Lafayette, We Come!: The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in FranceHolland, Rupert Sargent
History
Lafayette, We Come!: The Story of How a Young Frenchman Fought for Liberty in America and How America Now Fights for Liberty in France
Holland, Rupert Sargent
Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834
He went back to his quiet family life at Lagrange. Prominent statesmen
came to him for advice, but he rarely went to Paris. The nobility had
been restored to their ancient social standing, and Lafayette was urged
to resume his title of marquis. He refused to do this, however, and the
refusal embittered the royalists even more against him. The Bourbon
government feared his influence in 1825, just as the aristocrats had
feared it in 1785, the Jacobins in 1795, and Napoleon in 1805.
Yet Charles X. could not always conceal the fact that he had a strong
personal liking for the old republican. One day in 1829 the newspapers
announced that Lafayette was ill. The King met several members of the
Chamber of Deputies. “Have you any news of Monsieur de Lafayette?” asked
King Charles. “How is he?”
“Much better, sire,” answered a deputy.
“Ah! I am very glad of it!” said the King. “That is a man whom I like
much, and who has rendered services to our family that I do not forget.
We have always encountered each other, although moving in opposite
directions; we were born in the same year; we learned to ride on
horseback together at the Versailles riding-school, and he belonged
to my bureau in the Assembly of the Notables. I take a great deal of
interest in him.”
King Charles and his friends, however, paid no attention to the new
spirit that was awake in France. The people had won a constitution, but
the King tried to limit it as far as he could and to override it in some
ways. He roused the resentment of the country by trying to bring back
the old extravagance of his ancestors, and he even dared to attempt to
intimidate the Chamber of Deputies. In 1829 he dissolved the National
Assembly and appointed as ministers men who had won the hatred of the
nation for their autocratic views. The gauntlet was thrown down between
king and people, and the latter were not slow to pick it up.
At this time Lafayette happened to be traveling to Chavaniac, where
his son now lived. He was greeted at every town with the usual marks
of respect. At Puy he was given a public dinner, and toasts were drunk
to “The charter, to the Chamber of Deputies, the hope of France!” When
he reached the city of Grenoble he was met by a troop of horsemen, who
escorted him to the gates. There citizens presented him with a crown
of oak leaves made of silver “as a testimony of the gratitude of the
people, and as an emblem of the strength with which the inhabitants
of Grenoble, following his example, will sustain their rights and the
constitution.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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