Fresh exertions were made to obtain the release of these innocent sufferers. The question was agitated in the United States Congress and in the House of Commons in England. Nothing could move the obdurate heart of the tyrant who held them. They seemed doomed to waste away their lives in that loathsome dungeon. God had otherwise determined. The time was rolling on rapidly when they should be restored to liberty, their friends and their home. The conquering Bonaparte humbled the proud and cruel Emperor and compelled him to release these illustrious prisoners. In the treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 it was expressly stipulated that all the French prisoners at Olmutz should be immediately liberated. The Emperor of Austria attempted to impose restrictions on the future conduct of the Marquis. Amidst all his sufferings his dignity and liberal principles remained unimpaired. He spurned all conditions of a restrictive nature. His unconditional release occurred on the 25th of August 1797 when he and his family again inhaled the exhilarating atmosphere of Freedom. He had been in prison five years. His noble wife and affectionate daughters had shared with him the miseries of a damp dungeon twenty-two months. The release of these prisoners is one of the brightest stars in the diadem of Bonaparte. When the French nation became more tranquil La Fayette and his family returned to the land of their birth. He located at La Grange and soon gained a salutary influence over those around him. He did all in his power to promote the interests of his country and the cause of human rights. Although he was truly grateful to Bonaparte for his release from a gloomy dungeon he believed he owed a duty to his nation paramount to all private considerations. He opposed all his measures that he considered dangerous to the prosperity and happiness of France. From the time of his return to that of his last illness, La Fayette took a conspicuous part in the civil and military departments of his country. With an Argus eye he watched her destinies through all her convulsing changes. The smiles of princes and the huzzas of the multitude could not flatter him--the miseries of a dungeon and frowns of tyrants could not depress him. Without those brilliant talents that dazzle and captivate every beholder, like his revered Washington he possessed an uncommon share of sound common sense, a clear head, a good heart, a discriminating judgment that gave him a more universal influence than any man then in Europe. His magic power over the enraged populace of Paris during the Three Days' Revolution of 1830 has no parallel when we consider the effervescent nature of the French people. In the short period of seventy-two hours he restored tranquillity--formed a new government and commenced a new era in the history of that impulsive nation. He could then have been crowned King of France. To him crowns were empty bubbles, expanding only to burst--airy phantoms, formed to