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.

4 HIsTORY OF THE
ceived an excellent education. In the year 1772, at the
age of fifteen, he was enrolled among the MJousquitaires, a
corps instituted for the protection of the royal person, and
composed of young men of the most illustrious extraction.
Previous to this time, he was made one of the pages of the
queen of France. The mildness and affability of his manners soon attracted the universal esteem of his new comrades; and the iimmediate influence of royalty, in a short
ti-ne, elevated hilm to the rank of a commissioned officer, a
flavour exclusively reserved for the most illustrious scions of
nobility.
Th)e Miousquitaires du Roi had for a long time been a
costly establsllhment; and although such a noble guard was
hi-ghly flattering to the dignity of the sovereign, yet the expense attending it was severely felt, and frequently regretted.
The suppression of it had been repeatedly agitated; but no
minister had yet been found sufficiently hardy to venture on a
reform, which menaced him with the resentment of the most
noblle families of France. This instance of political fortitude was reserved for the Count de St. Germain, who enforced to Louis XVI. the considerable savings that might be
applied to the effective marchling battalions, friom the reduction of a corps which was the offspring of pageantry. An
edict was accordingly published, in the year 1775, for the
suppression of the Mousquitaires.
Those brave men, whose courage'had always been celebrated, received the news of their dismission with the deepest marks of sorrow and despair. Attached to each other
by similarity of habits, and cemented in friendship by comnmon dangers and services, they regarded the order which
decreed their separation, with feelings of real and undisguised grief. IM. de la Chaise, a veteran officer of tried
resolution, and one of their commanders, fainted lon receiving the fatal nmandate; and the whole corps vented their
sorrow in the loudest and most poignant exclamations. But
the King and his ministers were inexorable-and, it is said,
thlat the capital was not sorry to be delivered friom a corps,