GILBERT-MOTIER DE LAFAYETTE.

HE family of the Marquis de La- | by "tender and revered relations," in fayette carries its ancestry far Auvergne, and at the age of twelve back into the old nobility of France. was sent to Paris to the Collége du His mother and her father It boasts a marshal of the early part Plessis. of the fifteenth century, who distin- died immediately after, leaving the guished himself in defence of his coun- youth heir to an immense estate. Proof try in the war carried on against it by against its temptations, and the lax England. In the seventeenth, it claims society of the metropolis, he was prethat eminent literary personage, Ma- served from surrounding corruptions dame de Lafayette, the novelist and by his ingenuous disposition, turning memoir writer, the friend of Madame a lively temperament to the love of de Sévigné, and the admired of the liberty and the family affections. A Parisian salons, when they were fre- mere schoolboy, by royal favor he had quented by such celebrities as Lafon- received a commission in a regiment of taine and Ménage. The Marquis de musketeers, when he began life, at sixLafayette, the father of our American teen, by marriage with the daughter hero, was a gallant young officer of the of the Duke d'Ayen, of the family of armies of Louis XV. He was engaged Noailles. in the Seven Years' War waged on the continent between Frederick the Great and united France and Austria, and fell, a colonel of the grenadiers, at the battle of Minden, at the age of twentyfour, a few months before the birth of

The lady was two years younger than himself-a hazardous alliance, under ordinary circumstances, but in this case approved by something more than the usual advantages of a match of policy. The young couple lived to share one another's honors, and strengthen one another in trials of great severity.

A place at court was the natural position at that day in France for a young nobleman of Lafayette's station He was accordingly and influence. put forward by his new connections

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for an honorary post in the household left the table began to think of going of the Count de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII.; but the young man, who seems already, even from his school-days, to have been agitated by a love of liberty and independence, showed no inclination to the service. The method which he took to relieve himself of its honorable burden was characteristic of the times. Meeting the count at a masquerade, and readily detecting his disguise, he availed himself of the opportunity to pour into the ear of the prince, under that convenient license, views and opinions which he knew to be unpalatable at court. His stratagem was not thrown away; the count took offense, and, it is said, never forgave the slight. Nothing more, of course, was heard of the situation at court.

The next incident in the career of Lafayette, was his seizure by a passion to participate in the struggle for American liberty on this side of the Atlantic, which then, in its early movements, began to attract attention in Europe. Oddly enough, he was indebted for his first decided impulse in this direction to a brother of the King of England. It was in the summer of 1776, at a dinner at Metz, where Lafayette was stationed as an officer in the French army, that he met the Duke of Gloucester, in whose honor the entertainment was given. The royal duke had just received dispatches from England, announcing the progress of affairs in America. As he detailed the circumstances of the Declaration of Inde pendence, and other incidents, the young officer was caught by the sound, and, pursuing his inquiries, before he

to America and offering his services in the cause. The idea still clinging to him, he went to Paris full of the resolution. It was a project not to be talked of in public, in the existing relations between England and France; nor could he expect to carry it on without opposition from his family. As a hint to others, as well as an encouragement to himself, he tells us, in a fragment of autobiography, he adopted, as a device on his arms, the suggestive monosyllables, Cur non? Why not? Two of his young friends and relatives, whom he admitted into his confidence, the Count Ségur and Viscount de Noailles, gave the scheme their approval, but refused to join in it for family considerations. The Count de Broglic, a marshal in the army, a more mature adviser, at first endeavored to check his ardor, and then gave his acquiescence. He introduced him to Baron de Kalb, who had already visited America, by whom he was carried to the American commissioner, Silas Deane. The latter perceived the moral effect of the acquisition to the cause of a brilliant young nobleman, in cheering the spirits of his countrymen at home, and leading others to imitate his example abroad; he gave his encouragement, and it was arranged that Lafayette-his family, fortune, and influence, compensating for his extreme youth-should receive from Congress, on his arrival in America, the rank of major-general. Aid was already being secretly sent to the insurgents, as they were called, and Lafayette was to sail in the vessel employed in the service. At this moment the news of the battle

ing was happily effected at the harbor of Georgetown. Ascending the river in a boat, Lafayette, with some of his officers, alighted in the night near the residence of Major Benjamin Huger, where, upon making themselves known, they were received with warm-hearted hospitality. During the voyage, Lafayette had penned an affectionate epistle to his wife, whom he had left about, a second time, to become a mother; he now added to it a postscript, announcing his arrival, which message was just in time to be sent home by a vessel leaving for France. His epistle is dated June 15, 1777, and records his first impressions. "The manners," says he, "in this part of the world are simple, polite, and worthy in every respect of the country in which the noble name of liberty is constantly repeated." A few days later, at Charleston, in another letter, he repeats his satisfaction with the equality, kindness, love of country, which everywhere prevail. All is charming to his eyes. The absence of poverty, the neatness and ease of manners of the ladies, particularly strike him. It is a political Arcadia, with which the Parisians, in those days, were delighted, but which they found it very difficult to imitate.

Shortly after, the party left Charleston for the North, travelling on horseback, through North Carolina and Virginia. Arrived at the seat of government, at Philadelphia, where Congress was then in session, Lafayette placed his letters in the hands of Mr. Lovell, of Massachusetts, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Upon waiting on that gentleman the next

day, he was informed that such was the crowd of foreign applicants for employment in the army, and such the state of the national finances, that there was little hope of his request being regarded. Upon this, not at all disconcerted, he sat down and addressed a note to Congress, in which he claimed the right, after the sacrifices he had made, to serve on two very simple conditions-to be at his own expense, and to engage first as a volunteer. This direct as well as reasonable petition caused immediate attention to his letters. They were read at once, and, on the instant, the following resolution was passed: "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; resolved, that his service be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, his illustrious family and connections, he have the rank of Major General in the army of the United States." This resolution, conferring this high rank on a youth of nineteen, was adopted July 31st, 1777.

Washington being expected shortly in the city from the camp, Lafayette awaited his arrival. Their first meeting was at a dinner-party, at the close of which Washington, who was favor ably impressed at the outset with the new guest of the nation, took him aside, complimented him on the ardor he had shown and the sacrifices he had made, and ended by inviting him to

make the head-quarters of the army his home, and consider himself a member of his family. It was the beginning of a life-long intimacy, a friendship which Washington bequeathed to the

nation.

In a review of the troops, which took place not long after, at which Lafayette was present, Washington remarked, "We must feel embarrassed to exhibit ourselves before an officer who has just quitted French troops." "It is to learn, and not to teach, that I come hither,' was the modest reply. Lafayette was with the army as a volunteer, till the month of September, when he took part in the battle of Brandywine. He was in the thickest perils of that engagement, in the centre of the command of General Sullivan, which was exposed to the fiercest onset of Cornwallis. Seeing the ranks broken, he dismounted from his horse, and sought to rally the flying troops. While thus engaged, a musket ball passed through his leg, happily without touching the bone. In his excitement, he did not perceive the wound, till his aid called his attention to the blood running from his boot. He then mounted his horse; his wound was bandaged by a surgeon, and he rode to Chester, where he was cared for, and the next day taken to Philadelphia. Thence he passed to Bristol, where he was met by Mr. Henry Laurens, who, happening to go through the place on the adjournment of Congress, conveyed him in his carriage to the happy settlement of the Moravians, at Bethlehem, at whose quiet retreat he passed two months, waiting for the healing of his wound.

The peaceful influences at Bethle

hem, however, did not turn his attention from the thoughts of war. He, on the contrary, employed his leisure in sending communications to the French governor at Martinique, urging an attack upon the British islands, under American colors, and wrote, beside, to M. de Maurepas, advising an attack on the English factories of the East Indies. The old minister thought the latter a good project, though he declined it as inexpedient.

The young soldier, chafing in his confinement, had but imperfectly recovered from his wound, when he joined the camp, and accompanied General Greene, as a volunteer, into New Jersey. Though gifted with the title of Major General, he, as yet, had no separate command. He was, however, eager for the fight, and with juvenile impetuosity, sought every opportunity for action. This was shown in a spirited affair which he conducted while leading a reconnoitering party of Greene's troops in November, to the neighborhood of the Delaware, where he was in danger of being cut off; he escaped, however, and had a very pretty conflict with a strong Hessian outpost of the enemy, which he alighted upon, inflicting serious loss, and taking some twenty prisoners. His exhilaration in this encounter is indicated in his letter: to Washington describing the engage ment. "I never saw men," he wrote, "so merry, so spirited, and so desirous to go on to the enemy, whatever force they might have, as that small party in this little fight." General Greene wrote to Washington, "The Marquis is determined to be in the way of danger." In communicating the intelligence to