The king's warning was not indeed without reason. But there was no use in trying to keep the impressionable French people from worshiping a hero after their hearts had been captured by him. The gallantry and the human-heartedness of Lafayette, as well as the ideals he held--ideals that were becoming more and more captivating to the fancy and to the reason of the French nation--contributed to make him the favorite of the hour. A passage from a certain play never failed to receive enthusiastic applause from the audiences because it was held by all to be susceptible of direct application to Lafayette; and this passage the queen copied in her own hand because she thought of him when she read it. It dwelt upon the union of mature and youthful qualities in a character, and ran as follows: "Why talk of youth When all the ripe experience of the old Dwells with him? In his schemes profound and cool He acts with wise precaution, and reserves For times of action, his impetuous fire. To guard the camp, to scale the 'leaguered wall, Or dare the hottest of the fight, are toils That suit the impetuous bearing of his youth; Yet like the gray-haired veteran he can shun The field of peril. Still before my eyes I place his bright example, for I love His lofty courage, and his prudent thought; Gifted like him, a warrior has no age." The queen's copy of this passage was given to Madame de Campan, the revered teacher of the young ladies of the court, and it met the fate of being burned on the very day Marie Antoinette's sad life came to an end at the hands of the executioner during the height of the Terror. The queen had shown her interest in Lafayette's arrival by arranging to have an interview with the young hero when he was making his first visit to Versailles. At her suggestion Lafayette was now advanced by the king to be commander of an important regiment in the army of France, the king's own Dragoons. He was stationed at Saintes and afterwards at St. Jean-d'Angely, near Rochefort, where the regiment was conveniently quartered to be ready in case a project for the invasion of England by way of the British Channel should be carried out. Such a plan was under consideration, and Lafayette looked forward with delight to the prospect of action against the country which he considered the ancient foe of France.