To a friend he said in after years: “You ask me at what period I first experienced my ardent love for liberty and glory. I recollect no time of life anterior to my enthusiasm for anecdotes of glorious deeds, and to my projects of travelling over the world to acquire fame. At eight years of age my heart beat when I heard of a wolf that had done some injury, and caused still more alarm in our neighborhood, and the hope of meeting it was the object of all my walks. When I arrived at college, nothing ever interrupted my studies except my ardent wish to study without restraint. I never deserved to be chastised, but, in spite of my usual gentleness, it would have been dangerous to attempt to do so. I recollect with pleasure that, when I was to describe in rhetoric a perfect courser, I sacrificed the hope of obtaining a prize, and described the one which, on perceiving the whip, threw his rider. “Republican anecdotes always delighted me, and when my new connections wished to obtain for me a place at court, I did not hesitate displeasing them to preserve my independence.” [Illustration: CHÂTEAU OF CHAVANIAC.—LAFAYETTE’S BIRTHPLACE.] At the age of twelve years La Fayette was entered at the college of Louis le Grand, in Paris, where he zealously pursued his studies. In Latin and Greek classics he became especially proficient. Owing to his high rank his literary pursuits were subject to frequent interruptions, for he early gained the attention of royalty, and the gay French court was very alluring to a youth passionately fond of brilliant society. However, his love for study and his enthusiasm for the military calling prevented his becoming a courtier. By the death of his mother in 1770, and of his grandfather a short time after, he became possessed of great wealth, which, being entirely at his own control, surrounded him with a crowd of fawning flatterers. At the age of fifteen he became a page to Queen Marie Antoinette, and was enrolled a member of the _Mousquetaires du Roi_, the body-guard of the king, which was composed solely of the descendants of the most highly titled families in France. Through the influence of the queen, he was promoted to the rank of a commissioned officer in this corps. Speaking of which, he said “that his military services only interrupted his studies on review days.” At the age of sixteen La Fayette was married to the Comtesse de Noailles, daughter of the Duke d’Ayen. Madame de La Fayette herself gives the following account of her somewhat strange wooing.