very near to proving disastrous for the Marquis. An English
-law offered to pay the full value of any American ship to the crew that
-would bring it into an English port, and there were considerably more
-English prisoners and deserters in the crew of the _Alliance_ than there
-were American and French sailors. The _Alliance_ was approaching the
-French coast, having just weathered a storm, when a sailor ran into
-the cabin where the officers were sitting. He said that the prisoners
-and deserters who had been pressed into service had planned a mutiny,
-and that, taking him for an Irishman, they had offered him the command
-in case of success. A lookout was to give the signal "Sail ho!" and as
-the officers came on deck in a group they were to be shot down by cannon
-loaded with grape-shot and the ship sailed into an English port, where
-the mutineers would divide the profits. The loyal American sailor said
-that the signal would be given in about an hour.
-
-Immediately the officers seized their swords, and, rushing on deck,
-called the Americans and Frenchmen together. The thirty-three mutineers,
-taken by surprise, were captured and clapped into irons, and the rest of
-the crew sailed the _Alliance_ into the French harbor of Brest a week
-later.
-
-Here Lafayette was welcomed with delight. The young fellow who had run
-away to sea in the _Victory_ was returning like a hero in a war-ship
-of the new American republic. In triumph he landed at Brest, and as he
-hurried to Paris to see his family he was greeted by joyful crowds
-all along his route. He stopped at the royal palace of Versailles, and
-his old friend Marie Antoinette came out into the gardens to hear him
-tell his adventures. King Louis sent for him, and ordered him under
-arrest as a deserter, but with a twinkling eye declared that his prison
-should be his father-in-law's great house in Paris, and his jailer his
-wife Adrienne. Then the King forgave him for running away to America,
-congratulated him, and, with his ministers, consulted the Marquis about
-affairs in the United States. Lafayette said, "I had the honor of being
-consulted by all the ministers and, what was a great deal better, of
-being kissed by all the women."
-
-The welcome he cared for the most was that from his wife, who had
-followed him in her thoughts all the time he had been in America, and
-had always sympathized with him and wished success for his plans. The
-Duke d'Ayen was delighted to see him and welcomed him to his house with
-open arms. Whenever the Marquis appeared on the street he was cheered by
-admiring throngs. The actors in the theatres put special words in their
-parts to honor Lafayette; poems were written about him; and the young
-man of twenty-one became the lion of Paris.
-
-In a sense he represented the connecting link in the alliance that now
-united the two countries, and that alliance was in great favor with the
-people. He also stood for that ideal of "liberty" which was rapidly
-becoming the ruling thought of France. It would have been easy for him
-to rest on his laurels now, and feel that he had accomplished all that
-was needed of him.
-
-But instead he used all this hero-worship to further his one aim--more
-help for the young republic across the sea. "In the midst of the whirl
-of excitement by which I was carried along," he said, "I never lost
-sight of the revolution, the success of which still seemed to me to
-be extremely uncertain; accustomed as I was to seeing great purposes
-accomplished with slender means, I used to say to myself that the cost
-of a single fete would have equipped the army of the United States, and
-in order to provide clothes for them I would gladly have stripped the
-palace at Versailles."
-
-With this desire to help the United States ever in his thoughts he went
-to see Benjamin Franklin, and with Franklin and the American sea-captain
-John Paul Jones he planned an expedition against England in which he
-should lead the land forces and Paul Jones command the fleet. While they
-were arranging this the French government suggested a greater plan.
-Spain was to unite with France in defense of America. Details were being
-worked out when John Paul Jones embarked in his ship, the _Bon Homme
-Richard_, and had his famous sea-fight with the _Serapis_. But the
-Spanish government delayed and at last the French gave up the idea of a
-joint attack on England.
-
-Meantime Lafayette joined the French army again and was commissioned a
-colonel of the King's Dragoons. While he was waiting at Havre he was
-presented by Franklin's grandson with the sword that the Congress of the
-United States had ordered should be given to him. It was a beautiful
-sword; the handle was of gold, exquisitely wrought, and decorated, as
-well as the blade, with figures emblematical of Lafayette's career in
-America, with his coat of arms and his motto, "_Cur non?_"
-
-And while he waited he was always impatient to be of help to his friends
-across the Atlantic. To Washington he wrote, "However happy I find
-myself in France, however well treated by my country and my king, I am
-so accustomed to being near to you, I am bound to you, to America, to my
-companions in arms by such an affection, that the moment when I sail for
-your country will be among the happiest and most wished for of my life."
-
-His great work during that year he spent in France was the winning of
-a French army, under the Count de Rochambeau, to fight by the side
-of the Americans. There was opposition to this at first, for neither
-Louis XVI. nor Marie Antoinette nor the royal princes who surrounded
-them cared to encourage the spirit of liberty too far. But the people,
-backed by their hero, Lafayette, demanded it, and at last their
-persistency won the day. The government of France decided to send an
-army, commanded by Rochambeau, lieutenant-general of the royal forces,
-with a fleet of warships and transports and six thousand soldiers, to
-the aid of America.
-
-Lafayette was sent ahead to carry the welcome news to Washington and
-Congress, and to let them know that there would be no more of the
-jealousies and disputes that had hindered the success of the French
-and Americans in the field before. For Lafayette had arranged that the
-French troops should be under Washington's orders, that they should
-accept the leadership of the American officers on the latter's own
-ground, and that officers of the United States should be recognized as
-having equal rank with those of France. This harmony that Lafayette
-secured had a great deal to do with the final successful outcome of the
-American Revolution.
-
-He sailed on the French frigate _Hermione_, and reached Boston on April
-28, 1780. The people of Boston escorted him with cheers to the house of
-Governor John Hancock on Beacon Hill. This was the same John Hancock
-who had once turned Lafayette over to Gouverneur Morris with scarcely a
-word of welcome, but he greeted him differently now. Instead of being
-an adventurous foreign recruit the Marquis was a major-general in the
-American army and the official representative of the court of France.
-
-From Boston he went to Morristown, where Washington had his
-headquarters, and there the two friends discussed the situation.
-Lafayette told of the coming of the French fleet and army, which brought
-the greatest joy to the commander-in-chief, because he could only
-speak of the hardships his soldiers had borne during the winter, the
-difficulty of securing recruits, and the general discouragement of the
-country. Greatly cheered himself, he sent Lafayette to Philadelphia to
-make his report to Congress, and set himself to the work of rousing his
-army and the people to welcome the men from France.
-
-In Philadelphia Lafayette received the thanks of Congress for his
-services in Europe, and then busied himself with the equipment of the
-army. Washington's troops certainly needed some attention. Half-fed and
-half-clothed, with only four thousand out of six thousand soldiers fit
-for duty, they presented so sorry an appearance that Lafayette said to
-the president of Congress, "though I have been directed to furnish the
-French court and the French generals with early and minute intelligence,
-I confess that pride has stopped my pen and, notwithstanding past
-promises, I have avoided entering into any details till our army is put
-in a better and more decent situation."
-
-But Washington roused Congress and the country, and by the time the
-French fleet arrived the American army was in much better condition.
-
-On July 10, 1780, the Count de Rochambeau, with the French army, reached
-Newport, and the French commander, informing Washington of his arrival,
-declared, as his government had instructed him, "We are now, sir, under
-your command."
-
-Plans had to be laid, arrangements made for the union of the French and
-American armies, and much time was taken up in military discussions. One
-of Lafayette's pet schemes was broached again, the invasion of Canada
-by the joint forces, and the details of this invasion were entrusted
-to General Benedict Arnold, who was to be in command. On September
-twentieth Washington, with Lafayette and General Knox, met the Count
-de Rochambeau and Admiral de Terney, who commanded the French fleet,
-and final arrangements were made. But at this very moment events were
-taking place which were to frustrate the scheme.
-
-For at the very moment when Washington and Rochambeau were in conference
-at Hartford Benedict Arnold and Major John Andre, of the British
-army, were holding a secret meeting, the object of which was to give
-Washington's plans to the enemy. It so happened that Washington, when
-he left Hartford with Knox and Lafayette, took a roundabout road in
-order to show the Marquis the fortifications which had been built at
-West Point in his absence. On the morning of September twenty-fourth the
-party of American officers arrived within a mile of the Robinson house,
-where Mrs. Benedict Arnold was expecting them at breakfast.
-
-Washington, absorbed in his work, was about to ride on when Lafayette
-reminded him of Mrs. Arnold's invitation. The commander-in-chief
-laughed. "Ah, Marquis," he said, "you young men are all in love with
-Mrs. Arnold. I see you are eager to be with her as soon as possible. Go
-and breakfast with her, and tell her not to wait for me. I must ride
-down and examine the redoubts on this side of the river, but will be
-with her shortly."
-
-Lafayette and Knox, however, preferred to ride on with the General, and
-the message was sent to the Robinson house by Colonel Hamilton and Major
-McHenry. Mrs. Arnold, who had lately joined her husband there with her
-baby, welcomed her guests and entertained them at breakfast. It was a
-trying situation for her husband, for it happened that that was the very
-day on which he was to make his final arrangements with the British.
-
-While they sat at the breakfast-table a messenger galloped up to the
-door with a letter for Arnold. He opened it and read that Andre had
-been captured, and the secret papers found upon him had been sent to
-Washington. Arnold rose from the table and beckoned his wife to follow
-him to her room. There he told her that he was a ruined man and must
-fly for his life. Leaving her fainting on the floor, he left the house,
-mounted the messenger's horse, and dashed down to the river through a
-ravine. There he boarded his boat, and was rowed rapidly down the river
-to the English ship _The Vulture_.
-
-Almost immediately after Arnold's hurried departure Washington,
-Lafayette, and Knox reached the Robinson house. The commander supposed
-that Arnold had gone to West Point to prepare for his reception, and,
-having eaten a hasty breakfast, Washington and his companions crossed
-the river. No salute, however, was fired at their approach, and Colonel
-Lamb, the officer in command, came and apologized, saying that he had
-received no information of Washington's visit.
-
-"Is not General Arnold here?" Washington inquired.
-
-"No, sir," said Lamb. "He has not been here for two days, nor have I
-heard from him in that time."
-
-Somewhat surprised, but still unsuspicious, Washington and the others
-spent the morning examining the works.
-
-As they rode back to the Robinson house about noon they were met by
-Colonel Hamilton, who took Washington aside, and handed him the secret
-papers that had been found on Andre. At once the whole plot was clear.
-Washington sent Hamilton immediately to arrest Arnold, but the Colonel
-found that the man had already flown. Then the commander-in-chief told
-the news to Lafayette and Knox, and, saying how much he had always
-trusted General Arnold, added, "Whom can we trust now?"
-
-It was Lafayette who later tried to comfort Mrs. Arnold, when the full
-realization of her husband's disgrace almost drove her to despair.
-And he sat with the other general officers at a court-martial in the
-headquarters at Tappan on the Hudson when John Andre, adjutant-general
-of the British army, after a fair trial, was convicted of being a spy
-and was sentenced to be hung. But Lafayette was a very generous judge,
-and wrote of Andre later, "He was a very interesting man; he conducted
-himself in a manner so frank, so noble, and so delicate, that I cannot
-help feeling for him an infinite pity."
-
-The treason of Benedict Arnold prevented the invasion of Canada, and
-Lafayette saw no active service for some time. He spent the autumn
-in camp on the Hudson and in New Jersey, and part of the winter in
-Philadelphia. A number of French officers had gathered here, and they,
-used to the gayeties of the most brilliant court in Europe, added much
-to the amusements of the American capital. Every one liked the French
-guests, and the foreign officers, on their part, liked and admired their
-new allies. Sometimes the self-denying seriousness of the Americans,
-which was an element of their national strength, amused and surprised
-the gayer Frenchmen. One of the latter, the Marquis de Chastellux, told
-a story about Philadelphia in his volume of "Travels." He said that at
-balls in Philadelphia it was the custom to have a Continental officer
-as the master of ceremonies, and that at one party he attended that
-position was held by a Colonel Mitchell, who showed the same devotion to
-duty in the ballroom that he showed on the field of battle. This Colonel
-saw a young girl so busily talking that she could pay little attention
-to the figures of the quadrille, so he marched up to her and said to her
-severely, "Take care what you are doing; do you suppose you are there
-for your pleasure?"
-
-Naturally the Marquis de Chastellux and his friends, fresh from the
-world of Marie Antoinette, where pleasure was always the first aim, had
-many a laugh at the people of this new world. But with the laugh there
-always went respect and admiration.
-
-So Lafayette passed the time until the campaign of 1781 opened. He wrote
-often to his wife, and sent her a long letter by his friend Colonel
-Laurens, when the latter went on a mission to the court of France.
-Another child had been born to the Marquis and Adrienne, a son, who
-was given the name of George Washington. "Embrace our children," wrote
-Lafayette, "thousands of times for me. Although a vagabond, their father
-is none the less tender, less constantly thoughtful of them, less happy
-to hear from them. My heart perceives, as in a delicious perspective,
-the moment when my dear children will be presented to me by you, and
-when we can kiss and caress them together. Do you think that Anastasie
-will recognize me?" And, as he could never write without thinking of the
-brave army he commanded, he added, "Only _citizens_ could support the
-nakedness, the hunger, the labors, and the absolute lack of pay which
-constitute the conditions of our soldiers, the most enduring and the
-most patient, I believe, of any in the world."
-
-In January, 1781, word came to Washington's headquarters that General
-Benedict Arnold had landed in Virginia with a good-sized army, was
-laying waste the country, and had already destroyed the valuable stores
-collected at Richmond. If Arnold's campaign should succeed the result
-would be to place all the Southern States in the hands of the enemy.
-Let him defeat the few American troops in Virginia and he could march
-to join the English General Cornwallis, who was pressing General Greene
-very hard in the Carolinas.
-
-Indeed Cornwallis already appeared to hold the south in his grasp. He
-had beaten the small contingents of American troops in that country,
-and at the battle of Camden, in South Carolina, Lafayette's old
-companion, the Baron de Kalb, had fallen in battle. It was of the
-utmost importance, therefore, to defeat or capture Arnold, who had been
-rewarded for his treason by being made a general in the British army,
-and Washington at once planned to send a detachment from his main army
-against Arnold by land, and a naval force to Chesapeake Bay to cut off
-his escape by sea. The French admiral ordered a ship-of-the-line and
-two frigates to the Chesapeake, and Washington placed twelve hundred
-light infantry under Lafayette with instructions to aid the fleet.
-This command, of the greatest importance, showed the confidence and
-trust that the commander-in-chief felt in the military ability of the
-Frenchman.
-
-Lafayette marched rapidly south and reached the Head of the Elk on March
-second, three days earlier than had been expected. Here he embarked
-his troops on small boats and descended to Annapolis. Seeing no signs
-of the French squadron, he concluded that they had been delayed by
-adverse winds, and, leaving his army at Annapolis, he went with a few
-officers to consult with Baron Steuben and seek his aid. He secured some
-companies of militia at Williamsburg, near the York River, and proceeded
-to the camp of General Muhlenberg, near Suffolk, to have a look at
-Benedict Arnold's defenses at Portsmouth.
-
-Meantime a large fleet appeared in Chesapeake Bay. Lafayette, and Arnold
-also, thought that this must be the French squadron, but the American
-commander soon received word that the ships were English. It turned
-out that the first French squadron had found there was too little water
-in the bay for them, and had sailed back to Newport, while a second
-squadron had been driven off by the English. The result was that General
-Arnold's forces were relieved from danger, and the enemy reinforced by
-two new regiments under General Phillips, who now took command of all
-the English armies in Virginia.
-
-Washington's orders to Lafayette had been that he was to try to capture
-Arnold, and that if the French fleet should be defeated he should march
-his men back to headquarters without further risk. So he now sent his
-militia to Williamsburg and forwarded orders to Annapolis to have the
-troops prepared for immediate departure. When he reached Annapolis he
-found there were great difficulties in the way of transporting his men
-to Elk. There were very few horses or wagons or small boats for crossing
-the ferries, and the port was blocked by English ships. He had resort
-to a clever stratagem. He put two eighteen-pounders on a small sloop,
-which, with another ship under Commodore Nicholson, sailed out toward
-the enemy vessels, firing their guns as if about to attack. The two
-English ships on guard withdrew a considerable distance down the bay,
-and then Lafayette embarked his troops on his own boats and got them out
-of the harbor and up the bay to Elk. They reached there safely during
-the night, followed by Lafayette and Nicholson in the sloop.
-
-When Washington heard of General Phillips' arrival in Virginia his
-anxiety was great. The situation in the south was extremely perilous.
-General Greene was having all he could do to oppose Lord Cornwallis
-in North Carolina. Unless strong opposition could be brought against
-Phillips the latter could quickly overrun Virginia and unite with
-Cornwallis. In this predicament the commander-in-chief determined to put
-the defense of Virginia in the hands of Lafayette.
-
-Lafayette heard of this new appointment as soon as he reached Elk. The
-task was a great one. His men lacked proper equipment and even necessary
-clothing, and they were much disheartened by the unsuccessful campaign
-in the south. He borrowed ten thousand dollars from the merchants
-of Baltimore on his personal security and bought his army food and
-supplies. Then he told his men that his business was to fight an enemy
-greatly superior in numbers, through difficulties of every sort, and
-that any soldier who was unwilling to accompany him might avoid the
-penalties of desertion by applying for a pass to the North. His men,
-placed on their mettle, stood by him cheerfully. Immediately Lafayette
-marched on Richmond, reaching that place a day ahead of General
-Phillips. And General Phillips was so much impressed by Lafayette's
-show of strength that he gave up his intention of seizing Richmond and
-retreated down the James River.
-
-Cornwallis heard of this, and, vowing that he would defeat "that boy
-Lafayette," as he called the Marquis, stopped his campaign against
-Greene in North Carolina and determined that he would himself take
-command in Virginia. Cornwallis, a major-general and an officer of great
-experience, expected an easy task when he sent word to Phillips to await
-his arrival at the town of Petersburg.
-
-When he heard that Cornwallis was moving north and that Phillips was
-on the march Lafayette guessed that they intended to join forces, and
-hurried toward Petersburg to prevent it. Phillips, however, was nearer
-to that town and reached it before Lafayette, who was obliged to fall
-back on Richmond, but who sent out Colonel Gimat, with artillery, to
-keep the enemy busy.
-
-On May thirteenth General Phillips died at Petersburg. It was before
-this general's guns that Lafayette's father had fallen at the battle
-of Hastenbeck. Benedict Arnold was second in command, and on taking
-Phillips' place he sent a letter to Lafayette under a flag of truce.
-When the latter learned the name of the writer he at once informed the
-men who brought Arnold's communication that while he would be glad
-to treat with any other English officer he could not read a message
-from this one. This placed General Arnold in a difficult position
-and was resented by a threat to send all American prisoners to the
-West Indies. But when the people heard of it they were delighted, and
-Washington wrote to the Marquis, "Your conduct upon every occasion
-meets my approbation, but in none more than in your refusing to hold a
-correspondence with Arnold."
-
-On May 24, 1781, Cornwallis, having joined his army to that of Arnold
-at Petersburg and having rested his men, marched out with his whole
-force to attack Lafayette at Richmond. At Byrd's Plantation, where the
-British commander had his quarters, he wrote of his opponent, "The boy
-cannot escape me."
-
-Lafayette, on his part, knew that his enemy had a fine fighting
-force, and that he must be wary to avoid him. The Marquis said, "Lord
-Cornwallis marches with amazing celerity. But I have done everything
-I could, without arms or men, at least to impede him by local
-embarrassments."
-
-And he did embarrass the Earl. He led him a dance through the country
-about Richmond, he retreated across the Chickahominy River to
-Fredericksburg, time and again he just escaped the swiftly pursuing
-British. He knew he could not venture on fighting without the aid of
-more troops, and he kept up his retreat until he was joined by General
-Wayne with Pennsylvania soldiers on June tenth. Then he planned to take
-the offensive, and rapidly crossed the Rapidan River in the direction of
-Cornwallis.
-
-Cornwallis would have liked a direct battle with the Americans, but
-again Lafayette proved wary. While the British army blocked the road to
-Albemarle, Lafayette discovered an old unused road and under cover of
-night marched his men along it and took up a strong position before the
-town. There militia joined him from the neighboring mountains, and he
-was able to show so strong a front that the British commander did not
-dare to attack him. In his turn Cornwallis retreated, first to Richmond
-and then to Williamsburg, near the coast, and left the greater part of
-Virginia in the control of the Americans.
-
-Lafayette now became the pursuer instead of the pursued, and harried
-Cornwallis on the rear and flanks. The famous cavalry officer, Colonel
-Tarleton, serving under Cornwallis, described the pursuit: "The Marquis
-de Lafayette, who had previously practised defensive man[oe]uvres with
-skill and security, being now reinforced by General Wayne and about
-eight hundred Continentals and some detachments of militia, followed
-the British as they proceeded down the James River. This design,
-being judiciously arranged and executed with extreme caution, allowed
-opportunity for the junction of Baron Steuben, confined the small
-detachments of the King's troops, and both saved the property and
-animated the drooping spirits of the Virginians."
-
-Lafayette was proving that Washington's confidence in him was well
-placed and showing himself an extraordinarily able commander in the
-field.
-
-At Williamsburg Cornwallis received word from General Clinton in New
-York that a part of the British troops in Virginia were to be sent
-north. In order to embark these troops he set out for Portsmouth on
-July fourth. Knowing that the enemy would be obliged to cross the James
-River at James Island, Lafayette decided to attack their rear as soon as
-a considerable number should have passed the ford. Cornwallis foresaw
-this, and sending his baggage-wagons across arranged his men to surprise
-the Americans.
-
-Toward sunset on July sixth Lafayette crossed the causeways that led to
-the British position and opened an attack. General Wayne, whose popular
-nickname was "Mad Anthony," led the advance with a thousand riflemen,
-dragoons, and two pieces of artillery. Lafayette, with twelve hundred
-infantry, was ready to support him. But at Wayne's first advance he
-found that the whole British army was before him; he attacked with
-the greatest vigor; Lafayette, however, realizing that Cornwallis had
-prepared a surprise, ordered a retreat to General Muhlenberg's station a
-half mile in the rear. Had Cornwallis pursued he must have defeated the
-American forces, which had to cross long log bridges over marshy land,
-but in his turn he feared an ambush, and was content to bring his men
-safely across the James and proceed to Portsmouth.
-
-The British were now at Portsmouth and the rest of Virginia in the
-Americans' hands. Lafayette wrote a description of the situation to
-Washington, and added, "Should a French fleet now come into Hampton
-Roads, the British army would, I think, be ours." Hardly had his letter
-reached Washington when a French ship arrived at Newport with word that
-the fleet of the French Count de Grasse had left the West Indies bound
-for Chesapeake Bay. Instantly Washington saw that he ought not now to
-direct his attack against Clinton in New York, but against Cornwallis
-in Virginia.
-
-Cornwallis, wanting to take up a strong position with easy access to
-the sea, began to move his army to Yorktown on August first. At the
-same time Lafayette arranged his forces so as to cut off any retreat
-of the enemy. And while this was going on, and the fleet of the Count
-de Grasse was nearing the coast, Washington and Rochambeau met in the
-old Livingston manor-house at Dobb's Ferry on the Hudson on August
-fourteenth and planned their joint campaign against Yorktown.
-
-Then the two armies marched south. The Continental troops, many ragged
-and poorly armed, but with green sprigs in their caps, passed through
-Philadelphia on September second, and the French, more sprucely and
-gaily uniformed, followed them the next day. On September twelfth
-Washington reached Mount Vernon, which he had not seen for six years,
-and there entertained Rochambeau and other French officers. Two days
-later he took command of the allied forces at Williamsburg, and on the
-seventeenth visited De Grasse on his flag-ship, and completed plans for
-the siege. The army held the mainland, the French fleet blocked the
-path to the sea, and Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown.
-
-The end of the drama came swiftly. The American and French entrenchments
-drew closer and closer to the British lines until they were only three
-hundred yards apart. Then, on October fourteenth, Lafayette's men, led
-by Colonel Alexander Hamilton, charged the British works on the left,
-while the French grenadiers stormed a redoubt on the right. The outer
-works were won in this attack, which proved to be the last battle of the
-Revolution.
-
-The next night Cornwallis tried to cut his way out from Yorktown and
-escape across the York River to Gloucester. Watchful outposts drove him
-back. On October seventeenth a British drummer appeared on Yorktown's
-ramparts and beat a parley. An American and a French officer met two
-British officers at a farmhouse, and articles of surrender were drawn
-up and accepted. Two days later, on October 19, 1781, the army of
-Cornwallis marched out of Yorktown and passed between the American and
-French troops, commanded respectively by Washington and Rochambeau.
-
-The French officer who had prepared the articles of surrender at the
-farmhouse was Lafayette's brother-in-law, the Vicomte de Noailles, one
-of the two young men to whom Lafayette had taken the word that he meant
-to go "to America to fight for liberty!" Now the Vicomte saw that the
-ardent hopes of the young enthusiast had borne such glorious fruit!
-
-There stands a monument on the heights above the York River, in
-Virginia, and on one side of it are these words: "At York, on October
-19, 1781, after a siege of nineteen days, by 5,500 American and 7,000
-French Troops of the Line, 3,500 Virginia Militia under command of
-General Thomas Nelson and 36 French ships of war, Earl Cornwallis,
-Commander of the British Forces at York and Gloucester, surrendered his
-army, 7,251 officers and men, 840 seamen, 244 cannons and 24 standards
-to His Excellency George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Combined
-Forces of America and France, to His Excellency the Comte de Rochambeau,
-commanding the auxiliary Troops of His Most Christian Majesty in
-America, and to His Excellency the Comte de Grasse, commanding in chief
-the Naval Army of France in Chesapeake."
-
-It was largely due to Lafayette that the French fleet and the army of
-Rochambeau had crossed the ocean and that the Americans in Virginia had
-succeeded in bottling up Cornwallis at Yorktown and so bringing an end
-to the Revolution. Close to Washington he must forever stand as one of
-the great men who won liberty for the United States!
-
-
-
-
-VIII
-
-THE MARQUIS AIDS THE UNITED STATES IN FRANCE
-
-
-Word of the surrender at Yorktown was received all through the thirteen
-States with the greatest joy. Watchmen calling the hours of the night
-in the cities cried, "Twelve o'clock! All's well, and Cornwallis has
-surrendered!" Everywhere the people hailed this event as heralding the
-close of the long and distressing war. When one thinks of what they had
-endured since 1775 there is no wonder at the hymns of thanksgiving.
-And a ship at once sailed across the Atlantic to France with the glad
-tidings.
-
-The surrender at Yorktown did mark the beginning of the end of the
-Revolution, though the conflict went on in a desultory fashion for two
-years more, and it was not until November 25, 1783, that the British
-evacuated New York City. But after Yorktown many of the French officers
-went home, and among them Lafayette. He wrote to the French minister,
-"The play is over, Monsieur le comte; the fifth act has just come to
-an end. I was somewhat disturbed during the former acts, but my heart
-rejoices exceedingly at this last, and I have no less pleasure in
-congratulating you upon the happy ending of our campaign."
-
-Both Lafayette and Congress felt that the Marquis could now help the
-country greatly by his presence in France in case more men and money
-should be needed for further campaigns. So, with Washington's approval,
-Congress agreed that "Major-General the Marquis de Lafayette have
-permission to go to France and that he return at such time as shall be
-most convenient to him." And Congress also voted that Lafayette "be
-informed that, on a review of his conduct throughout the past campaign
-and particularly during the period in which he had the chief command in
-Virginia, the many new proofs which present themselves of his zealous
-attachment to the cause he has espoused, and of his judgment, vigilance,
-gallantry, and address in its defense, have greatly added to the high
-opinion entertained by Congress of his merits and military talents."
-
-He took his leave of Washington, the man he admired more than any other
-in the world, and the commander-in-chief, who looked on the young
-Frenchman as if the latter was his own son, said in his dignified
-fashion, "I owe it to your friendship and to my affectionate regard for
-you, my dear marquis, not to let you leave this country without carrying
-with you fresh marks of my attachment to you and new expressions of the
-high sense I entertain of your military conduct and other important
-services in the course of the last campaign, although the latter are too
-well known to need the testimony of my approbation, and the former, I
-persuade myself, you believe is too well riveted to undergo diminution
-or change."
-
-The Frenchman was not so reserved as the American. His ardent spirit
-shows in the letter he wrote his commander. "Adieu, my dear general," he
-said. "I know your heart so well that I am sure that no distance can
-alter your attachment to me. With the same candor I assure you that my
-love, my respect, my gratitude for you are above expression; that, at
-the moment of leaving you, I feel more than ever the struggle of those
-friendly ties that forever bind me to you, and that I anticipate the
-pleasure, the most wished-for pleasure, to be again with you, and, by my
-zeal and services, to gratify the feelings of my respect and affection."
-
-On December 23, 1781, Lafayette sailed from Boston on the same frigate
-_Alliance_ that had carried him back to France the first time. He was
-to be received in his native land like a conquering hero. Already
-Vergennes, the Secretary of State of France, had written to him. "Our
-joy is very great here and throughout the nation," said Vergennes, "and
-you may be assured that your name is held in veneration.... I have been
-following you, M. le Marquis, step by step, throughout your campaign in
-Virginia; and I should frequently have been anxious for your welfare if
-I had not been confident of your wisdom. It required a great deal of
-skill to maintain yourself, as you did, for so long a time, in spite of
-the disparity of your forces, before Lord Cornwallis, whose military
-talents are well known. It was you who brought him to the fatal ending,
-where, instead of his making you a prisoner of war, as he probably
-expected to do, you forced him to surrender."
-
-He landed in France on January 17, 1782. If his former arrival had been
-a succession of triumphs, this one was doubly so. When he reached the
-house of the Duke de Noailles in Paris his wife was attending a fete
-at the Hotel de Ville in honor of the birth of the Dauphin. As soon as
-his arrival became known the Queen took Madame de Lafayette in her own
-carriage and went with her to welcome the Marquis. Louis XVI. announced
-that he had promoted Lafayette to the high rank of "Marechal de camp,"
-and wrote to him, through his minister of war, "The King, having been
-informed, sir, of the military skill of which you have given repeated
-proof in the command of the various army corps entrusted to you in
-America, of the wisdom and prudence which have marked the services that
-you have performed in the interest of the United States, and of the
-confidence which you have won from General Washington, his Majesty has
-charged me to announce to you that the commendations which you most
-fully deserve have attracted his notice, and that your conduct and your
-success have given him, sir, the most favorable opinion of you, such as
-you might wish him to have, and upon which you may rely for his future
-good-will."
-
-Every one delighted to entertain and praise him; the Marshal de
-Richelieu invited him to dine with all the marshals of France, and at
-the dinner the health of Washington was drunk with every honor. And if
-the King and the nobles were loud in their acclaim, the people were
-no less so; they called Lafayette by such extravagant titles as the
-"Conqueror of Cornwallis" and "the Saviour of America with Washington."
-Had it not been that Lafayette had a remarkably level head the things
-that people said and wrote about him might almost have made him believe
-that he had won the Revolution in America single-handed.
-
-Naturally he enjoyed being with his dear wife and children again, but
-he was not a man who could contentedly lead the idle life of a nobleman
-in Paris. Soon he was busy doing what he could to help the cause of
-the young American republic in France. He saw a great deal of John
-Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the commissioners of the United States to
-the French court, and Franklin wrote home concerning him, "The Marquis
-de Lafayette was, at his return hither, received by all ranks with
-all possible distinction. He daily gains in the general esteem and
-affection, and promises to be a great man here. He is extremely attached
-to our cause; we are on the most friendly and confidential footing with
-each other, and he is really very serviceable to me in my applications
-for additional assistance."
-
-He planned to return to America to rejoin the army. "In spite of all
-my happiness here," he wrote to Washington, "I cannot help wishing,
-ten times a day, to be on the other side of the Atlantic." But the
-Continental army was merely marking time, no active campaign was in
-progress, and neither Lafayette nor French troops were again needed to
-fight across the ocean.
-
-The negotiations for peace were long drawn out, and in the autumn of
-1782 France and Spain again planned a joint expedition against the
-English in America. A strong fleet of sixty battle-ships and an army
-of twenty-four thousand men were gathered with the purpose of sailing
-from the Spanish port of Cadiz to capture the English island of Jamaica
-and attack New York and Canada. Lafayette was made chief of staff of the
-combined expedition, and, wearing the uniform of an American general, he
-set sail from Brest early in December for Cadiz. But the grand fleet was
-still in port when a courier arrived with news that a treaty of peace
-had just been signed in Paris. So the fleet did not sail. A protocol, or
-provisional treaty, was drawn up, and on September 3, 1783, the final
-treaty was signed, by which Great Britain acknowledged the independence
-of the United States.
-
-As soon as he heard the good news, Lafayette borrowed a ship,
-appropriately named the _Triumph_, and sent it off to Philadelphia with
-the earliest word of peace. And by the same ship he despatched a letter
-to Washington. "As for you, my dear general," he wrote, "who can truly
-say that all this is your work, what must be the feelings of your good
-and virtuous heart in this happy moment! The eternal honor in which
-my descendants will glory, will be to have had an ancestor among your
-soldiers, to know that he had the good fortune of being a friend of
-your heart. To the eldest of them I bequeath, as long as my posterity
-shall endure, the favor that you have conferred upon my son George, by
-allowing him to bear your name."
-
-To Vergennes Lafayette wrote, "My great affair is settled; America is
-sure of her independence; humanity has gained its cause, and liberty
-will never be without a refuge."
-
-From Cadiz the Marquis went to Madrid, where he straightened out affairs
-between the United States and the court of Spain. Then he went back to
-Paris, made several visits to his old castle and estates in Auvergne,
-and helped Franklin and Adams and John Jay in putting the affairs of the
-new republic on a satisfactory footing.
-
-He wanted greatly to see that young republic, now that war was over
-and peace had come, and at last his wish was gratified. Washington
-had written him frequently, urging the Marquis to visit him, and had
-begged Madame de Lafayette to come with her husband. "Come then, let
-me entreat you," Washington wrote to Adrienne. "Call my cottage your
-own; for your own doors do not open to you with more readiness than
-would mine. You will see the plain manner in which we live, and meet
-with rustic civility; and you will taste the simplicity of rural life.
-It will diversify the scene, and may give you a higher relish for the
-gayeties of the court when you return to Versailles."
-
-Adrienne de Lafayette, however, was as much of a home-lover as George
-Washington. Versailles had never attracted her, and she liked to spend
-most of her time at the castle of Chavaniac. The voyage across the
-Atlantic was a long and trying experience in those days and so she
-answered that she preferred to stay in France. She also sent Washington
-a letter from her little daughter, born while her husband was in camp in
-America.
-
-Lafayette sailed from Havre on July 1, 1784, and reached New York,
-which he had never yet seen, on August fourth. Throngs, eager to sing
-his praises, met him at the harbor, and followed him everywhere on his
-travels. From New York he went to Philadelphia, and then to Richmond,
-where Washington met him. He visited the scenes of his great Virginia
-campaign at Williamsburg and Yorktown, and spent two happy weeks with
-his beloved friend George Washington at the latter's home at Mount
-Vernon. From there he went north again, to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and
-New York. Up the broad Hudson he traveled to Albany, where he went with
-American commissioners to a council with dissatisfied Mohawk chiefs.
-And to the sons of primitive America the young Frenchman, lover of
-liberty everywhere, spoke so appealingly that he quickly won them away
-from their enmity for their white neighbors. "Father," said the Mohawk
-chief, "we have heard thy voice and we rejoice that thou hast visited
-thy children to give to them good and necessary advice. Thou hast said
-that we have done wrong in opening our ears to wicked men, and closing
-our hearts to thy counsels. Father, it is all true; we have left the
-good path; we have wandered away from it and have been enveloped in
-a black cloud. We have now returned that thou mayest find in us good
-and faithful children. We rejoice to hear thy voice among us. It seems
-that the Great Spirit had directed thy footsteps to this council of
-friendship to smoke the calumet of peace and fellowship with thy
-long-lost children."
-
-Indeed it did seem that the Great Spirit directed the steps of this man
-to the places where he was the most needed.
-
-From Albany Lafayette went across country to Boston, where he was
-given a great reception and banquet in Faneuil Hall. A portrait of
-Washington was unveiled behind the Marquis at the table, and he sprang
-to his feet and led in the burst of cheers that followed. Through New
-England he went as far as Portsmouth in New Hampshire, and then turned
-south to make a second visit to Mount Vernon. Everywhere he went he
-was received as the man whom the United States especially desired to
-honor. Unquestionably he deserved all the praise and gratitude that was
-showered upon him, for he had left his wife, his home, his friends, his
-fortune, and had come to America in one of the darkest hours of her
-fight for independence, and by his confidence in her cause had done much
-to help her win her victory. He had brought French troops and money,
-but most of all he had brought that unselfish devotion which had so
-heartened the people. The United States did not forget what it owed
-to Lafayette in 1784, it has never forgotten it; the republic of the
-Western World has shown that it has a long and faithful memory.
-
-At Trenton Lafayette stopped to resign his commission in the American
-army, and Congress sent a committee made up of one representative from
-each State to express the thanks of the nation. Then he returned to
-Washington's estate on the banks of the Potomac, and there walked over
-the beautiful grounds of Mount Vernon, discussing agriculture with the
-owner, and sat with the latter in his library, listening to Washington's
-hopes concerning the young nation for which both men had done so much.
-History shows no more ideal friendship than that between the great
-American and the great Frenchman, a friendship of inestimable value for
-the two lands from which they sprang.
-
-When the time came for parting Washington drove his guest as far as
-Annapolis in his carriage. There the two friends separated, not to meet
-again. Washington went back to Mount Vernon, and there wrote a farewell
-letter to Lafayette. "In the moment of our separation," he said, "upon
-the road as I traveled 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.... It is unnecessary,
-I persuade myself, to repeat to you, my dear marquis, the sincerity
-of my regards and friendship, nor have I words which could express my
-affection for you, were I to attempt it. My fervent prayers are offered
-for your safe and pleasant passage, a happy meeting with Madame de
-Lafayette and family, and the completion of every wish of your heart."
-
-Lafayette answered after he had gone on board the _Nymphe_ at New York.
-"Adieu, adieu, my dear general," said he. "It is with inexpressible
-pain that I feel I am going to be severed from you by the Atlantic.
-Everything that admiration, respect, gratitude, friendship, and filial
-love can inspire is combined in my affectionate heart to devote me most
-tenderly to you. In your friendship I find a delight which words cannot
-express. Adieu, my dear general. It is not without emotion that I write
-this word. Be attentive to your health. Let me hear from you every
-month. Adieu, adieu."
-
-On Christmas Day, 1784, Lafayette sailed for France, expecting to return
-to his adopted country in a few years. He was not to return, however,
-for a long time, and in the interval much was to happen to himself and
-his own land.
-
-In the following summer the Marquis made a journey through Germany and
-Austria, where he was received not only as a French field-marshal, but
-as an informal representative of America and a friend of Washington, who
-could answer the questions about the new republic which every one was
-eager to ask. At Brunswick he visited the duke who was later to lead the
-German troops against the army of revolutionary France. At Potsdam he
-was entertained by Frederick the Great, who happened on one occasion to
-place Lafayette between the English Duke of York and Lord Cornwallis at
-table. Lafayette was, as always, delightful company, and the general he
-had defeated at Yorktown wrote home to a friend in England, "Lafayette
-and I were the best friends possible in Silesia."
-
-The Frenchman saw reviews of the Prussian armies, and was much impressed
-by the discipline of Frederick the Great. But he did not like that
-ruler, and spoke of his "despotic, selfish, and harsh character," and
-he liked his military system still less. He wrote to General Knox, "The
-mode of recruiting is despotic; there is hardly any provision for old
-soldiers, and although I found much to admire, I had rather be the last
-farmer in America than the first general in Berlin."
-
-From Prussia he went to Austria, where he met the emperor, and there, as
-in all his travels, he told every one of his admiration for the United
-States and for Washington, and tried to make them see how much the young
-republic had already accomplished for the happiness of men.
-
-The love of liberty was the dominant motive of Lafayette's life. He
-had told Washington of his desire to find some means of securing the
-freedom of slaves, and he wrote to John Adams in 1786, "Whatever be
-the complexion of the enslaved, it does not in my opinion alter the
-complexion of the crime the enslaver commits,--a crime much blacker than
-any African face. It is to me a matter of great anxiety and concern
-to find that this trade is sometimes perpetrated under the flag of
-liberty, our dear and noble stripes to which virtue and glory have been
-constant standard-bearers." So, on his return to France, he bought a
-plantation in Cayenne, and brought many negroes there, who, after being
-educated in self-government according to his directions, were to receive
-their freedom. He also tried to improve the condition of the French
-Protestants, who were very much persecuted, and ardently pleaded their
-cause before the King at Versailles.
-
-In the meantime he constantly gave his help to furthering the affairs
-of America. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of
-Independence, who had been Governor of Virginia when Lafayette had
-fought his campaign there, was now the United States Minister to France.
-Jefferson wrote to Washington, "The Marquis de Lafayette is a most
-valuable auxiliary to me. His zeal is unbounded and his weight with
-those in power is great.... He has a great deal of sound genius, is well
-remarked by the King, and rising in popularity. He has nothing against
-him but the suspicion of republican principles. I think he will one day
-be of the ministry."
-
-The United States at that time especially needed aid in establishing
-trade relations with France, and it was here that Lafayette proved
-himself very valuable. He obtained concessions in regard to the
-importing and sale of oil and tobacco, and his efforts on behalf of
-the American whale fishery were so successful that the citizens of
-Nantucket voted at a town-meeting that every man on the island who owned
-a cow should give all of one day's milk toward making a cheese to weigh
-five hundred pounds, and that the cheese should be "transmitted to the
-Marquis de Lafayette, as a feeble, but not less sincere, testimonial of
-their affection and gratitude."
-
-The cheese was greatly appreciated, as was also the action of the State
-of Virginia, which ordered two busts of the Marquis to be made by the
-sculptor Houdon, one to be placed in the State Capitol at Richmond and
-the other in the Hotel de Ville in Paris.
-
-The United States had won its independence, though its statesmen
-were now perplexed with the problem of making one united nation out
-of thirteen separate states. But France had yet to deal with its own
-problem of liberty. There were many men who dreamed of equality in that
-nation and who hoped for it, but the King and the court were despotic,
-the peasants yoked to the soil, bowed down by unjust taxes, crushed by
-unfair laws. There was a spirit abroad that was destined to bring a
-temporary whirlwind. So the thinking men of France, and Lafayette one of
-the chief among them, turned their attention to affairs at home.
-
-
-
-
-IX
-
-HOW LAFAYETTE SOUGHT TO GIVE LIBERTY TO FRANCE
-
-
-The people of the thirteen American colonies that became the United
-States had always had more liberty than the people of France. Most of
-the colonies had been settled by men who had left Europe and gone to
-America in order that they might enjoy civil or religious independence.
-They largely made their own laws, and by the time of the Revolution had
-become so well educated in self-government that they were able to draw
-up a Constitution and live by its terms with extremely little friction
-or unrest. The success that followed the forming of the republic of
-the West was a marvel to Europe; that success was mainly due to the
-lessons of self-restraint and the real appreciation of what liberty
-meant that had come to the colonists before the Revolution. Progress
-that is to be real progress must begin right, and Washington and
-Jefferson and Franklin were far-sighted and clear-headed builders. The
-people of France had been putting up with wrongs a thousandfold worse
-than those the Americans had borne, but they had never been educated
-in self-government, and so when they tried to win liberty they plunged
-headlong into turmoil.
-
-France was still governed very much as it had been in the Middle Ages.
-The peasants were reduced to the very lowest form of living, starvation
-and ignorance were common through the country. The business classes were
-hampered by unjust laws. The nobility were idle, corrupt, and grossly
-extravagant. Almost all power lay in the King, and Louis XVI., amiable
-though he was, followed the lines of his Bourbon ancestors, Louis XIV.
-and Louis XV., the former of whom had said, "The State, it is I," and
-had ruled by that principle.
-
-Unhappily for Louis XVI., however, the world had progressed from the
-view-point of the Middle Ages, and men were beginning to talk of
-constitutions and of the duties that sovereigns owed their people. He
-shut his ears to such talk as well as he could, and his courtiers
-helped him to ignore the protests. The court continued to spend money
-on entertainments as if it was water, while the peasants starved. Then
-it was found that the expense of aiding the United States in the war
-had added enough to the nation's debt to make it impossible to pay
-the interest and to find means to carry on the government. Either the
-court's expenses must be lessened or new taxes must be levied. The
-nobles furiously resisted the first alternative, and the people resisted
-the second. Toward the end of 1786 Calonne, the Minister of Finance,
-had to admit that the treasury was bankrupt and advise the King to
-call a meeting of the Assembly of Notables to find some way out of the
-difficulty.
-
-The Assembly was made up almost entirely of men of the highest rank,
-who failed to appreciate the distresses of the country. Lafayette was
-known to hold very liberal views, he was constantly talking of the
-American Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and at first a
-part of the court opposed his membership in the Assembly. He was given
-his seat there, however, and with one or two others tried to convince
-the council of the need of reforming the laws. But the nobles would not
-listen. They were immovably arrogant and autocratic; they would hear
-nothing of reforms or constitutions or the rights of the people.
-
-The Assembly of Notables reached no satisfactory conclusion. When
-it adjourned conditions grew steadily worse. The affairs of the
-country were in a terrible muddle, each class in the land thought
-only of itself, and each was divided, envious and hostile to the
-others. Lafayette fought heroically to bring them to the point of
-view of Washington's countrymen. The Marquis, however, was too much
-of an enthusiast and too little of a statesman to see that the long
-downtrodden peasants of France were a different type from the educated
-American farmers. Americans in France, John Adams and Gouverneur
-Morris, realized better than he did that the people of France were
-not yet fitted to govern themselves; but he would not listen to these
-statesmen's opinions. His role was that of a popular leader, not that
-of a far-seeing statesman in very difficult times. But the sufferings
-of the people were always present to him, and he took the most direct
-course he could to relieve and satisfy them.
-
-When he saw that the Assembly of Notables would accomplish nothing to
-help the situation Lafayette startled the meeting by asking that they
-beg the King to summon a National Assembly of the States-General, a
-council that had not met for one hundred and seventy-three years and the
-existence of which had almost been forgotten.
-
-The Notables were amazed. "What, sir!" exclaimed the Count d'Artois,
-who was presiding at the meeting. "You ask the convocation of the
-States-General?"
-
-"Yes, monseigneur," said Lafayette, "and even more than that."
-
-"You wish that I write," said the Count, "and that I carry to the King,
-'Monsieur de Lafayette moves to convoke the States-General'?"
-
-"Yes, monseigneur," was Lafayette's answer.
-
-The proposal was sent to the King, with Lafayette's name the only one
-attached to the request. But as soon as the news of his petition became
-known the people hailed the idea with delight.
-
-The States-General was a much more representative body than the Assembly
-of Notables, and Louis XVI. was loath to summon it. The situation of
-the country was so unsatisfactory, however, that he finally yielded and
-ordered the States-General to meet in May, 1789.
-
-Lafayette had great hopes of this new parliament. He wrote to
-Washington, describing the situation. "The King is all-powerful," he
-said. "He possesses all the means of compulsion, of punishment, and
-of corruption. The ministers naturally incline and believe themselves
-bound to preserve despotism. The court is filled with swarms of vile
-and effeminate courtiers; men's minds are enervated by the influence
-of women and the love of pleasure; the lower classes are plunged in
-ignorance. On the other hand, French character is lively, enterprising,
-and inclined to despise those who govern. The public mind begins to
-be enlightened by the works of philosophers and the example of other
-nations." And when the state of affairs grew even more disturbed he
-wrote again to the same friend, "In the midst of these troubles and
-this anarchy, the friends of liberty strengthen themselves daily, shut
-their ears to every compromise, and say that they shall have a national
-assembly or nothing. Such is, my dear general, the improvement in our
-situation. For my part, I am satisfied with the thought that before long
-I shall be in an assembly of representatives of the French nation or at
-Mount Vernon."
-
-Elections were held throughout the country to choose the members of
-the States-General, which was composed of representatives of the three
-orders, the nobles, the clergy, and what was known as the third estate,
-or the middle class. Lafayette went to Auvergne to make his campaign for
-election, and was chosen as deputy to represent the nobility of Riom.
-On May 2, 1789, the States-General paid their respects to the King, and
-on May fourth they marched in procession to hear Mass at the Church of
-St. Louis. The third estate marched last, dressed in black, and in their
-ranks were men destined before long to upset the old order, Mirabeau,
-Danton, Marat, Guillotin, Desmoulins, Robespierre.
-
-On May fifth the States-General formally met for business. Then began
-continual struggles between the orders of nobles and clergy on the one
-hand and the third estate on the other, finally ending by a declaration
-of the latter that if the first two orders would not act in agreement
-with them they would organize themselves, without the other two, as the
-States-General of France.
-
-On June twelfth the third estate met and called the roll of all the
-deputies, but none of the nobles or clergy answered to their names. Next
-day, however, three clerical members appeared, and the meeting felt
-itself sufficiently bold, under the leadership of Mirabeau, to declare
-itself positively the National Assembly of France. The indignant nobles
-answered this by inducing the King to suspend all meetings until a
-"royal session" could be held on June twentieth. But the third estate,
-having had a taste of power, would not bow to command so easily, and
-when they found that the hall where they had been meeting was closed
-they withdrew to the tennis-court, where they took the famous oath not
-to separate until they had given a constitution to France.
-
-At their next meeting the third estate were joined by a large number of
-the clerical members of the States-General and by two of the nobles.
-This gave them greater assurance. At the "royal session" on June
-twentieth, however, the King tried to ignore the power that the third
-estate had claimed, and the latter had to decide between submitting to
-the royal orders or rebelling. They decided to take the second course
-and stand firmly on their rights as representatives of the people. When
-the master of ceremonies tried to clear the hall where they had gathered
-Mirabeau said defiantly, "The commons of France will never retire except
-at the point of the bayonet."
-
-The King, although surrounded by weak and selfish advisers, at last
-yielded to the demands of the third estate, and the nobles and clergy
-joined the meetings of the National Assembly.
-
-Lafayette, who had been elected as a deputy of the nobility, had found
-his position extremely difficult. He had thought of resigning and trying
-to be elected a second time as a deputy of the people, although Thomas
-Jefferson, the American minister, had urged him to take his stand
-outright with the third estate, arguing that his well-known liberal
-views would prevent his gaining any influence with his fellow-nobles
-and that if he delayed in taking up the cause of the people the latter
-might regard him with suspicion. This difficulty was solved when, at the
-King's command, the deputies of the nobles finally joined with the third
-estate.
-
-The States-General, or the National Assembly, as it was now generally
-called, went on with its meetings which took on more and more a
-revolutionary color. There was rioting in Paris and Versailles, and the
-King ordered troops to guard both places. The Assembly considered that
-the soldiers were meant to intimidate their sessions and requested that
-they be sent away. The King refused this request, and as a result the
-breach between the crown and the parliament was still further widened.
-
-Soon afterward Lafayette presented to the Assembly what he called his
-"Declaration of Rights," which was based on Jefferson's Declaration of
-Independence of the United States. This occasioned long discussion,
-for the nobles thought its terms were revolutionary in the extreme
-while many of the third estate considered that it did not go nearly
-far enough. And all the time the King continued his policy of trying
-to overawe the Assembly, and finally appointed the Marshal de Broglie
-commander of the troops that were gathering in Paris and Versailles,
-planning to bring the third estate to its senses and show the mob in
-Paris who was the real ruler of France.
-
-Events followed rapidly. July eleventh the King dismissed Necker and
-the ministers who had been trying to bring order out of confusion. The
-Assembly, fearing that the King would next dissolve their meetings,
-declared itself in permanent session, and elected Lafayette its
-vice-president. The royal court, blind as usual, paid no attention to
-the storm the King's course was rousing, and a grand ball was held at
-the palace on the evening of July thirteenth. Next day, as if in answer
-to rulers who could dance while the people starved, the mob in Paris
-stormed the prison of the Bastille and captured that stronghold of royal
-tyranny.
-
-The storm had broken at last. The Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
-hurried to Versailles, entered the King's chamber, and told him the
-news. "Why," exclaimed Louis XVI., "this is a revolt!"
-
-"No, sire," answered the Duke, "it is a revolution!"
-
-Next morning the Marshal de Broglie, who found that instead of a
-competent army, he had only a few disorganized troops at his command,
-resigned. The King, seeing his army melting away, decided that his only
-chance of restoring order lay in making friends with the Assembly, and
-appeared before it, begging it to aid him, and promising to recall the
-dismissed ministers.
-
-The Assembly, delighted at this evidence of its power, agreed to aid the
-King, and sent Lafayette, with fifty other deputies, to see what could
-be done to quiet the people in Paris. They found the city in the wildest
-confusion. Shops were closed, barricades blocked the streets, and gangs
-of ruffians were fighting everywhere. The deputies brought some order,
-Lafayette made a speech to the people at the Hotel de Ville, and told
-them that the Assembly was glad that they had won liberty. Then it
-was decided that a mayor must be chosen to govern Paris and a National
-Guard formed to preserve order. Moreau de Saint Mery, who was presiding,
-pointed to the bust of Lafayette that the State of Virginia had sent
-to the city of Paris. His gesture was understood and Lafayette was
-immediately chosen to command the National Guard. Bailly was by a like
-unanimous vote elected mayor.
-
-So, at thirty-two, Lafayette gave up his seat in the National Assembly
-and became Commander of the National Guard.
-
-The deputies, on their return to Versailles, told their fellow-members
-that the only way in which confidence could be restored in the crown was
-for the King personally to visit Paris. This Louis XVI. agreed to do on
-July seventeenth. In the meantime Lafayette had collected the nucleus
-of a guard, had restored some sort of order, and made arrangements to
-receive the King. When Louis arrived at the city gates he was met by
-the mayor, Bailly, who handed him the keys of Paris, saying, "They are
-the same keys that were presented to Henry IV. He had reconquered his
-people; now it is the people who have reconquered their king."
-
-The King was escorted to the Hotel de Ville through a double line of
-National Guards. There he was given the new national cockade, which
-he fixed in his hat. Afterward speeches were made and then King Louis
-rode back to Versailles. He was still the sovereign in name, but his
-real power was gone, shorn from him by the obstinacy of his nobles and
-himself.
-
-Lafayette had no easy task in keeping order in Paris. His Guards obeyed
-his commands, but many of the mob, having tasted revolt, continued on a
-wild course, and they were now joined by many of the worst element from
-the provinces. Two innocent men were murdered in spite, and Lafayette
-could do nothing to prevent it. Disgusted at the trend of events he soon
-resigned his office of Commander, but since no one else appeared able to
-fill it he finally consented to resume it.
-
-Meantime the Assembly was uprooting the old feudal laws and doing away
-with almost all forms of taxation. Their object was to tear down, not
-to build up; and the result was that in a very short time people
-throughout France were making their own laws in every city and village
-and paying no attention to the needs of the nation.
-
-As autumn approached the population of Paris became restless. The
-Assembly at Versailles was not sufficiently under the people's thumb,
-the lower classes especially were eager to get both Assembly and King
-and Queen in their power. A reception given by Louis to the National
-Guards at Versailles roused great indignation. The court, so the people
-said, was as frivolous and extravagant as ever, and was trying to win
-the Guards over to its side. The excitement reached its climax when, on
-October fifth, Maillard, a leader of the mob, called on the people of
-Paris to march to Versailles. At once the cry "To Versailles!" echoed
-through the city, and men and women flocked to answer the cry.
-
-Lafayette heard of the plan and sent couriers to Versailles to warn the
-King and the Assembly of what was in the air. All day he tried his best
-to quiet the people and induce them to give up the march. He forbade the
-National Guards to leave their posts, and at first they obeyed him. But
-presently deputation after deputation came to him. "General," said one
-of his men, "we do not think you a traitor; but we think the government
-betrays you. It is time that this end. We cannot turn our bayonets
-against women crying to us for bread. The people are miserable; the
-source of the mischief is at Versailles; we must go seek the King and
-bring him to Paris."
-
-That was the view of the Guards, and it grew more and more positive.
-Armed crowds were leaving the city, dragging cannon, and at last the
-Guards surrounded their commander and declared their intention to march
-and to take him with them. So finally Lafayette set out for Versailles,
-preceded and followed by an immense rabble of men and women.
-
-Meantime the couriers sent by Lafayette to Versailles had reported the
-news of the march of the mob. The Assembly could think of nothing that
-would pacify the people, and contented itself with sending messengers to
-the King, who happened to be hunting in the Versailles forests. Louis
-returned to his palace to find his body-guards, the Swiss and the
-Flanders Regiment, drawn up in the courtyards as though to withstand a
-siege.
-
-In the middle of the afternoon the first crowd of women, led by Maillard
-beating his drum, arrived at Versailles. Some marched to the Assembly
-and shouted to the deputies to pass laws at once that should lower the
-price of bread. Others paraded through the streets, and still others
-went to the palace to see the King, who received them very kindly and
-tried to assure them that he entirely agreed with all their wishes.
-
-But the royal family had taken alarm and wanted to fly from the
-palace. Their carriages were ordered out, and the body-guards placed
-in readiness to serve as escort. This plan became known, however, and
-when the carriages drove out from the great stables some of the National
-Guards themselves seized the horses' heads and turned them back.
-
-The National Assembly itself was in an uproar. The President, Mounier,
-left the chamber to see the King, and when he came back he found a fat
-fishwoman making a speech to the crowd from his own chair. The Assembly
-had taken power and authority away from the King; now the mob was bent
-on doing the same thing to the Assembly.
-
-At eleven o'clock that evening Lafayette reached Versailles with his
-National Guards and the rest of the rabble from Paris. On the way he
-had tried to curb the rougher part of the crowd and had made his troops
-stop and renew their oaths of allegiance "to the nation, the law, and
-the King." He went at once to the palace to receive King Louis' orders,
-but the Swiss guards would not let him enter until he agreed to go
-in without any of the people from Paris. When he did enter he found
-the halls and rooms filled with courtiers. One of them, seeing him,
-exclaimed, "Here is Cromwell!" Lafayette answered instantly, "Cromwell
-would not have entered alone."
-
-The King received him cordially, and told him to guard the outside
-of the palace, leaving the inside to the protection of the royal
-body-guards. Lafayette then saw that his men were bivouacked for the
-night, quieted noisy marchers, and felt that, at least for the time,
-Versailles was at rest. Worn out with the day's exertions the Marquis
-finally got a chance to sleep.
-
-Early next day, however, the mob burst forth again. A crowd fell to
-disputing with the royal body-guards at one of the gates to the palace,
-rushed the soldiers, and broke into the inner court. Up the stairs they
-streamed, killing the guards that tried to oppose them. Marie Antoinette
-had barely time to fly from her room to that of the King before the
-rioters reached her apartment, crying out threats against her.
-
-As soon as he heard of all this Lafayette sent two companies of soldiers
-to clear the mob from the palace. When he arrived himself he found the
-people all shouting "To Paris!" He saw at once that his National Guards
-were not to be trusted to oppose the crowd, and urged the King to agree
-to go to Paris. Louis consented, and Lafayette went out on the balcony
-and announced the King's decision.
-
-This appeased the throng somewhat, and Lafayette asked the King to
-appear on the balcony with him. Louis stepped out and was greeted with
-cheers of "_Vive le roi!_" Then Lafayette said to the Queen, "What are
-your intentions, madame?"
-
-"I know the fate which awaits me," answered Marie Antoinette, "but my
-duty is to die at the feet of the King and in the arms of my children."
-
-"Well, madame, come with me," said Lafayette.
-
-"What! Alone on the balcony? Have you not seen the signs which have been
-made to me?"
-
-"Yes, madame, but let us go."
-
-Marie Antoinette agreed, and stepped out with her children. The crowd
-cried, "No children!" and they were sent back. The mob was making too
-much noise for Lafayette to speak to them, so instead he took the
-Queen's hand, and, bowing low, kissed it. The crowd, always ready to go
-from one extreme to another, immediately set up shouts of "Long live the
-General! Long live the Queen!"
-
-King Louis then asked Lafayette about the safety of his body-guards.
-Lafayette stuck a tricolor cockade in the hat of one of these soldiers,
-and taking him on to the balcony, embraced him. The mob's answer was
-cheers of "_Vive les gardes du corps!_"
-
-So peace was restored for the time. Fifty thousand people marched back
-to Paris, the King and the royal family in their carriage, Lafayette
-riding beside them. Close to them marched the royal body-guards, and
-close to the latter came the National Guards. And the crowd shouted with
-exultation at having forced their sovereign to do their will.
-
-At the gates of the city the mayor met the procession and made a
-patriotic address. From there they went to the Hotel de Ville, where
-more speeches were made, and it was late in the day before Louis XVI.
-and Marie Antoinette and their children were allowed to take refuge in
-the Palace of the Tuileries.
-
-Lafayette, who had played with the Queen and her friends in the gardens
-at Versailles when he was a boy, had stood by her loyally on that day
-when the mob had vowed vengeance against her. He believed in liberty and
-constitutional government, but he also believed in order. He wanted to
-protect the weak and defenseless, and he hated the excesses of the mob.
-He thought he could reproduce in France what he had seen accomplished
-in America. But conditions were too different. The people of France had
-been ground down too long by their nobles. Their first taste of liberty
-had gone to their heads like strong wine. So, like a boat that has lost
-its rudder, the ship of state of France plunged on to the whirlpool of
-the French Revolution.
-
-
-
-
-X
-
-STORM-CLOUDS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
-
-
-King Louis XVI., Queen Marie Antoinette, and their children were now
-virtually prisoners in the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris, the nobles
-were leaving France for their own safety, and the Assembly was trying
-to govern the country. But the Assembly was very large and unwieldy,
-and its members were more interested in making speeches denouncing the
-present laws than in trying to frame new ones. Lafayette was commander
-of the National Guard, and so in a way the most powerful man in France,
-although the most able statesman and leader was Mirabeau. Occasionally
-Lafayette found time to attend the meetings of the Assembly, and at one
-of these sessions a deputy demanded that all titles of nobility should
-be abolished. Another member objected, saying that merit ought to be
-recognized, and asking what could be put in the place of the words,
-"Such a one has been made noble and count for having saved the State on
-such a day."
-
-Lafayette rose at once to answer. "Suppress the words 'made noble and
-count,'" said he; "say only, 'Such a one saved the State on such a day.'
-It seems to me that these words have something of an American character,
-precious fruit of the New World, which ought to aid much in rejuvenating
-the old one."
-
-The measure was carried immediately, and Lafayette dropped from his
-name both the "marquis" and the "de." He never used them again; and
-when, after the French Revolution was over, all titles were restored,
-Lafayette, steadfast to his convictions, never called himself or allowed
-himself to be addressed as the Marquis de Lafayette, but was always
-known simply as General Lafayette.
-
-Lafayette did all he could to ease the difficult position of King
-Louis, though relations between the two men were necessarily strained,
-since the King could hardly look with pleasure on the commander of the
-National Guard, who held his office from the Assembly and people and
-not from the crown. Louis chafed at having to stay in the Tuileries and
-wanted to go hunting in the country, but the people would not allow
-this. And it fell to Lafayette to urge the King to show as little
-discontent as possible, which naturally made the sovereign resentful
-toward the General.
-
-During the winter of 1789-90 Lafayette was busy trying to keep order
-in Paris and drilling the Guard. He sent the Duke of Orleans, who had
-been stirring up the worst elements to dethrone Louis XVI. and make him
-king instead, in exile from the country. Violent bread riots broke out
-and mobs tried to pillage the convents, but Lafayette and his Guards
-prevented much damage being done. It took all his tact and perseverance
-to handle these soldiers under his command; they were quick-tempered
-and restive under any authority, and only too ready to follow the last
-excitable speaker they had heard. Lafayette said to his officers,
-"We are lost if the service continues to be conducted with such great
-inexactitude. We are the only soldiers of the Revolution; we alone
-should defend the royal family from every attack; we alone should
-establish the liberty of the representatives of the nation; we are the
-only guardians of the public treasury. France, all Europe, have fixed
-their eyes on the Parisians. A disturbance in Paris, an attack made
-through our negligence on these sacred institutions, would dishonor us
-forever, and bring upon us the hatred of the provinces."
-
-He did not want any great office or power for himself, his desires were
-always very much like those of George Washington, he simply wanted to
-serve the sacred cause of liberty. Yet he was at that time the most
-powerful and the most popular man in France. The court, though it
-disliked him as the representative of the people, depended on him for
-its personal safety. The Assembly relied on him as its guardian, the
-soldiers trusted him as their commander, and the people considered him
-their bulwark against any return to the old despotism.
-
-Through all this time he wrote regularly to Washington, and when, by his
-orders, the Bastille was torn down he sent the keys of the fortress to
-his friend at Mount Vernon. The keys were sent, he wrote, as a tribute
-from "a son to an adopted father, an aide-de-camp to his general, a
-missionary of liberty to her patriarch."
-
-On the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, July 14,
-1790, a great celebration was held in Paris. A vast crowd of more than
-three hundred thousand persons, including the court, the Assembly, the
-National Guard, and men from the provinces as well as from the city, met
-in the amphitheatre of the Champs de Mars to swear obedience to the new
-constitution which was to govern them all. First Louis XVI. took the
-oath, and then Lafayette, who was made for that day commander-in-chief
-of all the armed forces of France, stepped forward, placed the point of
-his sword on the altar, and took the oath as the representative of the
-French people. A great roar of voices greeted the commander's words.
-
-But although Lafayette meant to remain faithful to the principles of a
-constitutional monarchy, the mass of his countrymen soon showed that
-they had no such intention. Disorder and rioting grew more frequent,
-the people demanded more of the Assembly than the latter felt it could
-grant, the Guards grew increasingly unpopular as the symbol of a law
-and order the mob did not like. Within the Assembly itself there were
-many quarrels and wrangles; sometimes the mob vented its feelings on
-an unpopular member by attacking his house. And as often as not the
-National Guards, when they were sent to protect property, joined with
-the crowd and helped to destroy it instead.
-
-In February, 1791, a crowd from Paris attacked the fortress of
-Vincennes, which had once been a state prison, but had been unused
-for some time. Lafayette, with his staff and a considerable number of
-National Guards, marched out to the place, quelled the disturbance, and
-arrested sixty of the ringleaders. When he brought his prisoners back to
-the city he found the gates of the Faubourg St. Antoine closed against
-him, and he had to threaten to blow the gates open with cannon before
-the people would allow him to enter. All the way to the Conciergerie,
-where he took his prisoners, the General and his soldiers were targets
-for the abuse of the crowds.
-
-On the same day some of the nobles who lived in the neighborhood of the
-royal palace of the Tuileries, hearing of the attack at Vincennes,
-thought that the King might also be in danger, and went to the palace,
-armed with pistols and daggers. This angered the National Guards who
-were posted about the Tuileries and who thought that the noblemen were
-poaching on their territory. The King had to appear in person to settle
-the dispute, and even then some of the nobles were maltreated by the
-soldiers. Immediately revolutionary orators made use of the incident
-to inflame the people's mind, representing that the King's friends had
-planned to murder officers of the Guards.
-
-It was clear that the National Guards were growing less and less
-trustworthy, and equally evident that the people of Paris were becoming
-more and more hostile to their King. Louis disliked staying at the
-Tuileries, where he was constantly under the eyes of enemies, and at
-Easter decided to go to the palace of St. Cloud, which was near Paris,
-and celebrate the day there. Word of this got abroad, and the people
-grumbled; more than that they said that Louis should not go to St.
-Cloud.
-
-On the morning of April eighteenth the King and his family entered their
-traveling-carriage, only to have an angry crowd seize the horses' heads
-and forbid the King to move. Louis appealed to the National Guards
-who were in attendance, but the soldiers took the side of the people
-and helped to block the way. The mob swarmed close to the carriage,
-insulting the King and his servants. Louis had courage. He put his head
-out at the window and cried, "It would be an astonishing thing, if,
-after having given liberty to the nation, I myself should not be free!"
-
-At this point Lafayette and the mayor, Bailly, arrived, and urged
-the mob and the Guards to keep the peace and disperse. The crowd was
-obstinate; most of the Guards were openly rebellious. Then Lafayette
-went to the royal carriage, and offered to use force to secure the
-King's departure if Louis would give the word. The King answered
-promptly, "It is for you, sir, to see to what is necessary for the due
-fulfilment of your constitution." Again Lafayette turned to the mob and
-addressed it, but it showed no intention of obeying his orders, and at
-last he had to tell Louis that it would be dangerous for him to drive
-forth. So the King and his family returned to the Tuileries, fully
-aware now that they were prisoners of the people and could not count on
-the protection of the troops.
-
-Everywhere it was now said that the King must obey "the supreme will of
-the people." Louis protested; he went to the National Assembly and told
-the deputies that he expected them to protect his liberty; but Mirabeau,
-the leader who had used his influence on behalf of the sovereign in
-earlier meetings, was dead, and the party of Robespierre held the upper
-hand. The Assembly had no intention of opposing the people, and paid
-little heed to the King's demands.
-
-Lafayette saw that a general whose troops would not obey him was a
-useless officer, and sent in his resignation as commander of the Guards.
-But the better element in Paris wanted him to stay, and the more loyal
-of the troops begged him to resume his command. No one could fill his
-place, and so he agreed to take the office again. He went to the Commune
-of Paris and addressed its members. "We are citizens, gentlemen, we
-are free," said he; "but without obedience to the law, there is only
-confusion, anarchy, despotism; and if this capital, the cradle of
-the Revolution, instead of surrounding with intelligence and respect
-the depositaries of national power, should besiege them with tumult,
-or fatigue them with violence, it would cease to be the example of
-Frenchmen, it would risk becoming their terror."
-
-The Commune applauded his words, and he went forth again as
-Commander-in-chief, the Guards taking a new oath to obey the laws. But
-at the same time the Jacobins, or revolutionaries, placarded the walls
-of Paris with praises of the soldiers who had rebelled and feasted them
-as models of patriotism.
-
-Meantime King Louis and his closest friends determined that the royal
-family must escape from the Tuileries. Careful plans were laid and
-a number of the nobles were told of them. Rumors of the intended
-escape got abroad, but such rumors had been current for the past year.
-Lafayette heard them and spoke of them to the King, who assured him that
-he had no such design. Lafayette went to the mayor, Bailly, and the two
-men discussed the rumor, concluding that there was nothing more to it
-than to the earlier stories.
-
-The night of June twentieth was the time chosen by the King and his
-intimate friends. Marie Antoinette placed her children in the care of
-Madame de Tourzel, her companion, saying, "The King and I, madame, place
-in your hands, with the utmost confidence, all that we hold dear in the
-world. Everything is ready; go." Madame de Tourzel and the children went
-out to a carriage, driven by the Count de Fersen, and rode along the
-quays to a place that had been decided on as the rendezvous.
-
-Lafayette and Bailly had spent the evening with the King. As soon as
-they had gone, to disarm suspicion Louis undressed and got into bed.
-Then he got up again, put on a disguise, and walked down the main
-staircase and out at the door. He reached his carriage, and waited a
-short time for the Queen, who presently joined him; and then the royal
-couple drove out of Paris.
-
-The flight was not discovered until about six o'clock in the morning.
-Then Lafayette hurried to the Tuileries with Bailly. He found that a
-mob had already gathered there, vowing vengeance on all who had had
-charge of the King. With difficulty he rescued the officer who had
-been on guard the night before. He sent messengers in every direction
-with orders to stop the royal fugitives. He went to the Assembly, and
-addressed it. At the Jacobin Club, Danton, the fiery orator, declared,
-"The commander-general promised on his head that the King would not
-depart; therefore we must have the person of the King or the head of
-Monsieur the commander-general!" But Lafayette's reputation was still
-too great for him to be reached by his enemies.
-
-The unfortunate royal family were finally arrested at Varennes and
-brought back to Paris. Louis was received in an ominous silence by his
-people. Lafayette met him at the gates and escorted him back to the
-palace. There Lafayette said, "Sire, your Majesty is acquainted with my
-personal attachment; but I have not allowed you to be unaware that if
-you separated your cause from that of the people I should remain on the
-side of the people."
-
-"That is true," answered King Louis. "You have acted according to your
-principles; it is an affair of party. At present, here I am. I will tell
-you frankly, that up to these last days, I believed myself to be in a
-vortex of people of your opinion with whom you surrounded me, but that
-it was not the opinion of France. I have thoroughly recognized in this
-journey that I was mistaken, and that this opinion is the general one."
-
-When Lafayette asked the King for his orders, the latter laughed and
-said, "It seems to me that I am more at your orders than you are at
-mine."
-
-The commander did all that he could to soften the hard position of the
-royal captives, but he took care to see that the Tuileries was better
-guarded after that.
-
-Some Jacobins now petitioned the Assembly to dethrone the King, and
-a great meeting was held in the Champs de Mars on the seventeenth
-of July. As usual the meeting got out of hand and the mob turned to
-murder and pillage. Lafayette and Bailly rode to the field with some of
-their soldiers; Bailly proclaimed martial law and ordered the crowd to
-disperse. Jeers and threats followed, and at last Lafayette had to give
-his men the command to fire. A dozen of the mob were killed, and the
-rest took to flight.
-
-This seemed to bring peace again, but it was only the quiet that
-precedes the thunder-storm. The Assembly finished its work on the
-new constitution for France and the King signed it. Then Lafayette,
-tired with his constant labors, resigned his commission and stated his
-intention of retiring to private life. Paris voted him a medal and a
-marble statue of Washington, and the National Guards presented him with
-a sword forged from the bolts of the Bastille. At last he rode back
-to his country home at Chavaniac, looking forward to rest there as
-Washington looked for rest at his beloved Mount Vernon.
-
-To friends at his home in Auvergne the General said, "You see me
-restored to the place of my birth; I shall leave it only to defend or
-consolidate our common liberty, if attacked, and I hope to remain here
-for long." He believed that the new constitution would bring liberty
-and peace to his country. But the French Revolution had only begun its
-course, and he was destined soon to be called back to its turmoil.
-
-He had several months of rest in his home in the mountains, happy months
-for his wife, who for two years had hardly ever seen her husband leave
-their house in Paris without fearing that he might not return. She had
-been a wonderful helpmate for the General during the turbulent course
-of events since his return from America and had loyally entertained
-the guests of every varying shade of political opinion who had flocked
-to his house in the capital. But she liked to have her husband away
-from the alarms of Paris and safe in the quiet of his country home at
-Chavaniac. There he had more time to spend with her and their three
-children, Anastasie, George Washington, and Virginia, who had been named
-after the State where her father had won his military laurels.
-
-The Legislative Assembly of France, which was trying to govern the
-country under the new constitution, was finding the making of laws which
-should satisfy every one a very difficult task. There were countless
-cliques and parties, and each had its own pet scheme for making the
-land a Utopia. The court party hoped that the more reckless element
-would lose all hold on the people through its very extravagance, and so
-actually encouraged many wildly absurd projects. The royalists were
-always expecting that a counter-revolution would bring them back into
-power, and the nobles who had left the country filled the border-towns
-and plotted and conspired and used their influence to induce foreign
-sovereigns to interfere and restore the old order in France. Naturally
-enough news of these plots and conspiracies did not tend to make King
-Louis or his nobles any more popular with the lawgivers in Paris.
-
-In August, 1791, the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria met the
-Count d'Artois and the Marquis de Bouille at the town of Pilnitz and
-formed an alliance against France, making the cause of Louis XVI. their
-own. The royalists who had emigrated were delighted, and filled Europe
-with statements of what they meant to do to the revolutionary leaders
-when they won back their power. The revolutionists grew more and more
-angry, and as they saw foreign troops gathering on the French frontiers
-they decided that it was high time to oppose force with force. Narbonne,
-the Minister of War, announced that the King and government meant to
-form three armies of fifty thousand men each, and that the country had
-chosen as commanding generals Rochambeau, Luckner, and Lafayette.
-
-Lafayette at once returned to Paris from Chavaniac, paid his respects
-to the King, and going to the Assembly thanked the members for his new
-appointment and declared his unalterable devotion to the maintenance and
-defense of the constitution. The president of the Assembly answered that
-"the French people, which has sworn to conquer or to die in the cause of
-liberty, will always confidently present to nations and to tyrants the
-constitution and Lafayette."
-
-In view of what happened afterward it is important to remember that
-Lafayette accepted his appointment under the constitution of France
-and that he felt himself bound to support and obey it under all
-circumstances.
-
-Then he departed from Paris for the frontier, the cheers of the people
-and the National Guards ringing in his ears. He was popular with all
-parties except those of the two extremes, the friends of the King
-considering him a rebel and the Jacobins calling him a courtier.
-
-At Metz Lafayette met Rochambeau, Luckner, and Narbonne, and it was
-arranged that the three generals should make their headquarters at
-Liege, Treves, and Coblentz. News of these military measures somewhat
-cooled the ardor of the alliance against France and enemy troops stopped
-collecting along the border. Lafayette took advantage of this to prepare
-his raw recruits for a possible struggle. They needed this preparation,
-for the army of France, which had once been the proudest in Europe, had
-been allowed to scatter during the past few years.
-
-He accomplished much in the way of discipline, was called to Paris to
-consult on a plan of campaign, found the leaders there as much at odds
-as ever, and returned to his post at Metz. Again the emigrant nobles and
-their allies were uttering threats against the French government, and
-finally, on April 20, 1792, the government declared war on its enemies.
-
-Lafayette's orders were to proceed against the Netherlands, marching
-from Metz to Givet, and thence to Namur. Meantime Rochambeau's army
-was to attack the Austrians. But there was so much discord among
-Rochambeau's divisions that the attack turned into a retreat, and
-Lafayette, learning this when he arrived at Givet, was obliged to wait
-there instead of marching farther. The conduct of his soldiers so
-discouraged Rochambeau that he resigned his commission and the territory
-to be defended was divided between Lafayette and Luckner. The former
-concentrated his troops at Maubeuge, and spent the month of May drilling
-and occasionally making sorties.
-
-In Paris the cause of law and order was having a hard time. The Jacobins
-wanted to upset the constitution, dethrone the King, and establish
-a republic, and they were steadily growing stronger. The spirit of
-revolution was spreading through the country, and everywhere the
-people gave the greatest applause to the most revolutionary orators.
-The Assembly was treating Louis XVI. with insolence and the King was
-retaliating by regarding the deputies with unconcealed contempt. The
-monarchy and the constitution were fast falling to pieces, and the news
-of the defeat of the army on the frontier helped to hasten the climax.
-Gouverneur Morris wrote to Thomas Jefferson in June, 1792, "The best
-picture I can give of the French people is that of cattle before a
-thunder-storm." And a week later he wrote, "We stand on a vast volcano;
-we feel it tremble and we hear it roar; but how and where and when it
-will burst, and who may be destroyed by its irruption, are beyond the
-ken of mortal foresight to discover."
-
-Lafayette, in camp at Maubeuge, alarmed at the reports from Paris, felt
-that the cause of liberty and order would be lost unless some effective
-blow could be dealt at the power of the Jacobins. If some one would take
-the lead in opposing that group, or club, he believed that the Assembly
-and the rest of the people would follow. So he wrote a letter to the
-Assembly, and in this he said, "Can you hide from yourselves that a
-faction, and, to avoid vague terms, the Jacobite faction, has caused all
-these disorders? It is this club that I openly accuse." Then he went on
-to denounce the Jacobins as the enemies of all order.
-
-When the letter was read in the Assembly the Jacobins attacked it
-furiously, charging that the General wanted to make himself a dictator.
-His friends supported him, but the Jacobins were the more powerful.
-Through their clubs, their newspapers, and their street orators they
-soon led the fickle people to believe that Lafayette, their idol of a
-few years before, was now a traitor to them and their greatest enemy.
-
-Another quarrel arose between King Louis and the Assembly, and the
-former dismissed his ministers. The Jacobins seized on this to
-inaugurate a reign of terror. The streets were filled with mobs,
-passionate orators harangued the crowds, men and women pushed their way
-into the meetings of the Assembly and told the deputies what they wanted
-done. June twentieth was the anniversary of the Tennis Court Oath, and
-on that day a great rabble invaded the Assembly, denounced the King, and
-then marched to the Tuileries, where it found that the gates had been
-left open. The mob surged through the palace, singing the revolutionary
-song "_Ca ira_," and shouting "Down with the Austrian woman! Down with
-Marie Antoinette!" The Queen and her children fled to an inner room,
-protected by a few grenadiers. The King watched the crowd surge by him,
-his only concession to their demands being to put a liberty cap on his
-head. After three hours of uproar the leaders felt that Louis had been
-taught a sufficient lesson and led their noisy followers back to the
-streets.
-
-A story is told that a young and penniless lieutenant by the name of
-Napoleon Bonaparte was dining with a friend in the Palais Royal when
-the mob attacked the Tuileries. Taking a position on the bank of the
-Seine he watched the scene with indignation. When he saw the King at the
-window with the red liberty cap on his head, he exclaimed, "Why have
-they let in all that rabble? They should sweep off four or five hundred
-of them with cannon; the rest would then set off fast enough." But the
-time had not yet come for this lieutenant to show how to deal with the
-people.
-
-Lafayette heard of the mob's invasion of the Tuileries and decided to
-go to Paris to see what he could do to check the spirit of revolution.
-General Luckner had no objection to his leaving his headquarters at
-Maubeuge, but warned him that if the Jacobins once got him in their
-power they would cut off his head. Undaunted by this idea Lafayette
-went to the capital, and arrived at the house of his friend La
-Rochefoucauld, entirely unexpected, on the twenty-eighth of June.
-
-His visit caused great excitement. He went to the Assembly and made a
-stirring speech in which he said that the violence committed at the
-Tuileries had roused the indignation of all good citizens. His words
-were cheered by the more sober deputies, but the Jacobins protested
-loudly. One of the latter asked how it happened that General Lafayette
-was allowed to leave his army to come and lecture the Assembly on its
-duties. The General's speech had some influence in restoring order, but
-the power of the Jacobins was steadily increasing.
-
-Lafayette then went to the Tuileries, where he saw the royal family.
-Louis was ready to receive any assurance of help that the General
-could give him, for the King saw now that his only reliance lay in the
-constitution he had signed, and felt that might prove a slight support.
-Marie Antoinette, however, refused to forgive Lafayette for the part he
-had taken in the early days of revolution, and would have no aid at his
-hands.
-
-When he left the Tuileries some of his former National Guards followed
-his carriage with shouts of "Vive Lafayette! Down with the Jacobins!"
-and planted a liberty pole before his house. This gave Lafayette the
-idea of appealing to the whole force of the National Guard and urging
-them to stand by the constitution. He asked permission to speak to them
-at a review the next day, but the mayor, fearing Lafayette's influence,
-countermanded the review. Then the General held meetings at his house
-and did all he could to persuade Guards and citizens to oppose the
-Jacobins, who, if they had their way, would, in his opinion, ruin the
-country.
-
-At the end of June he returned to the army. Daily he heard reports of
-the growing power of his enemies, the Jacobins. Then he resolved to make
-one more attempt to save the King and the constitution. He received
-orders to march his troops by a town called La Capelle, which was about
-twenty miles from Compiegne, one of the King's country residences.
-His plan was that Louis XVI. should go to the Assembly and declare
-his intention of passing a few days at Compiegne; there Lafayette's
-army would meet him, and the King would proclaim that he was ready
-to send his troops against the enemies of France who had gathered on
-the frontiers and should reaffirm his loyalty to the constitution. The
-General thought that if the King would do this it would restore the
-confidence of the people in their sovereign.
-
-But neither the King nor the nobles who were with him at the Tuileries
-were attracted by this plan, which meant that Louis would openly
-declare his hostility toward those emigrant nobles who had gathered
-on the borders. And when the Jacobins learned that Lafayette had been
-communicating secretly with the King they used this news as fresh fuel
-for their fire. So the result of the scheme was only to add to the
-currents of suspicion and intrigue that were involving Paris in the
-gathering storm.
-
-The power of the Assembly grew weaker; its authority was more and more
-openly thwarted; the deputies wanted to stand by the constitution, but
-it appeared that the country did not care to live under its laws. The
-government of Paris was now entirely under the control of the Jacobins.
-They filled the ranks of the National Guards with ruffians in their
-pay. On July fourteenth the King reviewed soldiers who were secretly
-ready to tear the crown from his head and was forced to listen to bitter
-taunts and jibes.
-
-Then, at the end of July, the allied armies of Austria and Prussia,
-accompanied by a great many French noblemen, crossed the frontier and
-began their heralded invasion. The general in command, the Duke of
-Brunswick, issued a proclamation calling on the people of Paris to
-submit to their king, and threatening all sorts of dire things if they
-persisted in their rebellion. The proclamation acted like tinder to
-powder. The invasion united all parties for the moment. If the Duke of
-Brunswick succeeded, no man who had taken part in the Revolution could
-think his life or property secure, and France would return to the old
-feudal despotism, made worse by its dependence on foreign armies.
-
-The people of Paris and of France demanded immediate and vigorous
-action; the Assembly could not lead them, and the Jacobins seized their
-chance. Danton and his fellows addressed the crowds in the streets and
-told them that France would not be safe until the monarchy and the
-aristocracy had been exterminated. The people heard and believed, and by
-August first were ready to strike down any men their leaders pointed out
-to them.
-
-Danton and the Jacobins made their plans rapidly. They filled the floor
-and the galleries of the Assembly with men whose violent threats kept
-the deputies constantly in fear of physical force. They taught the
-people to hate all those who defended the constitution, and chief among
-the latter Lafayette, whom the Jacobins feared more than any other man
-in France. So great was their fury against him that Gouverneur Morris
-wrote to Jefferson at the beginning of August, "I verily believe that if
-M. de Lafayette were to appear just now in Paris unattended by his army,
-he would be torn in pieces."
-
-On August tenth the mob, armed with pikes, surrounded the Tuileries.
-The King looked out on a crowd made up of the most vicious elements of
-the city. He tried to urge the National Guards to protect him, but they
-were demoralized by the shouts of the throngs. Finally he decided to
-take refuge with the National Assembly, and with the Queen and their
-children succeeded in reaching the Assembly chamber.
-
-The Swiss guards at the Tuileries attempted to make some resistance, but
-the mob drove them from their posts and killed many of them. The reign
-of terror spread. Nobles or citizens who had opposed the Jacobins were
-hunted out and murdered. When the Assembly adjourned the deputies found
-armed bands at the doors, waiting to kill all those who were known to
-have supported the constitution.
-
-Meantime the royal family had found the Assembly a poor refuge. A
-deputy had moved that the King be dethroned and a convention summoned
-to determine the future government of the country. The measure was
-instantly carried. Louis XVI. and his family were handed over to
-officers who took them to the Temple, which then became their prison.
-
-The Jacobins had won the day by force and violence. They formed a
-government called the "Commune of August 10th," filled it with their
-own men, drove all respectable soldiers out of the National Guard and
-placed Jacobin pikemen in their places. All nobles and friends of the
-King who were found in Paris were thrown into the prisons, which were
-soon crammed. The Reign of Terror had begun in fact. Only a short time
-later the prisoners were being tried and sent to the guillotine.
-
-Lafayette heard of the events of August tenth and begged his troops to
-remain true to the King and the constitution. Then the Commune of Paris
-sent commissioners to the armies to announce the change of government
-and to demand allegiance to the Commune. Lafayette met the commissioners
-at Sedan, heard their statements, and declaring them the agents of a
-faction that had unlawfully seized on power, ordered them imprisoned.
-
-News of Lafayette's arrest of the commissioners added to the turmoil
-in Paris. Some Jacobins wanted to have him declared a traitor at once;
-others, however, feared that his influence with the army might be too
-great for them to take such a step safely. But troops in the other parts
-of France had come over to the Commune, and so, on the nineteenth of
-August the Jacobin leaders felt their power strong enough to compel the
-Assembly to declare Lafayette a traitor.
-
-Lafayette now had to face a decision. France had declared for the
-Commune of Paris and overthrown King and constitution. He had three
-choices. He might accept the rule of the Jacobins and become one of
-their generals; he might continue to oppose them and probably be
-arrested by his own soldiers and sent to the guillotine; he might leave
-the country, seek refuge in some neutral land, and hope that some day
-he could again be of service to liberty in France. To accept the first
-course was impossible for him, because he had no confidence in Jacobin
-rule. To take the second would be useless. Therefore the third course
-was the one he decided on.
-
-He turned his troops over to other officers, and with a few friends,
-who, like himself, had been declared traitors because they had supported
-the constitution, rode away from Sedan and crossed the border into
-Belgium at the little town of Bouillon. He was now an exile from his
-own country. The cause of liberty that he had fought so hard for had
-now become the cause of lawlessness. His dream of France, safe and
-prosperous under a constitution like that of the young republic across
-the sea, had come to an end, at least for the time being. He could do
-nothing but wash his hands of the Reign of Terror that followed on the
-footsteps of the Revolution he had helped to start.
-
-
-
-
-XI
-
-LAFAYETTE IN PRISON AND EXILE
-
-
-Lafayette knew that he could expect to find no place of refuge on either
-side of the French frontier; on the one hand were the Jacobin soldiers
-of the Reign of Terror who held him to be a traitor, and on the other
-the emigrant noblemen and their allies who regarded him as in large part
-responsible for all the troubles that had befallen Louis XVI. and his
-court. He had got himself into a position where both sides considered
-him an enemy; and his best course seemed to be to make his way to
-England and there take ship for America, where he was always sure to
-meet a friendly welcome.
-
-Austrian and Prussian troops held the northern border of France and
-garrisoned the outpost towns of Belgium. Lafayette and his companions
-crossed the frontier on their road to Brussels, but were stopped at the
-town of Rochefort because they had no passports. One of the party,
-Bureaux de Pusy, rode to Namur, the nearest large town, to try to get
-the necessary papers, but when he told the officer in charge there that
-the passports were wanted for General Lafayette and several friends
-there was great commotion. "Passports for Lafayette, the enemy of the
-King and of order!" the Austrian officer exclaimed. Lafayette was too
-important a man to let escape in any such fashion. And at once the
-command was given to arrest the Frenchman and his companions.
-
-They were found at Liege and arrested. Lafayette protested that he
-and his friends were now non-combatants, and moreover were on neutral
-territory in Belgium. In spite of that they were held as prisoners,
-although a secret message was sent to Lafayette that he could have
-his freedom if he would forswear his republican principles and give
-certain information about conditions in France. Indignantly he refused
-to buy his liberty in any such way, and then was sent to the Prussian
-fortress of Wesel on the Rhine. On the journey there he was questioned
-several times about the French army he had commanded, but the haughty
-contempt with which he refused to make any answers quickly showed his
-captors the sort of man they had to deal with. At one town an officer
-of the Duke of Saxe Teschen came to him and demanded that Lafayette
-turn over to the Duke the treasure chest of his army that his enemies
-supposed he had taken with him. At first Lafayette thought the request a
-joke; but when the demand was repeated he turned on the officer. "I am
-to infer, then, that if the Duke of Saxe Teschen had been in my place,
-he would have stolen the military chest of the army?" said he. The
-officer backed out of the room in confusion, and afterward no one dared
-to doubt the Frenchman's honesty.
-
-[Illustration: LAFAYETTE, A PRUSSIAN PRISONER]
-
-The prison at Wesel was mean and unhealthy, and the cells so small and
-cold and damp that the prisoners suffered greatly. Yet to every protest
-of Lafayette the only answer vouchsafed was that he should have better
-treatment if he would tell his captors the military plans of the army
-of France. His reply was always the same, an indignant refusal. The
-Jacobins had declared him a traitor to the government of the Commune,
-but he never repaid them by any treachery.
-
-The Prussians and Austrians, arch-enemies of liberty, felt that in
-Lafayette they had caught the chief apostle of freedom in all Europe,
-and for greater security they presently moved him from the prison at
-Wesel to the stronger fortress at Magdeburg on the Elbe. There Lafayette
-had a cell about eight feet by four in size, under the outer rampart,
-never lighted by a ray of sun. Its walls were damp with mould, and
-two guards constantly watched the prisoner. Even the nobles in Paris,
-victims of the Terror, were treated better than the Prussians treated
-Lafayette. For five months he stayed there, with no chance for exercise
-or change, proof against every threat and bribe. Then the King of
-Prussia, seeing that he would soon have to make peace with France, and
-unwilling that this leader of liberty should be set free, decided to
-hand Lafayette and his comrades over to the Emperor of Austria, the
-bitterest foe of freedom and of France.
-
-So Lafayette and several of the others were secretly transferred across
-the frontier to the fortress of Olmutz, a town of Moravia in central
-Austria. Here they were given numbers instead of names, and only a few
-officials knew who the prisoners were or where they were kept. Lafayette
-practically disappeared, as many other famous prisoners had disappeared
-in Austrian dungeons. Neither his wife and friends in France nor
-Washington in America had any inkling of what had become of him.
-
-When he had first left France on his way to Brussels he had written to
-his wife at Chavaniac. "Whatever may be the vicissitudes of fortune,
-my dear heart," he said, "you know that my soul is not of the kind to
-give way; but you know it too well not to have pity on the suffering
-that I experienced on leaving my country.... There is none among you who
-would wish to owe fortune to conduct contrary to my conscience. Join me
-in England; let us establish ourselves in America. We shall find there
-the liberty which exists no longer in France, and my tenderness will
-seek to recompense you for all the enjoyments you have lost." Later,
-in his first days in prison, he wrote to a friend in England, using a
-tooth-pick with some lemon juice and lampblack for pen and ink. "A
-prison," he said, "is the only proper place for me, and I prefer to
-suffer in the name of the despotism I have fought, than in the name of
-the people whose cause is dear to my heart, and which is profaned to-day
-by brigands."
-
-For as brigands he thought of Robespierre and his crew who were making
-of France a country of horror and fear. From time to time he had news
-of the execution in Paris of friends who had been very near and dear to
-him. When Louis XVI. was beheaded he wrote of it as "the assassination
-of the King, in which all the laws of humanity, of justice, and of
-national faith were trampled under foot." When his old friend La
-Rochefoucauld had fallen at the hands of the Terror he said, "The name
-of my unhappy friend La Rochefoucauld ever presents itself to me. Ah,
-that crime has most profoundly wounded my heart! The cause of the people
-is not less sacred to me; for that I would give my blood, drop by drop;
-I should reproach myself every instant of my life which was not devoted
-to that cause; _but the charm is lost_."
-
-The lover of liberty saw anarchy in the land he had worked to set free;
-king, nobles and many citizens swept away by the fury of a mob that
-mistook violence for freedom. Few things are more bitter than for a man
-who has labored for a great cause to see that cause turn and destroy his
-ideals.
-
-Meantime Madame Lafayette was suffering also. She was arrested at the
-old castle of Chavaniac and for a time imprisoned, persecuted, and even
-threatened with death. The state had denounced Lafayette as an _emigre_,
-or runaway, and had confiscated all his property. Yet through all these
-trials his wife remained calm and determined, her one purpose being to
-learn where her husband was and secure his release if possible. She
-wrote to Washington, who was then the President of the United States,
-begging him to intercede for her husband, and when she finally managed
-to find out where Lafayette was imprisoned she urged the Austrians to
-allow her to share his captivity.
-
-The Emperor of Austria turned a deaf ear to all requests made on behalf
-of Lafayette. The United States, however, was able to do something for
-the man who had befriended it, and deposited two thousand florins in
-Prussia, subject to his order, and obtained permission of the King of
-Prussia that Lafayette should be informed that his wife and children
-were alive.
-
-The prisoner might well have thought that his own family had shared the
-fate of so many of their relatives and friends. The name of Lafayette
-was no protection to them, rather an added menace in a land where the
-Jacobins held sway. On September 2, 1792, when the Reign of Terror was
-in full flood in Paris, Minister Roland ordered that Madame Lafayette
-should be arrested at Chavaniac. She was taken, with her aunt and her
-elder daughter, who refused to leave her, as far as the town of Puy, but
-there she wrote such vigorous letters of protest to Roland and other
-officials that she was allowed to return to her home on parole. In
-October of the next year she was again arrested, this time under the new
-law that called for the arrest of all persons who might be suspected of
-hostility to the government, and now she was actually put into a country
-prison. In June, 1794, Robespierre's agents brought her to Paris, and
-she was imprisoned in the College du Plessis, where her husband had
-gone to school as a boy. From there her next journey, according to the
-custom of that time, would have been to the guillotine.
-
-At this point, however, Gouverneur Morris, the Minister of the United
-States, stepped upon the scene. He had already advanced Madame Lafayette
-large sums of money, when her property had been confiscated; now when
-he heard that she was to be condemned to the guillotine by the butchers
-of the Revolution he immediately bearded those butchers in their den.
-He wrote to the authorities, the Committee of Safety, as the officials
-grotesquely called it, and told them that the execution of Madame
-Lafayette would make a very bad impression in America.
-
-The Committee of Safety were not disposed to listen to reason from any
-quarter. Yet, when they heard Gouverneur Morris say, "If you kill the
-wife of Lafayette all the enemies of the Republic and of popular liberty
-will rejoice; you will make America hostile, and justify England in
-her slanders against you," they hesitated and postponed ordering her
-execution. But, because of his protests against such violent acts of
-the Reign of Terror, Gouverneur Morris was sent back to America, on the
-ground that he had too much sympathy with the victims of "liberty!"
-
-Madame Lafayette was brought into court, and the Committee of Safety did
-its best to insult her. Said the Chief Commissioner, "I have old scores
-against you. I detest you, your husband, and your name!"
-
-Madame Lafayette answered him fearlessly, "I shall always defend my
-husband; and as for a name--there is no wrong in that."
-
-"You are insolent!" shouted the Commissioner, and was about to order her
-execution when he remembered Morris's words and sent her back to her
-prison instead.
-
-With her husband in prison in Austria, her young children left
-unprotected and far away from her, the plight of Madame Lafayette was
-hard indeed. But she was very brave, though she knew that any day might
-take her to the scaffold. Almost all the old nobility were brave.
-While Robespierre and his rabble made liberty and justice a mockery
-the prisoners maintained their old contempt for their jailers and
-held their heads as high as in the old days when they had taken their
-pleasure at Versailles.
-
-On July 22, 1794, Madame Lafayette's grandmother, the Marechale de
-Noailles, her mother, the Duchess d'Ayen, and her sister, the Vicomtesse
-de Noailles, were beheaded by the guillotine, victims of the popular
-rage against all aristocrats. A few days later the Reign of Terror came
-to a sudden end, the prey of the very excesses it had committed.
-
-The people were sick of blood; even the judges and executioners were
-weary. On July twenty-eighth Robespierre and his supporters were
-declared traitors and were carted off to the guillotine in their turn.
-The new revolution opened the prison doors to most of the captives,
-but it was not until February, 1795, that Madame Lafayette obtained
-her freedom, and then it was largely owing to the efforts of the new
-Minister of the United States, James Monroe. At once she flew to her
-children, and sent her son George to America to be under the protection
-of Washington. A friend had bought Chavaniac and gave it back to her,
-but another Reign of Terror seemed imminent and Madame Lafayette
-wanted to leave France. A passport was obtained for her, and with her
-daughters she went by sea to Hamburg. There the American consul gave her
-another passport, made out in the name of "Madame Motier, of Hartford,
-in Connecticut." Then she went to Austria and at Vienna presented
-herself to the grand chamberlain, the Prince of Rosemberg, who was an
-old acquaintance of her family. He took her to the Emperor, and from the
-latter she finally won permission to share her husband's captivity at
-Olmutz.
-
-Meantime Lafayette's health had suffered under his long imprisonment. In
-the dark damp fortress, deprived of exercise, of company, of books, he
-had passed many weary days. But the Fourth of July he remembered as the
-birthday of American freedom and spent the hours recollecting the happy
-time he had known in the young republic across the Atlantic.
-
-At last his wife and daughters joined him in his prison and told him
-of what had happened in France. Imprisonment was easier to bear now
-that his family was with him, but the confinement was hard on all of
-them, and presently the prison authorities, seeing Lafayette in need of
-exercise, gave him more liberty, allowing him to walk or ride each day,
-but always strongly guarded.
-
-His friends in America were not idle. Washington had earlier sent
-a letter to Prussia asking the liberation of Lafayette as a favor.
-But the prisoner had already been transferred to Austria. In May,
-1796, Washington wrote to the Emperor of Austria, and the American
-Minister, John Jay, presented the letter. "Permit me only to submit
-to your Majesty's consideration," wrote Washington, "whether his long
-imprisonment and the confiscation of his estate and the indigence and
-dispersion of his family, and the painful anxieties incident to all
-these circumstances, do not form an assemblage of sufferings which
-recommend him to the mediation of humanity. Allow me, sir, on this
-occasion, to be its organ; and to entreat that he may be permitted to
-come to this country, on such conditions and under such instructions as
-your Majesty may think it expedient to prescribe."
-
-Austria, however, did not intend to release the prisoner. She had too
-much fear of him as a leader of liberty. When at an earlier time a
-friend of Lafayette had asked for his release an official of Frederick
-the Great had refused the request on the same ground that Austria's
-emperor now took. "Monsieur de Lafayette," said this official, "is too
-fanatic on the subject of liberty; he does not hide it; all his letters
-show it; he could not keep quiet, if out of prison. I saw him when he
-was here, and still remember a statement of his, which surprised me very
-much at that time: 'Do you believe,' said he to me, 'that I went to
-America to make a military reputation for myself? I went for the sake of
-liberty. When a man loves it, he can rest only when he has established
-it in his own country.'"
-
-Before Madame Lafayette had joined her husband in the prison at Olmutz a
-friend had tried to help the captive to escape. At the time the Austrian
-officials were allowing Lafayette a little more freedom, although he
-was practically never out of the watchful sight of guards. The friend
-was a young man who had come to Vienna to try to find out where the
-famous Frenchman was imprisoned, the young American, Francis Kinloch
-Huger, who, as a small boy, had stood in the doorway of his father's
-house in South Carolina at midnight and helped to welcome Lafayette and
-his companions when they first reached American soil. Francis Huger's
-father had been attached to Lafayette's command during the campaign in
-Virginia, and the son had retained so deep an admiration for his hero
-that he had come to Europe to help him if he could.
-
-After he had been in Vienna some time Francis Huger met a German
-physician, Doctor Bollman, who was as great an admirer of Lafayette as
-the young American. Bollman said to Francis Huger, "Lafayette is in
-Olmutz," and then explained how he had found out the place where their
-hero was hidden. He had become acquainted with the physician who was
-visiting the Frenchman in prison, and had used this doctor, who knew
-nothing of his plans, as a go-between. By means of chemically-prepared
-paper and sympathetic ink he had actually communicated with Lafayette
-and had arranged a method of escape to be attempted some day when the
-prisoner was outdoors.
-
-Francis Huger entered eagerly into the plot, and the two conspirators
-made ready their horses and signals and other preparations for escape.
-Lafayette had learned part of their plans. As he rode out one day in
-November, 1794, accompanied by an officer and two soldiers, his two
-friends were ready for him. Lafayette and the officer got out of the
-carriage to walk along the road. The carriage, with the two soldiers,
-drove on. When it was far ahead, Huger and Bollman, who had been
-watching from their saddles, charged on the officer, while Lafayette
-turned on the latter, snatched at his unsheathed sword, and tried to
-disarm him.
-
-The Austrian officer fought gamely, and while Huger held the horses
-Bollman ran to the aid of the Frenchman, whose strength had been sapped
-by his long imprisonment. The two soldiers, alarmed at the sudden
-assault, made no effort to help their officer, but drove away for aid.
-Meantime the officer was thrown to the ground and held there by Doctor
-Bollman.
-
-Francis Huger, holding the restive horses with one hand, helped to gag
-the Austrian officer with his handkerchief. Then one of the horses
-broke from his grasp and dashed away. Bollman thrust a purse full
-of money into Lafayette's hand, and, still holding the struggling
-Austrian, called to Lafayette in English, so that the officer should not
-understand, "Get to Hoff! Get to Hoff!"
-
-Lafayette, who was very much excited, was too intent on escaping to pay
-special attention to Bollman's directions. He thought the latter was
-merely shouting, "Get off; get off!" and so, with the help of Francis
-Huger, he sprang to the saddle of the remaining horse and galloped away
-as fast as he could go. He did not take the road to Hoff, where his
-rescuers had arranged to have fresh horses waiting, but took another
-road which led to Jagerndorf on the German frontier. Before he reached
-Jagerndorf his horse gave out, and while he was trying to get a fresh
-mount he was recognized, arrested, and taken back to his prison at
-Olmutz.
-
-So the attempted escape failed. Huger and Bollman were arrested while
-they were hunting for the lost Lafayette. They were thrown into
-prison, put in chains, and nearly starved to death. And for some time
-after that the officials made Lafayette's life in prison even more
-uncomfortable than it had been before.
-
-Fortunately neither Huger nor Bollman died in their Austrian prison.
-After eight months in their cells they were set free and sent out of
-the country. Both went to America, where in time Doctor Bollman became
-a political adventurer and aided Aaron Burr in those schemes which
-ultimately brought Burr to trial for treason. Then Bollman might have
-been punished had not Lafayette remembered what he had done at Olmutz
-and begged President Jefferson to set him free. Francis Huger was among
-the Americans who welcomed Lafayette to the United States in 1824.
-
-The Frenchman, however, had to continue in prison in Austria. After his
-wife and daughters joined him the imprisonment grew less hard. But after
-a time his daughters fell ill of prison-fever, and soon their mother was
-sick also. She appealed to the Emperor for permission to go to Vienna to
-see a doctor. The Emperor answered that she could go to Vienna "only on
-condition that you do not go back to Olmutz."
-
-She would not desert her husband. "I will never expose myself to the
-horrors of another separation from my husband," she declared; and so
-she and her daughters stayed with Lafayette, enduring all manner of
-privations and sufferings for his sake.
-
-The world, however, had not forgotten Lafayette. America worked
-constantly to free him, Washington and Jefferson and Jay, Morris and
-Marshall and Monroe used all their influence with Austria, but America
-was not loved in the tyrannical court of Vienna and the appeals of her
-statesmen passed unheeded. England was generous also toward the man
-who had once fought against her. The general who had commanded the
-forces against him at the Brandywine moved Parliament again and again
-to interfere on behalf of the French hero, and Charles James Fox,
-the great English orator, pleaded in favor, as he said, "of a noble
-character, which will flourish in the annals of the world, and live in
-the veneration of posterity, when kings, and the crowns they wear, will
-be no more regarded than the dust to which they must return."
-
-Help finally came from his own land, though in a very strange guise.
-While Lafayette lay in his cell at Olmutz a new star was rising in the
-skies, a planet succeeding to the confusion of the Reign of Terror in
-France. A Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, was winning wonderful
-laurels as a general. From victory he strode to victory, and by the
-spring of 1797 he had broken the power of Austria, had crossed the
-Italian Alps, and in sight of the Emperor's capital was ready to
-dictate the terms of the treaty of Campo Formio. Then he remembered
-that a Frenchman, Lafayette, was still in an Austrian dungeon. Neither
-Bonaparte nor the Directory that now governed France wanted Lafayette
-to return to that country, but both were determined that Austria must
-give him up. Napoleon wrote that demand into the treaty. The Austrian
-Emperor objected, but Napoleon insisted and finally threatened, and he
-held the upper hand. The Emperor sent an officer to demand a written
-acknowledgment of his past good treatment from Lafayette and a promise
-never to enter Austria again. Lafayette refused to say anything about
-his past treatment but agreed to the second condition. Dissatisfied
-with this the Austrians represented to General Bonaparte that the
-prisoner had been set free and urged him to sign the treaty. Bonaparte
-saw through the ruse. He sent an officer to see that Lafayette was
-liberated, and only when he was satisfied of this would he make peace
-with the crafty Emperor.
-
-On September 17, 1797, Lafayette, after five years in prison, walked out
-of Olmutz with his wife and daughters a free man. Even then, however,
-the Emperor did not hand him over to the French; instead he had him
-delivered to the American consul, with the statement that "Monsieur the
-Marquis de Lafayette was released from imprisonment simply because of
-the Emperor's desire to favor and gratify America."
-
-The French Revolution had swept away Lafayette's estates and fortune,
-but his friends came to his assistance and helped to provide for him.
-Especially Americans were eager to show their appreciation of what
-he had done for their country. Washington, who had been caring for
-Lafayette's son at Mount Vernon, now sent him back to Europe, with a
-letter showing that the great American was as devoted as ever to the
-great Frenchman.
-
-Lafayette knew that his liberation was due to the brilliant young
-general, Bonaparte, and he wrote a letter to the latter expressing his
-gratitude. But there was considerable jealousy in the French government
-at that time; the letter was distasteful to some of the Directory, and
-they took their revenge by confiscating the little property that still
-belonged to Lafayette. Two Englishwomen, however, had left money to the
-Frenchman as a tribute to his "virtuous and noble character," and this
-enabled him to tide over the period until he could get back some of his
-native estates.
-
-The Netherlands offered Lafayette a home, and he went to the little
-town of Vianen, near Utrecht, to live. Here he wrote many letters to
-his friends in America, studied the amazing events that had happened
-in France since the day on which the States-General had first met at
-Versailles, and watched the wonderful course of the new leader, Napoleon
-Bonaparte, across the fields of Europe. Bonaparte puzzled him; he was
-not sure whether the Corsican was a liberator or a despot; but he saw
-that the General was restoring order to a France that was greatly in
-need of it, and hoped that he might accomplish some of the ends for
-which Lafayette and his friends had worked. Presently the time came when
-the exile felt that he might safely return to his home.
-
-
-
-
-XII
-
-IN THE DAYS OF NAPOLEON
-
-
-After the treaty of Campo Formio with Austria, which had secured the
-liberation of Lafayette, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris the
-leading man of France. The government in Paris, which had gone through
-one change after another since the end of the Reign of Terror, was now
-in the hands of what was known as the Directory. But the members of
-this, divided in their views, were not very popular with the people,
-who were so tired of disorder that they desired above everything else a
-strong hand at the helm of the state. The people were already looking to
-the brilliant young general as such a helmsman, and the Directors knew
-this, and so grew increasingly jealous of Bonaparte.
-
-Having settled his score with Austria Bonaparte suggested to the
-French government that he should strike a blow at England by invading
-Egypt. The Directory, glad to have him out of the country, agreed to
-this, and in May, 1798, Bonaparte departed on such an expedition. As
-soon as Bonaparte was safely away the enemies of France resumed their
-attacks, and when the French people saw that the Corsican was their
-surest defender they began to clamor more loudly against the Directory.
-Bonaparte kept himself informed of what was happening at home, and when
-he thought that the proper moment had come he left his army in Egypt
-and appeared in France. His welcome there made it clear that the people
-wanted him for their leader; they were weary of turmoil and constant
-changes in government, they were ready for a strong and able dictator.
-
-France had known ten years of disorder, bloodshed, anarchy, democratic
-misrule, financial ruin, and political failure, and the people were no
-longer so much concerned about liberty as they had once been. Bonaparte
-was crafty; he pretended that he wanted power in order to safeguard
-the principles that had been won in the Revolution. He went to Paris,
-and there, on November 9, 1799, was made First Consul, and the real
-dictator of France. The country was still a republic in name, but at
-once the First Consul began to gather all the reins of authority in his
-own hands.
-
-Under the Directory Lafayette had been an exile, forbidden to enter
-French territory. But with Napoleon in power conditions changed.
-Lafayette felt the greatest gratitude to the man who had freed him from
-Olmutz, he had the deepest admiration for the general who had won so
-many brilliant victories for France, and he was disposed to believe that
-Napoleon really intended to secure liberty for the country. When he
-heard of Napoleon's return from Egypt he wrote to his wife, who was in
-France at the time, "People jealous of Bonaparte see in me his future
-opponent; they are right, if he wishes to suppress liberty; but if he
-have the good sense to promote it, I will suit him in every respect. I
-do not believe him to be so foolish as to wish to be only a despot."
-
-He also sent a letter to Napoleon, in which he said, "The love of
-liberty and country would suffice for your arrival to fill me with joy
-and hope. To this desire for public happiness is joined a lively and
-profound sentiment for my liberator. Your greetings to the prisoners of
-Olmutz have been sent to me by her whose life I owe to you. I rejoice in
-all my obligations to you, citizen-general, and in the happy conviction
-that to cherish your glory and to wish your success is an act of civism
-as much as of attachment and gratitude."
-
-Friends procured the exile a passport and he returned to Paris. But
-Bonaparte was not glad to have him come back; the First Consul was in
-reality no friend of the principles of the Revolution, and he felt
-that such a man as Lafayette must inevitably oppose him and might even
-prejudice the people against him. He showed his anger unreservedly when
-friends told him of Lafayette's arrival, and the friends immediately
-advised the latter that he had better return to the Netherlands. But
-Lafayette, having made up his mind to come, would not budge now. "You
-should be sufficiently acquainted with me," he said to the men who
-brought him the news from the First Consul, "to know that this imperious
-and menacing tone would suffice to confirm me in the course which I have
-taken." And he added, "It would be very amusing for me to be arrested
-at night by the National Guard of Paris and imprisoned in the Temple the
-next day by the restorer of the principles of 1789."
-
-Madame Lafayette called on the First Consul, who received her kindly.
-She pleaded so eloquently for her husband, pointing out his natural
-desire to be in France, that Napoleon's anger vanished. He said that
-he regretted Lafayette's return only because it would "retard his
-progress toward the reestablishment of Lafayette's principles, and
-would force him to take in sail." "You do not understand me, madame,"
-he continued, "but General Lafayette will understand me; and not having
-been in the midst of affairs, he will feel that I can judge better than
-he. I therefore conjure him to avoid all publicity; I leave it to his
-patriotism." Madame Lafayette answered that that was her husband's wish.
-
-Believing that Lafayette had no desire to oppose him, Napoleon soon
-restored him to citizenship. Different as the two men were, each admired
-the strong qualities of the other. The First Consul could appreciate
-Lafayette's devotion to the cause of liberty, and Lafayette said to
-Napoleon, "I have but one wish, General,--a free government and you at
-the head of it."
-
-Napoleon, however, had no real liking for a free government. He had
-forgotten any belief in liberty that he might have had in the days
-when he was a poor and obscure lieutenant. He had tasted power, and
-was already looking forward to the time when he should be not only the
-most powerful man in France but in the whole world. To do that he must
-make his countrymen forget their recently won liberties. He must keep
-Lafayette, the greatest apostle of freedom, in the background, and
-not allow him to remind the people of his liberal dreams. So Napoleon
-adopted a policy of silence toward Lafayette. In February, 1800, the
-celebrated French orator Fontanes delivered a public eulogy on the
-character of Washington, who had lately died. Napoleon forbade the
-orator to mention the name of Lafayette in his address, and saw to it
-that Lafayette was not invited to the ceremony, nor any Americans. The
-bust of Washington was draped in banners that the First Consul had taken
-in battle.
-
-Lafayette's son George applied for and was given a commission in one of
-Napoleon's regiments of hussars. When his name was erased from the list
-of exiles Lafayette himself was restored to his rank of major-general
-in the French army, but he did not ask for any command. He went to
-Lagrange, an estate that his wife had inherited from her mother, and
-set himself to the work of trying to pay off the debts that had piled
-up while he was in prison in Austria. Like all the old aristocracy
-that returned to France after the Revolution he found that most of his
-property had been taken by the state and now had new owners and that the
-little that was left was burdened by heavy taxes.
-
-Chavaniac and a few acres near it came into his possession, but there
-were relatives who needed it as a home more than he did and he let them
-live there. He himself cultivated the farm at Lagrange, and was able in
-a few years to pay off his French creditors. But he was still greatly
-in debt to Gouverneur Morris and other Americans who had helped his
-wife with money when she had need of it, and these were loans that were
-difficult to pay.
-
-Lafayette was living quietly on his farm when Napoleon returned with
-fresh triumphs from Italy. The man who had been a general could not help
-but admire the great military genius of the First Consul. The latter
-felt that he had little now to fear from Lafayette, and the relations
-between the two men became quite friendly. Had they only been able to
-work together they might have accomplished a great deal for the good of
-France, but no two men could have been more fundamentally different in
-their characters and ideals than Lafayette and Napoleon.
-
-Occasionally they discussed their views on government, and Lafayette
-once said to the First Consul, "I do not ignore the effect of the crimes
-and follies which have profaned 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; it is from you that it is expected." Napoleon smiled; he had his own
-notions about liberty, and he felt himself strong enough to force those
-notions upon France.
-
-Yet the First Consul did wish for the good opinion and support of
-Lafayette. It was at his suggestion that certain friends urged the
-latter to become a Senator. Lafayette felt that, disapproving as he did
-of some of the policies of the new government, he must decline, and did
-so, stating his reasons frankly. Then Napoleon's minister Talleyrand
-offered to send him as the French representative to the United States,
-but this Lafayette declined also. His political views and the need
-of cultivating the farm at Lagrange were sufficient to keep him from
-accepting office.
-
-Lafayette enjoyed his talks with Napoleon, though the latter was often
-inclined to be domineering. Lord Cornwallis came to Paris in 1802 to
-conclude the Treaty of Amiens between France and England, and Lafayette
-met his old opponent at dinner at the house of Joseph Bonaparte, the
-brother of Napoleon. The next time Napoleon and Lafayette met the former
-said, "I warn you that Lord Cornwallis gives out that you are not cured
-yet."
-
-"Of what?" answered Lafayette. "Is it of loving liberty? What could have
-disgusted me with it? The extravagances and crimes of the tyranny of the
-Terror? They only make me hate still more every arbitrary system, and
-attach me more and more to my principles."
-
-Napoleon said seriously, "I should tell you, General Lafayette, and I
-see with regret, that by your manner of expressing yourself on the acts
-of this government you give to its enemies the weight of your name."
-
-"What better can I do?" asked Lafayette. "I live in retirement in the
-country, I avoid occasions for speaking; but whenever any one comes to
-ask me whether your system is conformant to my ideas of liberty, I shall
-answer that it is not; for, General, I certainly wish to be prudent, but
-I shall not be false."
-
-"What do you mean," said Napoleon, "with your arbitrary system? Yours
-was not so, I admit; but you had against your adversaries the resource
-of riots.... I observed you carefully.... You had to get up riots."
-
-"If you call the national insurrection of July, 1789, a riot," Lafayette
-answered, "I lay claim to that one; but after that period I wanted no
-more. I have repressed many; many were gotten up against me; and, since
-you appeal to my experience regarding them, I shall say that in the
-course of the Revolution I saw no injustice, no deviation from liberty,
-which did not injure the Revolution itself."
-
-Napoleon ended the conversation by saying, "After all, I have spoken to
-you as the head of the government, and in this character I have cause to
-complain of you; but as an individual, I should be content, for in all
-that I hear of you, I have recognized that, in spite of your severity
-toward the acts of the government, there has always been on your part
-personal good-will toward myself."
-
-And this in truth expressed Lafayette's attitude toward Napoleon,
-admiration and friendship for the General, but opposition to the growing
-love of power of the First Consul.
-
-That love of power soon made itself manifest in Napoleon's election
-to the new office of "Consul for life." Meantime Lafayette was busy
-cultivating his farm, work which he greatly enjoyed. And to Lagrange
-came many distinguished English and American visitors, eager to meet the
-owner and hear him tell of his adventurous career on two continents.
-
-The United States treated him well. While he was still in prison at
-Olmutz he was placed on the army list at full pay. Congress voted to
-him more than eleven thousand acres on the banks of the Ohio, and when
-the great territory of Louisiana was acquired a tract near the city
-of New Orleans was set aside for him and he was informed that the
-government of Louisiana was destined for him. But Madame Lafayette's
-health had been delicate ever since those trying days in Austria, and
-that, combined with Lafayette's own feeling that he ought to remain in
-France, led him to decline the eager invitations that were sent him to
-settle in America.
-
-Napoleon's star led the Corsican on, farther and farther away from the
-path that Lafayette hoped he would follow. In May, 1804, the man who
-was "Consul for life" became the Emperor of France, and seated himself
-on the most powerful throne in Europe. Lafayette was tremendously
-disappointed at this step. Again Napoleon's friends made overtures to
-the General, and the latter's own cousin, the Count de Segur, who had
-wanted to go with him to America to fight for freedom, and who was now
-the Grand Master of Ceremonies at the new Emperor's court, wrote to him
-asking him to become one of the high officers of the Legion of Honor.
-Lafayette refused the invitation, and from that time the friendship
-between him and Napoleon ceased. The Emperor had now no use for the
-lover of liberty, and carried his dislike for the latter so far that
-Lafayette's son George, though a brave and brilliant officer in the
-army, was forced to resign his commission.
-
-Napoleon went on and on, his victories over all the armies of Europe
-dazzling the eyes of his people. Those who had been aristocrats under
-Louis XVI. and those who had been Jacobins during the Reign of Terror
-were glad to accept the smallest favors from the all-powerful Emperor.
-But Lafayette stayed away from Paris and gave all his attention to his
-farm, which began to prove productive. In his house portraits of his
-great friends, Washington, Franklin, La Rochefoucauld, Fox, kept fresh
-the memory of more stirring times.
-
-But France, and even the Emperor, had not forgotten him. Once in an
-angry speech to his chief councilors about the men who had brought about
-the French Revolution, Napoleon exclaimed, "Gentlemen, this talk is not
-aimed at you; I know your devotion to the throne. Everybody in France is
-corrected. I was thinking of the only man who is not,--Lafayette. He has
-never retreated an inch."
-
-And at another time, when a conspiracy against the life of the Emperor
-was discovered, Napoleon was inclined to charge Lafayette with having
-been concerned in it. "Don't be afraid," said Napoleon's brother Joseph.
-"Wherever there are aristocrats and kings you are certain not to find
-Lafayette."
-
-Meantime at Lagrange Madame Lafayette fell ill and died in December,
-1807. No husband and wife were ever more devoted to each other, and
-Lafayette expressed his feelings in regard to her in a letter to his
-friend Maubourg. "During the thirty-four years of a union, in which
-the love and the elevation, the delicacy and the generosity of her
-soul charmed, adorned, and honored my days," he wrote, "I was so
-much accustomed to all that she was to me, that I did not distinguish
-her from my own existence. Her heart wedded all that interested me. I
-thought that I loved her and needed her; but it is only in losing her
-that I can at last clearly see the wreck of me that remains for the rest
-of my life; for there only remain for me memories of the woman to whom I
-owed the happiness of every moment, undimmed by any cloud."
-
-Madame Lafayette deserved the tribute. Never for one moment in the
-course of all the storms of her husband's career had she wavered in her
-loyal devotion to his ideals and interests. The little girl who had met
-him first in her father's garden in Paris had stood by him when all
-her family and friends opposed him, had been his counselor in the days
-of the French Revolution, and had gone to share his prison in Austria.
-History rarely says enough about the devoted wives of the great men who
-have helped the world. No hero ever found greater aid and sympathy when
-he needed it most than Lafayette had from his wife Adrienne.
-
-From his home at Lagrange the true patriot of France watched the
-wonderful course of the Emperor of France. It was a course amazing in
-its victories. The men who had been an undrilled rabble in the days of
-the Revolution were now the veterans of the proudest army in Europe.
-The people did not have much more liberty than they had enjoyed under
-Louis XVI.; they had exchanged one despotic government for another, but
-Napoleon fed them on victories, dazzled their vision, swept them off
-their feet by his long succession of triumphs.
-
-The treaty of Tilsit, made in July, 1807, followed the great victories
-of Eylau and Friedland, which crushed the power of Prussia and changed
-Russia into an ally of France. Napoleon's might reached its zenith then.
-No European nation dared to contest his claim of supremacy. He was the
-ruler of France, of Northern Italy, of Eastern Germany; he had made
-Spain a dependency, and placed his brothers on the thrones of Holland,
-Naples, and Westphalia. For five years his power remained at this
-height. In 1812 he set out to invade Russia with an army of five hundred
-thousand men, gathered from half the countries of Europe. He stopped at
-Dresden, and kings of the oldest lineage, who only held their crowns at
-his pleasure, came to do homage to the little Corsican soldier who had
-made himself the most powerful man in the world. Only one country still
-dared to resist him, England, who held control of the seas, but who was
-feeling the effect of the commercial war he was waging against her.
-
-But the very size of Napoleon's dominion was a source of weakness. The
-gigantic power he had built up depended on the life and abilities of one
-man. No empire can rest for long on such a foundation. When Napoleon
-left the greater part of the grand army in the wilderness of Russia
-and hurried back to Paris the first ominous signs of cracks in the
-foundation of his empire began to appear. France was almost exhausted
-by his campaigns, but the Emperor needed more triumphs and demanded
-more men. He won more victories, but his enemies increased. The French
-people were tired of war; there came a time when they were ready to
-barter Napoleon for peace. The allied armies that were ranged against
-him occupied the hills about Paris in March, 1814, and on April fourth
-of that year the Emperor Napoleon abdicated his throne at Fontainebleau.
-
-The illness of relatives brought Lafayette to Paris at the same time,
-and seeing the storms that again threatened his country he did what
-he could to bring order out of confusion. His son and his son-in-law
-Lasteyrie enlisted in the National Guard, and his other son-in-law,
-Maubourg, joined the regular army. When the allies entered Paris
-Lafayette witnessed the downfall of the Empire with mixed emotions.
-He had never approved of Napoleon, but he knew that he had at least
-given the country a stable government. And when the allies placed the
-brother of Lafayette's old friend Louis XVI. on the throne, with the
-title of Louis XVIII., he hoped that the new king might rule according
-to a liberal constitution, and hastened to offer his services to that
-sovereign.
-
-The people, tired of Napoleon's wars, wanting peace now as they had
-wanted it after the Revolution, agreed passively to the change of
-rulers. But Louis XVIII., a true Bourbon, soon showed that he had
-learned nothing from the misfortunes of his family. Lafayette met the
-Emperor of Russia in Paris, and the latter spoke to him with misgiving
-of the fact that the Bourbons appeared to be returning as obtuse and
-illiberal as ever. "Their misfortunes should have corrected them," said
-Lafayette.
-
-"Corrected!" exclaimed the Emperor. "They are uncorrected and
-incorrigible. There is only one, the Duke of Orleans, who has any
-liberal ideas. But from the others expect nothing at all."
-
-Lafayette soon found that was true. The new king proved the saying about
-his family, that the Bourbons never learned nor forgot. Louis XVIII. was
-that same Count of Provence whom Lafayette had taken pains to offend
-at Versailles when he did not want to be attached as a courtier to his
-staff. The King remembered that incident, and when Lafayette offered to
-serve him now showed his resentment and anger very plainly.
-
-Seeing that there was nothing he could do in Paris, Lafayette retired
-again to Lagrange, and there watched the course of events. Napoleon, in
-exile on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, was watching too, and
-he soon saw that France was not satisfied with her new sovereign. Agents
-brought him word that the people were only waiting for him to overthrow
-the Bourbon rule, and on March 1, 1815, he landed on the shores of
-Provence with a few hundred soldiers of his old Guard to reconquer his
-empire.
-
-He had judged the situation rightly. As he advanced the people rose to
-greet him, the cities opened their gates, the soldiers sent to oppose
-him rallied to his standard. As Napoleon neared Paris Louis XVIII. fled
-across the frontier.
-
-Again Lafayette went to the capital. "I had no faith in the conversion
-of Napoleon," he said, "and I saw better prospects in the awkward
-and pusillanimous ill-will of the Bourbons than in the vigorous and
-profound perversity of their adversary." But he found that the people of
-Paris wanted Napoleon again, and he heard with hope that the restored
-Emperor had agreed to a constitution and had established a Senate and a
-Representative Assembly elected by popular vote. These decisions sounded
-well, and as a result of them Lafayette allowed himself to be elected a
-member of the Representative Assembly, or Chamber of Deputies.
-
-The other nations of Europe were furious when they heard of Napoleon's
-return. They collected their armies again and prepared for a new
-campaign. Exhausted though France was, the Emperor was able to raise
-a new army of six hundred thousand men. With these he tried to defeat
-his enemies, but on the field of Waterloo on June 18, 1814, he was
-decisively beaten and hurried back to Paris to see what could be done to
-retrieve defeat.
-
-He found the Chamber of Deputies openly hostile; its members wanted
-him to abdicate. He held meetings with the representatives, among whom
-Lafayette now held a chief place. At last the Assembly gave Napoleon
-an hour in which to abdicate the throne. Finally he agreed to abdicate
-in favor of his son. The Assembly did not want the young Napoleon as
-Emperor, and decided instead on a government by a commission of five
-men. Napoleon's hour was over, his star had set; he was sent a prisoner
-to the far-distant island of St. Helena to end his days.
-
-Lafayette wanted to see the new government adopt the ideas he had
-had in mind when France had first wrung a constitution from Louis
-XVI., and would have liked to serve on the commission that had charge
-of the country. Instead he was sent to make terms of peace with the
-allied armies that had been fighting Napoleon. And while he was away
-on this business the commission in Paris was dickering behind his
-back to restore Louis XVIII. The allies had taken possession of the
-French capital with their soldiers, the white flag of the Bourbons was
-everywhere replacing the tricolor of the Empire, and when Lafayette
-returned he found the King again upon his throne. Lafayette was
-disgusted with what he considered the folly and selfishness of the
-rulers of his country; he protested against the return of the old
-autocratic Bourbons, but the people were now more than ever eager for
-peace and harmony and accepted meekly whomever their leaders gave them.
-
-Louis XVIII. was a weak, despotic ruler; the members of his house
-were equally narrow-minded and overbearing. Lafayette opposed their
-government in every way he could. In 1819 he was elected a member of
-the new Assembly, and for four years as a deputy he fought against
-the encroachments of the royal power. He took part in a conspiracy to
-overthrow the King, and when his friends cautioned him that he was
-risking his life and his property he answered, "Bah! I have already
-lived a long time, and it seems to me that I would worthily crown my
-political career by dying on a scaffold in the cause of liberty."
-
-That conspiracy failed, and although Lafayette was known to have been
-connected with the plot, neither the King nor his ministers dared to
-imprison him or even to call him to account. A year later he joined with
-other conspirators against the Bourbons, but again the plans failed
-through blunders. The Chamber of Deputies attempted to investigate the
-affair, but Lafayette so boldly challenged a public comparison of his
-own and the government's course that the royalists shrank from pursuing
-the matter further. They knew what the people thought of their champion
-and did not dare to lay a hand upon him.
-
-He retired from public life after this second conspiracy and went
-to live with his children and grandchildren at his country home of
-Lagrange. From there he wrote often to Thomas Jefferson and his other
-friends in the United States. If the Revolution in France had failed to
-bring about that republic he dreamed of the struggle in America had at
-least borne good fruits. More and more he thought of the young nation
-across the sea, in the birth of which he had played a great part, and
-more and more he wished to visit it again. So when he was invited by
-President Monroe in 1824 he gladly accepted, and for the fourth time set
-out across the Atlantic.
-
-
-
-
-XIII
-
-THE UNITED STATES WELCOMES THE HERO
-
-
-The first half century of American independence was drawing near, and
-the Congress of the United States, mindful of the days when Lafayette
-had offered his sword in defense of liberty, voted unanimously that
-President Monroe be requested to invite the General to visit America as
-the guest of the nation. President Monroe joyfully acted as Congress
-requested, and placed at Lafayette's service an American war-ship.
-The Frenchman, now sixty-seven years old, was eager to accept, but he
-declined the use of the war-ship, and sailed instead, with his son
-George Washington Lafayette and his private secretary on the American
-merchantman _Cadmus_, leaving Havre on July 13, 1824.
-
-As he sailed out of Havre the American ships in the harbor ran up their
-flags in his honor and fired their guns in salute, an intimation of the
-welcome that was awaiting him on the other side of the Atlantic. The
-_Cadmus_ reached Staten Island on August fifteenth, and the guest landed
-in the midst of cheering throngs. Most of the men who had taken part
-with him in the birth of the country had now passed off the scene, and
-to Americans Lafayette was a tradition, one of the few survivors of the
-nation's early days of strife and triumph. He was no longer the slim and
-eager boy of 1777; he was now a large, stout man, slightly lame, but his
-smile was still the same, and so was the delight with which he greeted
-the people.
-
-The United States had grown prodigiously in the interval between this
-visit and his last. Instead of thirteen separate colonies there were
-now twenty-four united States. The population had increased from three
-to twelve millions. What had been wilderness was now ripe farmland;
-backwoods settlements had grown into flourishing towns built around
-the church and the schoolhouse. Agriculture and commerce were thriving
-everywhere, and everywhere Lafayette saw signs of the wisdom, honesty,
-and self-control which had established a government under which men
-could live in freedom and happiness.
-
-His visit carried him far and wide through the United States. From New
-York he went by way of New Haven and Providence to Boston, from there
-to Portsmouth by the old colonial road through Salem, Ipswich, and
-Newburyport. From there he returned to New York by Lexington, Worcester,
-Hartford, and the Connecticut River. The steamer _James Kent_ took him
-to the old familiar scenes on the banks of the Hudson, reminding him
-of the day when he and Washington had ridden to the house of Benedict
-Arnold.
-
-Starting again from New York he traveled through New Jersey to
-Philadelphia, the scene of the stirring events of his first visit, and
-thence to Baltimore and Washington. He went to Mount Vernon, Yorktown,
-Norfolk, Monticello, Raleigh, Charleston, and Savannah. In the spring of
-1825 he was at New Orleans, and from there he ascended the Mississippi
-and Ohio Rivers, sailed up Lake Erie, saw the Falls of Niagara, went
-through Albany and as far north as Portland, Maine. Returning by Lake
-Champlain he reached New York in time for the great celebration of the
-Fourth of July in 1825. He had made a very comprehensive tour of the
-United States.
-
-The whole of this long journey was one triumphal progress. He constantly
-drove through arches bearing the words "Welcome, Lafayette!" Every
-house where he stopped became a Mecca for admiring crowds. The country
-had never welcomed any man as it did the gallant Frenchman. Balls,
-receptions, dinners, speeches, gifts of every kind were thrust upon him;
-and the leading men of the republic were constantly by his side.
-
-He was present at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill
-Monument and heard the great oration of Daniel Webster. "Fortunate,
-fortunate man!" exclaimed the orator turning toward Lafayette. "With
-what measure of devotion will you not thank God for the circumstances
-of your extraordinary life! You are connected with both hemispheres and
-with two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain that the electric spark
-of liberty should be conducted, through you, from the New World to the
-Old; and we, who are now here to perform this duty of patriotism, have
-all of us long ago received it from our fathers to cherish your name and
-your virtues. You now behold the field, the renown of which reached you
-in the heart of France and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom. You see
-the lines of the little redoubt, thrown up by the incredible diligence
-of Prescott, defended to the last extremity by his lion-hearted valor,
-and within which the corner-stone of our monument has now taken its
-position. You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner,
-M'Cleary, Moore, and other early patriots fell with him. Those who
-survived that day, and whose lives have been prolonged to the present
-hour, are now around you. Some of them you have known in the trying
-scenes of the war. Behold, they now stretch forth their feeble arms to
-embrace you! Behold, they raise their trembling voices to invoke the
-blessing of God on you and yours forever!"
-
-The welcome he received in New York and New England was equaled by that
-of Philadelphia and Baltimore and the South. At Charleston Colonel
-Huger, the devoted friend who had tried to rescue Lafayette from his
-Olmutz prison, was joined with him in demonstrations of the people's
-regard. A great military celebration was given in Lafayette's honor at
-Yorktown, and in the course of it a box of candles was found which had
-formed part of the stores of Lord Cornwallis, and the candles were used
-to furnish the light for the evening's entertainment.
-
-Lafayette first went to Washington in October, 1824. He was met by
-twenty-five young girls dressed in white and a military escort. After
-a short reception at the Capitol he was driven to the White House.
-There President Monroe, the members of his cabinet, and officers of the
-army and navy were gathered to receive him. As the guest of the nation
-entered, all rose, and the President advanced and welcomed him in the
-name of the United States. Lafayette stayed in Washington several days
-and then went to make some visits in the neighborhood.
-
-During his absence Congress met and received a message from the
-President which set forth Lafayette's past services to the country, the
-great enthusiasm with which the people had welcomed him, and recommended
-that a gift should be made him which should be worthy of the character
-and greatness of the American nation. Senator Hayne described how the
-rights and pay belonging to his rank in the army had never been claimed
-by Lafayette and how the land that had been given him in 1803 had
-afterward through a mistake been granted to the city of New Orleans.
-Then Congress unanimously passed a bill directing the treasurer of the
-United States to pay to General Lafayette, as a recognition of services
-that could never be sufficiently recognized or appreciated, the sum of
-two hundred thousand dollars.
-
-When he returned to Washington he went to the Capitol, where Congress
-received him in state, every member springing to his feet in welcome
-to the nation's guest. Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House of
-Representatives, held out his hand to the gallant Frenchman. "The vain
-wish has been sometimes indulged," said Henry Clay to Lafayette,
-"that Providence would allow the patriot, after death, to return to
-his country and to contemplate the immediate changes which had taken
-place; to view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains
-leveled, the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress of the
-arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of population.
-General, your present visit to the United States is a realization of
-the consoling object of that wish. You are in the midst of posterity.
-Everywhere you must have been struck with the great changes, physical
-and moral, which have occurred since you left us. Even this very city,
-bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to us, has since
-emerged from the forest which then covered its site. In one respect you
-behold us unaltered, and this is the sentiment of continued devotion to
-liberty, and of ardent affection and profound gratitude to your departed
-friend, the Father of his Country, and to you, and to your illustrious
-associates in the field and in the Cabinet, for the multiplied blessings
-which surround us, and for the very privilege of addressing you which
-I now exercise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished by more than ten
-millions of people, will be transmitted with unabated vigor down the
-tide of time, through the countless millions who are destined to inhabit
-this continent to the latest posterity."
-
-Henry Clay was a great prophet as well as a great orator. We know now
-how the affection of the United States for Lafayette has grown and grown
-during the century in which the republic has stretched from the Atlantic
-to the Pacific and its people increased from ten millions to more than a
-hundred millions.
-
-In his journey through the country Lafayette passed through thousands
-of miles of wilderness and had several opportunities to renew his old
-acquaintance with the Indians. He had won their friendship during the
-Revolution by his sympathy for all men. Now he found that they had
-not forgotten the young chief whom they had called Kayoula. A girl of
-the Southern Creeks showed him a paper she had kept as a relic which
-turned out to be a letter of thanks written to her father by Lafayette
-forty-five years before. In western New York he met the famous chief Red
-Jacket, who reminded him that it was he who had argued the cause of the
-Indians at the council at Fort Schuyler in 1784. Lafayette remembered,
-and it delighted him greatly that the Indians were as eager to greet him
-as their white brothers.
-
-Only one mishap occurred during the many journeys which might easily
-have proved full of perils. While ascending the Ohio River on his way to
-Louisville his steamer struck on a snag on a dark and rainy night. The
-boat immediately began to fill. Lafayette was hurried into a small boat
-and rowed ashore, in spite of his protests that he would not leave the
-steamer until he secured a snuff-box that Washington had given him. His
-secretary went below and got the snuff-box and his son George saved some
-other articles of value. All the party were safely landed, but they had
-to spend some hours on the river-bank with no protection from the rain
-and only a few crackers to eat. The next morning a freight steamer took
-them off and they proceeded on their journey.
-
-When he was in Washington Lafayette made a visit to Mount Vernon, and
-spent some time in the beautiful house and grounds where he had once
-walked with the man whose friendship had been so dear to him. Like
-Washington, almost all the men of the Revolution had departed. The
-Frenchman found few of the soldiers and statesmen he had known then.
-One, however, Colonel Nicholas Fish, who had been with him at the
-storming of the redoubt at Yorktown, welcomed him in New York and went
-with him up the Hudson. "Nick," said Lafayette, pointing out a certain
-height to Colonel Fish, "do you remember when we used to ride down that
-hill with the Newburgh girls on an ox-sled?" Many places along the
-Hudson served to remind him of incidents of the time when Washington had
-made his headquarters there.
-
-In New York the Frenchman visited the widow of General Montgomery and
-Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. He found some old friends in Philadelphia and
-Baltimore. In Boston he saw again the venerable John Adams, who had been
-the second President of the country. He went to Thomas Jefferson's home
-of Monticello in Virginia, and passed some days with the man whom he
-revered almost as much as he did Washington. With Jefferson he talked
-over the lessons that were to be learned from the French Revolution and
-the career of Napoleon. And he met foreigners in the United States who
-called to mind the recent eventful days in his own land. He visited
-Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, at Bordentown in New Jersey. At
-Baltimore he found Dubois Martin, the man who as secretary to the Duke
-de Broglie had helped Lafayette to secure the ship in which he had first
-sailed to America. And at Savannah he discovered Achille Murat, the son
-of Joachim, the ex-king of Naples, one of the men Napoleon had placed
-upon a temporary throne, and learned that Murat was now cultivating an
-orange-orchard in Florida.
-
-A man named Haguy came one hundred and fifty miles to see the General,
-and proved to be one of the sailors who had crossed on the _Victory_
-with him and had later fought under him in the Continental Army. Here
-and there he found veterans of his campaign in Virginia, and Lafayette
-was as glad to see his old soldiers as they were to welcome him.
-
-Before he left for Europe John Quincy Adams, the son of the second
-President, was elected to succeed Monroe. The new President invited
-Lafayette to dine at the White House in company with the three
-ex-Presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, all of them old and
-trusted friends of the Frenchman. What a dinner that must have been,
-with five such men at the table!
-
-Perhaps the thing that delighted him most in America was the
-self-reliant independence that marked the people everywhere. This type
-of democracy was most inspiring to a man who had seen the constant
-turmoil and bickerings of the Revolution and Napoleonic era in France.
-America was young and her citizens were too busy developing their
-country to pay much attention to class distinctions or the social
-ambitions that were so prominent in Europe. They felt quite able to run
-their government to suit themselves, and it seemed to Lafayette that
-they were working out their problems in a most satisfactory manner.
-
-In 1824 he witnessed a Presidential election with four candidates,
-Adams, Jackson, Clay, and Crawford. Party feelings ran high, and there
-was great excitement. But when the election was over the people settled
-down to their work again in remarkable harmony and the government
-continued its course serenely. This Lafayette, with his knowledge of
-other countries, regarded as evidence of a most unusual genius for
-self-control in the American nation.
-
-All parties, all classes of men, praised and venerated him as they
-praised and venerated the founders of their republic. His tour was a
-tremendous popular success, the greatest reception ever given to a
-guest by the United States. It must have made up to him for the many
-disappointments of his career in France. And when he sailed for home he
-knew that the country to which he had given all he had in youth would
-never cease to love and honor him.
-
-President John Quincy Adams at the White House, standing beside
-Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, said to Lafayette, "You are ours,
-sir, by that unshaken sentiment of gratitude for your services which
-is a precious portion of our inheritance; ours by that tie of love,
-stronger than death, which has linked your name for the endless ages
-of time with the name of Washington. At the painful moment of parting
-with you we take comfort in the thought that, wherever you may be, to
-the last pulsation of your heart, our country will ever be present to
-your affections. And a cheering consolation assures us that we are not
-called to sorrow,--most of all that we shall see your face no more,--for
-we shall indulge the pleasing anticipation of beholding our friend
-again. In the name of the whole people of the United States, I bid you a
-reluctant and affectionate farewell."
-
-An American frigate, named the _Brandywine_, in compliment to
-Lafayette's first blow for liberty in America, carried the guest of the
-nation back to France. And the memory of that visit, and of what it
-stood for, has been kept green in American history ever since.
-
-
-
-
-XIV
-
-THE LOVER OF LIBERTY
-
-
-The frigate _Brandywine_ reached Havre on October 5, 1825. The French
-people had heard of the wonderful reception given Lafayette by the
-United States and now they, in their turn, wanted to welcome the
-returning hero of liberty. But the Bourbon king who sat on the throne
-of France and the royalists disliked Lafayette so much that they did
-their best to prevent the people from greeting him. It was only after
-a long discussion that the forts of the harbor at Havre were permitted
-to return the salute of the _Brandywine_, and at Rouen, while citizens
-were serenading their hero beneath the windows of the house where he
-was staying, officials of the government ordered a troop of soldiers to
-charge upon the crowd and disperse it with drawn swords. The people,
-however, insisted on honoring their famous fellow-countryman. They,
-as well as the Bourbon king, saw in him the patriot and champion of
-independence. Louis XVIII. had been succeeded on the throne by his
-brother, Charles X., and the latter said of Lafayette, "There is a man
-who never changes." And the people knew this, and honored the General
-for his lifelong devotion to their cause.
-
-He went back to his quiet family life at Lagrange. Prominent statesmen
-came to him for advice, but he rarely went to Paris. The nobility had
-been restored to their ancient social standing, and Lafayette was urged
-to resume his title of marquis. He refused to do this, however, and the
-refusal embittered the royalists even more against him. The Bourbon
-government feared his influence in 1825, just as the aristocrats had
-feared it in 1785, the Jacobins in 1795, and Napoleon in 1805.
-
-Yet Charles X. could not always conceal the fact that he had a strong
-personal liking for the old republican. One day in 1829 the newspapers
-announced that Lafayette was ill. The King met several members of the
-Chamber of Deputies. "Have you any news of Monsieur de Lafayette?" asked
-King Charles. "How is he?"
-
-"Much better, sire," answered a deputy.
-
-"Ah! I am very glad of it!" said the King. "That is a man whom I like
-much, and who has rendered services to our family that I do not forget.
-We have always encountered each other, although moving in opposite
-directions; we were born in the same year; we learned to ride on
-horseback together at the Versailles riding-school, and he belonged
-to my bureau in the Assembly of the Notables. I take a great deal of
-interest in him."
-
-King Charles and his friends, however, paid no attention to the new
-spirit that was awake in France. The people had won a constitution, but
-the King tried to limit it as far as he could and to override it in some
-ways. He roused the resentment of the country by trying to bring back
-the old extravagance of his ancestors, and he even dared to attempt to
-intimidate the Chamber of Deputies. In 1829 he dissolved the National
-Assembly and appointed as ministers men who had won the hatred of the
-nation for their autocratic views. The gauntlet was thrown down between
-king and people, and the latter were not slow to pick it up.
-
-At this time Lafayette happened to be traveling to Chavaniac, where
-his son now lived. He was greeted at every town with the usual marks
-of respect. At Puy he was given a public dinner, and toasts were drunk
-to "The charter, to the Chamber of Deputies, the hope of France!" When
-he reached the city of Grenoble he was met by a troop of horsemen, who
-escorted him to the gates. There citizens presented him with a crown
-of oak leaves made of silver "as a testimony of the gratitude of the
-people, and as an emblem of the strength with which the inhabitants
-of Grenoble, following his example, will sustain their rights and the
-constitution."
-
-All along his route he was greeted with cheers and expressions that
-showed the people looked to him to protect their rights. At Lyons a
-speaker protested against the recent unlawful acts of the King and spoke
-of the situation as critical. "I should qualify as critical the present
-moment," Lafayette replied, "if I had not recognized everywhere on my
-journey, and if I did not perceive in this powerful city, the calm and
-even scornful firmness of a great people which knows its rights, feels
-its strength, and will be faithful to its duties."
-
-Through the winter of 1829-30 the hostile attitude of Charles X. to his
-people continued. The new Chamber of Deputies was rebellious, and again
-the King dissolved it and ordered fresh elections. The country elected
-new deputies who were even more opposed to the King than the former
-ones had been. Then King Charles, urged on by his ministers, resolved
-to take a decisive step, to issue four edicts revoking the liberty of
-the press and taking from the deputies their legal powers. "Gentlemen,"
-said the King to his ministers as he signed the edicts, "these are grave
-measures. You can count upon me as I count upon you. Between us, this is
-now a matter of life and death."
-
-The King had virtually declared war on the country. The country answered
-by taking up arms. The royal troops in Paris, moving to take control
-of important points in the city, were met by armed citizens who fought
-them in the streets. Marmont, head of the King's military household,
-sent word to Charles, "It is no longer a riot, it is a revolution. It
-is urgent that your Majesty should adopt measures of pacification. The
-honor of the crown may yet be saved; to-morrow perhaps it will be too
-late."
-
-King Charles paid no heed. The citizens defeated the royal troops, and
-in a few days had them besieged in their headquarters. Then the deputies
-turned to Lafayette and urged him to accept the position of commander
-of the National Guard, the same position he had held many years before.
-"I am invited," he answered, "to undertake the organization of the
-defense. It would be strange and even improper, especially for those who
-have given former pledges of devotion to the national cause, to refuse
-to answer the appeals addressed to them. Instructions and orders are
-demanded from me on all sides. My replies are awaited. Do you believe
-that in the presence of the dangers which threaten us immobility suits
-my past and present life? No! My conduct at seventy-three years of age
-shall be what it was at thirty-two."
-
-Lafayette took command of the Guards and quickly had the city of Paris
-in his possession. Only then did King Charles, fearing alike for
-his crown and his life now, consent to sign a new ordinance revoking
-his former edicts. Commissioners brought the ordinance of the King
-to Lafayette at the Hotel de Ville. "It is too late now," Lafayette
-declared. "We have revoked the ordinances ourselves. Charles X. has
-ceased to reign."
-
-The question now was as to the new form of government for the country.
-The people still remembered the days of the Reign of Terror and were
-not ready for a real republic. The Duke of Orleans, who had opposed
-King Charles, was very popular, and it was decided to appoint him
-lieutenant-general of the nation. The people would have liked to have
-Lafayette as their governor. The French captain of the ship that carried
-the fugitive Charles X. away from France, said to the ex-King, "If
-Lafayette, during the recent events, had desired the crown, he could
-have obtained it. I myself was a witness to the enthusiasm that the
-sight of him inspired among the people."
-
-But Lafayette did not want the crown, nor even to be the constitutional
-head of the nation. It seemed to him best that the Duke of Orleans
-should receive the crown, not as an inheritance, but as a free gift of
-the people accompanied by proper limitations. So he took steps to have
-the country accept the Duke as its new ruler.
-
-The people of France had at last become an important factor in deciding
-on their own form of government. The Duke of Orleans, better known as
-Louis Philippe, did not seize the crown, as earlier kings had done;
-he waited until the Chamber of Deputies and Lafayette, representing
-the nation, offered it to him, and then he accepted it as a republican
-prince. The deputies marched with the Duke to the Hotel de Ville, and
-as they went through the streets there were more shouts of "_Vive la
-liberte!_" than there were of "_Vive le Duc d'Orleans!_" Liberty meant
-far more to the people now than a king did, and Prince Louis Philippe
-knew it. As he went up the stairs of the Hotel de Ville he said
-conciliatingly to the armed men among whom he passed, "You see a former
-National Guard of 1789, who has come to visit his old general."
-
-Lafayette had always wanted a constitutional monarchy for France; he
-knew Louis Philippe well, being allied to him through marriage with
-the Noailles family, and he believed that the Duke would make a capable
-ruler, his authority being limited by the will of the people. So when
-Louis Philippe came to him at the Hotel de Ville Lafayette placed
-a tricolored flag in the Duke's hand, and leading him to a window,
-embraced him in full sight of the great throng in the street. The people
-had been undecided; they did not altogether trust any royal prince; but
-when they saw Lafayette's act, they immediately followed his lead, and
-cheers for the constitution and the Duke greeted the men at the window.
-
-Lafayette had given France her new ruler, declining the crown for
-himself, even as Washington had done in the United States. He made it
-clear to the new king that he expected him to rule according to the
-laws. He said to Louis Philippe, "You know that I am a republican and
-that I regard the Constitution of the United States as the most perfect
-that has ever existed."
-
-"I think as you do," answered Louis Philippe. "It is impossible to have
-passed two years in America and not to be of that opinion. But do you
-believe that in the present situation of France and in accordance with
-general opinion that it would be proper to adopt it?"
-
-"No," said Lafayette; "what the French people want to-day is a popular
-throne surrounded by republican institutions."
-
-"Such is my belief," Louis Philippe agreed.
-
-Charles X. had fled from his kingdom before Lafayette and the people
-even as his brother Louis XVIII. had once fled from it before Napoleon
-and the people. On August 9, 1830, the Duke of Orleans entered the
-Palais Bourbon, where the Chambers were assembled, as lieutenant-general
-of the kingdom, and left it as Louis Philippe, King of the French. The
-constitution which he had sworn to obey was not, like former charters, a
-favor granted by the throne, but was the organic law of the land, to the
-keeping of which the sovereign was as much bound as the humblest of his
-subjects. Lafayette and the people had at last won a great victory for
-independence after all the ups and downs of the Revolution and the days
-of Napoleon.
-
-As Lafayette marched his reorganized National Guard, thirty thousand
-strong, in review before the King, it was clear that the General was the
-most popular, as well as the most powerful, man in France. And at the
-public dinner that the city of Paris gave him on August fifteenth, when
-he congratulated his fellow-citizens on the success and valor with which
-they had defended their liberties and besought them to preserve the
-fruits of victory by union and order, he could justly feel that a life
-devoted to the cause of freedom had not been spent in vain.
-
-The coming years were to show that the people of France had much yet
-to learn about self-government, but when one contrasts the results of
-the revolution of 1830 with that of 1789 one sees how far they had
-progressed in knowledge.
-
-Lafayette's presence was needed at Louis Philippe's court to act as a
-buffer between the sovereign and the people, and again and again he saw
-revealed the truth of the old adage, "Uneasy lies the head that wears
-a crown." Presently a revolution in Belgium left the throne of that
-country vacant and it was offered to Lafayette. "What would I do with
-a crown!" he exclaimed. "Why, it would suit me about as much as a ring
-would become a cat!"
-
-The duties of his office as Commander of the National Guard, the tact
-that was constantly required of him as intermediary between the people
-and the royal court began to wear upon him, and he soon resigned his
-position as Commander. Then, as a member of the Chamber of Deputies,
-he continued his political labors. In time he saw many incidents that
-pointed in the direction of new aggressions on the part of the King,
-and he even came to believe that the fight for liberty was not yet
-won and never would be so long as a Bourbon occupied the throne of
-France. But he wanted the desired end to be reached by peaceful means,
-constantly preached loyalty to the government they had founded as the
-chief duty of the nation, and when, in 1832, a new revolution seemed
-imminent he would have no part in it and by his indignant words quickly
-brought the attempt to an end. He was now seventy-seven years old and
-great-grandchildren played about his knees at his home at Lagrange.
-
-His work for France and for America and for the world was done. In the
-spring of 1834 he caught a severe cold, which sapped his strength. On
-May twentieth of that year he died, having worked almost to the last
-on problems of government. As his funeral wound through the streets
-of Paris to the little cemetery of Picpus, in the center of the city,
-a great throng followed. On that day church-bells tolled in France,
-Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, and England. All nations that loved
-liberty honored the great apostle of it. In the United States the
-government and the army and navy paid to Lafayette's memory the same
-honors they had given to Washington, the Congress of the United States
-went into mourning for thirty days and most of the people of the nation
-followed its example. America vowed never to forget the French hero; and
-America never has.
-
-Men have sometimes said that Lafayette's enthusiasm was too impulsive,
-his confidence in others too undiscriminating, his goal too far beyond
-the reach of his times; but these were the marks of his own sincere and
-ardent nature. He was remarkably consistent in all the sudden shiftings
-of an age full of changes. Other men had sought favor of the Jacobins,
-of Napoleon, and of Louis XVIII. as each came into power; but Lafayette
-never did. All men knew where he stood. As Charles X. said of him,
-"There is a man who never changes." He stood fast to his principles, and
-by standing fast to them saw them ultimately succeed.
-
-He was a man who made and held strong friends. Washington, Jefferson,
-and Fox loved him as they loved few others. Napoleon and Charles X.
-could not resist the personal attraction of this man whom neither could
-bribe and whom both feared. Honesty was the key-note of his character,
-and with it went a simplicity and generosity that drew the admiration of
-enemies as well as of friends.
-
-He had done a great deal for France, he had done as much for the United
-States. His love of liberty bound the two nations together, and when, in
-1917, one hundred and forty years after his coming to America to fight
-for freedom, the United States proclaimed war as an ally of France in
-that same great cause, the thought of Lafayette sprang to every mind.
-The cause for which he had fought was again imperiled. The America
-in which Lafayette had believed was now to show that he had not been
-mistaken in his vision of her.
-
-
-
-
-XV
-
-AMERICA'S MESSAGE TO FRANCE--"LAFAYETTE, WE COME!"
-
-
-There have been many great changes in all the countries of the world
-since the time of Lafayette, and in most nations liberty has become more
-and more the watchword and the goal. The French Revolution was like a
-deep chasm between the era of feudalism and the era of the rights of
-man, and though the pendulum has sometimes seemed to swing backward for
-a short time it has almost constantly swung farther and farther forward
-in the direction of independence. The right of the common man to life,
-liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has gradually taken the place of
-the so-called divine right of kings to do as they pleased with their
-subjects.
-
-In a sense the United States blazed the trail and led the way. The men
-of 1776 proclaimed the principles of liberty and drew up a constitution
-which has required few changes to the present day. They were
-remarkably wise men; and the people of America were almost as wise,
-for they appreciated the laws under which they lived and showed no
-disposition to thwart or overthrow the statesmen they themselves elected
-to guide the nation. The United States grew and grew, crossed the
-Mississippi, crossed the Rocky Mountains, reached the Pacific coast, and
-fronted on two oceans. As pioneers from the east had pushed out into
-the middle of the continent, cleared the wilderness, and filled it with
-prosperous cities and villages, so pioneers from the middle-west went
-on across the deserts and the mountains and made the far west flourish
-like the rose. The great northern territory of Alaska became part of the
-republic; to the south Porto Rico; far out in the Pacific Hawaii and the
-Philippines joined the United States; the Panama Canal was cut between
-the two oceans; and the republic that had begun as thirteen small states
-along the Atlantic seaboard became one of the most powerful nations in
-the world. Her natural resources were almost limitless and the energy of
-her people made the most of what nature had provided.
-
-[Illustration: "AMERICA'S ANSWER"]
-
-The republic fought several wars. That with Mexico settled boundary
-disputes. The Civil War between the North and the South resulted in
-the abolition of slavery and made the country a united whole, no State
-having a right to secede from the rest. The war with Spain freed Cuba
-and other Spanish possessions in the western hemisphere. But none of
-these wars changed the system of government of the country. The United
-States was still the great republic during all the eventful happenings
-of the Nineteenth Century.
-
-Meantime what had happened in France? Louis Philippe had shown himself
-in his true lights as a Bourbon, had been driven from his throne, and
-had been followed by various kinds of government. A new Napoleon, the
-nephew of the first one, had come into power, had made himself Emperor
-as Napoleon III., and had tried to restore the glories of the First
-Empire. For a time France seemed to prosper under his rule, but it came
-to a sudden end when the King of Prussia defeated the armies of France
-in 1871 and drove Napoleon III. into exile. France lost her provinces of
-Alsace and Lorraine and William I. of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor
-of Germany in the great hall of Versailles. There followed in Paris
-the days of the Commune, which almost equaled the Reign of Terror for
-lawlessness. Gradually order was evolved under a new constitution with a
-President at the head of the government, and ever since France has been
-a real republic. From much turmoil and bloodshed she had won the liberty
-that Lafayette had dreamed of.
-
-Other countries in Europe had won independence too. England required
-no revolution; by peaceful means she grew more liberal; her sovereign
-became largely a figurehead, and the House of Commons, elected by the
-people, was the real seat of government. Italy, which in Lafayette's
-time was mainly a collection of small kingdoms and duchies, ruled by
-Austrian archdukes or by the Pope, united under the leadership of Victor
-Emmanuel, the King of Savoy, drove out the Austrians, deprived the
-Papacy of its temporal power, and became a nation under a constitutional
-king. The west of Europe was really republican, like the United States;
-it was only in the east that the ideas of feudalism still held sway.
-
-Russia had her Czar, an autocrat of the worst type, Turkey her Sultan,
-a relic of the Dark Ages, Austria her Hapsburg Emperor, a thorough
-Bourbon, who learned nothing and forgot nothing. And Germany had her
-Hohenzollern and Prussian Emperor, the descendant of a long line of
-autocratic rulers, the sovereign made by Bismarck, "the man of blood and
-iron," the stanch believer in the old doctrine of the divine right of
-kings. Germany had become an empire by the power of the sword, and her
-Emperor never allowed his people to forget that fact.
-
-Power goes to the head of a nation like strong wine. The true test of
-the greatness of a nation is its ability to use its power for the good
-of the world rather than for selfish ends. Prussia had always been
-selfish. She had fought a number of successful wars, against Denmark,
-against Austria, and against France, and each time she had taken
-territory from her adversary. Her statesmen regarded her power only as
-a means to gain greater material strength, and from the birth of the
-empire they trained the people to think only of that end.
-
-It was inevitable that the forces of freedom and those of autocracy
-should come into conflict some day. Germany knew this, and her autocrats
-carefully prepared themselves for the coming strife with the lovers of
-freedom. They paid little or no attention to programs for peace offered
-by other nations, they refused to agree to limit their armaments, they
-openly showed their contempt for the conferences at the Hague. Like a
-fighter who feels his strength they were constantly wanting to force
-other people to acknowledge their power; time and again they could
-barely restrain themselves from leaping at some opponent; they only
-waited for the most auspicious moment to strike.
-
-What they regarded as the right moment came in July, 1914. The
-assassination of the heir apparent to the Austrian throne by a Servian
-gave the rulers of Germany a pretext to make war on the world. Austria,
-always haughty, always greedy, always weak and blind, was simply the
-catspaw of the Hohenzollerns. Austria sent an overbearing message to
-Servia, and Russia, taking the role of protector of the small Balkan
-states, made it clear that she sided with Servia. Germany pretended to
-take fright and warned Russia not to attempt to oppose Austria. England
-and France tried to keep peace in Europe by suggesting a conference to
-discuss the matter. But the Kaiser of Germany and his generals did not
-want peace; they wanted to show the world how strong they were, they
-wanted the world to bow down absolutely before them; they precipitated
-the crisis and, pretending that they acted in self-defense, declared war
-on Russia, France, and England.
-
-In the first days of August, 1914, the enemy of liberty began its march.
-With a ruthlessness that has no counterpart except in the acts of those
-barbarian hordes that swept across Europe in the Dark Ages Germany
-marched into Belgium, a small and peaceful country, giving as the only
-excuse for her wanton invasion the fact that the easiest road to France
-lay across that land. She expected Belgium to submit. The giant, swollen
-with power, would do as it pleased with the pigmy. And when the British
-Ambassador remonstrated with the German Chancellor over this illegal
-treatment of a nation that all the powers of Europe had promised to
-protect the Chancellor answered that the treaty of Germany with Belgium
-was simply "a scrap of paper." Germany knew no treaties that opposed her
-desires; Germany has cared for nothing but her own selfish goal. And the
-great German people consented to this infamous course, because they had
-been taught that their first duty was blind obedience to the will of the
-Fatherland, which meant the will of the House of Hohenzollern. Never in
-history has a people,--and in this case a people that was supposed to be
-civilized and thoughtful,--bowed its neck so meekly to the yoke of its
-overlords.
-
-But as the hordes of power-drunk Germans,--whom civilization has rightly
-named the Huns, in memory of those earlier barbarian invaders of western
-Europe,--advanced through the peaceful fields of little Belgium they
-found, to their great surprise, that the Belgian people did not intend
-to submit to such an outrage without protest. Led by their heroic king,
-Albert, the Belgians threw themselves in the path of the Huns and
-checked them for a few days. They could not save their country, but they
-saved precious days for the French and English, and the Huns found
-that their march to Paris was not the easy, triumphal progress they had
-planned.
-
-Yet the German army was a mighty and effective machine in that autumn of
-1914, built by men who had devoted their lives to perfecting instruments
-of destruction. It rolled on and on, across Belgium, southward and
-westward into France, crushing the small Belgian army, forcing the
-outnumbered British into retreat, driving back the French by sheer
-weight of cannon and men. The Kaiser thought to repeat the act of his
-grandfather and make the French sign a treaty with him at Versailles,
-taking more territory and wealth from them as the next step toward
-making the House of Hohenzollern the greatest power in the world. As the
-Huns drove on their over-mastering pride and self-conceit grew and grew,
-inflating them like over-swollen frogs, until a chorus of what the rest
-of the world had formerly considered intelligent professors, scientists,
-and writers, actually dared to announce that the German will to victory
-was the supreme achievement of the ages. Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon,
-at the height of their power, never lost some sense of proportion, some
-human notion of justice; it was left to this Germany of 1914 to show how
-blind, how mad, how intolerant the mind of man can be.
-
-Rapidly the Huns marched toward Paris; and then something happened. The
-French turned at bay, held, drove the invaders back. Over the ground
-they had crossed in triumph the Huns retreated, back and back until they
-had reached the line of the River Marne. And when the French General
-Joffre drove them back to the Marne he won one of the greatest victories
-for civilization in the annals of history.
-
-Meantime Russia was attacking in the east and the Germans had to look
-to the protection of their own territory. Europe was now ablaze,
-England was training men, France was digging trenches, the flames of
-war, lighted by Germany's reckless torch, were spreading across the
-world. Italy, true to the principles of her great leaders of the last
-century, Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel, hating that
-power of Austria whose history had been one long record of deceit and
-enslavement, joined hands with the countries that stood for liberty
-and justice. The Turk, true to his nature, united with the Hun. The war
-raged back and forth, its battle-fields the greater part of Europe.
-
-The issue was clearly drawn between liberty and tyranny. The Germans
-were now the Bourbons, the Allied Powers were the true descendants of
-Lafayette and Washington. The land of Lafayette lay next to the Menace
-and her fair breast had been the first to bear the scars of war. The
-land of Washington, however, lay far across the Atlantic, and one of
-her guiding principles had been to avoid taking part in the affairs of
-Europe. Some of her sons, loving Lafayette's country for what she meant
-to the world, volunteered in the French army, joined the French flying
-corps, worked in the hospital service; but the great republic across the
-sea proclaimed herself a neutral, although the hopes of her people lay
-on the side of France and England.
-
-But Germany knew no law, either that of Christ or man. The Sermon on the
-Mount, the merciful provisions of the Hague Conventions, might never
-have been given to the world as far as she was concerned. See what
-some of her writers, men supposedly human, dared to say. "Might is
-right and ... is decided by war. Every youth who enters a beer-drinking
-and dueling club will receive the true direction of his life. War in
-itself is a good thing. God will see to it that war always recurs. The
-efforts directed toward the abolition of war must not only be termed
-foolish, but absolutely immoral. The peace of Europe is only a secondary
-matter for us. The sight of suffering does one good; the infliction of
-suffering does one more good. This war must be conducted as ruthlessly
-as possible." And another German said, "They call us barbarians. What of
-it? The German claim must be: ... Education to hate.... Organization of
-hatred.... Education to the desire for hatred. Let us abolish unripe and
-false shame.... To us is given faith, hope, and hatred; but hatred is
-the greatest among them."
-
-This was indeed a strange religion for a nation that was supposed to
-have heard of the Sermon on the Mount; a religion that might have been
-made by Satan himself, with hate for its foundation instead of love. Yet
-this was the German religion; if any one dare to deny that the words of
-these writers truly represent Germany let him look at Germany's acts,
-let him think of the treatment of Belgium, the bombing of unprotected
-cities and towns, the enslavement of women and children, the destruction
-of hospital ships and of Red Cross camps, the murder of Edith Cavell,
-the sinking of the _Lusitania_!
-
-The submarine captain who fired the torpedo that sank the _Lusitania_
-was a true son of Germany. He sent non-combatants to their death in the
-sea as ruthlessly as might a demon of darkness. There was no humanity in
-him, nor in those who commanded the deed. But there is no act of evil
-that does not bear its own just consequences. The innocent men, women
-and children who went down with the _Lusitania_ called forth the hate
-of the world on the Huns, and set America on fire with indignation. For
-every victim there Germany was to pay a thousandfold in time.
-
-The United States had a great President, a man who knew the temper
-of his people far better than those who criticized him. He knew the
-history of the country, he knew that its people loved peace and hated
-war, that Europe was far from the vision of most of them, and that they
-still cherished Washington's advice against the making of "entangling
-alliances." He tried to be patient, even with Germany, though he
-knew her for what she was; he waited, urging her to obey the laws of
-civilization, hoping that he might act as a peacemaker between the
-warring nations, feeling that peace might lie in the power of America,
-provided she kept neutral. But his efforts meant nothing to Germany; she
-believed in insincerity and the piling of lies on lies.
-
-In many ways the United States had been very successful. It had grown
-tremendously, it had carried out many of the ideals of its founders.
-But in some ways it had fallen from its true course. Special privileges
-had allowed some men to grow enormously rich at the expense of their
-neighbors, city governments were too often the playthings of grafting
-politicians, men were often apt to prefer the liberty of the individual
-to the welfare of the state. The real question of the country was not
-as to whether we had won success, but as to whether liberty was still
-worth striving for. A nation is very much like an individual, and an
-individual often loses his ideals as he wins material success. Had
-America grown to be like a rich and torpid man who cares more for his
-ease and comfort than for the dreams of his youth? Had America forgotten
-Lafayette's vision of her, forgotten that liberty is the one priceless
-gift? Were the youths, few in number but great in spirit, who were
-offering their lives for freedom in the airplanes and trenches of Europe
-the only part of the nation that still saw the vision clear?
-
-Woodrow Wilson never doubted his people in that time of stress and
-strain. He knew what their answer must be when the call came to them.
-They had forgotten their heritage no more than he. The Declaration of
-Independence was still their testament; the hundred millions were the
-true sons of the few millions of the days of Washington. And when the
-German Menace dared to forbid Americans to travel in safety on the seas
-the answer of America came instantly. Yes, there was something better
-than comfort and peace and wealth; there was freedom, there was the
-goal of helping humanity to throw off the beasts of prey! The world
-must be made safe for all men! The mailed fist must be shown that might
-_does not_ make right!
-
-Germany notified the United States that she intended to carry on
-unrestricted submarine warfare, to become the lawless pirate of the
-seas. President Wilson handed the German Ambassador his passports and
-waited to see if Germany intended to carry out her threat. As usual, the
-House of Hohenzollern would not listen to reason. Germany turned pirate,
-throwing away the last vestige of any respect for law. And when this was
-plain the President went to Congress on April 2, 1917, and advised the
-representatives of the nation to accept the challenge of war thrust upon
-us by the German Empire.
-
-"Let us be very clear," said the President, "and make very clear to
-all the world what our motives and our objects are.... Our object ...
-is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the
-world as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst
-the really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert
-of purpose and of action as will henceforth ensure the observance of
-those principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where
-the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and
-the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic
-governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by
-their will, not by the will of their people....
-
-"We are now about to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to
-liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation
-to check and nullify its pretentions and its power.... The world must
-be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested
-foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We
-desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves,
-no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are
-but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied
-when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom
-of nations can make them."
-
-Let us be thankful that our President could voice the same spirit in
-1917 that Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence and that
-Lincoln proclaimed on the field at Gettysburg. Our country bore malice
-toward none, we wanted to be friends to all, we had no selfish desires
-for power or dominion. But as Lafayette heard the call to battle for the
-freedom of men in America in 1776, so America now heard the same call
-from the fields of Europe. On April 6, 1917, the United States formally
-declared war against the autocracy of Germany.
-
-What were we fighting against? Against the old idea of feudalism that
-the ruler need respect no rights of the ruled, against the old Bourbon
-theory that the sovereign need obey none of the laws that govern the
-rest of humankind, against the principles of Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns
-that the people exist solely for the benefit of the ruling dynasties.
-All this Prussia had converted into the principle that the Fatherland
-is supreme, and that the people must obey the Fatherland in everything;
-and the autocrats of Prussia had made the Fatherland a savage monster,
-ruthless, unjust and cruel, devouring all it could to satisfy its greed.
-If you look back through history you will see that the crimes of all
-the despots are the crimes of Germany to-day and that whenever men were
-fighting tyranny, rapacity and cruelty they were fighting the same
-battle that America and her allies fight to-day.
-
-More than that. In fighting for freedom we are fighting for our
-preservation. The world cannot exist one half slave, the other half
-free. Let tyranny succeed in Europe and it can only be a short time
-before it will look hungrily at America. The Menace must be destroyed
-before it grows so powerful that none can withstand it. "The time has
-come," wrote President Wilson shortly after the declaration of war, "to
-conquer or submit." Submission would have been to surrender all the
-principles of the republic, the country to which lovers of liberty had
-looked for more than a century to prove the actual realization of their
-dreams.
-
-It is the German machine-made government, the autocratic ruling military
-caste, the idea that might makes right, and that small nations have no
-rights that big nations need respect, it is all these old and hideous
-beliefs of the Dark Ages and the era of despots that the liberty-loving
-nations are fighting to-day. The individual German is, after all, a
-human being like ourselves, though warped and twisted in his ideas of
-what is right and wrong by his selfish and barbarous government. The
-individual German may become a civilized man again, provided he can come
-to see the monstrous tyranny of his government. And for this reason
-President Wilson said to Congress in his speech of April 2, 1917, "We
-have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling toward them
-but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse that
-their government acted in entering this war. It was not with their
-previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars
-used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were
-nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in
-the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were
-accustomed to use their fellow-men as pawns and tools."
-
-It was a war in fact deliberately determined upon and brought about
-by that same dark enemy of liberty that thrust Lafayette into an
-Austrian dungeon a century ago, that oppressed the people of Italy and
-wantonly imprisoned some of the noblest patriots that ever lived, that
-tore Alsace-Lorraine from France, and that has rattled its sabre and
-clanked its spurs and declared that war and destruction are the noblest
-objects of man. But the people have let themselves be treated like
-galley-slaves, have allowed that dark enemy of liberty to chain them to
-the benches and make them row that ship of state which is nothing less
-than a pirate bark upon the seas of the world. The people have been
-blind. Our President has tried to help them to see the light of freedom.
-
-Treachery, deceit, lies, these have been the watchwords of the rulers
-of the Huns. When our government was still at peace with Germany her
-statesmen tried to make a secret agreement with Mexico that in case we
-should declare war the latter country should attack us and take our
-southwestern states. Again and again they lied to our Ambassador at
-Berlin and tried to intimidate him. Nothing has been sacred to them.
-They talk of religion and God and in the same breath outrage every
-teaching of Christianity. They have no respect for the great works
-of art of the world; cathedrals, libraries are destroyed without a
-thought other than to impress the enemy peoples with the frightfulness
-of their warfare. The world must be taught to fear them is their creed.
-And they have no more sense of humor than a stone. Over the slaughter
-of thousands of poor slave-driven soldiers the Kaiser can still send
-decorations to his sons, complimenting them and extolling their valor
-and generalship while all the world knows them to be mere pawns and
-puppets tricked out in the gaudy dress of the Hohenzollerns. Neither
-Kaiser nor generals nor statesmen have the least sense of humor, and a
-sense of humor is more than a saving grace, it is the mark of a sanity
-of judgment. But how can any sane judgment be found in a nation that
-thinks to frighten the rest of the world into submission by bombing
-hospital camps and Red Cross workers? There is no health in the monster.
-All the poisons of the past ages have collected in his blood.
-
-America has never forgotten Lafayette. As John Quincy Adams said to
-him, he was ours "by that unshaken sentiment of gratitude for ...
-services which is a precious portion of our inheritance; ours by that
-tie of love, stronger than death, which has linked" Lafayette's "name
-for the endless ages of time with the name of Washington." In 1916
-the old Chateau of Chavaniac, Lafayette's birthplace, one hundred and
-fifty miles to the south of Paris, was put up for sale by the owner,
-a grandson of George Washington Lafayette. Patriotic Americans bought
-it, desiring to make a French Mount Vernon of the historic castle and
-grounds. At first it was intended to convert the chateau into a museum,
-to be filled with relics of Lafayette and Washington and the American
-Revolution, but the great needs that were facing France led to a change
-of plan. The castle should become more than a museum; it should be a
-home and school for as many children of France as could be provided
-for. This would have been Lafayette's own wish, and in doing this the
-American society known as the French Heroes Lafayette Memorial has paid
-the noblest tribute to the great patriot. And the people of France, the
-most appreciative people in the world, have welcomed the gift and the
-spirit that underlay it.
-
-Anatole France, the great French writer, has summed up the sentiment
-of his nation in glowing words. "American thought," he says, "has
-had a beautiful inspiration in choosing the cradle of Lafayette, in
-which to preserve memoirs of American independence and to establish
-an institution for the public good. In preserving in the Chateau de
-Chavaniac d'Auvergne the testimonies and relics of the war which united
-under the banner of liberty, Washington and Rochambeau, and in founding
-the Lafayette museum, ties which have bound the two great democracies to
-an eternal friendship have been commemorated. But this was not enough
-for the inexhaustible liberality of the Americans. It went further,
-and it was decided that upon this illustrious corner of France, the
-children of those who died in defense of liberty, should find a refuge
-and home, and that, deprived of their natural protection, some of these
-children should be adopted by the great American people, while others of
-delicate constitution should recover health and strength on this robust
-land. It is a large heart that these men reveal in preserving a grateful
-remembrance of past services, and in coming to the assistance of the
-orphaned of a past generation who fought for their cause a hundred and
-forty years ago. May I venture, as an aged Frenchman and a lover of
-liberty, to proffer to America the tribute of my heartfelt homage?"
-
-And so the castle where Lafayette was born and the fields and woods he
-knew so well in his boyhood among the Auvergne Mountains are now to be
-the home of generations of French children whose fathers gave their
-lives that the world might be set free from tyrants and war cease to be.
-What could be more fitting! It is one of the beautiful things of history
-that Americans could do this for France. It is in such ways that the
-spirit of brotherly love may some day encircle the earth.
-
-For all wise men know that it is not riches, nor material possessions
-nor great territories that make either men or nations noble. The United
-States might cover half the globe, her wealth be beyond what man has
-ever dreamed of, her population run into the hundreds of millions, and
-yet our country be only hated and feared by other peoples. That was the
-future the rulers of Germany had been planning for their nation; so
-they might possess material things they were willing, nay, they were
-glad that the rest of the world should hate them. They had no wisdom at
-all; they had forgotten all the lessons of history. Christ might never
-have taught, churches never been more than bricks and stone, patriots
-and poets never have striven to show men their ideals, so far as these
-rulers, and through them their people, were concerned. Lafayette knew
-the truth, but the spirit of Lafayette was what Germany and Austria most
-hated; they are trying to-day to imprison that spirit just as they did
-imprison the man himself when they had the chance.
-
-Nations, like men, live to serve, not to conquer for the lust of power.
-Only when nations have learned that are they worthy of admiration.
-Had America drawn her cloak about her, said "I am safe between my two
-oceans," made money out of the sufferings of other peoples, held fast
-to safety and ease, then America would have betrayed every ideal of her
-founders, every hope of the men who have loved and worshipped their
-"land of the free." Only when America said there were greater things
-than ease and safety, that the liberty of all peoples was indissolubly
-bound up with her own freedom, did she show herself as the great
-republic in spirit as well as in name; only when she was willing to
-serve others did she rise to the true heights of her national soul.
-
-One of our poets, James Russell Lowell, has written the beautiful line,
-"'Tis man's perdition to be safe, when for the truth he ought to die!"
-The truth of that was known to the farmers of 1775 who took their guns
-and at Lexington and Concord fired "the shot heard round the world." And
-the same truth was known to the men of 1861 who went out to keep the
-republic their fathers had given them. For we have all received a great
-legacy from those who have gone before, and now we know what it is, and
-have again gone forth to fight for truth.
-
-We know that this is the greatest of all crusades. We know that men must
-be set free. Tyrants, whether they be emperors and kings or governments
-that place greed above justice, must be cleared from the earth. This
-last and greatest of tyrants, this league of the Hohenzollerns and
-Hapsburgs, has by its very brutality and injustice opened men's
-eyes and let loose a new spirit in the world. Russia was autocratic,
-her ruling house of Romanoff was in many ways true brother of the
-other tyrants, but the people of Russia felt the new spirit and have
-already driven their Czar from his throne. When we think of the French
-Revolution, the Reign of Terror, Napoleon, and all that France had to
-endure on the hard road to liberty we may well imagine that dark days
-lie before the Russian people, but in time France rose like a ph[oe]nix
-from the ashes of revolt, and when we see what France is to-day we may
-look confidently to the future of this other great people.
-
-For the spirit liveth! The truest words that were ever spoken! And the
-spirit that fills France to-day, the spirit that fills England and
-Belgium and America and all the allies, yes, even that same spirit in
-Russia, will carry mankind a long way on the road to liberty. For no one
-can conquer that spirit; it is the immortal part of man.
-
-Let us read again the glorious lines of Julia Ward Howe in "The
-Battle-Hymn of the Republic," lines as true in this crusade as they
-were in the crusade against slavery for which they were written.
-
-   "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
-    He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
-    He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
-                His truth is marching on.
-
-   "I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
-    They have builded Him an altar in the evening's dews and damps;
-    I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.
-                His day is marching on.
-
-   "I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:
-   'As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
-    Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
-                Since God is marching on.'
-
-   "He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
-    He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
-    Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
-                Our God is marching on.
-
-   "In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,
-    With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
-    As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
-                While God is marching on."
-
-America heard the call; America saw that there were no limits to the
-evils of the powers of darkness unless the powers of light should fight
-them; and on April 6, 1917, America declared her purpose to do so. As
-the small American republic once heard with rejoicing and confidence the
-word that Lafayette and Rochambeau were to bring aid westward across the
-Atlantic, so now the great French republic heard with the same emotions
-the declaration that American soldiers were to bring succor to them
-eastward across the same sea. The last great neutral nation, immense in
-power of men and wealth and energy, had cast in its lot with the forces
-that were fighting for freedom. The Allies, weary and worn with more
-than two years of fighting, looked to this fresh, great people to bring
-them victory.
-
-A month after we joined the cause of liberty French generals and
-statesmen came to America. At their head was Marshal Joffre, the hero
-of the Marne. He visited Mount Vernon and laid a wreath on the tomb of
-Washington; he traveled through the country and everywhere he found
-statues of Lafayette and Joan of Arc and memories of great Frenchmen.
-To America Joffre stood for the ideals of France, courage, endurance,
-nobility of thought and action. Not since Lafayette's visit in 1824 had
-the people of the United States welcomed any visitor with such love and
-admiration.
-
-The tour of Marshal Joffre was the outward symbol of the new union.
-Instantly the United States, a peaceful nation with a very small
-standing army, an insignificant merchant marine, its farms devoted
-to supplying its own needs, its factories busy with the commerce of
-peace, changed to a nation at war. It faced a stupendous problem. From
-its untrained men it must create great armies, fitted to cope with and
-defeat the fighting machine that the enemy had spent years in building.
-It must have the ships to carry those millions of soldiers to Europe and
-it must supply them in Europe with the food, the clothing, the guns,
-the ammunition they would need. That in itself was a task beside which
-the greatest military achievements in history paled into insignificance.
-Napoleon crossed the Alps, but he could feed his army on the supplies
-of the countries on the other side of the mountains. We must supply
-everything, must transport America into Europe, and then keep America
-there by an unending bridge of boats.
-
-More than that, we must do our part in building ships to provision our
-allies, ships that should replace those the pirates of the sea were
-sinking daily. And we must feed not only our own people, but the people
-of starving countries, and particularly the people of Belgium, whom
-we had helped since the war began. Here in the broad and fertile land
-that lay between the two oceans was to be the granary and factory and
-training-camp that were to make liberty victorious. The nation turned
-to its new task with the same indomitable energy that had conquered the
-wilderness in the days of the pioneers.
-
-At the call of the love of country men instantly volunteered. Congress
-passed the Conscription Act, and young men who had dreamed of peaceful
-occupations went to be trained as soldiers. Ceaselessly, tirelessly
-the great work went on. Americans landed in France to reinforce the
-volunteers who were already there as engineers, as motor-drivers, as
-aviators. Railroads had to be built, and docks and factories; the most
-skilled men in every line of work hurried to be in the vanguard. Then
-General Pershing reached France as commander-in-chief of the vast
-American army that was to come. As we had received Joffre so France now
-welcomed Pershing. And he went to Lafayette's tomb and laid a wreath
-upon it, declaring that America had come to the aid of France.
-
-Great armies are not built in a day, nor are gigantic fleets of merchant
-ships. Mistakes must always be made, and there are always critics. But
-in spite of critics and mistakes the American government, and under it
-the people, went on with the work in hand. Men became skilled soldiers
-and ships were launched, and at the end of the first year after our
-entrance into the war our troops were in the trenches, fighting side by
-side with their allies, and a steady stream of more troops flowed day
-by day from west to east. America had already thrown the first part of
-her power into the conflict and given earnest of the greater power to
-come.
-
-Americans have already given their lives for freedom. First there were
-the eager, intrepid young spirits who volunteered as flying-men, in the
-French Foreign Legion, in the regiments of England, in the driving of
-ambulances at the call of mercy. How gloriously their sacrifices will
-live in the pages of history and in the hearts of their countrymen! And
-then there have been men of the first American army, such men as the
-private soldiers Hay, Enright, and Gresham, above whose graves in France
-is the inscription "Here lie the first soldiers of the Illustrious
-Republic of the United States who fell on French soil for Justice and
-Liberty November 3, 1917." Truly have they proved the truth of the Latin
-motto, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
-
-What is the lesson of Lafayette, of Washington, of Lincoln, of all men
-who have put the ideal of justice and liberty above their material
-wants, of the men who have fought in France and in all parts of the
-world for the cause of freedom? The lesson is simply this, that service
-and self-sacrifice for others is the noblest goal of man, that life is
-given us not to keep but to spend, and that to follow the teachings of
-Christ is the only road to happiness for men or nations.
-
-"Where there is no vision the people perish." History is filled with
-instances of the truth of that; the greatest empires of the world became
-decadent, were defeated by enemies, and vanished from the earth when
-their rulers and people saw no vision beyond wealth and power. Nineveh
-and Babylon and Troy, Byzantium, Persia, the Macedonia of Alexander the
-Great, Carthage and Imperial Rome all fell because gold and possessions
-had blinded their eyes. Material power, and the wealth that often goes
-with it, has been as dangerous to nations as it has been to individual
-men. It is only too apt to lead to the greed for greater and greater
-power, to bend other peoples to its will, to magnify itself at the
-expense of everything else in the world. It is easy for power to make
-nations forget their dreams of nobler things, of freedom and justice,
-of the rights of men everywhere to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
-happiness." Strength is a splendid thing, but it must be used to help
-other and weaker people, not to aggrandize oneself.
-
-That the great nations of the ancient world forgot, and that such
-empires as the Ottoman Turks and Austria-Hungary have never known.
-Has the Turk ever held any vision of helping other peoples? Have the
-rulers of Austria ever cared for the welfare of their subject races?
-The history of both empires shows that the men in power have thought
-only of themselves. And what vision those countries have ever known has
-been that of a few devoted patriots who struggled for liberty and were
-suppressed.
-
-Now in the past century Germany has been blinded by her growing
-power. Her rulers lost their vision, they made might their God; then
-her people were tempted, as Satan tempted Christ with a prospect of
-the world's dominion, and the people fell and were blinded, and so
-the spirit perished in them as it has perished in other and greater
-peoples. They talked of German "culture," of the blessings of German
-civilization; and they wanted to thrust it by force on the rest of the
-world, not for the good of that world, but for the glory of Germany
-alone. Their God became the God of the savage tribe, a God who belonged
-to them and to them only.
-
-There are times when all peoples are apt to forget the vision, times
-when ease and plenty wrap them about. Few men are like Lafayette, who
-from youth to old age hold fast to their ideals, no matter what comes.
-Then, in a time of stress, the question is put to them: What will you
-do? Take the easy road of blindness or follow the rough road of vision?
-Belgium had her choice; she chose to lose all her worldly possessions
-rather than lose her soul. France had her choice, and England and Italy:
-to each the vision of liberty was greater than safety of life. And as
-each has had to pay in countless suffering so the soul of each nation
-has risen to greater heights. Their people do not perish like the blind;
-they have seen the vision of a more Christlike world when the tyrants
-have been destroyed.
-
-America had her choice. Under all the power and wealth that her hundred
-years and more had brought her she had kept her vision; she too knew
-that liberty is priceless, immeasurably above all things else in the
-world. And this is the America that we all love. For unless we would go
-the way of the great nations of the old world, the nations that have
-perished in their blindness, we must have ever in mind the sacred duty
-to set and keep all men free. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
-And lasting peace comes only with liberty to men and nations.
-
-We cannot read the story of Lafayette without feeling that in his
-generous youth he gave us the best he had, his love and devotion, his
-courage and perseverance, his dauntless spirit that would not be denied
-its purpose to fight for liberty. All this Lafayette gave us because
-he saw in us the hope of the world. And now our precious opportunity
-has come to repay that great debt. It is for us to give the land of
-Lafayette all that he brought to us, and we do it for the same reason,
-because we see in France and her allies the present hope of the world.
-
-It is for youth to fight, for age to counsel and help youth in the
-combat. Glorious is the opportunity that lies before the youth of our
-country now; as glorious as was the opportunity that called to the boy
-of seventeen in the days of Louis XVI. We may not all accomplish as much
-as he did, but we can all thrill to the same generous impulses, see the
-same great vision, resolve that we will do all that lies within our
-power to win the crusade of freedom against tyrants. Every boy and man
-in America should learn the lesson of Lafayette's life and then go into
-the struggle with the feeling that he is following in the footsteps of
-that great idealist, that great patriot whose country was not limited to
-his own nation but to all men who yearned for liberty. The greatest gift
-of patriots is not the material things they may build, but the devotion
-to ideals they show to other men. We may each be Lafayettes in our own
-way.
-
-"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
-beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock."
-So is liberty built; founded upon a rock; as unconquerable as the soul
-of man. Liberty must win after floods and storms; its beacon-light must
-in the time to come illumine the whole world. Its enemies are strong and
-well-prepared; they call to their aid all the powers and devices of
-darkness; but as truth is greater than falsehood so is liberty greater
-than all the oppressors of man can bring against it.
-
-America answers France and her answer is clear and dauntless. It is
-as ringing as the Declaration of Independence, the rock upon which
-America built her house. The power of Prussia, the power of the Hun,
-the power of tyrants, must be utterly crushed before the world can be
-free. Germany sought this war in all wickedness and greed; to satisfy
-her ambition she has pulled down all the piers that support the house of
-civilization that men have been building for ages; she would destroy the
-world in her purpose to dominate it. And America intends that Germany
-shall have war until all the devils are driven out of her.
-
-America can do it. America came to this conflict with clean hands and a
-clean soul; no selfishness was in her; she fights for no ends of her own
-save the highest end to make the world safe for democracy. And as she
-has truth and justice on her side she fights with a spirit unknown to
-the servile bondsmen of autocracy. She is young and immensely strong,
-she is still the land of freedom. And when she rises in full, relentless
-might, thrice armed in that she has a just cause, she will destroy the
-serpent and cast him from the earth. The greatest page in our history is
-being written; we shall write it so that the better world to come shall
-call us blessed.
-
-"We are coming, Lafayette!" What a call to victory is that! We have
-already come. We have joined with the descendants of that youth of
-France who came to us in our hour of need. The spirit of Washington must
-glory in that fact. The great Father of our country loved the Frenchman
-as his son. To what nobler end could Washington's children dedicate
-themselves than to help their brethren? And the spirit of Lafayette must
-rejoice to see his dreams fulfilled, his dreams of the great republic
-and of the dawn of the brotherhood of men!
-
-Lover of liberty and justice, we salute you! The time has come for us
-to show that what you hoped of us we now are, and to show it to the end
-that liberty shall not perish from the earth, that all men be free,
-and that in truth man was endowed by his Creator with the inalienable
-rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
-
-
-
-
-TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
-
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-inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as noted below.
-
-Obvious printer's errors have been silently corrected.
-
-Illustration notation has been moved to below any enclosing paragraph.
-
-Text in italics in the original work is represented herein as _text_.
-
-Small capitals in the original work are represented herein as all
-capitals.
-
-The oe ligature is shown herein as [oe].
-
-
-
-
-
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