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.

MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 271
The suspension and imprisonment of the king produced
great astonishment in the armies; particularly in that coinmanded by Lafayette, who, by the sudden change of his
position, appears to have meditated some important project,
now rendered abortive by the new revolution. He was
posted, at this critical moment, at Sedan, at the head of
twenty-eight thousand men. As strenuously opposed to the
tyranny of the Jacobins, as he was adverse to the despotism
of the court, the general determined to support, with all
his energies, the cause of the captive monarch, whose
power had been rendered legitimate by the sanction of the
constitution, and the oaths of the people. He called a
council of war, to which he summoned every officer
commanding a battalion, and finding among them a ready
assent to the measures proposed by him, he immediately published a proclamation, in which he declared not
only his own dissent, but that of the troops under his corn
mand, to the recent events that had occurred in the capital.
But the national assembly had already anticipated the defection of Lafayette's army, and recurred to measur-s calculated either to gain the commander, or induce the tlavps
to desert him. On the night of the twelfth of August, they
accordingly despatched three commissioners to the army,
to counteract the movements of the general Lafayette
was accidentally apprized of these proceedings; and after
stating the facts to the magistrates of Sedan, he advised
them, in duty to the king and constitution, to arrest the
commissioners, who, on their arrival there, were accordingly
imprisoned.-In the mean time Lafayette returned to camp,
and immediately distributed among the battalions an energetic and decisive letter, declaring the destruction of the
constitution by a banditti, and the deposition of tile king.
" Citizens," he concluded, " you are no longer represented;
the national assembly are in a state of slavery; your armies
are without leaders; Petion reigns; the savage Danton and
his satellites are masters. Thus, soldiers, it is your province