The knight of liberty, a tale of the fortunes of La Fayette

Front matter

BY

EZEK1AH-BU1 i^np* (Bapjingl^t !f 0*

Shelf j.L^-B^ S

Preface

N each volume of this series the writer has sought to relate some remarkable story associated with the life of a hero in such a way as to picture the history of that hero, making the historical character the background of the narrative. The strange story of Francis K. Huger in this volume is substantially true, and is told to illustrate the life of Lafayette, the Knight of Liberty. Not only is the outline of the narrative true, but, although the book is written in the spirit and after the methods of fiction, nearly all the incidents are historical.

The heroes of these volumes are the creators of American Liberty : Adams, Washington, Lafayette, Lincoln, Marcus Whitman ; and a new volume may picture the life of William Penn.

Contents

CHAPTER FACE

I. The Rescue of Lafayette i

II. The Hour of Destiny, 4

Chapter I. The Rescue Of Lafayette

HAVE written four volumes in which I have placed an historical character in the background. These volumes, in the form of stories, seek to give a view of some of the most interesting incidents in the lives of Sam Adams ("The Patriot Schoolmaster"), George Washington (" The Boys of Greenway Court "), Abraham Lincoln (" In the Boyhood of Lincoln "), and Marcus Whitman (" The Log School House on the Columbia").

I am now asked to continue these stories of the most unselfish men in the great events of American history. Every noble man has some strano-e or remarkable story connected with his life, the telling of which pictures his whole history. Who shall I next take as a representative of what is most unselfish in American history? WilHam Penn ? Roger Williams among the Indians ? Lafayette, the friend of Washington and the apostle of liberty ?

I have chosen Lafayette because he is among the most unselfish of the world's heroes and benefactors, and because there is one of the most remarkable stories associated with his history that I have ever met with in the life of any public man. It is a story not commonly known ; it is encouraging to those who follow the Divine Ought, or the true spirit within, instead of policy, and I love to draw upon such material as this.

Lafayette gave himself to mankind, and he stands for a cause that will live forever. But unselfish as he was, he had dark days of injustice, and in those days he found a true friend in one whose young heart was as unselfish as his own.

The world treats us exactly as we treat the world ; our conduct all returns to ourselves, for like seeks like, and duty done for duty's sake is sure of its compensations, though they may come in mysterious and unexpected ways.

But to the strange story I have to tell, the

THE RESCUE OF LAFAYETTE. 3

Study of which tends to strengthen one's faith in God and man.

You have read of Lafayette's visits to America, when the very air seemed to ring with his name. Did you know that he suffered for years in dungeons, and that no one but his persecutors and jailers knew where he was ? That his disappearance was one of the mysteries of the world ? And did you ever hear of two students who went in search of him, like Blondel for King Richard ?

I must first introduce you to Lafayette, the young French officer, before these events happened.

Chapter II. The Hour Of Destiny

AVE you heard the news from America ? "

A gay company of men in glittering uniforms started, and sat in a listening attitude.

" I see you have not. The colonies have united, and declared their independence of the Crown in the name of Liberty. Was there ever audacity like that ! One Jefferson is leading the movement. It means war. Authority against Liberty, and the end of it all is not hard to see. The discontent should have been crushed out long ago, but at last the king is aroused, and he will put down rebellion there with a firm hand."

The speaker was the Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III. The place, a military banquet hall, at the great German fortress of Metz. Afar the Moselle lay gleaming, and the parks and gardens around the ponderous fortifi-

THE HOUR OF DESTINY. 5

cations were glowing with fresh leaves and flowers.

" What do the American colonies want of liberty ? Why should they resist being taxed for a good government which they know not how to administer themselves ! They claim that all men are born free and equal, and that the sense of the majority should rule. Why, such an idea would overturn the whole wisdom of the past. And to what an extent have they gone ! They would make their public officers the servants of the people. Think of that ! They would elect officers to be the servants of the people, and call such a government as that Liberty ! And furthermore they declare that the liberty to do right is the birthright of every man ! Who would want to live in a land like that?"

" I would ! "

The speaker was a young French officer in his nineteenth year. He had been listening to the words of the duke. His face flashed and glowed, and his hand trembled on the hilt of his sword. The word " Liberty " seemed to thrill him. From a boy he had had an inward conviction that he was born to be a defender of Liberty, and

THE KNIGHT OF LIBERTY.

leader of the cause of human freedom in the world. That young man was the Marquis de Lafayette.

" What are the dispatches that you have received from America?" asked an English ofificer of the duke.

" That the colonies are in rebellion. That the Colonists are about to maintain their belief in the equal rights of man."

" I would gladly draw my sword in such a cause as that," said the young Marquis de Lafayette to a friend in a low voice. " I am assured that some such cause is to be my destiny. There are times when the soul hears a voice that calls it to duty and makes that duty clear. The voice comes as it were from the heavens. The soul which has been haunted by ideals and made restless hears it and owns it, and makes it the captain of its life. The duke's words have a strange meaning to me. I myself believe in the liberty of men to do right, and I do not believe in the right of Crowns to compel men to do wrong."

The duke was about to speak.

" The colonists hold that governments are insti-

THE HOUR OF DESTINY. 7

tuted for the good of the people. Could such an idea triumph, it would reverse the order of the world."

The American idea and purpose thrilled the heart of the young marquis. The duke, in condemning- the American people had expressed his own views in those of the colonists.

" I believe in that cause," said Lafayette to a brother officer. " I believe in it with all my heart. I hold to the equal rights and brotherhood of all mankind. Call it what you will, every man should have the right to do right and should never be compelled to do wrong. I care not for fame, nor power, nor wealth, for their own sake ; I would gladly draw my sword, and give my fortune to a cause like that, even if it brought me poverty and loss. I would like to espouse the cause of the colonists."

" But your young wife ? " said the officer, checking his friend's ardent aspirations.

The young marquis answered — we follow the thoughts of his early inspirations as related in later years : " No private affection can ever divert me from public duty. I have a bride whom I love with a devotion as great as any living man. But if

I were to draw my sword in the name of Liberty she would one day be proud that I had done so. What is the use of life but to live for the things that live, and for the highest cause that can claim our service ? What is selfish pleasure like suffering for a cause ? I must be what I ought to be. But hold, listen ! what is the duke saying ? "

" Our forces have routed the Americans at Bunker Hill, but thqy have left Boston, and the struggle now goes on in New York and New Jersey."

" Boston ! " It may have been the first time that the marquis ever heard that word as applied to an American town. Lafayette had been born at the Chateau Chavagnac, Auvergne, France, September 6, 1757. His father, a brave French officer, had fallen at Minden, and his mother had died in 1770, leaving a great fortune and vast estates. He inherited from his parents a love of liberty that was the ruling passion of his soul. His boyhood had been unlike other boys'. It had been a dream of the welfare of humanity. He had early entered the army and was stationed at Metz when the English duke arrived, and he had been

THE HOUR OF DESTINY. 9

included among the guests at this memorable banquet — a banquet in which the destiny of America seems to have been determined, for the inspiration that day in the soul of Lafayette led to final triumphs of the American armies at Yorktown.

" And who," said Lafayette, rising, " is the leader of the American army ? "

He listened.

" George Washington," said an English officer, bowing across the glittering board.

" George Washington ! " Had the Marquis de Lafayette ever heard that name before ! We know not. It was a name of destiny to him now. Washington, the father of liberty! His mission leaped into his mind in full force. The freedom of the American colonies should be his grand purpose in life, and he would unite his sword with that of the unknown leader of liberty in the West.

The banquet ended. The summer night came on over the Moselle and its old towers and blooming gardens. But young Lafayette's thoughts were with the colonies struggling for freedom in the West.

JO THE KNIGHT OF LIBERTY.

He sought the Duke of Gloucester, and the two talked together long on the purpose of the English colonies. " We must crush the colonies," said the duke. ** They are in rebellion. It will be an easy thing to do. Authority must be respected."

" And crush liberty — the liberty of the new world," thought the young marquis.

The Moselle darkened ; the stars came out, and the young marquis wandered out on the esplanade.

" Washington — George Washington ! "

That banquet had made him one of the most unselfish heroes of liberty who ever drew the sword. But how should he find the field of struggle, more than three thousand miles away ? He dreamed that night under the moon and stars, and his dream came true.

" Every man is a debtor to his calling," he thought. " I must be that which I ought to be or else I shall be nothing. Nobler deeds than man has ever done remain to be done. Liberty, I would find thy field. I was born for thee ! Where? How?"

Such, as we gather from his memoirs, must

THE HOUR OF DESTINY. II

have been the dreams of Lafayette at this time. Destiny had shown him her face, like Selene to Endymion in the fable. He knew for what he was born, but again and again came the question— "How shall I find the field?"

Chapter III. How?

HERE was an American commissioner in Paris. His name was Silas Deane. He was born at Groton, Conn., 1737, and graduated at Yale College, 1758. He had been a member of the Continental Congress in 1774, and had been sent to France as the financial agent of the united Colonies.

Young Lafayette left Metz to consult with this man.

" I have come," said Lafayette, " to offer my sword to the liberties of your country. I hope that your cause is advancing. It is one of the noblest in the world."

" No," said Mr. Deane, " if the dispatches that have just arrived are true, the cause is not advancing. The news is that the 'insurgents,' as the patriots are called, have been driven toward Philadelphia, through the Jerseys, by a powerful

force of British regulars. The news may not be

HOW ? 13

trustworthy, but it has prevented me from securing credit for America. My friend Benjamin Franklin will soon be here, and I will present you to him, and you may trust his advice and soundness of judgment. You are a rich man, I believe."

" I have an ample fortune."

His income from his estates was some $37,000 per year.

" More than ample for my own wants, and in espousing the cause of America I seek not to add to my fortune, but to spend what I can spare in this crisis of human need. I have no thought of going to America for pay. All that I have and am I offer to the cause of liberty, which is not of America alone, but of all mankind. I feel within myself a calling to which I must be true."

Silas Deane saw in Lafayette one of these young men who become powerful by giving up self for the service of others. He introduced him to Benjamin Franklin, who also saw in the young marquis a soul that at once won his admiration. Franklin was one of the American commissioners.

The commissioners agreed to consider this offer of the chivalrous Frenchman to the cause of American liberty.

" Rich," said one of them.

" With a young and beautiful wife," said the other.

" The favorite of the army."

" A favorite of the court."

" A splendid estate of thousands of acres in the mountain walled lands of provincial France."

" Of noble ancestry."

" Yet willing to give his fortune and life if need be to the cause of a people not his own."

" The world does not produce many men like him. Yet those that deny themselves the most receive the most ; it is the law of life and of compensation. That boy soldier would have been worthy of Greece."

" And he may yet find a place in the Plutarch's lives of the present age. Such a soul must have a future."

** But what can be done for him ? "

"If the present news is true — nothing. We cannot so much as command the means to purchase a vessel to carry arms to America."

" We must report that to him ? "

HOW? 15

" Yes, and it fills me with shame to do so."

The commissioners and the young marquis met again.

" We honor your spirit," said one of the commissioners, " but we have no means to help you, not even the money to buy a ship. Our army is in peril, and the cause looks dark, dark. Only the soul can conquer in needs like this."

Lafayette listened to the discouraging report. His own soul rose to the height of the necessity. He answered, and we here repeat nearly his exact words : " Sirs, hitherto I have only cherished your cause, but now, sirs, I am going to serve it." He added with the soul of a true hero, and here again we repeat nearly his own words : " The lower your cause is in the opinion of the people the greater effect my departure will have among patriotic men, and since, my friends, you are not able to purchase a vessel, I will do so at my own expense, and I will fit it out, and I will take in person your dispatches to America ! "

It was that resolution, made when the cause of liberty in America seemed hopeless, that finally defeated Lord Cornwallis, and gave the cause of American liberty as an example to the world.

" When," says Lafayette, in his memoirs, " I presented my boyish face to Mr. Deane, I spoke more of my ardor in the cause than of my experience. But I dwelt upon the effect that my departure would excite in France, and he signed my documents."

One loves to picture that " boyish face."

So young Lafayette gave his name, fame, and influence to the cause of freedom in a foreign land, as a debtor to his inward callinof. He went to Passy, where Dr. Franklin was, and there he met a German officer, as patriotic as himself. Baron de Kalb. This officer, too, had espoused the cause of liberty, believing it to be the cause of the world. He was older than Lafayette, having been born in Bavaria, 1721. The two became friends. They thought they had secured a ship at Bordeaux, but the ship could not at once be got ready for sea. So they with other volunteers to the American cause, hurried to Passage, a Spanish port, to engage another conveyance.

But Lafayette's patriotism was to be still further put to the test.

At Bordeaux there came to him an order from the king of the French :

HOW ? 17

" You must not leave the country. Repair to Marseilles."

Should he disobey the king ? Should he imperil his estates and his fortune ? Should he endanger his noble wife ?

" Thou must be that which thou oughtest to be," said the spirit of his calling. Yes, for liberty.

"What will you do?" asked his brother volunteers. " Will you return ? "

" No — I must go ! And you ?"

"We will go!"

They were words of fate. Lafayette went to Marseilles, but returned again. So out of the Spanish port he and his eleven comrades sailed, leaving all things but honor, to give their swords to the cause of liberty in the West.

There is no nobler page of history than this, and nothing more worthy may tempt historic fiction.

On the sea, in peril of capture, with nothing to hope for but the victory of liberty ! On, on, to the coasts of the Carolinas, where the patriots arrived in June, 1777.

" The moment I heard of America I loved her. The moment I knew she was fighting for liberty I burned with desire to bleed for her."

So said Lafayette in a letter to the President of the Continental Congress.

He was now in America, the land of his dreams, and he was only about twenty years of age.

On landing, a very notable incident occurred. The shores of the New World filled the two officers, Lafayette and Baron de Kalb, with an inspirational feeling. Their emotions impelled them to make their vows to God. The doors of heaven might open to hear it, for nobler men never breathed forth their purpose in life.

Above them glowed the summer sky of the Carolinas. It was night as the two stood upon the shore.

" I pledge myself and all that I have to the cause of the liberty of America," said Lafayette, " and I offer my life to this sacred cause."

" America, I pledge myself and all that I am to thee and the cause of human freedom ! " said Baron de Kalb.

The incident is a true one — the stars were above them, and behind them rolled the sea. Such in substance were the vows of these two men, as they landed in America.

They saw a light in the distance. They went

HOW ? 19

toward it. It was in the plantation house of Major Benjamin Huger.

Morning showed a landscape blossoming with magnolias ; in the sunny plantations the mockingbirds were singing, and the two officers here first saw the sun of the New World. Were those midnight resolutions sentiments ? If so, they were sentiments that made character, and character destiny, and that helped give to mankind its birthright, to toiling millions a field of labor, and the rights of labor their dues. The birthrights of universal liberty were in them.

Chapter IV. Lafayette Meets A Bright Boy

T the house of Major Huger a strange incident happened. Major Huger had a son, who was destined to become in future years " the deliverer of Lafayette." His name was Francis K. Huger. His portrait in a frame of gold once hung, and may now probably be seen, at Lagrange, the chateau of Lafayette. It bears this inscription :

FRANCIS K. HUGER.

GENERAL LAFAYETTE,

by the City of Charleston,

through

Samuel Prioleau,

Intendant,

Made by Fletcher and Gardnier, Phil.

The portrait represents a man of broad forehead with width of ideality, of a refined, slender

face, a prominent nose, and thin, resolute lips.

LAFAYETTE MEETS A BRIGHT BOY. 21

People walk slowly before it and say that that picture represents " The Deliverer of Lafayette." The Carolinas have always been proud of this young man and his heroic deed. His name is pronounced Huzay or Huzhay.

Lafayette loved children, and this boy, Francis, soon found himself in the patriot's lap, and we, with a questioning curiosity, may fancy his inquiries to have been something like these: "You have come over the sea ?"

" Yes, my boy, a far, far journey." ** But, please sir, why did you come ?" *' To help the people gain their liberties." ** But, please sir, you have your liberty." " Yes, my boy, in a measure. I could have more."

" And you sailed over the sea to help us ? " " Yes, we hope to help your country." ** Please sir, will they pay you ? " "Yes, my boy."

"Who?"

" Everybody, my heart here — heaven — you ; perhaps you will one day pay me." "You came because you loved us ?" "Yes, my boy."

" One day we will all love you. I do now."

" And I love you, my boy."

" Shall we ever meet again ? I mean after you go away ? "

Lafayette looked into the beautiful eyes of the little Southerner.

" I do not know what may be in store for us. Love never dies."

" I shall love you always. And if I grow up, I will pay you."

" What a heart you have, my boy ! "

" You love people whom you have never seen ? "

" Yes."

" Perhaps people whom you have never seen will love you some day,"

" Yes, that is the way that things happen, my boy ; whatever may befall me, I do not believe I will ever be entirely forsaken, for those who help others always find help in their needs."

" Please sir, are you a rich man ? I hope so."

" Yes, I have a good fortune."

" Then you will never want."

" I cannot tell. People who have fortunes are sometimes forsaken. It is the heart of love that does not forsake one in misfortune."

LAFAYETTE MEETS A BRIGHT BOY. 23

" Suppose you were to lose your fortune, and be poor, and all folks forget you, or lose you, please sir, what would you do ? "

"I would trust. Some heart would find me. The world treats us as we treat the world. Some true heart would find me."

The boy and the young officer became friends. It was a link in the chain of destiny.

CHAPTER V. Lafayette's ride

AFAYETTE furnished money to Charleston to provide clothing for the soldiers under General Moultrie, and he and Baron de Kalb started in a carriage for Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was, late in June, 1777.

It was the fall tide of the year. The plantations were green with vegetation and gay with bloom. The fame of the officers had preceded them, and caused the patriots in some places to await their coming. The roads were in parts of the country new, and all things were novel to the two officers and their friends.

They rode rapidly.

*' We must make a short journey," said they. " It is a ride for liberty ! "

The distance was some seven hundred miles. The coach rolled forward as if it were for a re-enforcement. The party stopped to cool in the

LAFAYETTE'S RIDE. 25

shadows of mountains, and beside sunny-bosomed waters. They rested a little at inns and plantation houses, but they were impatient to meet the American patriotic leaders, and Washington and the army of liberty.

In the rapid ride the coach broke down.

" Horses are better than coaches," said they, and they left the coach, and hurried forward on horseback, riding with the utmost speed.

Through the burning Carolinas, through Virginia, across the Potomac, where the glorious dome of the Capitol and the Washington monument would in the coming century rise in air, they pursued their way.

Did a stranger ask the cause of their haste ?

" We are riding for liberty ! "

Did he ask who they were hurrying so Impetuously to see ?

" Washington and the army of liberty ! "

The patriots who knew them cheered them as they passed. The British minister in Paris had tried to prevent them from coming to America, and their flight had created a great impression in Europe, and their arrival was destined to be an inspiration here. They came flying into

Philadelphia, met the patriotic leaders, and one of the first acts of Lafayette was to present to Washington sixty thousand francs, to meet a crisis of the cause.

Lafayette offered to enter the army as a common soldier. Washington read his soul when they first met, and soon secured for him a major general's commission.

Fate, fortune. Providence, rode with them on those midsummer days through the Carolinas and Virginia ; over the hills of Maryland and Pennsylvania ; past the Southern cotton fields, and Northern fields of corn. The young Frenchman was bearing victory with him. He saw the future and his soul glowed. He bore in his young heart the inspiration of the ages. The cause of the liberty of the world was in that ride ! It was one of the grandest rides in history, to which Charles Sumner paid the tribute of some of the best passages of a grand oration.

■ I

Chapter VI. The White Cockade

AJOR BENJAMIN HUGER, at whose plantation house little Francis Kinlock Huger had first met Lafayette, was one of the five patriot brothers, who were farmers in the Carolinas. This man was killed by an accident before his own lines in Charleston, 1 779.

One autumn day, not many months after this event, there came riding down to the Huger plantation an orderly of William Augustine Washington, a kinsman of George Washington. This orderly reined his steed before the door of the patriot's mansion.

The family hurried out to give a welcome and to inquire the news. The orderly seemed in high spirits and pointed to his hat. On his hat was a white rosette on a orround of black.

" Has there been a victory ?" asked one of the family.

" Yes, good friends, something more than victory. Our independence is now as sure as any event can be."

He pointed again to the rosette.

" What has happened ?" broke from all lips.

"Lafayette!"

He was bidden to dismount, and he entered the house gayly, and a meal was prepared for him.

The little boy again seemed all eyes and ears. He climbed upon the stranger's knees as he had done on Lafayette's when the latter came up from the seaside after pledging his all, under the night sky, to the independence of America.

" Did Lafayette give you the white rose on your hat ? " asked the boy.

"No; Washington."

" William Washington, was it, sir ? "

" No, General George Washington."

"What did he give you the ribbon for, sir ?"

"For a cockade."

" What is a cockade, sir?"

" It is a rosette to wear on the hat. General George Washington has ordered that all the officers of the army shall wear white rosettes on their hats, in honor of the return of Lafayette."

" Lafayette, Lafayette ! " said the boy, " I was

THE WHITE COCKADE. 29

the first one that he ever kissed in America. He said that he loved America when he first heard her name spoken ; and then he said he loved me, and he held me in his lap just as you do now and he let me ask him questions. Where has Lafayette been, sir? You said he had returned."

" He has been to France, my little boy, for I must tell the story through you, and well I may, as you were among the first to welcome him. He has been to France to secure a French army from the king to give us independence, and he has done it. He has landed at Newport with an army and navy, under the great Count Rochambeau ! "

" Then the vow to win liberty for America that he made out there on the coast by the sea was an honest one. Look out yonder — there is where he was, sir ! "

A wide vista opened through the magnolias, and afar lay the cotton fields and beyond them rolled the sea.

" He saw a light," said the boy.