fortunate as to meet with young Huger; and they cordially united in the
humane and chivalrous project of rescuing the generous Lafayette, They
both repaired immediately to Olmutz, and there became acquainted with
two other gentlemen, who favoured their benevolent scheme. But the
difficulty of effecting it can be easily imagined. A physician of Olmutz
was engaged to make known the plan to Lafayette, when he visited him in
prison, then in reality, or apparently in a debilitated state of health.
He had, in fact, been attacked with fever at Magdeburg, which at one
time was feared would terminate his valuable life, and from the effects
of which he had not fully recovered. By him a note was communicated
to Lafayette, which he answered with his blood. In a short time, the
physician prevailed on the governor of the city to permit his prisoner
to take an airing, occasionally, in a coach, attended by a guard. It
was concerted, that in one of his short excursions with the governor, he
should leave the carriage under some pretence, when he was to be joined
by Bollman and Huger, and immediately conducted under cover of a dark
night, to the confines of Silesia, beyond the territory of the Emperor
of Austria. He alighted from the carriage, near a small wood, and his
generous friends, who were ready to protect him, immediately attempted
to convey him away on horseback; but the guard, which accompanied the
carriage, suspecting some design, pushed forward into the wood,
and attempted to seize the noble prisoner, and his brave friends. A
desperate struggle ensued, in which the Marquis was wounded; but they
succeeded in escaping from the guard. Huger was seen and followed
by some of the peasantry; and after a long pursuit was overtaken and
secured. The governor and his guard returned to Olmutz; alarm guns were
immediately fired, and the whole population for several miles was soon
engaged in search of Lafayette and Bollman. They were taken in the
course of the evening, at the distance of about ten miles from Olmutz,
and conveyed back to the prison, where a most rigorous confinement
awaited them. Lafayette was put in irons, and suffered the most
excruciating torture. He was in a feeble state, overcome by fatigue,
and suffering greatly from the bruises and wounds received in his late
attempt to escape. "His anxieties, his anguish (and despair we may
almost say,) at finding himself again in the power of his unrelenting
jailor, so affected his nerves, that his fever returned with increased
and alarming violence. In this state he was allowed nothing but a little
damp and mouldy straw; irons were put round his feet, and round his
waist was a chain, fastened to the wall, which barely permitted him to
turn from one side to the other. No light was admitted into his cell;
and he was refused even the smallest allowance of linen.
"The winter of 1794-95 was very severe, but his inhuman jailors did
not relax from the rigour of prescribed and systematic oppression. It
seemed, indeed as if their object was to put an end to their victim's
existence by this ingenious device of incessant cruelty. Worn down by
disease and the rigour of the season, his hair fell from his head, and
he was emaciated to the last degree. To these physical distresses were
soon super added those mental anxieties, which perhaps, were still more
difficult to endure. The only information he could obtain respecting the
fate of his wife and children, for whom he felt the greatest solicitude,
was, that they were confided in the prisons of Paris: and in reply to
his enquiries concerning his most generous friends, Bollman and Huger,
he was informed by his unfeeling tormentors that they were soon to
perish by the hands of the hangman."
Bollman and Huger were kept in close confinement in the prison at
Olmutz, for some time, for having attempted to rescue Lafayette from his
cruel imprisonment. The keepers of the prison were unfeeling men; and
instead of slowing any favour to their prisoners, who ought to have
received their admiration, subjected them to unnecessary severity. They
were subjected to strict examination, after a long confinement, and the
sentence of their judges was in favour of their liberation, on paying
a large amount to government. By the aid of some generous friends, they
were furnished with the requisite sums, and discharged from the prison.
But Lafayette was still detained in prison, and in the same suffering
and shameful condition as before mentioned. It was several months before
his irons and chains were removed; which was effected through the very
benevolent individuals, who had secretly favoured his recent attempt to
escape; but who, happily both for him and themselves, were not suspected
of any agency in the plot: these were an opulent Jewish merchant, and
the chief surgeon to the prisoners. They prevailed also with the civil
authority to grant permission to the Marquis to walk an hour each day,
in front of the prison, though in custody of a strong guard of soldiers,
and no one was allowed to speak to him.
Unutterably painful and distressing must have been the situation
of Madame Lafayette ever after the fatal day, when her beloved and
affectionate husband felt it his duty to depart from France, and leave
her and their three children unprotected, and subject to the insults
and severities of an enraged and lawless mob. She and her two daughters,
then about fifteen and twelve, were cast into prison in Paris. The
family estates were confiscated, and most of his particular friends
fell by the stroke of the guillotine. In this agonizing condition, she
maintained the most wonderful fortitude and patience; without uncommon
firmness and sincere trust in providence, she must have sunk under such
deep and complicated distress. While she was in prison, she was often
found in a retired spot, engaged in holy and humble supplication to
heaven. When she was released from the prison, after about twenty months
of degrading confinement, her constitution was greatly enfeebled, and
her friends and physician advised her to seek repose at some retired
place in the country. But she refused, and feeble and emaciated as she
was, she resolved to proceed immediately to Olmutz, and to bury herself
in prison with her husband, unless she could possibly procure his
liberation. With this purpose in view, she went first to Vienna, to
endeavour to concilitate the favor and influence of the Emperor. Through
the friendly interposition of two noble females, acquainted at court,
she was admitted to an audience with the Emperor.
He received her graciously, and professed a desire that her request
might be fulfilled; but gave no positive orders for the liberation
of Lafayette because his _political_ engagements with other courts
prevented it. He, however, consented that she might visit her husband.
She accordingly repaired to Olmutz, to minister, as an angel of light,
to his comfort, though not clothed with power to give him that liberty,
which they ardently hoped. She and her daughters shared with him the
confinement of a dreary prison, for nearly two years. It was not until
1797, that they were set at liberty: and this was immediately owing to
the influence of General Bonaparte, on his victories over the Austrians
in that year. Lafayette expressed his gratitude for this generous
interference; but he made no sacrifice of principle, and was never his
admirer or supporter.
While confined in the prison of Olmutz, with her husband, Madame
Lafayette, whose health was much impaired by her sorrows and suffering,
requested leave to visit Vienna for a week. She was informed her request
would be granted on condition, that her daughters should be kept in a
separate apartment from their father, and that she herself would never
again enter the prison. She declined the offer, with indignation. Her
letter on the subject, concludes thus-"Whatever may be the state of my
own health and the inconvenience attending the stay of my daughters in
this place we will most gratefully take advantage of the goodness his
imperial majesty has expressed towards us, by the _permission to share
in the miseries of this captivity_."
When the Emperor of Austria agreed to his liberation, he proposed
certain conditions, to which Lafayette refused his assent. One was that
he should immediately leave Europe and embark to America. "This", said
the noble-minded Marquis, "has often been my desire and intention: but
as my consent to this proposition, at the present moment, would be an
acknowledgment of his right to impose such a condition, I cannot comply
with the demand."--The other was, that as the principles which Lafayette
professed were supposed to be incompatible with the safety of the
Austrian government, the Emperor could not consent that he should again
enter his territory without a special permission. To this Lafayette
replied, "that there already existed antecedent obligations, of which
he could not divest himself; partly towards America, but chiefly towards
France; and that he could not engage to do any thing, which should
interfere with the rights of his country to his personal services. With
these exceptions, he assured the Emperor's ambassador, that it was
his firm resolution not to set foot again on any part of his Majesty's
dominions."
When he was set free from the long and severe incarceration at Olmutz,
Lafayette proceeded to the neutral city of Hamburg, with his family;
where he received the kindest and most respectful attentions from
some American gentlemen, then in that place, and also from many of
the distinguished citizens, who cherished the highest regard for his
character, and his meritorious services in the cause of liberty. It
was at this time, that his son, George Washington Lafayette, joined the
family, on his return from the United States, where he had just then
passed several years. After a short residence in Hamburg, Lafayette
accepted the invitation of an Hanoverian nobleman, and passed some
time at his elegant chateau in Holstein, where his eldest daughter
was married to Latour Maubourg, a brother of one of the Marquis' staff
officers, who retired with him from France, August 1792; and had shared
with him the severities of the prison of Magdeburg and Olmutz. He then
resided some time in the family of a French emigrant, living in that
vicinity, and who was a distant relative of Madame Lafayette. In this
situation he studied the agriculture of Holstein; and gave particular
attention to the raising of merino sheep, an object in which he was also
engaged after his return to La Grange, his country seat near Paris.
In 1800 a new revolution took place in the French government. The
Directors were found to be incompetent to the support of order; cabals
and factions still existed, and confusion prevailed through the
nation. General Bonaparte, who had led the armies to victory in several
campaigns, was ambitious of the sole direction of public affairs. The
executive power, by the new constitution, was to be placed in three
Consuls, of whom Napoleon was elected chief. A Conservative Senate, so
called, was to constitute a part of the Legislature and to be joined
with the Consuls also in providing for the public welfare in cases of
particular emergency. By the constitutionalists and those opposed to the
violent factions, by which France had been long agitated and disgraced,
this change was considered as auspicious to the cause of rational
liberty. They hoped that a more stable government would be now formed,
and that their country would enjoy a season of repose. Lafayette seized
this favorable moment to return to France, after an absence of nearly
eight years. His patriotic feelings had not abated, though he had
suffered so long and so intensely from the hatred of those who directed
the destinies of his country. His love of liberty was not weakened,
though many of his countrymen, with its sacred name on their lips,
had committed excesses almost without a parallel in the most despotic
governments. The First Consul incited Lafayette to take a seat in the
Conservative Senate; but he declined; by which he gave new proofs of his
disinterested and sincere attachment to the constitutional liberty and
the rights of the people. After several conversations with Bonaparte,
he was satisfied of the ambitious views of this military adventurer.
He perceived that the constitution was to serve as an apology for
the exercise of unlimited power in the First Consul; and that
representatives and senators were to be the humble ministers of his
will. He saw that the constitution did not emanate from the will of
the people; and was not calculated to secure and promote their welfare.
Bonaparte also had discernment to learn, that Lafayette was too sincere
a friend to civil liberty and to the interests of the people, to support
his purposes, or to submit to his plans of personal aggrandizement.
We shall have a more just estimation of the noble sentiments with which
Lafayette was animated, in declining the generous offers of the First
Consul, when it is considered, that, in addition to his self-banishment
to private life, he also refused an honorable salary of 7000 dollars,
when the estates which remained in his possession yielded only
2000 dollars. He had a grant of land from the American Congress, in
consideration of his important services in the revolution, estimated to
be worth 100,000 dollars. Before the revolution, his income was 50,000
dollars: but the most valuable of his patrimonial property, as well
as that which accrued to him in consequence of his marriage, had been
seized by the lawless robbers of the revolution.
It was in conformity to the principles, which he had long professed
and by which he was constantly guided, that he soon after opposed the
election of Bonaparte as Consul for life. He would have consented,
perhaps, to the claims of the aspiring Napoleon to be the First
Magistrate of France, under a constitution, which expressly defined
and restricted his power, and at the same time provided a sufficient
guaranty of the liberties of the people.
On this occasion he wrote thus to the First Consul--"When a man, who is
deeply impressed with a sense of the gratitude he owes you, and who is
too ardent a lover of glory to be indifferent to yours, connects his
suffrage with conditional restrictions, those restrictions not only
secure him from suspicion, but prove amply, that no one will more gladly
than himself behold in you the chief magistrate for life, of a free and
independent republic.
"The eighteenth Brumaire saved France from destruction and I felt myself
reassured and recalled by the liberal declarations to which you have
connected the sanction of your honor. In your consular authority there
was afterwards discerned that salutary dictatorial prerogative, which
under the auspices of a genius like yours, accomplished such glorious
purposes--yet less glorious, let me add, than the restoration of liberty
would prove.
"It is not possible, general, that you, the first among that order of
mankind, which surveys every age and every country, can desire that a
revolution, marked by an unexampled series of stupendous victories and
unheard of sufferings, shall give nothing to the world but a renovated
system of arbitrary government. The people of this country have been
acquainted with their rights too long, to forget them forever: but
perhaps they may recover and enjoy them better now than during the
period of revolutionary effervescence. And you, by the strength of your
character and the influence of public confidence, by the superiority
of your talents, your power, and your fortunes, in re-establishing the
liberties of France, can allay all agitations, calm all anxieties and
subdue all dangers.
"When I wish, then, to see the career of your glory crowned by the
honors of perpetual magistracy, I but act in correspondence with my
own private sentiments, and am influenced exclusively by patriotic
considerations. But all my political and moral obligations, the
principles which have governed every action of my life, call on me to
pause before I bestow on you my suffrage, until I feel assured that your
authority shall be erected on a basis worthy of the nation and yourself.
"I confidently trust, general, that you will recognize here, as you
have done on all other occasions, a steady continuance of my political
opinions, combined with the sincerest prayers for your welfare, and the
deepest sense of all my obligations towards you."
Here closed all connexion between Lafayette and Bonaparte. The First
Consul not only avoided all intercourse with one so sincerely devoted
to the cause of liberty; but he treated him with that studied neglect,
which was little short of persecution. There was indeed nothing
congenial either in the character or principles of these two
distinguished men. The one was aiming at power by any means, without
regard to the rights or happiness of his fellow men; the other was
anxious for the permanent establishment of a mild government in his
native country, for the true welfare and liberty of the people; and
was willing to make every sacrifice for the attainment of such great
objects.
The unfriendly feelings of Bonaparte were extended even to the younger
Lafayette. This patriotic youth, with much of the public spirit of
his noble father, engaged in the service of his country soon after his
return from America. He was an aid of the brave Grouchy, general of
division; an active, intelligent, meritorious officer, and distinguished
on various occasions. But he received neither advancement nor
distinction from the Emperor. It was, on the contrary, the wish of
Napoleon, that young Lafayette would send in his resignation, and retire
from the army. When this was made known to him, he observed, "that as
long as his country was involved in war, he should not disgrace himself
by a resignation; and that he should be ashamed to think of it, while
his companions were daily exposing themselves to danger. It was true, he
was an American citizen, but he was first of all a Frenchman and a loyal
Frenchman."
G. W. Lafayette was much esteemed by the officers who knew him, of all
ranks; and they frequently solicited his promotion; but the Emperor
disregarded alike the merits of the youthful hero and the entreaties
of his military friends. He continued in the army until the treaty of
Tilsit.
To a man of his great sensibility and warmth of affection, the severest
affliction which Lafayette has been called to endure, great and various
as have been his sufferings, now awaited him. His amiable, his attached
and devoted wife was torn from him, in his retreat, within a few years
after his return to France; when he more than ever, perhaps, needed
her company and solace, to fortify his mind under the multiplied
disappointments from the world.
She had never enjoyed perfect health after her imprisonment at
Olmutz. But possessed of uncommon fortitude and imbued with religious
sentiments, she was still instrumental in promoting the happiness of
her husband and family. Her patience, her equanimity, her sweetness of
temper never forsook her. But her constitution was broken, and a sudden
paralysis deprived her of her physical strength and almost of speech.
At the urgent request of her husband, though with reluctance, she was
conveyed to Paris for medical assistance; but it proved in vain. She
died in December 1807.
While Madame de Lafayette was in the prison in Paris, though treated
with the greatest severity by Robespierre and his party, she had the
consolation of sharing in the sympathetic kindness and assistance of
many individuals, who were willing to expose themselves to the hatred
of her cruel persecutors for her relief. A gentleman from Boston,
Joseph Russel, Esq. then a resident in Paris, made great efforts for her
liberation; although by this generous interference he hazarded his
own life. It was through his friendly assistance, that her son G. W.
Lafayette, then about fourteen years of age, was conveyed to the United
States, where he remained till the discharge of his parents from the
dungeons of Olmutz.
About this period, and soon after the death of his amiable wife, General
Lafayette received a severe fracture in one of his legs, by a fall,
which occasioned his confinement for nearly twelve months, and was the
cause of his present lameness. He had been transacting business with the
minister of the marine; and in going from the office to his carriage, a
distance of two hundred paces, late in the evening, after a heavy rain
and sleet, which had rendered it dangerous walking, he fell suddenly and
broke a bone.
For six or seven years, till 1814, when Louis XVIII. returned to France
to mount the throne of the Bourbons, Lafayette resided at his chateau
of La Grange, an inactive spectator of the political changes which
took place. No doubt he had a sufficient apology for this inaction and
voluntary retreat from public affairs. He was too honest and too candid,
too much an enemy to the anarchy of the jacobin factions, and to the
despotism of the Emperor, to support either, or to be received into
their confidence. He would probably have been satisfied with the
restoration of a Bourbon to the throne, if the throne could be founded
in a constitution, admitting the representatives of the people to a
share in legislation, and defining the extent and the measure of
the executive authority. He was animated by the same principles and
sentiments which governed him in the part he acted in 1789 and 1792: and
although he might acquiesce in a different government, either under
the First Consul, or under Louis XVIII. he could not, consistently,
and therefore he chose not to forward their views by his own personal
influence and support. He was still calumniated by some agents of the
Bourbons, yet he declared, on the return of Bonaparte from Elba, to gain
the throne of France, "that in all measures, which should promote or be
consistent with the liberties of the people, he would aid the cause
of the legitimate heir of the crown." The views of Louis' friends and
allies were too arbitrary to lead them to expect his approbation and
aid.
Louis XVIII. had not been long in France, before great discontent was
manifested among the citizens at the prospect of his being placed on the
throne of his brother. Napoleon and his friends took advantage of this
state of things: he left his retreat in the Island of Elba, and returned
to Paris. Louis was obliged to retire. Bonaparte, through his brother
Joseph, the ex-king of Spain, solicited of Lafayette to accept of a
peerage. But he promptly declined; but observed, "that if there should
be a convocation of a chamber of representatives," which he strenuously
urged, "he would consent to take a part in public affairs, should he
be elected." His independence and his want of faith in Napoleon, were
preserved, notwithstanding the urgent advances of the latter; and he
resolutely refused to go near him till after his final abdication.
Yet even at this time, Lafayette thought he might rely on "his cordial
opposition to all foreign invasion and influence, and to any family or
party which should avail itself of such assistance in order to attack
the independence and the liberties of France." Much as he distrusted the
views of Bonaparte, and desirous as he was of some explicit guaranty,
from him and his supporters, for the liberty of the French people, he
would not unite with the Bourbons, who were resolved to place Louis
XVIII. firmly on the throne of his ancestors, by any means in their
power, and who had collected an army of one million two hundred thousand
foreigners to accomplish their object, at the risque of a civil war,
and a general slaughter, similar to that with which the unprincipled,
revolutionary Jacobins had before afflicted the nation.
Lafayette was now elected a member of the chamber of deputies from his
own department, though he had protested against the articles of the
constitution of the empire, and of the additional act which conspired
against the _sovereignty_ of the people, and the rights of the citizens.
This was a strong proof of the sense the people had of his integrity
and his patriotism. After the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon returned to
Paris, in consternation, and undecided as to the course he would pursue
on this signal reverse of fortune. Some of his friends advised him again
to abdicate the office of Emperor, which he held by so precarious a
tenure; others suggested decisive and bold measures, with a view to
fortify himself in power, even in apposition to the will and wishes of
the deputies. He attempted to prorogue the chamber of representatives,
and have himself proclaimed perpetual dictator. Lafayette was then
present in the chamber; and with his usual independence and energy, made
the following observations.
"When, for the first time for many years, I raise my voice; which the
old friends of liberty will recognise again, I feel constrained to
address you, gentlemen, on the imminent danger of the country, which you
alone are able to prevent.
"Disastrous reports have been circulated and are now unhappily
confirmed. Now is the time to rally round the old tri-coloured standard
of 1789, of liberty, of equality, and of public order. It is this alone
which we are bound to defend against foreign pretensions and domestic
factions. Allow a veteran in this holy cause, who has always been an
enemy to the baneful spirit of dissension, to submit the following
preliminary resolutions" of which I hope you will admit the necessity.
"_First_. The Chamber of Representatives declare that the independence
of the nation is endangered.
"_Second_. The Chamber declare themselves in continued session--That
every attempt to prorogue the Chamber shall be considered high
treason--That any one guilty of such an attempt shall be deemed a
traitor to his country, and be instantly proceeded against as such.
"_Third_. The army of the line and the national guards, who have fought
and are still fighting for the independence of France, deserve the
gratitude of their Country.