England, the United States and several other governments looked upon the incarceration of La Fayette as a violation of the laws of nations, of common justice and humanity. Washington and many others made great exertions to obtain his release. The Emperor of Austria was inexorable. The staple of his mind was adamant--he delighted in human misery. He had caged the European Eagle of Liberty determined to immolate him slowly but surely on the altar of revenge and crush the embryo buds of liberal principles in the old world. A bold but unsuccessful attempt to rescue the prisoner was made by Col. Huger and Dr. Bollman of South Carolina. Its history is full of thrilling interest and does great credit to the heads and hearts of its persevering and ingenious authors. The amiableness and dignity of Madame La Fayette forced respect from the bloodthirsty Jacobins who ultimately released her. Learning the forlorn condition of her husband her native tenderness rushed upon her noble soul like a mighty flood. She at once resolved to fly to him and share in all the vicissitudes that awaited him. With her two daughters she left France in disguise and arrived safe at Olmutz. Her application to see her husband could not be granted unless she consented never to leave the prison after entering it. With this inhuman decree she cheerfully complied. The most brilliant imagination can but faintly conceive--the strongest language can never portray to the life the thrilling--the melting scene that followed. The sunburnt cheeks of the soldiers who guarded the prison were flooded with the tears of sympathy and compassion. With the two pledges of their love Madame La Fayette passed the grating iron doors. The next moment she was clasped in the arms of the companion of her youth. _My loyal husband_--was all she could utter. _My dear father_--burst from his angelic daughters as they clung around his emaciated form. _My dear wife--my lovely daughters_--passed his trembling lips in broken accents--a flood of tears from each told a tale of mingling woes and joys in the language of that mute eloquence which casts words into the shade. That scene can never be presented in full original force by the finest touches of the painter's pencil--the boldest stroke of the poet's pen--the loftiest flights of historic eloquence. At that meeting with his family the situation of La Fayette in prison was more enviable than that of a king of nations or a conqueror of worlds. The ministering angel--WOMAN--can convert a dungeon into a paradise and light up a smile in the deepest aspect of woe. Without her earth would be desolate--man miserable--a savage. With Christian fortitude and heroic patience this affectionate family bore their privations and sufferings. Madame de Stael has well observed--"Antiquity offers nothing more admirable than the conduct of Gen. La Fayette, his wife and daughters in the prison of Olmutz."