Regarding his own ideas of liberty and equality, he wrote to the same friend: “For my part, as I feel persuaded that the human race was created to enjoy freedom, and as I have been born to promote the cause of liberty, I neither can nor will shrink from the participation which it has been my fate to take in this great event; wherever I have been able, and especially in my own country, I concurred on principle in all the enterprises undertaken against an illegitimate power which it was necessary to destroy, and I now declare to you that in 1787 and 1788 the resistance of the privileged classes—of the leaders of the aristocracy—had as much of the true character of faction as any other insurrection that I have since witnessed.” La Fayette could never be persuaded to use violent measures in upholding even a good cause when such an expedient was not absolutely necessary. At one time during the Revolution, Mirabeau having recommended some very violent plans to La Fayette, urging that they were excusable for the execution of certain projects, La Fayette indignantly exclaimed, “M. de Mirabeau, it is impossible for an honest man to employ such means.” “An honest man!” replied Mirabeau. “Ah! M. de La Fayette, it seems you wish to be a _Grandison Cromwell_: you will see to what that amalgamation will lead you.” Wherever the voice of duty called La Fayette, no danger could make him flinch, no fear of insult could deter. During the days of October, 1789, when the palace of Versailles was filled with the raging, bloodthirsty mob, La Fayette hastened to an apartment where the crowd was the thickest, and calmly entered, and crossed the _Salon_ without attendants. “There goes Cromwell!” cried one. Turning to the speaker, La Fayette replied with dignity, “Cromwell would not have entered here ALONE!” Notwithstanding the difference of opinion between La Fayette and Napoleon, whenever it appeared to La Fayette that his services could be of use to the best interests of his country, he was ever ready to sacrifice all personal feeling. Before the battle of Marengo, La Fayette addressed a letter to a friend, instructing him to deliver the communication to Napoleon, in case the battle of Marengo should be lost. In this letter La Fayette offered his services to Bonaparte, in defence of the independence of France. As the battle was won, the epistle was not delivered; but Napoleon was informed of the step which La Fayette contemplated taking in case of defeat. One day, while surrounded by his staff of officers, Bonaparte expressed his admiration of the patriotism of the man with whom he differed in opinion, and added, “Which of you, gentlemen, could have done better?” La Fayette always recollected with pride and with pleasure the services rendered to France by the National Guard, and he thus wrote of them:—