MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE................ _Frontispiece_
THE MANOR-HOUSE OF CHAVANIAC........ _Facing p._ 6
FRANKLIN AT THE FRENCH COURT........ " 42
WASHINGTON AND THE COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS
AT VALLEY FORGE.................. " 94
VALLEY FORGE—WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE " 94
THE BATTLE OF MONMOUTH............... " 110
THE BASTILLE......................... " 194
SIEGE OF THE BASTILLE................ " 194
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE................. " 262
MADAME DE LAFAYETTE.................. " 262
MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE AND LOUIS-PHILIPPE " 286
[Pg ix]PREFACE
This is no work of fiction. It is sober history; yet if the bare facts
it tells were set forth without the connecting links, its preface might
be made to look like the plot of a dime novel.
It is the story of a poor boy who inherited great wealth; who ran away
from home to fight for liberty and glory; who became a major-general
before he was twenty years old; who knew every nook and corner of the
palace at Versailles, yet was the blood-brother of American Indians;
who tried vainly to save the lives of his king and queen; who was in
favor of law, yet remained a rebel to the end of his days; who suffered
an unjust imprisonment which has well been called "a night five years
long"; who was twice practically Dictator of France; and who, in his
old age, was called upon to make a great decision.
But it is no work of fiction. It is only the biography of a French
gentleman named Lafayette.
[Pg 1]THE BOYS' LIFE OF LAFAYETTE
I