out those troublesome times he was found at his post by the side of the constitution and the laws; and when at length the whole foundations of society were broken up and the wild current of licentiousness and crime swept him an exile into a foreign land, still did he hold fast his integrity of soul. In the gloomy dungeons of Olmutz, the flame of patriotism glowed as brightly and as warmly in his breast as ever it did when fanned by the free breezes of the mountains. For five long years was the friend of liberty immured in the prison of the tyrant. In vain did the civilized world demand his release.

The

The doors of the Austrian dungeon were at length. thrown open and Lafayette returned to France. Great changes, however, had taken place in his absence. The flood of the Revolution had subsided. tempest of popular commotion had blown over, leaving many and fearful evidences of its fury; and the star of the child of destiny had now become lord of the ascendant. Small was the sympathy between the selfish and ambitious Napoleon and Lafayette the patriot and philanthropist. They could no more mingle than the pure lights of heaven and the unholy fires of hell. Lafayette refused with scorn the dignities proffered by the First Consul. Filled with virtuous indignation at his country's fate, he retired from the capital; and, devoting himself awhile to the pursuits of private life, awaited the return of better times.

Here we cannot but pause to contemplate these

wonderful men, belonging to the same age and to the same nation: Napoleon and Lafayette. Their names excite no kindred emotions; their fates no kindred sympathies. Napoleon the Child of Destiny - the thunderbolt of war the victor in a hundred battles — the dispenser of thrones and dominions; he who scaled the Alps and reclined beneath the pyramids, whose word was fate and whose wish was law. Lafayette -the volunteer of freedom the advocate of human rights - the defender of civic liberty the patriot and the philanthropist the beloved of the good and the free. Napoleon the vanquished warrior, ignobly flying from the field of Waterloo, the wild beast, ravaging all Europe in his wrath, hunted down by the banded and affrighted nations and caged far away upon an ocean-girded rock. Lafayette, a watchword by which men excite each other to deeds of worth and noble daring; whose home has become the Mecca of freedom, toward which the pilgrims of liberty turn their eyes from every quarter of the globe. Napoleon was the red and fiery comet, shooting wildly through the realms of space and scattering pestilence and terror among the nations. Lafayette was the pure and brilliant planet, beneath whose grateful beams the mariner directs his bark and the shepherd tends his flocks- Napoleon died and a few old warriors the scattered relics of Marengo and Austerlitz - bewailed their chief. Lafayette is dead and the tears of a civilized world attest how deep is the mourning for his loss. Such is, and always will

be, the difference of feeling toward a benefactor and a conqueror of the human race.

In 1824, on Sunday, a single ship furled her snowy sails in the harbor of New York. Scarcely had her prow touched the shore, when a murmur was heard among the multitudes, which gradually deepened into a mighty shout of joy. Again and again were the heavens rent with the inspiring sound. Nor did it cease; for the loud strain was carried from city to city and from State to State, till not a tongue was silent throughout this wide republic from the lisping infant to the tremulous old man. All were united in one wild shout of 'gratulation. The voices of more than ten million freemen gushed up toward the sky and broke the stillness of its silent depths. But one note and one tone went to form this acclamation. Up in those pure regions clearly and sweetly did it sound: "Honor to Lafayette!" "Welcome to the Nation's Guest!"

It was Lafayette, the war-worn veteran, whose arrival on our shores had caused this widespread, this universal joy. He came among us to behold the independence and the freedom which his young arm had so well assisted in achieving; and never before did eye behold or heart of man conceive, such homage paid to virtue. Not a single city, but a whole nation rising as one man and greeting him with an affectionate embrace! One single day of such spontaneous homage were worth whole years of courtly adulation; one hour might well reward a man for

a whole life of danger and of toil. Then, too, the joy with which he must have viewed the prosperity of the people for whom he had so heroically struggled! To behold the nation which he had left a little child, now grown up in the full proportions of lusty manhood! To see the tender sapling, which he had left with hardly shade enough to cover its own roots, now waxing into the sturdy and unwedgeable oak, beneath whose grateful umbrage the oppressed of all nations find shelter and protection! That oak still grows on in its majestic strength, and wider and wider still extend its mighty branches. But the hand that watered and nourished it while yet a tender plant is now cold; the heart that watched with strong affection its early growth has ceased to beat.

Peace be to his ashes! Calm and quiet may they rest upon some vine-clad hill of his own beloved land! And it shall be called the Mount Vernon of France. And let no cunning sculpture, no monumental marble, deface with its mock dignity the patriot's grave; but, rather let the unpruned vine, the wild flower, and the free song of the uncaged bird, all that speaks of freedom and of peace, be gathered round it. Lafayette needs no 'mausoleum. His fame is mingled with the nation's history. His 'epitaph is engraved upon the hearts of men.

SARGENT SMITH PRENTISS.

NOTES

His

This oration resembles the foregoing one on Washington. Its purpose is to awaken reverence for the character of the great man who had just died. Prentiss, the speaker, was one of the most distinguished orators of the Old South. speech is even more poetic than that of Webster - it is in what is called the flowery style, which is no longer popular, because most hearers, as well as readers, prefer prose to poetry nowadays. Note the poetic figures: death and freedom are represented as persons. Observe the comparison made between the character of Lafayette and the characters of Cæsar and Napoleon. Is the speaker's account of Lafayette's service in the Revolutionary War dry or graphic? What was the feeling that inspired Lafayette to come to the aid of the Americans? Let some boy with a good voice read this oration aloud; see whether the class is not impressed by it.

WORDS AND PHRASES

Kosciusko: A Pole who fought for America in the Revolution and was afterward wounded and captured in an effort to free Poland from Russia.

Brandywine: Fought on September 11, 1777.

Nestor: The oldest and wisest of the Greek leaders at the siege of Troy.

Jacobins: The party in the French Revolution which advocated

extreme measures.

Olmutz: The Austrian fortress in which Lafayette was confined. First Consul: This was Napoleon's title before he became the Emperor of the French.