LAFAYETTE IN PRISON
Lafayette attempted to cross the frontier on his way to America when he
was intercepted and taken prisoner. This was at Rochefort, on neutral
territory. The arrest of peaceful citizens on their way through neutral
territory to a neutral country was treason to all international covenant
and courtesy; evidently, the phrase "international courtesy" had not
then been coined; but the act has been abhorred by unprejudiced military
men the world over.
The party were taken to Namur, thence to Wesel, where some were
released; later, three remained to be imprisoned in Magdeburg. Lafayette
is reported to have owned as his highest ambition that his name should
be a terror to all kings and monarchs. If he made this remark, his wish
was fulfilled; for at a meeting of a committee of the Coalition it was
agreed that the "existence of Lafayette was incompatible with the safety
of the governments of Europe."
Following this decision, in May, 1794, the king of Prussia gave him into
the keeping of the Emperor of Austria, and the dangerous prisoner,
together with three of the officers who were with him when arrested,
Latour-Maubourg, Bureaux-de-Pusy, and Lameth, were promptly carried to
the strong fortress of Olmütz, high up in the gloomy Carpathian
Mountains. Lameth nearly died and therefore was released, but the other
two remained, not, however, being allowed to see or to communicate with
their distinguished companion.
Lafayette had no apologies to make for the step he had taken. Indeed,
he had great hopes that he would escape from his captors. Friends were
finding means to communicate with him and plots were forming in the
undercurrents of correspondence.
But on the whole he much preferred to take his liberty than to have it
granted to him. If indeed liberty were granted, it would be with
conditions "like those made by a lower class of brigands in the corner
of a thicket," and the discussion would in all probability result in a
shutting on him of quadruple doors.
He "much preferred to take his liberty than to have it granted to
him." Accordingly plans were made. In one letter he calls for a good
chart, arms, a passport, a wig, some drugs to insure a quiet night's
sleep to the jailors, with instructions as to the dose to be given,
and an itinerary for the route, with dangerous places indicated in it.
They must know the exact time horses were to be ready, and the exact
house where they were to stand. He was in buoyant spirits.
"Although a sojourn of fourteen months in the prisons of their Majesties
has not contributed to my health," he wrote, "still I have a strong
constitution and my early habits of life, added to the recollection of
my fetters, will enable me to make a very rapid journey."
Finishing one of these letters, he says, "I hear them opening my first
locks [the outer doors] and must stop writing." Latour-Maubourg adds a
passage in his own hand. He begs for a piece of sealing wax and emphasizes
that Lafayette must surely be rescued, whether the others are or not.
The prisoners looked out for those who were helping them to escape;
these helpers were to be protected from suspicion. To do this they put
a manikin with a nightcap on in Lafayette's bed, dug a channel under
the chimney, and left a coat in the passage well smudged with soot.
Why none of these plans worked is not known. Lafayette was carted on
to Neisse, but the plotting still went on. At last the grim and
impregnable fortress of Olmütz received the three prisoners. Here he
could receive no letters; he could read no paper; he was harshly told
that he should never again know anything of what was going on in the
outside world; that he was now a complete nonentity, a being known
only by a number, and that no person in Europe knew where he was nor
ever should know until his death.
Lafayette's misery was turned to a still darker hue by the fact that
he felt the gravest alarm for the welfare of Madame de Lafayette. As
he was being carted from prison to prison, on his way eastward toward
that final destination in the mountain fortress, the news that was
smuggled to him by secret and mysterious bearers was not of a kind to
bring peace to his mind. He heard of the extremes to which the
revolutionary frenzy was carrying the Parisian people; he heard that
the king and queen and various members of their family had been
proscribed, denounced, and sentenced to death by a committee miscalled
a "Committee of Public Safety," and that the nobility were being
ruthlessly sacrificed. Saddest of all this for him was the news that
his wife, that woman of heroic character, of marvelous spiritual
charm, and of liberal and philanthropic mind, had been imprisoned and
was in danger of perishing on the scaffold. This word--and nothing
more! The darkness of life behind walls seven feet thick was not
lightened for many a long month by any further news in regard to
Adrienne. The thoughts of Lafayette in his prison were as sad as can
be imagined.
As months and years passed on, Lafayette may be forgiven if he
sometimes thought that he had been wholly forgotten. But it was not
so. It was not an easy matter to liberate a man whose very existence
was a menace to every throne. The kings had him completely in their
power--they wished to keep him out of sight.
It goes without saying that to President Washington the imprisonment
of his young friend, to whom he was bound by strong and vital bonds of
gratitude and friendship, was a source of genuine anguish. But what
could he do? As Lafayette said, America was far away and the politics
of Europe were tortuous. In them Washington had no part and no
influence; and he could not go to war for he had no equipment for any
such exploit.
He did, however, put in train many schemes designed to influence others
to aid his loyal friend. He used the greatest secrecy; the correspondence
as it is preserved refers only to "our friend" and to "the one you
know," so that if the letters were lost, no one could possibly divine
what was being done. The President sent letters to the representatives of
the United States in both France and England, commanding that informal
solicitations for the release of that friend of America should be made,
and that these were to be followed by formal ones if necessary. He wrote
to the king of Prussia, urging the release of his dear friend as an act
of justice as well as a personal favor to himself; and to the Emperor of
Austria, begging that Lafayette might be allowed to come to America. The
letter has that thorough goodness and that amplitude of dignity that were
characteristics of Washington.
"PHILADELPHIA, 15 May, 1796.
"TO THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY:
"It will readily occur to your Majesty that occasions
may sometimes exist, on which official considerations
would constrain the chief of a nation to be silent and
passive, in relation to objects which affect his
sensibility, and claim his interposition as a man.
Finding myself precisely in this situation at present, I
take the liberty of writing this private letter to your
Majesty, being persuaded that my motives will also be my
apology for it.
"In common with the people of this country, I retain a
strong and cordial sense of the services rendered to
them by the Marquis de Lafayette; and my friendship for
him has been constant and sincere. It is natural,
therefore, that I should sympathize with him and his
family in their misfortunes, and endeavor to mitigate
the calamities which they experience; among which, his
present confinement is not the least distressing.
"I forbear to enlarge on this delicate subject. Permit
me only to submit to your Majesty's consideration
whether his long imprisonment and the confiscation of
his estates, and the indigence and dispersement of his
family, and the painful anxieties incident to all these
circumstances, do not form an assemblage of sufferings
which recommend him to the mediation of humanity? Allow
me, Sir, to be its organ on this occasion; and to
entreat that he may be permitted to come to this
country, on such conditions and under such restrictions
as your Majesty may think fit to prescribe.
"As it is a maxim with me not to ask what under similar
circumstances I would not grant, your Majesty will do me
the justice to believe that this request appears to me
to correspond with those great principles of magnanimity
and wisdom, which form the basis of sound policy and
durable glory.
"May the Almighty and merciful Sovereign of the universe
keep your Majesty under his protection and guidance!"
Little by little the place where Lafayette was imprisoned became known
to a few, and public sentiment was aroused to the point of bringing up
the matter before the British Parliament. It was a certain General
Fitzpatrick who, strange to say, had met Lafayette in London before he
went to America, and again between battles when they were ranged on
opposite sides of the Revolution, who now brought up the question.
Twice he made a motion in favor of acting for the release of
Lafayette. Fitzpatrick was the kind of man who could not bear to
entertain the idea that there should exist "in any corner of British
soil, in any English heart, conceptions so narrow as to wish to see
the illustrious pupil of Washington perishing in a dungeon on account
of his political principles." General Fitzpatrick's motion was
seconded by General Tarleton, who had fought Lafayette through the
length and breadth of Virginia. Pitt and Burke spoke against it.
Lord Grey said that if asked what would be gained by furthering the
release of Lafayette, he would reply that "we should exculpate
ourselves from the suspicion of being accomplices in the foulest wrong
that ever disgraced humanity." The question was put to vote and stood
forty-six yeas and one hundred and fifty-three nays. Such was the
composition of the British Parliament at that time.
The next year Fitzpatrick renewed his efforts for Lafayette and
proposed another motion. In an eloquent speech which should make his
name honored for all time, he reviewed the former debate and paid a
wonderful tribute to the character of Madame de Lafayette. The
discussion that followed dwelt mainly on the question whether
Lafayette was to be considered as a subject of the emperor or as a
prisoner of war. The vote stood, yeas fifty, nays one hundred and
thirty-two. Evidently the British Parliament had not made any great
advance in the intervening year.
Meantime secret plans were being made to rescue Lafayette. The
beautiful Angelica Schuyler Church, daughter of the American general,
Philip Schuyler, was then in London; her husband, John Barker Church,
had fought under Lafayette, and was now in the British Parliament.
Mrs. Church was the sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, one of
Lafayette's dearest friends among his young companions-in-arms, and
she was in touch with a group of French émigrés. In fact, she was the
center of a little volcano of feeling for the exile.
This secret circle kept up a constant communication with Mr. Pinckney
and Mr. Jay. Mrs. Church wrote to Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State
in the United States, and to many others, begging, pleading for help.
For Lafayette, whom she had known in New York, her heart was
constantly bleeding.
Proceeding from a mysterious writer who signed his name "Eleutherios,"
spirited articles soon began to appear in the English newspapers, and
thus constantly fed a flame of feeling. All sorts of fears for Lafayette
were entertained. "I see him in a dungeon," wrote one; "I see him in
Siberia; I see him poisoned; I see him during what remains of his life
torn by the uncertainty of the fate of all that he loves."
Soon after this the name of a Hanoverian doctor begins to appear in
the documents preserved. This Dr. Bollman had carried one exploit
through successfully, bringing out of Paris during the Terror a
certain French émigré and conveying him to London in safety. Bollman
was to be engaged by the London group to start out and see what could
be done for Lafayette. This scheme resulted in a great adventure in
which an American youth figured nobly.