Lafayette had plenty of time for thought as he lay in his neat room,
waited upon by the wife of the chief farmer of the Bethlehem Society
and her daughter, Lissel. Much of the time was spent in wondering about
Adrienne, of whom as yet he had received news only once. As this was
brought him by Count Pulaski, who left Paris before the birth of the
expected child, Lafayette did not know whether his new baby was a boy
or a girl, whether it had been born alive or dead, or how his wife
had come through the ordeal. He could only send her long letters at
every opportunity, well knowing "that King George might receive some
of them instead." In these he sent messages to many French friends,
not forgetting his old tutor, the Abbé Feyon, but he did not enlarge
upon all phases of his American Life. "At present I am in the solitude
of Bethlehem, about which the Abbé Raynal has so much to say," he told
her. "This community is really touching and very interesting. We will
talk about it after I return, when I mean to bore every one I love,
you, consequently, most of all, with stories of my travels." He did not
[Pg 82]think it wise to refer in letters to one amusing phase of the
situation in which he found himself at Bethlehem--the visits paid him
by influential members of the Moravian brotherhood, who took a deep
interest in his spiritual welfare and tried their best to convert him
from a warrior into a pacifist.
It was while listening, or appearing to listen, politely to their
sermons upon peace that his mind darted over the earth, here and there,
even to far-distant Asia, planning warlike expeditions for the aid of
his American friends. When his peaceful hosts departed he wrote letters
embodying these plans. As he says in his _Memoirs_, he could "do
nothing except write letters." One, which he addressed to the French
governor of Martinique, proposed an attack on the British West Indies,
to be carried out under the American flag. He had also the temerity to
write to M. de Maurepas, proposing a descent upon the British in India.
The boldness of the idea, and the impudence of Lafayette in suggesting
it while he was still under the ban of the French government, caused
the old man to chuckle. "Once that boy got an idea in his head there
was no stopping him," he said. "Some day he would strip Versailles of
its furniture for the sake of his Americans," and thereafter he showed
a marked partiality for "that boy."
Matters had gone badly for the Americans since the battle of the
Brandywine. General Howe occupied Philadelphia on September 26th; on
October 4th Washington lost the battle of Germantown. Since then the
[Pg 83]army had been moving from camp to camp, seeking a spot not
too exposed, yet from which it could give General Howe all possible
annoyance. Clearly this was no time to be lying in tidy, sunlit rooms
listening to sermons on non-resistance. Before he was able to bear
the weight of his military boot Lafayette rejoined the army. An entry
in the diary of the Bethlehem Congregation, dated October 16, 1777,
reads: "The French Marquis, whom we have found to be a very intelligent
and pleasant young man, came to bid us adieu, and requested to be
shown through the Sisters' House, which we were pleased to grant. He
was accompanied by his adjutant, and expressed his admiration of the
institution. While recovering from his wound he spent much of his time
in reading." Under date of October 18th is another entry, "The French
Marquis and General Woodford left for the army to-day."
On the day between Lafayette's visit of farewell and his actual
departure Gen. John Burgoyne, who had set out confidently from Canada
to open the Hudson River, ended by surrendering his entire army. He
had thought he was pursuing ragged Continental soldiers when in truth
they were luring him through the autumn woods to his ruin. He awoke to
find his communications cut and his army compelled to fight a battle or
starve. It gallantly fought two battles near Saratoga, one on September
19th, the other on October 7th; but both went against him and ten days
later he gave up his sword and nearly six thousand British soldiers to
"mere" Americans.
[Pg 84]Up to that time a puzzled world had been unable to understand
how the American cause continued to gain. The capture of a whole
British army, however, was something tangible that Europe could fully
comprehend, and respect for the Revolution measurably increased. The
victory had even greater effect in Europe than in America, though at
home there was much rejoicing and a marked gain in the value of those
"promises to pay" which Congress issued as a means of getting money for
current expenses.
But Burgoyne's surrender threatened to have very serious effects upon
the personal fortunes of General Washington, and in lesser degree
upon those of Lafayette. People began contrasting the results of the
summer's campaign. Washington, in command of the main army, had lost
Philadelphia, while farther north General Gates, with fewer men, had
not only captured Burgoyne, but cleared the whole region of enemy
troops. There were those who did not hesitate to say that Washington
ought to be deposed and Gates put in his place.
In reality Gates had almost nothing to do with the surrender of
Burgoyne. The strategy which led up to the battles of Saratoga was the
work of General Schuyler, who was forced out of command by intrigue
and superseded by Gates just before the crowning triumph. The battles
themselves had not been fought under the personal orders of the new
commander, but under Benedict Arnold and Gen. Daniel Morgan, with the
help of the Polish General Kosciuszko in planning defenses. It was pure
[Pg 85]luck, therefore, which brought Gates the fame; but, being a
man of more ambition than good judgment, with an excellent opinion of
himself, he was the last person in the world to discourage praise of
his ability.
Discontent against Washington was fanned by born intriguers like the
Irish General Conway and by the more despicable Gen. Charles Lee, a
traitor at heart. Lafayette became involved quite innocently, in the
plot against him, known to history as the Conway Cabal. Two things,
good in themselves, were responsible for it. One was his optimistic
belief in human nature; the other, his increasing military renown. The
latter was the result of a very small engagement in which he took a
very large part shortly after rejoining the army. The main camp was
then about fifteen miles from Philadelphia, but General Greene had
taken his division over into New Jersey, where he was endeavoring to
make life uncomfortable for General Howe. Lafayette obtained permission
to join him as a volunteer, and on the 25th of November went out with
about three hundred men to reconnoiter a position held by the British
at Gloucester, opposite Philadelphia. He could clearly see them
carrying across the river the provisions they had gathered in a raid
in New Jersey, and they might easily have killed or captured him had
they been on the lookout. Some of his men advanced to within two miles
and a half of Gloucester, where they came upon a post of three hundred
and fifty Hessians with field-pieces. What followed is told briefly in
[Pg 86]his own words. "As my little reconnoitering party was all in
fine spirits, I supported them. We pushed the Hessians more than half
a mile from the place where their main body was, and we made them run
very fast." The vigor, of his attack made Cornwallis believe General
Greene's entire division was upon him, and he hurried to the relief of
his Hessians. This was more than Lafayette bargained for, and he drew
off in the gathering darkness with the loss of only one man killed and
five wounded, carrying with him fourteen Hessian prisoners, while twice
that number, including an officer, remained on the field.
General Greene had described Lafayette to his wife as "one of the
sweetest-tempered young gentlemen." Now his soldierly qualities
impressed him. "The marquis is determined to be in the way of danger,"
was the comment he appended to his own account of the affair; and he
ordered Lafayette to make his report directly to Washington, which the
young man did in the boyishly jubilant epistle written in quaint French
English which told how the Hessians "ran very fast." The letter fairly
bubbled with pride over the behavior of his militia and his rifle
corps; and, not content with expressing this to his Commander-in-chief,
he lined them up next morning and made them a little speech, telling
them exactly how he felt about it. An Englishman or an American could
scarcely have done it with grace, but it was manifestly spontaneous on
his part--one of those little acts which so endeared Lafayette to his
American friends both in and out of the army.
[Pg 87]Washington sent on the news to Congress with the intimation
that his young friend had now proved his ability and might be trusted
with the command he so longed for. "He possesses uncommon military
talents," Washington wrote, "is of a quick and sound judgment,
persevering and enterprising without rashness, and, besides these, he
is of conciliating temper and perfectly sober--which are qualities
that rarely combine in the same person." At that moment of bickering
in the army and of popular criticism of himself they must have
seemed exceptionally rare to Washington. Congress expressed its
willingness, and we learn from a long letter written by Lafayette to
his father-in-law and carried across the ocean by no less a personage
than John Adams, when he went to replace Silas Deane at Paris, that
Washington offered him the choice of several different divisions.
He chose one made up entirely of Virginians, though it was weak "even
in proportion to the weakness of the entire army," and very sadly in
need of clothing. "I am given hope of cloth out of which I must make
coats and recruits out of which I must make soldiers in almost the
same space of time. Alas! the one is harder than the other, even for
men more skilled than I," he wrote, just before the army went into
its melancholy winter quarters at Valley Forge. "We shall be in huts
there all winter," Lafayette explained. "It is there that the American
army will try to clothe itself, because it is naked with an entire
nakedness; to form itself, because it is in need of instruction; and to
[Pg 88]recruit its numbers, because it is very weak. But the thirteen
states are going to exert themselves and send us men," he added,
cheerfully. "I hope my division will be one of the strongest, and I
shall do all in my power to make it one of the best."
He was striving to make the most of his opportunity. "I read, I study,
I examine, I listen, I reflect, and upon the result of all this I
endeavor to form my opinion and to put into it as much common sense as
I can. I am cautious about talking too much, lest I should say some
foolish thing; and still more cautious in my actions lest I should do
some foolish thing; for I do not want to disappoint the confidence the
Americans have so kindly placed in me."
There was not much to do after the army went into winter quarters;
and France seemed very far away. "What is the use of writing news in
a letter destined to travel for years and to reach you finally in
tatters?" he wrote Adrienne on November 6th. "You may receive this
letter, dear heart, in the course of five or six years, for I write
by a crooked chance, of which I have no great opinion. See the route
it will take. An officer of the army carries it to Fort Pitt, three
hundred miles toward the back of the continent. There it will embark
on the Ohio and float through a region inhabited by savages. When it
reaches New Orleans a little boat will transport it to the Spanish
Isles, from which a vessel of that nation will take it (Lord knows
when!) when it returns to Europe. But it will still be far from you,
[Pg 89]and only after having passed through all the grimy hands of
Spanish postal officials will it be allowed to cross the Pyrenees.
It may be unsealed and resealed five or six times before reaching
you. So it will be proof that I neglect not a single chance, even the
remotest, to send you news of me and to repeat how much I love you....
It is cruel to think ... that my true happiness is two hundred leagues
distant, across an immense ocean infested by scoundrelly English
vessels. They make me very unhappy, those villainous ships. Only one
letter from you, one single letter, dear heart, has reached me as yet.
The others are lost, captured, lying at the bottom of the sea, to all
appearances. I can only blame our enemies for this horrible privation;
for you surely would not neglect to write me from every port and by
every packet sent out by Doctor Franklin and Mr. Deane."
On his part, he neglected not a single opportunity. On one occasion
he even sent her a letter by the hand of an English officer, a Mr.
Fitzpatrick, with whom he had begun a friendship during his visit to
London. This gentleman had come to Philadelphia with General Howe, and
Lafayette learned in some way that he was about to return to England.
"I could not resist the desire to embrace him before his departure. We
arranged a rendezvous in this town (Germantown). It is the first time
that we have met without arms in our hands, and it pleases us both much
better than the enemy airs we have heretofore given ourselves ... there
is no news of interest. Besides, it would not do for Mr. Fitzpatrick to
[Pg 90]transport political news written by a hand at present engaged
against his army."
It was this friendly enemy, Mr. Fitzpatrick, who lifted his voice in
the British House of Commons in Lafayette's behalf, when the latter was
a prisoner in Germany.
[Pg 91]XI