[Illustration: LAFAYETTE MEETS WASHINGTON] Lafayette, We Come! The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in France By RUPERT S. HOLLAND _Author of “Historic Boyhoods,” “The Knights of the Golden Spur,” etc._ [Illustration: Colophon] PHILADELPHIA GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1918, by GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY _All rights reserved_ Printed in U. S. A. _To Those Men of the Great Republic Who Have Answered The Call of Lafayette, Lover of Liberty_ Illustrations Lafayette meets Washington _Frontispiece_ _Facing page_ Lafayette, a Prussian prisoner 226 “America’s Answer” 302 Foreword In 1777 the young Marquis de Lafayette, only nineteen years old, came from France to the aid of the Thirteen Colonies of North America because he heard their cry for liberty ringing across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1917 the United States of America drew the sword in defense of the sacred principle of liberty for which the country of Lafayette was fighting. The debt of gratitude had never been forgotten; the ideals of the gallant Frenchman and of the young Republic of the Western World were the same; what he had done for us we of America are now doing for him. It is a glorious story, and one never to be forgotten while men love liberty and truth. Every boy and girl should know it, for it is the story of a brave, generous, noble-minded youth, who gave such devoted service to America that he stands with Washington and Lincoln as one of the great benefactors of our land. “I’m going to America to fight for freedom!” he cried; and the cry still rings in our ears more than a century later. The message is the same one we hear to-day and that is carrying us across the Atlantic to France. From Lafayette’s story we learn courage, fidelity to honor, loyalty to conviction, the qualities that make men free and great. The principles of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” of France are the same as those of our own Declaration of Independence, and the men of the countries of Washington and Lafayette now fight under a common banner. “Lafayette, we come!” was America’s answer to the great man who offered all he had to us in the days of 1777. Contents I. THE LITTLE MARQUIS OF FRANCE 7 II. “WAKE UP! I’M GOING TO AMERICA TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!” 25 III. HOW LAFAYETTE RAN AWAY TO SEA 45 IV. THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN REACHES AMERICA 63 V. “I WILL FIGHT FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY AS A VOLUNTEER!” 82 VI. LAFAYETTE WINS THE FRIENDSHIP OF WASHINGTON 102 VII. THE FRENCHMAN IN THE FIELD AGAIN 123