His mind made up by what he had heard at Metz, Lafayette set off for Paris. But once there, it was hard to decide where he should turn for help. His father-in-law, he knew, would be even more scandalized by his new plan than he had been by the affront the young man had given the King’s brother. His own wife was too young and inexperienced to give him wise counsel in such a matter. Finally he chose for his first real confidant his cousin and close friend, the Count de Segur. Lafayette went at once to his cousin’s house, though it was only seven o’clock in the morning, was told that the Count was not yet out of bed, but, without waiting to be announced, rushed upstairs and woke the young man. The Count saw his cousin standing beside him and shaking him by the arm. In great surprise he sat up. “Wake up! wake up!” cried Lafayette. “Wake up! I’m going to America to fight for freedom! Nobody knows it yet; but I love you too much not to tell you.” The Count sprang out of bed and caught Lafayette’s hand. “If that is so, I will go with you!” he cried. “I will go to America too! I will fight with you for freedom! How soon do you start?” It was easier said than done, however. The two young men had breakfast and eagerly discussed this momentous matter. The upshot of their discussion was to decide to enlist a third friend in their cause, and so they set out to see Lafayette’s brother-in-law, the Viscount Louis Marie de Noailles, who was a year older than the Marquis. The young Viscount, like the Count de Segur, heard Lafayette’s news with delight, for he also belonged to that small section of the French nobility that was very much interested in what was called “the rights of man.” So here were three young fellows,--hardly more than boys,--for none of the three was over twenty years old, all of high rank and large fortune, eager to do what they could to help the fighting farmers of the American colonies. At the very start, however, they ran into difficulties. France and England, though not on very friendly terms at that particular time, were yet keeping the peace between them, and the French prime minister was afraid that if the English government should learn that a number of young French aristocrats were intending to aid the rebellious American colonists it might cause ill-feeling between France and England. The prime minister, therefore, frowned on all such schemes as that of Lafayette, and so the three young liberty-loving conspirators had to set about their business with the greatest secrecy.