the commissioners, as they were called, without having any commission, to whom Lafayette still persisted in offering his services, were obliged, at last, to acknowledge that they could not even give him decent means for his conveyance. 'Then,' said he, I shall purchase and fit out a vessel for myself." He did so. The vessel was prepared, we believe, at Bourdeaux; and sent round to one of the nearest ports in Spain, in order to be beyond the power of the French government. After he was determined to come to this country and before he embarked, he made a visit of a few weeks in England; the only time he was ever there, and was much sought in English society. On his return to France he still kept his purposes in relation to America partly or entirely secret ;, and it was not until he had already left Paris in order to embark, that his romantic undertaking was generally known. The effect produced in the capital and at court by its publication was greater than we should now, perhaps, imagine. Lord Stormont, the English Ambassador, compelled the French ministry to despatch an order for his arrest, not only to Bourdeaux but to the French naval commanders on the American station. His family, too, sent, or were understood to send, in pursuit of him; and society at Paris, according to Madame du Deffand's account of it, was in no common state of excitement on the occasion.* Something of the same sort happened in London. We talk chiefly,' says Gibbon, in a letter dated April 12th, 1777, of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was here a few weeks ago. He is about twenty, with a hundred and thirty thousand livres a year, the nephew of Noailles, who is ambassador here. He bas bought the Duke of Kingston's yacht, and is gone to join the Americans. The court appear to be angry with him.' * De tous les départs présents, celui qui est le plus singulier et le plus étonnant, c'est celui de M. de Lafayette. Il n'a pas vingt ans ; il est parti ces jours-ci pour l'Amérique; il emmène avec lui huit ou dix de ses amis; il n'avait confié son projet qu' au Vicomte de Noailles, sous le plus grand secret; il a acheté un vaisseau, l'a équipé, et s' est embarqué à Bordeaux. Sitot que ses parents en ont eu la nouvelle, ils ont fait courir après lui pour l'arrêter et le ramener; mais on est arrivé trop tard, il y avait trois heures qu'il était embarqué. C'est une folie, sans doute, mais qui ne le déshonore point, et qui au contraire marque du courage et du désir de la gloire. On le loue plus qu' on le blame; mais sa femme, qu'il laisse grosse de quatre mois, son beau-père, sa belle-mère, et toute sa famille en sont fort affligés. Lettre de Mad. du Def fand a H. Walpole, 31 Mars, 1777. He, however, escaped all pursuit, whether serious or pretended, and arrived safely at Charleston, S. C. on the 25th of April, 1777. The sensation produced by his appearance in this country was, of course, much greater than that produced in Europe. by his departure. It still stands forth, as one of the most prominent and important circumstances in our revolutionary contest; and, as has often been said by one who bore no small part in its trials and success, none but those who were then alive, can believe what an impulse it gave to the hopes of a population almost disheartened by a long series of disasters. And well it might; for it taught us, that in the first rank of the first nobility in Europe, men could still be found, who not only took an interest in our struggle, but were willing to share our sufferings; that our obscure and almost desperate contest for freedom in a remote quarter of the world, could yet find supporters among those, who were the most natural and powerful allies of a splendid despotism; that we were the objects of a regard and interest throughout the world, which would add to our own resources sufficient strength to carry us safely through to final success. Immediately after his arrival, Lafayette received the offer of a command in our army, but declined it. Indeed, during the whole of his service with us, he seemed desirous to show, by his conduct, that he had come only to render disinterested assistance to our cause. He began, therefore, by clothing and equipping a body of men at Charleston at his own expense; and then entered, as a volunteer, without pay, into our service. He lived in the family of the Commander in Chief, and won his full affection and confidence. He was appointed a Major General in our service, by a vote of Congress, on the 31st of July, 1777, and in September of the same year, was wounded at Brandywine. He was employed in 1778 both in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, and after having received the thanks of the country for his important services, embarked at Boston in January, 1779, for France, thinking he could assist us more effectually, for a time, in. Europe than in America. He arrived at Versailles, then the regular residence of the French court, on the 12th of February, and the same day had a long conference with one of the ministers. He did not see the king; and in a letter written at Court the next day, we are told, that he received an order to visit none but his relations, as a form of censure for having left France without permission; but this was an order, that fell very lightly on him, for he was connected by birth or marriage with almost every body at court, and every body else thronged to see him at his own hotel. The treaty which was concluded between America and France at just about the same period, and was publicly known a little later, was, by Lafayette's personal exertions, made effective in our favor. As soon as this was done, or as soon as he had ascertained that he should be speedily followed by a French fleet for our assistance, he embarked to return, and on the 11th of May communicated the intelligence confidentially to the Commander in Chief at Head Quarters, having been absent from the army hardly five months. Immediately on his return, he entered into our service with the same disinterested zeal he had shown on his first arrival. He received the separate command of a body of infantry consisting of about two thousand men, and clothed and equipped it partly at his own expense, rendering it by unwearied exertions, constant sacrifices, and wise discipline, the best corps in the army. What he did for us, while at the head of this division, is known to all, who have read the history of their country. His forced march to Virginia, in December 1780, raising two thousand guineas at Baltimore, on his own credit, to supply the pressing wants of his troops; his rescue of Richmond, which but for his great exertions must have fallen into the enemy's hands; his long trial of generalship with Cornwallis, who foolishly boasted in an intercepted letter, that 'the boy could not escape him ;' and finally the siege of Yorktown, the storming of the redoubt, and the surrender of the place in October, 1781, are proofs of talent as a military commander, and devotion to the welfare of these states, for which he never has been repaid, and, in some respects, never can be. He was, however, desirous to make yet greater exertions. in our favor, and announced his project of revisiting France for the purpose. Congress had already repeatedly acknowledged his merits and services in formal votes. They now acknowledged them more formally than ever by a resolution of November 23d, in which, besides all other expressions of approbation, they desire the foreign ministers of this government to confer with him in their negotiations concerning our affairs; a mark of respect and deference, of which we know no other example. In France a brilliant reputation had preceded him. The cause of America was already popular there, and his exertions and sacrifices in it, which, from the first, had seemed so chivalrous and romantic, now came reflected back upon him in the strong light of popular enthusiasm. Before his return, the following beautiful verses, from the Gaston et Bayard of Belloy, had been often applauded and their repetition sometimes called for, on the public Theatre, and Madame Campan tells us, that she for a long time preserved them in the handwriting of the unfortunate Queen of Louis Sixteenth, who had transcribed them because they had thus been publicly appropriated to the popular favorite of the time. Eh! que fait sa jeunesse Lorsque de l'âge mûr je lui vois la sagesse ? Act. I. Sc. 4. A similar circumstance happened, or rather in this second instance was prepared, at about the same time by Rochon de Chabannes, who introduced the following portrait of him into his Amour François, açted in 1780. On est compté pour rien, quand on est inutile ; Il vole la chercher sur un autre hémisphère, etc. The resemblance was, of course, immediately recognised, and the name of Lafayette, which at first was murmured VOL. XX.-No. 46. 20 doubtfully, was, at the conclusion shouted throughout the Theatre in a tumult of applause. It is not remarkable, therefore, with such a state of feeling, while he was still absent from the country, that, on his return, he was followed by crowds in the public streets wherever he went; and that, in a journey he made to one of his estates in the south of France, the towns through which he passed, received him with processions and civic honors; and that in the city of Orleans he was detained nearly a week by the festivities they had prepared for him. He did not, however, forget our interests amidst the popular admiration with which he was surrounded. On the contrary, though the negotiations for a peace were advancing, he was constantly urging upon the French government the policy of sending more troops to this country, as the surest means of bringing the war to a speedy and favorable termination. He at last succeeded; and Count d' Estaing was ordered to hold himself in readiness to sail for the United States, as soon as Lafayette should join him. When, therefore, he arrived at Cadiz, he found fortynine ships and twenty thousand men ready to follow him; and they would have been on our coast early in the spring, if peace had not rendered further exertions unnecessary. This great event was first announced to Congress, by a letter from Lafayette, dated in the harbor of Cadiz, February 5, 1783. His As soon as tranquillity was restored, Lafayette began to receive pressing invitations to visit the country, whose cause he had so materially assisted. Washington, in particular, was extremely urgent; and yielding not only to these instances, but to an attachment to the United States, of which his whole life has given proof, he embarked again for our shores and landed at New York on the 4th of August, 1784. visit, however, was short. He went almost immediately to Mount Vernon, where he passed a few days in the family of which he was so long a cherished member, and then visiting Annapolis, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, and Boston, received everywhere with unmingled enthusiasm and delight, he reembarked for France. But when he was thus about to leave the United States for the third, and, as it then seemed, the last time, Congress, in December, 1784, appointed a solemn deputation, consisting for its greater dignity, of |