The true story of Lafayette, called the friend of America

Preface

In a series devoted to telling the true stories of great Americans or of those whose lives had a direct bearing upon the splendid story of the United States of America, no man has better right to a place than the Marquis de Lafayette, the young and gallant Frenchman whose love for liberty led to a love for America that outlasted even the romantic story of the way in which he fought for her independence. For the whole life of Lafayette was a long struggle for constitutional liberty, the freedom he had seen America secure and which he so ardently desired for France.

Had it not been for Lafayette, American independence would not have been so speedily secured ; had it not been for America, the liberation of France from her long bondage in tyranny would scarcely have come so soon. Thus Lafayette and America are inseparably connected, and it is most fitting that, in a series devoted to the makers and defenders of America, Lafayette, as the Friend of America, should have an honored place.

But this book aims to do more. At a time when interest in Lafayette has been revived by the erection of a monument to his memory in the Paris he loved so well, by the boys and girls of the America he helped to make great, it seeks to show how his entire life was devoted to the cause of freedom and the glory of France, and to tell, in the whole story of his eventful life, what one man has done for the progress of humanity and the bettering of the world. If, from these pages, young Americans may learn not only to revere the memory of the noble F"renchman, but to learn lessons of persistence, fidelity, unshaken loyalty to conviction, to truth, to honor, and to manly endeavor, then the story of Lafayette will not have been retold in vain, and Americans may learn anew to honor, respect, and remember him, as not only the friend of America, but the benefactor of his race.

E. s. B.

Chapter I. Page

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE ...... U

CHAPTER n.

WHERE THE YOUNG ARISTOCRAT HEARD OF INDEPENDENCE . . 32

CHAPTER ni.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

HOW HE WON THE COMMANDER - IN - CHIEF ..... IO7

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

HOW "THAT boy" SERVED THE EARI.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

8 CONTENTS.

HOW HE FELL FROM THE FRYING - PAN INTO THE FIRE . . . 200

CHAPTER XII.

WHY HE CAME TO AMERICA FOR THE FOURTH TIME . . . . 2I9

CHAPTER XIII.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Lafayette at Monmouth .....

The boy Lafayette ......

At Hastenbeck .......

The Chateau of Chavaniac .....

A French boy of " quality " in Lafayette's school-days

"The duke thought it over and suggested a compromise

A French wedding in Lafayette's day

" The American peasants " who stood at Le.xington and Concord

Lafayette and the Duke of Gloucester .

" ' Wake up ! I'm going to America ! ' " .

'"If that is so, I will go with you' "

Lafayette secretly calls upon the American agent

" ' It is a crazy scheme ! ' cried the count "

Lafayette and the American agents

Windsor Palace ....

" He galloped back to Bordeaux "

" The inn-keeper's daughter said never a word

Lafayette and the captain

Lafayette off the Carolina coast .

Where Lafayette landed in America

Lafayette's welcome to America

Singing for Lafayette

The Marquis de Lafayette

" A great and capable commander "

The president of Congress

" At the door of the Congress "

Bartholdi's statue of Lafayette

Lafayette and the Congressman

Alexander Hamilton

Aaron Burr .....

Lafayette meets Washington Where Lafayette joined the army .

Frontispiece Page 13

18 21

25 28

39 43

45 45 48

5° 57 59 62

64 68

73 77 83 88 90

10.?

lO

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The monument on Brandywine Battle-field

Lafayette at Brandywine

The Old Sun Inn of Bethlehem

The best foreign officers who served in the A

Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island

Lafayette and the Cabal

Lafayette's headquarters at Valley Forge

New York City and Harbor .

" Lafayette bade good-bye to Washington "

Where Lafayette fought death

Lafayette " home again "

Lafayette's " naval aid "

The old mill at Newport

Lafayette and Mrs. Arnold .

Lafayette's antagonist .

Where Washington joined Lafayette

The Count de Rochambeau .

Lafayette writing to Washington

Lafayette in 1784

Mount Vernon, the home of Washington

Pohick Church, near Mount Vernon

Thomas Jefferson ....

One of France's holidays

Napoleon Bonaparte ....

The Austrian prison of Lafayette

The wife of Lafayette ....

The escape from Olmutz

Lafayette surprised in prison

Madame Lafayette and Napoleon

Lafayette mourning for his wife

The home of Lafayette's old age .

The invitation from America

The Lafayettes at the tomb of Washington

Lafayette in America ....

Lafayette's farewell to America

General Lafayette, commander in-chief of the

Lafayette and the Duke of Orleans

One of the last portraits of Lafayette

In the national capital ....

merican Revolution forces of France

163 165 166 172 178 181

183 187

•93 198 204 206 2 1 1

THE

TRUE STORY OF LAFAYETTE,

THE FRIEND OF AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE.

y\ LL boys and girls like stories of adventure. Let me ■^ ^ tell you a true story, as crammed with adventure as " Robinson Crusoe," as crowded with fighting as " Ivanhoe," as full of noble deeds as " Westward Ho ! "

It is not the story of an American; and yet few names

have been more honored by America ; it is not the story of

a great man, as Washington and Lincoln, Franklin and

-Grant were great ; and yet the service he rendered to America

has placed his name among the great ones of the earth.

It is the story of a brave, romantic, generous, noblehearted and devoted man, who reverenced liberty although born an aristocrat ; fought for it through nearly sixty years, although he detested war, and, through those sixty years, labored for his country's good even against his country's will ; who risked his life for the liberties of America, and narrowly escaped death in establishing the liberties of his native land.

He began life as an historic boy; he closed it an historic man, revered by all lovers of liberty the world over, disliked only by those who hated liberty and feared the people. No man suffered more at the hands of those he wished to benefit; no man was more beloved by those who spurned his benefits. Idolized one day, imprisoned the next, but always a patriot, and always cheerful and brave, he builded even better than he knew, and wrought his name and his deeds into the destinies and progress of two nations, and died the friend and deliverer of both.

Listen, then, to the story of Lafayette.

Upon one of the green hill-slopes of the mountains of Auvergne, in what is now known as the department or county of Upper Loire (Haute-Loire it is, in French) but what was long called the province of Auvergne, in Southern France, there stands to-day, as there has stood for nearly six hundred years, a great fortified country mansion or manor-house, known as the Chateau of Chavaniac. Grim and gray this old country mansion, half castle and half farmhouse, with its odd little towers, mossy walls, and loop-holed terraces, looks off upon the valley of the Allier and the rugged Auvergne mountains, an old-time home among the hills, in the healthiest and most independent portion of old France.

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LITE.

In this ancient castle there was born on the sixth of September, in the year 1757, a small baby boy, not particularly attractive in face, or especially promising in

But he was marquis of form, born a France ; and in the parish register of the little church of Chavaniac, where he was baptized, you may read the name they gave this little French baby boy, — a name almost as long as himself.

For it stands recorded on the parish register, that, in that little church, was baptized on the seventh day of September, 1757, "the very noble and very powerful gentleman

THE MOV LAFAYETTE. ' He -wetU roafuing the/orest, sword in hand, to kill the great gray wolf. "

14 HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LLFE.

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."

Those were a good many names and a good many titles for a small baby to stagger under, were they not? But in France, as in all nations where old families and old estates become jumbled together under the workings of what is called the law of succession, the representative of several old and noble lines, as was Lafayette, often mingled his connections in his name. But the real name of this very small boy, stripped of all its additions, was simply Gilbert Motier.

This old family name of Motier ran away back to before the year looo. But when, about that time, one of the Motiers became possessed of a little farm called Villa Faya, or Fayetteville, he tacked this estate on his name and became Motier of La Fayette ; then as other lines of the family sprang up, possessed property, died out, and left their lands and titles to the remaining branch, these names were added to the main one, until the baby boy and heir of the estates, born in 1757, had to bear them all, — Gilbert and Roch and Christophle and all the rest with his mother's name of Marie, and his father's titles of marquis and baron and seigneur (or

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE.

lord). For, though only a baby, he was, by law, born a marquis of France.

The reason for this was that six weeks before this little French boy was born in the gray old castle among the Auvergne mountains, his father, Colonel the Marquis de La

AT llAbl t-NLtcK.

" H is father , Colonel the Marquis de La Fayette^fetl dead while charging an English battery.''

Fayette, fell dead at the head of his regiment of the Grenadiers of France, while charging an English battery in the battle of Hastenbeck, — one of the engagements in what is known in histor)^ as the Seven Years' \\"ar; in America we are familiar with the same conflict as it was waged in

1 6 HO IV 2 HE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE.

this country under the general title of the French and Indian War, - — the war that made George Washington a successful soldier, and made all America English by the conquest of Canada.

Without any father when he was born, this little French baby, by the law of the land, succeeded to his father's titles and estates. He was Marquis of Lafayette, Baron of Vissac, and Lord of Saint-Romain, old castles, now in ruins, and perched higher up among the Auvergne mountains than is the manor-house of Chavaniac.

But though marquis, baron, and lord, this little Lafayette baby was not born to great wealth. He was, in fact, what we call " land poor." His mountain farms were extensive but not very productive; it had cost a large sum to send and keep his grandfather and father at the never-ending wars that, for generations, had swept over Europe, and as there was now no one in the family to hold high positions and draw good salaries at the king's court, the Lafayettes of Chavaniac were, in 1757, what would be called "high-born but poor."

Still they were strong rnd sturdy people, those mountain folks of Auvergne ; and the baby marquis, the last and only remaining boy to represent the dignities and titles of the old and noble family whose name he bore, was brought up by his mother, his grandmother, and his aunts in the healthy, inspiring, frugal, and liberty-loving atmosphere of the Auvergne hills.

Country life and ways do not always develop the graces,

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. ly

and a boy who is brought up entirely by and among women is apt to be diffident and shy. So the Lafayette boy of the Chavaniac forests was by no means the model of beauty and grace we have been accustomed to consider him. He was a long-limbed, lean, lanky little chap with a hook-nose, red hair, and a retreating forehead, while he was so shy as to be almost ungainly and so quiet as to be almost awkward. But his eye was bright and sharp, his look, when interested, was firm and high, and beneath his unattractive exterior lay an intelligence that was making the boy a thinker, and a heart that was stirring up high ideals of right and justice, there among the fields and forests, the birds and beasts of his mountain estates.

The birds and the beasts seemed for a time his only playmates. His mother had scarcely money enough to go to Paris and keep up a grand city house, as was then the custom with most of the lordly families of France ; so the lad grew up in the country, learning the habits of the farm and forest animals rather than of the court ; ignorant of the fine, though often false manners of the gay society of Paris and Versailles, save as his good mother instructed him in politeness, good breeding, gentle and chivalrous ways, while his sturdy grandmother saw that he was alike manly and brave, strong-limbed and stout-hearted, valiant and vigorous, as became the small son and last scion of a great race, whose men had been knights and warriors from the far-off days of the Crusades.

i8

HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE.

Indeed, the desire to do some " high emprise and deed of derring-do," learned from the old tales his grandmother told him, burned in the heart of this boy of eight when, sword in hand and eye alert, he went roaming the forests

THE CHATEAU OF CHAVANIAC.

"/« this ancient castle was born Lafayette, a marquis o/ France, September 6, 1/57'

about Chavaniac in search of the great gray wolf which, so " his people " reported, had been breaking into sheepfolds and destroying the peace of mind of the farmers and cottagers around the manor-house. We do not read that he really killed that wolf, or even found the monster, but, in a way, it was a prophetic sign ; for, later, he was to go forth sword in hand and eye alert, to hunt out and attack a greater and more ravaging wolf, far across the vast western sea that this home-staying boy had never seen.

He could not be a home-staying boy many years, however. As the last representative of a noble house, it was his duty as a Frenchman of high estate to prepare himself to meet the obligations of his rank. Although the family was short of cash, they had rich and influential relations, and so, when he was eleven years old, it was decided by the family that he should leave his quiet castle home at Chavaniac, and go up to Paris to begin his education as a gentleman.

He was sent to a sort of private school for young gentlemen, — the boys of the French "four hundred." It was called the College du Plessis, and there the boy was taught to express himself elegantly, handle his sword gracefully, dance delightfully, and offer his arm to a lady as gallantly as he could pick up her fan. It was hardly the school familiar to the boys and girls of to-day, who probably know more of real things and how to study about them than did even the school teachers at the College du Plessis in young Lafayette's day.

But there was that in young Lafayette that helped him to educate and develop himself, in spite of the false instruction of his time ; while the devotion of his lady mother aided and strengthened him ; for, at much sacrifice, she gave up her quiet home in the country, and, with the aid of her rich relations, obtained recognition at court and a place in society, so that she might help her son to enter the most aristocratic circles of France.

The boy had a rich uncle, too, — or, rather, it was his mother's uncle, — who, because all the Lafayettes had been soldiers, put himself out to get the name of his grandnephew entered, early in life, on the " waiting list " of one of the "crack regiments " of France. This regiment was called " The Black Musketeers," and many a day did young Lafayette get " excused " from school to run off and see a review of " my regiment," as he would call it ; for, of course, he felt very proud to be on its roll of cadets.

Under these influences and opportunities the awkward country boy became easier in his manners and more graceful in his motions ; but he was still shy and silent ; he disliked dancing and society ways ; he thought a good deal about things ; he was old for his years both in his talk and ways, and he was so practical that even when he undertook the task that all boys attempt, — a school composition on the horse, — he dwelt especially on the fact that if you try to make a horse do too many things perfectly the horse will grow restless and throw you, — a lesson of which Lafayette himself had practical experience, later, when in the days of the restless French Revolution he tried to train the people to be guided by his rein rather than their will — and was " thrown " again and again.

Just as he had got into his "teens," in the year 1770, a sad thing happened. Both his good mother, who was so

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE.

watchful of his future, and his rich grand-uncle, who had taken so great an interest in the young Lafayette because

A FRENCH BOY OF "QUALITY" IN LAFAYETTE'S SCHOOL -DAYS.

he was the son of this old noble's favorite niece, and a promising boy as well, died in Paris.

22 HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE.

The boy felt sad and lonely enough. He was now quite alone in the world ; his nearest relative was his grandmother in the old castle at home ; alike his dearest friend and his strongest protector had been taken from him.

Even in his death, however, this high-placed protector of his youth had remembered him. For the count, the uncle of Lafayette, left by his will all his fortune and estate to this small boy of thirteen. Thus from being a poor and proud young nobleman, Lafayette now became a very rich and powerful young nobleman. At once every match-making mother and father in France who wished to " arrange " a fine marriage for their daughter laid siege to the young Marquis de Lafayette, — much to the disgust of this quiet, society-hating boy, who, like many boys just in their " teens," had a supreme contempt for all girls.

Matters were conducted differently in the France of Lafayette's day than in our America of to-day. Very early in their children's lives fathers and mothers were preparing to " marry off " their sons and daughters to the best iinancial and social advantage. Even when they were babies, boys and girls were sometimes "betrothed," — engaged, as we would say to-day, — although the poor babies themselves had nothing to say in the matter, and had no especial interest in the plans arranged for them.

So the relatives and guardians of the young marquis — a rich young marquis, now — began to look about for some suitable match for the boy, lest he should be made the prey of fortune-hunters, little knowing the boy's ability to look out for himself, and to think for himself as well.

They selected one of the five daughters of the Duke d'Ayen, a noble and wealthy peer of the realm, marshal of the camp of the armies of the king, and a very persistent and determined gentleman, when once he made up his mind to have his own way.

In this case the proposal of the guardians of the young Marquis de Lafayette to make the boy his son-in-law was precisely in the duke's way ; and at once he communicated the proposal to his wife, and declared that the one selected to be the Marchioness de Lafayette was their second daughter, Mademoiselle Marie-Adrienne-Francoise de Noailles, a girl of

twelve, good, pretty, amiable, and in every way a delightful

character.

But Adrienne's mother, the Duchess d'Ayen, was quite as strong a character, in her way, as was her husband the duke. When she learned who was this son-in-law that her husband had selected for their second daughter, she objected at once.

"It is too great a risk to run for Adrienne," she declared. " 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."

Her husband declared that she must, and she repeated that she would not ; the discussion, of which, by the way, neither the boy nor the girl most interested had the slightest idea, continued until this husband and wife, who had always loved each other dearly, actually quarrelled and almost separated because of it. But the duke thought it over and at last gave in so far as to suggest as a compromise that the marriage should not take place for two years, that Adrienne should not leave her mother for at least three years, and that, meantime, he, the duke, would himself look after the education and advancement of the young marquis, so as to make him in every way a proper and suitable husband for their daughter.

The duchess thought it over also, and at last she, too, agreed to the compromise.

"If the boy is brought up in our home where I can see and study him," she declared, " 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."

So it was decided, and so it was arranged. The boy and girl were allowed to meet without knowing what were the family intentions in regard to them, and, very fortunately, they liked one another at once, and so much that when at last their future was disclosed to them by their guardians, they were both delighted, and began to build bright air-castles,

"THE DUKE THCUGHT IT OVEK AND SUGGESTED A COMPROMISE."

no IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 27

in true boy and girl style, of what they would do for the happiness of the world when they were old enough to use their own money and estate.

Lafayette was fourteen and Adrienne was twelve when their engagement was made public ; rather young, we should say, according to our American standards ; but customs vary as much as d(^ tongues and times, and all France declared it was an excellent match.

Even the duchess, who objected, said so too, in time. For when Adrienne's mother came really to know this quiet and rather awkward young marquis, she loved him as dearly and cared for him as tenderly as if he were her own son ; and then she and the duke " made it all up again."

The duke kept his promise. He took the boy in hand, had him live in his own home, the stately, old-time Noailles mansion in the heart of Paris, and sent him in time to the Academy of Versailles where young noblemen were educated in military duties, until at last the boy marquis secured his commission and became an officer in the king's own regiment of the Black Musketeers, upon whose very exclusive roll of cadets his good grand-uncle had entered his name.

While this military education was going on, Lafayette and Adrienne d'Ayen were married. Their wedding day was the eleventh of April, 1 774 ; the young bridegroom was but sixteen, the bride was fourteen ; it was a boy and girl marriage, and, indeed, for a year or more the young people were both kept

I/O J I' THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE.

at the Noailles mansion, under the guardianship of the duke and duchess. But it was one of the happiest of marriages, and for thirty-four years they lived together as husband and wife. " Thirty-four years of union," so wrote Lafayette after Adrienne's death in i.Soy, "in which the love and the eleva-

A FRENCH WEDDING IN LAFAVETTE'S DAY.

tion, the delicacy and the generosity of her soul, charmed, adorned, and honored my days, and in which I was so much accustomed to all that she was to me that I did not distinguish her from my own existence."

That was a beautiful tribute to his girl-wife, was it not ? Madame Adrienne de Lafayette seems to have been as rare

HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE. 29

and beautiful and noble a woman as he was excellent, purehearted, and noble a man.

In 1775 the young couple set up housekeeping for themselves. They had a house in Paris, and their country estate was the old castle at Chavaniac ; they had gay surroundings, and were of the " inner circle," with princes and princesses and all the young lords and ladies of that bright and careless court at Versailles as their associates.

But Lafayette did not take kindly to all this show and glitter. " The awkwardness of my manners," he says, " never could properly adjust themselves to the required graces of the court," The balls and theatrical shows, the dances and suppers, and all the extravagant entertainments of the young queen Marie Antoinette, were not to his liking, although you would naturally expect them to be most attractive to a boy of seventeen.

It was the fashion just then among the younger courtiers and aristocrats of France, to talk much of liberty and the rights of man. It came from the teaching of certain " up-todate " philosophers and students of society, who, in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, influenced the aristocratic classes of France and made them libertv-lovers, althouijh they were the ruling spirits in a nation where there was very little liberty, and where any man not a noble had scarcely any rights. It was, after all, mostly talk, however; but to the young Lafayette^ brought up in sturdy independence, in the free air of the rugged Auvergne hills, it proved some-

30 HO IV THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LIFE.

thing more than talk. He learned to believe in and desire liberty and freedom for the people ; he thought it would be a fine thing if there were less of suffering and wrong among the poor, and more of helpfulness and generosity among the rich. He and his young wife, as I have told you, had beautiful dreams of what they would do to make the world better; they were only dreams, to be sure, but, because of them and of his retiring disposition, the young marquis did not take kindly to the stiff ceremonials and foolish fripperies of the court, where so much was show without sense and affectation without affection.

He even joined some of the young nobles in making sport of the older ones and in poking fun at all their stiff and starched ways ; one day he, with the princes and young lords of the court, got up a mock parliament which they played before the gay young queen, Marie Antoinette, just to make fun of the real parliament then in session at Versailles. It came very near getting Lafayette and the young nobles in trouble ; for though even the young king, Louis XVI., had to laugh over it, he was forced also, out of respect to his " grave and revered seigneurs " to " call down " and reprimand those who had taken part in the " take-off." And in the midst of all the fuss and fume over the affair, Lafayette, who was heartily sick of it all, was glad enough to be ordered, as a sort of punishment, to join his regiment at Strasburg.

But under all this sport and caricature in which the

HOW THE LITTLE MARQUIS BEGAN LITE. 31

young and thoughtless nobles joined there was with a few, and especially with Lafayette, much serious and earnest thought over the condition of the world. He shared the growing desire that seemed " in the air " for real liberty and the end of sham and of the meaningless ceremonies that bolstered up royalty; so, although he could not tell precisely how liberty was to come to France or when it was to come, he still dreamed about it, and, like the clear-headed, purehearted, sensible, and manly boy he was, hoped for the dawning of the day that should bring men nearer together as brothers and fellow workers, and give to all, in some way and to some extent, the boon and blessing of freedom.