A complete history of the Marquis de Lafayette, major-general in the American army in the war of the revolution. Embracing an account of his tour through the United States, to the time of his departure, September, 1825. By an officer in the late army.

252 HISTORY OF THE
who were continually endeavouring to create discord and
confusion. The instrumentality of Lafayette in effecting this
object, increased the odium in which he was held by the
fomenters of anarchy; and his agency in the dismission of
fourteen soldiers of the national guard, who had been particularly active in promoting the mutiny of the eighteenth,
gave a fresh and violent impulse to their enmity. T'he discarded soldiers were feasted, and treated as persecuted patriots; while Lafayette was accused as an enemy of liberty
and of being bought by the court. Emissaries were also employed to blacken his character and misrepresent his conduct, among the groups of idlers in the places of public resort. Placards were posted up, and pamphlets published
against him. At the Cordeliers, some men were heard to
declare, that it would be meritorious to assassinate him: and,
at the Fraternal Society, a woman, fired by the eloquence
of these orators, and intoxicated with the spirit of patriotism,
called him, among other bad names, a second Sisera, and
swore that she would take the earliest opportunity of entering his house, and driving a nail into his temples while he
was asleep.:
The capital was now kept in a continual state of agitation
by the daring and unprincipled men, who had the direction
of the numerous incendiary societies; until at length, the
unhappy monarch, being in dread of the utmost violence
from the increasing rancour of his enemies, resolved to endeavour to escape with his family, out of the kingdom, or, at
least, to a garrisoned town on the frontiers. On the night
of the twentieth of June, 1791, the royal family left the palace in disguise, by a private issue which communicated with
the Carousel, crossed the Pont Royal, and, on the Quai des
Theatins, found the carriages which were waiting for them.
At Chalons, the king was recognised by the post-master, who,
being a royalist, did not betray him; but at St. Menehould,
the decisive blow was struck. He was there fully known by
* Moore's View, ii. 172, 3I