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. 209
of which, with their arms naked and bloody, displayed aloft
on their pikes, the heads of two of the gardes-du-corps, whom
they had inhumanly massacred. The royal family followed,
continually exposed to the insults of a licentious rabble, who
incessantly reproached them as the authors of that scarcity
which the hand of Providence had inflicted.*
The whole conduct of Lafayette on this memorable occasion, both at Paris and at Versailles, has been employed
by his enemies, or, what is the same thing, by the enemies
of free principles, to vitiate his character; and it becomes our
duty to defend it.-It is said that he did not adopt proper
precautions in Paris to allay the ferment; and that, " whatever were his motives," he contented himself with simply
haranguing the soldiery, and recommending patience and
forbearance, when they demanded to be led to Versailles.
" The national guards," says a late writer, " who had lately
chosen Lafayette for their commander, assembled; and insisted upon being led to Versailles, to fetch the king to the
capital. Lafayette, unprepared for this demand, hesitated;
but the municipal council ordered him to march. He obeyed.
Never was there such conduct as this, on the part of a man
who professed himself an apostle of honest liberty. He
consulted a body that had no legal authority in the state;
and, by their orders, he led, against his sovereign, a band of
disorganised troops who had openly declared their intention
of making him their captive. It may be said that there was
danger in disobedience. But had not M. Lafayette learned
in America that danger is honourable? and did he march
with his soldiers, as their prisoner, or their chief?-as the
minion or the slave, of faction?"t " Lafayette," says Mr.
Playfair,' went literally guarded as a prisoner by his own
troops, and apparently with the greatest reluctance. Two
American gentlemen, friends of Fayette, met this cavalcade: he seemed to them to be in a state of great consterna* History of France, 3 vols. vol. iii. p. 468-489.
t Quarterly Review, vol. xxviii. p. 289, for 1823.
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