The Guard could not part with him without renewed expressions of admiration for their idol. Finding that they could not move him, by their persuasions, to withdraw his resignation, they forged a sword from the bolts of the Bastile, and presented it to him, with profound marks of their esteem and affection. The municipality of Paris voted him a medal, and ordered a complimentary inscription to be placed upon the bust of La Fayette, which had been presented by Virginia to the city of Paris twelve years before. “Now that his Majesty has accepted the constitution, to the sound of cannon-salvoes, who would not hope? La Fayette has moved for an amnesty, for universal forgiving and forgetting of revolutionary faults; and now surely the glorious revolution, cleared of its rubbish, is complete.... Welcome, surely, to all right hearts, is La Fayette’s chivalrous amnesty. The National Constituent Assembly declares that it has finished its mission; so, amid glitter of illuminated streets and Champs Elysées, and crackle of fireworks, and glad deray, has the first National Assembly vanished.... La Fayette, for his part, will lay down the command. He retires, Cincinnatus-like, to his hearth and farm, but soon leaves them again.” [Illustration: THE KING ACCEPTING THE CONSTITUTION.] But the king and court seem blindly destined to bring about their own destruction. The Royalists, far from distinguishing between such men as La Fayette, Robespierre, and Pétion, strengthened the hands of the two last, thinking by those means to weaken the former. The court, incited by the queen, treated La Fayette with a blindfold hatred, by opposing Pétion to him at every turn. When the honest, well-meaning soldier was about to be elected mayor of Paris, Marie Antoinette, through her machinations, caused the nomination of Pétion, who employed his exalted position in overturning the throne and the constitution. But not only was France at the mercy of the factions within, but foreign hosts threatened them without. La Fayette’s quiet life of repose was soon disturbed. Startling rumors reached Paris that a large army was preparing for an invasion. Quick to respond to his country’s call, La Fayette relinquished his coveted delights of rest and reunion with his family, and accepted the command of one of the three armies which France was raising to meet the advancing foe. At this time La Fayette issued the following stirring proclamation to his army:— “SOLDIERS OF OUR COUNTRY! “The legislative corps and the king, in the name of the French people, have declared war. Since the country, by constitutional means and by her will, calls us to defend her, what citizen can refuse to her his arm? “At this moment, when we leaders take again the oath which was pronounced by the nation and army upon the altar of the Federation, I come to explain my intentions, and to recall to you my principles.