Again La Fayette turned his face toward the New Land of Liberty. He arrived in New York in August, 1784, where he was received with distinguished honors, and his journey to Philadelphia and Baltimore was a succession of triumphs. Bells echoed from mountain-peak to hill-top, cannon boomed their thunders of welcome, and old Revolutionary soldiers gathered around their honored comrade with admiring respect. But he hastened to the alluring heights of Mount Vernon, where his beloved chief and general impatiently awaited his arrival. Twelve days of delight he spent with Washington in that picturesque retreat. Triumph after triumph yet awaited the nation’s guest, the now illustrious but still youthful Marquis de La Fayette; loved better in America as the valiant major-general than as the gentleman of rank. But amid all the cities that strove to do him honor, Boston, this time, outstripped them all. His ovation there occurred on the anniversary of the surrender of Cornwallis, and the governor of the state, the president the Senate, and the speaker of the House of Representatives assembled in the great hall where thousands awaited to do him honor. The apartment was brilliantly and appropriately ornamented, and emblems of the thirteen states of the Union floated from arch and pillar. After dinner thirteen patriotic toasts were drunk, followed each by thirteen guns stationed in the square without. As the name of Washington was spoken, and La Fayette arose to reply, a curtain behind the marquis was mysteriously lifted, revealing a noble portrait of the great general encircled with laurels and decorated with the entwined flags of America and France. La Fayette, surprised and moved, regarded those loved features with evident emotion, and his silent admiration was at length broken by a voice exclaiming, “_Long live Washington!_” And the cry was quickly taken up, and from all the people rose a shout of vociferous applause, “_Long live Washington!_” [Illustration: LAFAYETTE’S ROOM AT MOUNT VERNON.] Congress, then assembled at Trenton, tendered a farewell to their illustrious guest; and to the courtly greeting of Mr. Jay, chairman of the committee appointed to wait upon him, La Fayette made this fitting reply:— “_May this immense temple of Freedom ever stand a lesson to oppressors, an example to the oppressed, and a sanctuary for the rights of mankind!_ and may these happy United States attain that complete splendor and prosperity which will illustrate the blessings of their government, and for ages to come rejoice the departed souls of its founders!” And the echoes of La Fayette’s words come still rolling down the years, “May this temple of Freedom stand!” La Fayette’s parting from Washington was most tender and affecting. As the old general pressed to his heart the youthful form of his beloved and adopted son, tears filled his eyes, and La Fayette, too, looked through dim mists, and both were proud to show their mutual love.