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1
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
Systems Analysis and Design, 9e (Kendall/Kendall)
Chapter 8 Analyzing Systems Using Data Dictionaries
8.1 Multiple Choice
1) What is a reference work of data about data compiled by systems analysts?
A) data dictionary
B) data flow diagrams
C) structured analysis
D) design
Answer: A
Diff: 1 Page Ref: 210
2) What become(s) important for large systems that produce several thousand data elements
requiring cataloging and cross-referencing?
A) data dictionary
B) structured analysis
C) data flow diagrams
D) automated data dictionaries
E) design
Answer: D
3) Which of the following is not contained in the repository?
A) procedural logic
B) use cases
C) generated computer code
D) screen and report design
Answer: C
4) A data flow that contains data that are used between processes is called:
A) internal.
B) derived.
C) base.
D) iterative.
Answer: A
5) Data structures are described using ________ notation.
A) relational
B) metadatic
C) geometric
D) algebraic
Answer: D

2
6) What does this symbol represent [ ]?
A) either/or alternative
B) optional
C) iteration
D) selection
Answer: A
7) Braces { } are used to indicate:
A) either/or alternative.
B) optional.
C) iteration.
D) selection.
Answer: C
8) Which of the following is included in a physical data structure?
A) codes that identify the status of a master record
B) expansion area for file records
C) the type of data structure, either for a screen or report
D) editing criteria for the structure
Answer: A
9) A synonym or other name for an element is called a(n):
A) common element.
B) structural element.
C) attributive element.
D) alias.
Answer: D
10) A base element is one that:
A) was initially keyed into the system.
B) does not change over a period of time.
C) is used within one and only one subsystem.
D) is the result of a calculation or some other logic.
Answer: A
11) A derived element is one that:
A) is keyed, derived by the users.
B) has several different meanings, one for each user group.
C) is created by processes as a result of calculations or a series of decision-making statements.
D) has the displayed length and the stored length the same.
Answer: C

3
12) When determining the length for elements:
A) look at what the current length of data is and use that value.
B) use values that other corporations have for similar elements.
C) figure the amount of a numeric element and add a few characters for reasonable expansion.
D) keep the value for the length small to save file space.
Answer: C
13) The symbol X(8) represents:
A) eight digits.
B) eight alphanumeric characters.
C) a data structure or element that repeats eight times.
D) an element that is found within eight data structures.
Answer: B
14) A varchar data type:
A) is used to represent elements for which the analyst needs to determine the length.
B) is an element that contains a check digit.
C) is used to represent a floating point number with an indeterminate number of decimal
positions..
D) is used for data that can contain any number of characters (up to the database limit).
Answer: D
15) A default value on a GUI screen may be used for:
A) drop-down lists.
B) radio buttons.
C) check boxes.
D) All of the above.
Answer: D
16) Data stores are used to store:
A) all base elements and some derived elements.
B) all derived elements and some base elements.
C) all base and derived elements.
D) only some base elements and some derived elements (the most critical ones in the system).
Answer: A

4
17) Since a single data flow may only show part of the collective data,
A) the data store may be linked to several external structures defining the different data flows.
B) many data flows may have to be examined to determine the contents of a data store.
C) data stores must contain multiple redundant elements within repeating groups indicated by
braces {}.
D) an alias must be used.
Answer: B
18) An analyst may develop the data flow diagram using a top-down method by using:
A) algebraic notation.
B) structural records.
C) algebraic notation and structural records.
D) vertical expansion methodology.
Answer: C
19) The data dictionary may be used to create:
A) screens.
B) reports.
C) forms.
Answer: D
20) Which of the following is a flaw in the system design that is detected by analyzing the data
dictionary entries?
A) All derived elements on an output flow must be present on an input data flow.
B) The data store may contain elements that are not present on any data flow to or from the data
store.
C) All base elements on an output data flow must be present on a data flow into the process.
D) All elements that are discrete must have a table of codes definition.
Answer: C
21) Elements on a data flow going into or out from a data store:
A) must be created by the process linking to the data store.
B) must be base elements.
C) must be on a data flow that is input to the process that creates the output that is going to the
data store.
D) must be contained by the data store.
Answer: D

5
22) What is not a characteristic of the ideal data dictionary?
A) automated
B) efficient
C) interactive
D) online
E) evolutionary
Answer: B
23) Which of the following may be created by transforming an XML document?
A) a Web page
B) a portable document format (PDF) file
C) output for a handheld device
Answer: D
24) Which of the following is not included in an XML document type definition?
A) the number of times an element repeats
B) an element that is optional
C) the rules for transforming the XML document into standard output
D) the attributes of an XML element
Answer: C
25) Which of the following is a more precise way to define the content of an XML document?
A) a schema
B) a document attribute list
C) an ID REF, listing the identifiable elements of a document
D) an XML repository specifications document
Answer: A
26) A(n) ________ is a synonym or another name for the element, used by different users of
systems.
A) alias
B) schema
C) alert
D) varchar
Answer: A

6
27) A ________ is a large collection of information that is larger than a data dictionary.
A) repository
B) schema
C) data element
D) data alias
Answer: A
28) ________ is usually the first component to be stored in the data dictionary.
A) Data flow
B) Data direction
C) Data mining
D) Database schema
Answer: A
29) A ________ is composed of related elements.
A) data structure
B) data alias
C) database schema
D) data flow
Answer: A
30) A ________ is one that is contained within a larger data structure and consists of further
subdivisions.
A) structural record
B) transactional record
C) data alias
D) schema
Answer: A
31) ________ data structures include additional elements necessary for implementing the system.
A) Physical
B) Logical
C) Informational
D) Logistical
Answer: A

7
32) A data type of ________ is used for elements that can contain any number of characters up to
the limit set by the database software.
A) char
B) numeric
C) varchar
D) text
Answer: C
33) The correct determination of a(n) ________ length is important to avoid truncation.
A) address
B) zip code
C) database
D) element
Answer: D
34) A(n) ________ value for an element is one that has certain fixed values.
A) absolute
B) discrete
C) variable
D) continuous
Answer: B
35) A(n) ________ element is one that has a smooth range of values.
A) absolute
B) discrete
C) variable
D) continuous
Answer: D

8
8.2 True/False
1) The data dictionary is a reference work of data about data.
Answer: TRUE
2) Data about data is called metadata.
Answer: TRUE
3) The data dictionary can be used as a starting point for creating XML documents.
Answer: TRUE
4) Automated data dictionaries are useful for only printing summary lists of data.
Answer: FALSE
5) A data dictionary contains information about a data flow diagram, but not entities or use cases.
Answer: FALSE
6) Databases are usually the first component of a data dictionary to be defined.
Answer: FALSE
7) An internal data flow is one that connects two processes.
Answer: TRUE
8) Data structures are usually described using a binary notation.
Answer: FALSE
9) An alias for each element is another name for the data used by different users in different
systems.
Answer: TRUE
10) Brackets [ ] represent repetitive elements.
Answer: FALSE
11) Parenthesis represent an optional element in the data dictionary.
Answer: TRUE

9
12) Data structures are those data items within the system that are not meaningful if broken down
further.
Answer: FALSE
13) A default value is one that never changes on a report.
Answer: FALSE
14) A discrete data element is one that has certain fixed values.
Answer: TRUE
15) When a V is used as a formatting character for an element, it indicates where the decimal
point should occur, even though the actual decimal point is not included.
Answer: TRUE
16) All derived elements must be stored on a data store.
Answer: FALSE
17) Each level of a data flow diagram should use data appropriate for the level.
Answer: TRUE
18) The ideal data dictionary is automated, interactive, online, and evolutionary.
Answer: TRUE
19) The data dictionary may be used to generate computer source code.
Answer: TRUE
20) One of the rules for analyzing a data dictionary is that elements present on a data flow
coming or going to a data store must be contained within the data store.
Answer: TRUE
21) Extensible markup language (XML) is a language that can be used to exchange data between
businesses.
Answer: TRUE
22) XML is used when other systems or external organizations use the same software.
Answer: FALSE

10
23) XML is a way to define, sort, filter and translate data into a universal data language.
Answer: TRUE
24) In XML, tags become the metadata.
Answer: TRUE
25) An XML schema is a more precise way to define the content of an XML document.
Answer: TRUE
26) A constant value for an element is one that is automatically displayed on a screen to reduce
the amount of keystrokes the user must make.
Answer: FALSE
27) All default elements on an output data flow must be present on a data flow coming into the
process.
Answer: FALSE
28) A derived element must be output from at least one process that it is not input to.
Answer: TRUE
29) The data structure and elements are commonly used to generate computer source code.
Answer: TRUE
30) Unified modeling language (UML) is a language that can be used to exchange data between
businesses.
Answer: FALSE
31) XML is used when users have different computer (systems) and software.
Answer: TRUE
32) XML is a way to define, sort, filter and translate data into a universal data language.
Answer: TRUE
33) In XML, schemas become the metadata.
Answer: FALSE

11
34) A document type definition is used to determine if the XML document content is valid.
Answer: TRUE
35) An !ATTLIST describes an XML attribute in the DTD.
Answer: TRUE
36) A schema is a more precise way to define the content of an XML document.
Answer: TRUE
37) The advantage of using XML to define data is that, in the XML format, data are stored in a
pure text format and not dependent on any proprietary software.
Answer: TRUE
38) There are three standard formats for mainframe computers: zoned decimal, packed decimal,
and binary.
Answer: TRUE
39) A zoned decimal is used to determine whether the XML document content is valid, that is,
whether it conforms to the order and type of data that must be present in the document.
Answer: FALSE
40) The packed decimal format is commonly used to save space on file layouts and for elements
that require a high level of arithmetic to be performed on them.
Answer: FALSE

12
8.3 Short Answer
1) (a) Define the term data dictionary. (b) Define metadata.
Answer:
(a) A data dictionary is a reference work of data about data (metadata) created by the systems
analyst based on data flow diagrams. It collects and coordinates specific data terms, confirming
what each term means to different people in the organization.
(b) Metadata is data about data.
2) Why are structural records used?
Answer: Structural records allow the analyst to develop the data dictionary and the data flow
diagrams using a top-down approach.
3) Describe the difference between base elements and derived elements.
Answer: A base element is one that is initially keyed into the system, such as a customer name,
address, or city. Base elements must be stored in files. Derived elements are created by processes
as the result of a calculation or a series of decision-making statements.
4) List three of the five main ways in which to use a data dictionary.
Answer:
1. Validate the data flow diagram for completeness and accuracy.
2. Provide a starting point for developing screens and reports.
3. Determine the contents of data stored in files.
4. Develop the logic for data flow diagram processes.
5. Create XML (extensible markup language).
5) Give two examples of elements that can be found in a data dictionary; one that has a standard
length and one that does not have a standard length.
Answer: In the United States lengths for state name abbreviations, zip codes, and telephone
numbers are all standard. Examples of elements found in a data dictionary that do not have
standard lengths include names, addresses, city names, long narratives, etc.

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attack upon New York could do no possible harm and might capture the city. He detailed
this plan to Washington, who saw the weakness of his reasoning and rejected it in a kind
letter signed "sincerely and affectionately yours," reminding Lafayette that "we must
consult our means rather than our wishes" and that "to endeavor to recover our
reputation we should take care not to injure it the more."
After this gentle snub he was torn between a desire to join General Greene in the South
for the winter campaign and his wish to be near New York when a blow was struck there.
With a curiosity that would have been unpardonable in a less intimate friend, he sought
to find out his chief's plans on this score. Washington's answer was non-committal, but
he pointed out that "your going to the Southern army, if you expect a command in this,
will answer no valuable purpose"; and after this second gentle snub Lafayette gave up
the idea of joining Greene. Then in February he was sent with a detachment of twelve
hundred men to Virginia, where Arnold was destroying valuable supplies. His orders bade
him travel fast, "not to suffer the detachment to be delayed for want of either provisions,
forage, or wagons," and after he got to Virginia "to do no act whatever with Arnold that
directly or by implication will screen him from the punishment due to his treason and
desertion; which, if he should fall into your hands, you will execute in the most summary
way." While in Virginia he was to co-operate with General von Steuben, who was in
command of militia there; and if it should prove impossible to dislodge Arnold, Lafayette
was to bring his men back to rejoin the main army.
He had his force at the Head of Elk, that inlet at the head of Chesapeake Bay which the
English had already used, three days ahead of schedule time. His campaign lasted about
a month, but came to nothing, because he did not have the co-operation of ships, and in
that tangle of land and water control of Chesapeake Bay was as necessary to success as
ammunition or fodder. The French had been asked to help, and twice sent ships from
Newport to Chesapeake Bay, but in neither case were they useful to him. He did the best
he could from day to day without them, and even pushed down the bay in a small boat
far ahead of his men, hoping to establish connections; but the ships he saw were British
instead of French. Then he took his men back again to the Head of Elk.
That his failure was not due to lack of persistence letters written by him to Gov. Thomas
Jefferson, asking for transportation, for provisions, for boats, for wagons, for horses, and,
if horses were not available, even for oxen to draw his guns, amply testify. That he had
his usual resourcefulness at instant command was displayed at Annapolis on the
northward journey when he found two small armed British vessels blocking his progress.
He improvised a temporary navy of his own, armed two merchant sloops with cannon,
manned them with volunteers, and drove the British away long enough to permit the rest
of his force to go on.
Neither was his usual friendliness lacking. He snatched time to visit Mount Vernon and to
call upon Washington's mother at Fredericksburg, but he made up for the time lost in
these indulgences by riding at night to overtake his command.

XVII
PREPARING FOR THE LAST ACT
The British were beginning to be hard pressed in the South. The struggle had been long
and disappointing, and burning and looting and the horrors of civil war had spread over a
large area. Two Continental armies had been lost in rapid succession, and there had been
months when one disaster seemed to follow upon another; but gradually the British were
being driven away from their ships and bases of supply on the coast. The heat of
summer had brought much sickness to their camps, and General Greene, next to
Washington the most skilful of the Revolutionary generals, had perfected his "science of
losing battles" to the point where his opponents might claim almost every engagement as
a victory and yet the advantage remained with the Americans. Recently the British had
lost a large part of their light troops. In March, 1781, Cornwallis decided to leave General
Rawdon, with whom Lafayette had danced in London, to face Greene, while he himself
went to Virginia, joined Benedict Arnold and General Phillips there, and returned with
them to finish the conquest of the South. Washington learned of the plan and knew that
if it succeeded General Greene might be crushed between two British forces. Arnold and
Phillips must be kept busy in Virginia. Steuben was already on the ground; Anthony
Wayne was ordered to hurry his Pennsylvanians to the rescue; and Lafayette, being near
the point of danger, was turned back. He found new orders when he reached Head of
Elk.
The scene was being set in Virginia, not in New York, for the last act of the Revolutionary
War; but neither he nor his men realized this, and if Lafayette was disappointed, the men
were almost in a state of panic. They began deserting in large numbers. "They like better
a hundred lashes than a journey to the southward," their commander wrote. "As long as
they had an expedition in view they were very well satisfied; but the idea of remaining in
the Southern states appears to them intolerable, and they are amazingly averse to the
people and climate." Most of them were New England born. He hastened to put many
rivers between them and the land of their desire; and also tried an appeal to their pride.
In an order of the day he stated that his force had been chosen to fight an enemy
superior in numbers and to encounter many dangers. No man need desert, for their
commander would not compel one of them to accompany him against his will. Whoever
chose to do so might apply for a pass and be sent back to rejoin his former regiment.
They were part of his beloved light infantry of the previous year, with all this implied of
friendship and interest on both sides, and this appeal worked like a charm. Desertion
went suddenly and completely out of fashion; nobody asked for a pass, and one poor
fellow who was in danger of being sent back because he was lame hired a cart to be
saved from this disgrace.
Lafayette's men had once been better dressed than the average; but their present ragged
clothing was entirely unsuited to the work ahead of them, being fit only for winter wear

in the North. As usual, money and new garments were equally lacking, and as usual this
general of twenty-three came to the rescue. When he reached Baltimore he let the
merchants know that according to French law he was to come into full control of all his
property on reaching the age of twenty-five, and he promised to pay two years hence for
everything he ordered, if the government did not pay them earlier. On the strength of this
he borrowed two thousand guineas with which to buy overalls, hats, and shoes; and he
smiled upon the ladies of Baltimore, who gave a ball in his honor, told them confidentially
of his plight, and so stirred their patriotism and sympathy that they set to work with their
own fair hands and made up the linen he bought for shirts.
Phillips and Arnold had joined forces near Norfolk, and, since the British were in control
of Chesapeake Bay, could go where they chose. Lafayette believed they would soon move
up the James River toward Norfolk to destroy supplies the Americans had collected. He
resolved to get to Richmond before them, though he had twice the distance to travel.
With this in view he set out from Baltimore on the 19th of April, moving with such haste
that his artillery and even the tents for his men were left to follow at a slower pace. On
the day before he left Baltimore the British, under General Phillips, who outranked Arnold,
began the very march he had foreseen. Steuben's Virginia militia put up the best defense
it could, but, being inferior in numbers and training, could only retire inch by inch,
moving supplies to places of greater safety as it went. But it retired hopefully, knowing
Lafayette to be on the way.
Continuing to advance, partly by land and partly by water, the British reached Petersburg,
only twenty-three miles from Richmond. They passed Petersburg and pressed on. On
April 30th they reached Manchester on the south bank of the James, directly opposite
Richmond. There, to General Phillips's amazement, he beheld more than the town he had
come to take; drawn up on the hills above the river was Lafayette's force, which had
arrived the night before. He had only about nine hundred Continentals in addition to his
militia, and the British numbered twenty-three hundred, but Phillips did not choose to
attack. He contented himself with swearing eloquently and giving orders to retire.
Lafayette had the satisfaction of learning, through an officer who visited the British camp
under flag of truce, that his enemy had been completely surprised. But the young
Frenchman felt it necessary to explain to Washington just how he had been able to do it.
"The leaving of my artillery appears a strange whim, but had I waited for it Richmond
was lost.... It was not without trouble I have made this rapid march."
Lafayette was to be under General Greene and expected to find orders from him waiting
at Richmond. Not finding them, he decided he could best serve the cause by keeping
General Phillips uneasy, and followed him down the James; but, being too weak to attack
except with great advantage of position, he prudently kept the river between them. The
military journal kept by Colonel Simcoe, one of the British officers charged with the
unpleasant duty of watching Arnold, admits that this was "good policy," though he longed
to take advantage of what he called his French adversary's "gasconading disposition and
military ignorance" and make some counter-move which his own superior officers failed
to approve.
This retreat of the British down the James, followed by Lafayette, was the beginning of
that strange contra-dance which the two armies maintained for nine weeks. Sketched

upon a map of Virginia, the route they took resembles nothing except the aimless
markings of a little child. The zigzag lines extend as far west as the mountains at
Charlottesville, as far south as Portsmouth, as far north as Fredericksburg and Culpeper,
and end at Yorktown.
Cornwallis had not approved of General Clinton's conduct of the war, believing the British
commander-in-chief frittered away his opportunity. Cornwallis said he was "quite tired of
marching about the country in search of adventure." The experiences he was to have in
Virginia must have greatly added to that weariness.
He sent word to Phillips to join him at Petersburg. General Phillips turned his forces in
that direction, but it proved to be his last order. He was already ill and soon lapsed into
unconsciousness and died. His death placed Arnold again in command until Cornwallis
should arrive. It was during this interval that Arnold took occasion to write Lafayette
about prisoners of war. Mindful of his instructions to have nothing to do with Arnold
except to punish him, Lafayette refused to receive the letter, saying to the messenger
who brought it that he would gladly read a communication from any other British officer.
Arnold had a keen interest in the treatment of prisoners—for very personal reasons. A
story was current to the effect that one of Lafayette's command who was taken prisoner
was questioned by Arnold himself and asked what the Americans would do to him in case
he was captured. "Cut off the leg which was wounded in your country's service, and hang
the rest of you!" was the prompt reply. The renegade general was not popular in either
army. Soon after Cornwallis's arrival he was ordered elsewhere, and his name fades out
of history.
Lafayette counted the hours until Wayne should join him, but Cornwallis reached Virginia
first, with troops enough to make Lafayette's situation decidedly grave. All the Americans
could do was to follow the plan Steuben had adopted before Lafayette's arrival; retreat
slowly, removing stores to places of safety whenever possible. General Greene gave
Lafayette permission to act independently, but, while this enabled him to make quick
decisions, it increased his load of responsibility and did not in the least augment his
strength.
In the North he had longed for more to do; here it was different. He wrote Alexander
Hamilton, "For the present, my dear friend, my complaint is quite of the opposite nature,"
and he went on with a half-humorous account of his duties, his situation, and the relative
strength of the two armies. The British, he thought, had between four thousand and five
thousand men. "We have nine hundred Continentals. Their infantry is near five to one,
their cavalry ten to one. Our militia is not numerous, some without arms, and are not
used to war." Wayne's men were necessary even to allow the Americans to be beaten
"with some decency." "But," he added, "if the Pennsylvanians come, Lord Cornwallis shall
pay something for his victory!" The Virginia militia showed symptoms of deserting as
harvest-time approached and the call of home duties grew strong. Then there was the
danger of contagious disease. "By the utmost care to avoid infected ground, we have
hitherto got rid of the smallpox," Lafayette wrote in another letter. "I wish the harvest-
time might be as easily got over."
Cornwallis was fully aware of his superior numbers and had a simple plan. "I shall now
proceed to dislodge Lafayette from Richmond, and with my light troops to destroy

magazines or stores in the neighborhood.... From thence I propose to move to the neck
at Williamsburg, which is represented as healthy ... and keep myself unengaged from
operations which might interfere with your plan for the campaign until I have the
satisfaction of hearing from you," he wrote Clinton. He was very sure that the "aspiring
boy," as he contemptuously called Lafayette, could not escape him. But the "boy" had no
intention of being beaten—"indecently"—if he could hold out until Wayne arrived. He
knew that one false move would be his ruin and there was no wild planning.
"Independence has rendered me more cautious, as I know my warmth," he told
Hamilton. He knew how to travel swiftly, and sometimes it was necessary to move as
swiftly as possible. Even so the British advance might come up just as the last of his little
force disappeared. If Cornwallis tried a short cut to head him off, he changed his
direction; and more of those apparently aimless lines were traced upon the map.
On the 10th of June Wayne joined him about thirty-five miles west of Fredericksburg. His
force was smaller than Lafayette had hoped for, "less than a thousand men in all"; but
from that time the Continental troops no longer fled. Indeed, Cornwallis no longer
pursued them, but veered off, sending General Tarleton's famous cavalry on a raid toward
Charlottesville, where it made prisoners of several members of the Virginia legislature
and almost succeeded in capturing Gov. Thomas Jefferson. Another portion of his force
turned its attention upon Steuben where he was guarding supplies. But gradually pursuit
became retreat and the general direction of the zigzag was back toward the sea. The
chances were still uncertain enough to make the game exciting. There was one moment
when Lafayette's flank was in imminent danger; his men, however, marched by night
along a forgotten wood road and reached safety. Six hundred mounted men who came to
join him from neighboring counties were warmly welcomed, for he sorely needed horses.
At one time, to get his men forward more speedily for an attack—attacks were
increasingly frequent—each horse was made to carry double. After he and General
Steuben joined forces on the 19th of June the English and Americans each had about
four thousand men, though in the American camp there were only fifteen hundred
regulars and fifty dragoons.
Weapons for cavalry were even scarcer than horses. Swords could not be bought in the
state; but Lafayette was so intent upon mounted troops that he planned to provide some
of them with spears, "which," he argued, "in the hands of a gentleman must be a
formidable weapon." Thus reverting to type, as biologists say, this descendant of the
Crusaders drove his enemy before him with Crusaders' weapons down the peninsula
between the York and the James rivers.

XVIII
YORKTOWN
One of General Wayne's officers, Captain Davis of the First Pennsylvania, whose military
skill, let us hope, exceeded his knowledge of spelling, kept a diary full of enthusiasm and
superfluous capital letters. By this we learn that the Fourth of July, 1781, was a wet
morning which cleared off in time for a "Feu-de-joy" in honor of the day. The Americans
had by this time forced the British down the peninsula as far as Williamsburg, and were
themselves camped about fifteen miles from that town. While the "Feu-de-joy" went up
in smoke the British were busy; for Cornwallis had received letters which decided him to
abandon Williamsburg, send a large part of his men north to reinforce Clinton, and
consolidate the rest with the British garrison at Portsmouth, near Norfolk.
The battle of Green Springs, the most serious encounter of Lafayette's Virginia campaign,
took place on the 6th of July, near Jamestown, when the British, in carrying out this plan,
crossed to the south side of the river James. Cornwallis was sure that Lafayette would
attack, and arranged an ambush, meaning to lure him with the belief that all except the
British rear-guard had passed to the other bank. The ruse only half succeeded, for
Lafayette observed that the British clung tenaciously to their position and replaced the
officers American riflemen picked off one after the other. Riding out on a point of land, he
saw the British soldiers waiting under protection of their guns and spurred back to warn
General Wayne, but by that time the battle had opened. Wayne's men suffered most,
being nearly surrounded. In a tight place Wayne always preferred "among a choice of
difficulties, to advance and charge"; and this was exactly what he did, straight into the
British lines. The unexpectedness of it brought success; and in the momentary confusion
he fell back to a place of safety. Afterward he had a word to say about Lafayette's
personal conduct. Reporting that no officers were killed, though most of them had horses
shot or wounded under them, he added: "I will not condole with the Marquis for the loss
of two of his, as he was frequently requested to keep at a greater distance. His native
bravery rendered him deaf to the admonition."
The British retained the battle-field and the Americans most of the glory, as was the case
in so many fights of the Revolution. British military writers have contended that Lafayette
was in mortal danger and that Cornwallis could have annihilated his whole force if he had
attacked that night. What Cornwallis did was to cross the river next morning and proceed
toward Portsmouth. The affair at Green Springs added materially to Lafayette's
reputation. Indeed, with the exception of burning a few American stores, increasing
Lafayette's military reputation was about all the British accomplished in this campaign. An
American officer with a taste for figures gleefully estimated that Cornwallis's "tour in
Virginia" cost King George, one way and another, more than would have been needed to
take all the British aristocracy on a trip around the world.

Cornwallis got his soldiers safely upon their transports, but it was written in the stars that
they were not to leave Virginia of their own free will. Orders came from Clinton telling
him not to send them north, and giving him to understand that his recent acts were not
approved. Clinton directed him to establish himself in a healthy spot on the peninsula
between the York and James rivers and to gain control of a seaport to which British ships
could come. He suggested Old Point Comfort, but Cornwallis's engineers decided that
Yorktown, with the neck of land opposite called Gloucester, was the only place that would
serve. Here Cornwallis brought his army on the 1st of August and began building
defenses.
Following the battle of Green Springs, Lafayette occupied Williamsburg and gave his men
the rest they needed after their many weeks of marching. He sent out detachments on
various errands, but this was a season of comparative quiet. Soon he began to long for
excitement, and wrote to Washington that he did not know about anything that was
happening in the world outside of Virginia, that he was homesick for headquarters, and
that if he could not be there to help in the defense of New York, at least he would like to
know what was going on. The answer only whetted his curiosity. Washington bade him
await a confidential letter explaining his plans.
The military situation as Washington saw it was exceedingly interesting. Colonel Laurens's
mission to the French court had turned out badly. Perhaps he had not taken sufficiently
to heart Lafayette's advice; but young Rochambeau had not fared much better. In May it
had been learned that there was never to be any second division of the French army; a
blow that was softened by the assurance that considerable money was actually on the
way and that a French fleet, which had sailed for the West Indies under command of
Comte de Grasse, might visit the coast of the United States for a short time.
It was the approach of this French fleet which caused Clinton uneasiness in New York
and made Cornwallis embark part of his troops for the North. Washington took good care
to let Clinton rest in the belief that New York was to be attacked, but it became
increasingly evident to him that the greatest blow he could strike would be to capture
Cornwallis's army. He arranged with Admiral de Grasse to sail to Chesapeake Bay instead
of to New York, sent word to Lafayette to be on the lookout for the French fleet, moved
Rochambeau's soldiers from Newport to the Hudson, left a sufficient number of them
there and started south with all the rest of the army, moving with the greatest possible
speed. Those of us who have read about this merely as long past history do not realize
the risks involved in planning such far-reaching combinations in days before cables and
telegraph lines.
"To blockade Rhode Island, fool Clinton, shut him up in New York, and keep Cornwallis in
Virginia," says a French writer, "it was necessary to send from the port of Brest and later
from the Antilles to Chesapeake Bay a flotilla destined to take from the English all hope of
retreat and embarkation at the exact instant that Washington, Rochambeau, and
Lafayette should come and force the English in their last intrenchments. This grand
project which decided the outcome of the war could be conceived only by men of
superior talent." Lafayette's friend, De Ségur, said that "it required all the audacity of
Admiral Comte de Grasse and the skill of Washington, sustained by the bravery of

Lafayette, the wisdom of Rochambeau, the heroic intrepidity of our sailors and our
troops, as well as the valor of the American militia."
Fortunately the geography of the Atlantic coast helped Washington keep his secret even
after he was well started. If De Grasse came to New York, Washington's logical goal was
Staten Island, and the route of the Continental army would be the same in either case for
a long distance. After Philadelphia had been left behind and Washington's plan became
evident, it was too late for Clinton to stop him.
Thus the net tightened about Cornwallis. French ships in the bay effectually cut off hope
of reinforcement or escape by sea. Lafayette stationed Wayne where he could interpose if
the British attempted to go by land toward the Carolinas. He sent his faithful friend, De
Gimat, down the bay to meet the French admiral and give him information, and disposed
his own forces to cover the landing of any soldiers De Grasse might bring him.
It must have been a fine sight when twenty-eight large ships of the line and four French
frigates sailed up the James River on the 2d of September and landed three thousand
soldiers, "all very tall men" in uniforms of white turned up with blue. Lafayette's
Americans, drawn up not far from the battleground of Green Springs, donned their
ragged best in their honor. "Our men had orders to wash and put on clean clothes," a
diary informs us.
With this addition to his force Lafayette approached Yorktown. General Saint-Simon, the
commander of the three thousand very tall men, was much older than Lafayette, besides
being a marshal of France, but he gallantly signified his willingness to serve under his
junior; and officers and privates alike accepted cheerfully the scanty American fare, which
was all Lafayette could get for his enlarged military family. He found difficulty in collecting
even this and wrote Washington that his duties as quartermaster had brought on violent
headache and fever, but that the indisposition would vanish with three hours' needed
sleep.
In spite of their politeness it was evident that the visitors were anxious to be through
with their task and away. Admiral de Grasse had a rendezvous for a certain date in the
West Indies and insisted from the first that his stay in American waters must be short.
The French were scarcely inclined to await the arrival of Washington; yet with all
Washington's haste he had only reached Chester, Pennsylvania, on the way to Head of
Elk when he heard of De Grasse's arrival. Those who were with him when the news came
were more impressed by the way he received it than by the news itself. His reserve and
dignity fell from him like a garment, and his face beamed like that of a delighted child as
he stood on the river-bank waving his hat in the air and shouting the glad tidings to
Rochambeau.
When Washington reached Williamsburg on the 13th of September he found both
Lafayette and General Wayne the worse for wear. Wayne, with characteristic impetuosity,
had tried to pass one of Lafayette's sentries after dark and was nursing a slight wound in
consequence. Lafayette's quartermaster headache had developed into an attack of ague;
but that did not prevent his being present at the ceremonies which marked the official
meeting of the allied commanders. There were all possible salutes and official visits, and,
in addition, at a grand supper a band played a kind of music seldom heard in America in

those days—the overture to a French opera "signifying the happiness of a family when
blessed with the presence of their father."
Washington's arrival of course put an end to Lafayette's independent command. With the
Commander-in-chief present he became again what he had been the previous summer,
merely the commander of a division of light infantry, and as such took part in the siege of
Yorktown, which progressed unfalteringly. The night of October 14th witnessed its most
dramatic incident, the taking of two redoubts, one by French troops, the other by
Americans under Lafayette. Among his officers were Gimat, John Laurens, and Alexander
Hamilton. Six shells in rapid succession gave the signal to advance, and his four hundred
men obeyed under fire without returning a shot, so rapidly that the place was taken at
the point of the bayonet in a very few minutes. Lafayette's first care was to send an aide
with his compliments and a message to Baron Viomenil, the French commander, whose
troops were still attacking; the message being that the Americans had gained their
redoubt and would gladly come to his assistance if he desired it. This was a bit of
vainglory, for Viomenil had nettled Lafayette by doubting if his Americans could succeed.
On the night of October 15th the British attempted a sortie which failed. After an equally
unsuccessful attempt to escape by water, Cornwallis felt that there was no more hope, for
his works were crumbling and, in addition to his loss in killed and wounded, many of his
men were sick. He wrote a short note to Washington asking for an armistice to arrange
terms of surrender.
The time of surrender was fixed for two o'clock on the afternoon of October 19, 1781.
Lafayette had suggested that Cornwallis's bands be required to play a British or a German
air when the soldiers marched to lay down their arms. This was in courteous retaliation
for the treatment our own troops had received at British hands at the surrender of
Charleston, when they had been forbidden to play such music. It was to the tune of "The
World Turned Upside Down" that they chose to march with colors cased, between the
long lines of French and Americans drawn up on the Hampton Road, to a field where a
squadron of French had spread out to form a huge circle. The French on one side of the
road under their flag with the golden fleur-de-lis were resplendent in uniforms of white
turned up with blue. The Americans were less imposing. In the militia regiments toward
the end of their line scarcely a uniform was to be seen, but at their head Washington and
his officers, superbly mounted, stood opposite Rochambeau and the other French
generals. Eye-witnesses thought that the British showed disdain of the ragged American
soldiers and a marked preference for the French, but acts of discourtesy were few, and
the higher officers conducted themselves as befitted gentlemen. Cornwallis did not
appear to give up his sword, but sent General O'Hara to represent him, and it was
received on Washington's part by General Lincoln, who had given up his sword to the
British at Charleston.
As each British regiment reached the field where the French waited it laid down its arms
at the command of its colonel and marched back to Yorktown, prisoners of war. The
cheeks of one colonel were wet with tears as he gave the order, and a corporal was
heard to whisper to his musket as he laid it down, "May you never get so good a
master!" Care was taken not to add to the humiliation of the vanquished by admitting
sightseers, and all agree that there was no cheering or exulting. "Universal silence was
observed," says General "Lighthorse Harry" Lee, who was there. "The utmost decency

prevailed, exhibiting in demeanor an awful sense of the vicissitudes of human life,
mingled with commiseration for the unhappy." There was more than commiseration;
there was real friendliness. Rochambeau, learning that Cornwallis was without money,
lent him all he needed. Dinners were given at which British officers were the guests of
honor; and we have Lafayette's word for it that "every sort of politeness" was shown.
Washington's aide, Colonel Tilghman, rode at top speed to Philadelphia with news of the
surrender, reaching there after midnight on the 24th. He met a watchman as he entered
the city, and bade him show him the way to the house of the president of Congress. The
watchman, of course, learned the great news, and while Tilghman roused the high
official, the watchman, who was a patriot, though he had a strong German accent,
continued his rounds, calling, happily:
"Basht dree o'glock, und Corn-wal-lis isht da-a-ken!"

XIX
"THE WINE OF HONOR"
About the time that Colonel Tilghman rode into Philadelphia a large British fleet appeared
just outside of Chesapeake Bay, thirty-one ships one day and twenty-five more the next;
but they were too late. As a French officer remarked, "The chicken was already eaten,"
and two days later the last sail had disappeared. The surrender of Cornwallis cost
England the war, but nobody could be quite sure of it at that time. Washington hoped the
French admiral would still help him by taking American troops south, either to reinforce
General Greene near Charleston or for operations against Wilmington, North Carolina.
Two days after the fall of Yorktown, when Washington made a visit of thanks to De
Grasse upon his flagship, Lafayette accompanied his chief; and after Washington took
leave Lafayette stayed for further consultation, it being Washington's plan to give
Lafayette command of this expedition against Wilmington in case it should be decided
upon. The young general came ashore in high spirits, sure that two thousand American
soldiers could sail for North Carolina within the next ten days. Reflection, however,
showed the admiral many obstacles, chief of them being that he had positive orders to
meet a Spanish admiral in the West Indies on a certain day, now very near. Taking troops
to Wilmington might delay him only a few hours, but on the other hand contrary winds
might lengthen the time to two weeks, in which case he would have to sail off to the
rendezvous, carrying the whole American expedition with him. After thinking it over, he
politely but firmly refused. Reinforcements for General Greene were sent by land under
command of another officer, the expedition to Wilmington was given up, and Lafayette
rode away to Philadelphia to ask leave of Congress to spend the following winter in Paris.
This was readily granted in resolutions which cannily combined anticipation of future
favors with thanks for the service he had already rendered.
Once more he sailed from Boston on the Alliance. This time the voyage was short and
lacked the exciting features of his previous trip on her. Wishing to surprise his wife, he
landed at Lorient and posted to Paris with such haste that he arrived quite unexpectedly
on the 21st of January, to find an empty house, Adrienne being at the moment at the
Hotel de Ville, attending festivities in honor of the unfortunate little Dauphin. When the
news of her husband's return finally reached her on the breath of the crowd she was
separated from her home by streets in such happy turmoil that she could not hope to
reach the Hotel de Noailles for hours. Marie Antoinette hastened this journey's end in a
lovers' meeting in right queenly fashion by holding up a royal procession and sending
Madame Lafayette home in her own carriage. Accounts written at the time tell how the
husband heard his wife's voice and flew to the door, how she fell into his arms half
fainting with emotion, and how he carried her inside and the great doors closed while the
crowd in the street applauded. What happened after that we do not know, except that he
found other members of his family strangely altered. "My daughter and your George have
grown so much that I find myself older than I thought," the father wrote Washington.

Paris set about celebrating his return with enthusiasm. A private letter which made much
of the queen's graciousness to Madame Lafayette remarked as of lesser moment that a
numerous and joyous band of "poissards," which we may translate "the rabble," brought
branches of laurel to the Hôtel de Noailles. A prima donna offered him the same tribute
at the opera, but in view of later happenings this homage of the common people was
quite as significant. In vaudeville they sang topical songs about him; pretty ladies frankly
showed him their favor; the ancient order of Masons, of which he was a member, gave
him the welcome reserved for heroes; and he was wined and dined to an extent that only
a man blessed with his strong digestion could have withstood. One of these dinners was
given by the dissolute old Maréchal de Richelieu, nephew of the famous cardinal, and to
this were bidden "all the maréchals of France," who drank Washington's health with
fervor and bade the guest of honor convey to him "their homage."
It had been more than a century since France won a victory over England comparable to
this capture of Cornwallis, and national pride and exultation were plainly apparent in the
honors bestowed upon the returned soldier. "Your name is held in veneration," Vergennes
assured him. "It required a great deal of skill to maintain yourself as you did, for so long
a time, in spite of the disparity of your forces, before Lord Cornwallis, whose military
talents are well known." And the new Minister of War, M. de Ségur, father of Lafayette's
boyhood friend, informed him that as "a particular and flattering favor" the king had been
pleased to make him a marshal of France, his commission dating from the 18th of
October. This rank corresponded to that of major-general in the American army, and
Lafayette was to assume it at the end of the American war. There were officers in the
army who did not approve of this honor. They could not see that Lafayette had done
anything to warrant making a French colonel into a major-general overnight and over the
heads of officers of higher rank. They were quite sure they would have done as well had
the opportunity come their way. Kings do not often reward subjects for services rendered
a foreign nation; and the part that strikes us as odd is that Lafayette had been fighting
against monarchy, the very form of government his own king represented. But Lafayette's
life abounded in such contradictions.
His popularity was no nine days' affair. Franklin found it of very practical use. "He gains
daily in public esteem and affection, and promises to be a great man in his own country,"
the American wrote, after Lafayette had been back for some weeks, adding, "he has
been truly useful to me in my efforts to obtain increased assistance." Before the young
hero arrived Franklin had found it difficult to arrange a new American loan, but with such
enthusiasm sweeping Paris it was almost easy. The town went quite wild. John Ledyard,
the American explorer, who was there at the time, wrote: "I took a walk to Paris this
morning and saw the Marquis de Lafayette. He is a good man, this same marquis. I
esteem him: I even love him, and so do we all, except some who worship." Then he
added, "If I find in my travels a mountain as much elevated above other mountains as he
is above ordinary men, I will name it Lafayette."
Envoys to discuss peace had already reached Paris, but it was not at all certain that
England would give up the contest without one more campaign. To be on the safe side it
was planned to send a combined fleet of French and Spanish ships convoying twenty-four
thousand soldiers to the West Indies to attack the English island of Jamaica. Ships and
men were to be under command of Admiral d'Estaing, who wished Lafayette to go with

him as chief-of-staff. After the work was done in the West Indies D'Estaing would sail
northward and detach six thousand troops to aid a revolution in Canada, a project
Lafayette had never wholly abandoned. The expedition was to sail from Cadiz, and
Lafayette was already in Spain with part of the French force when he learned that the
preliminary treaty of peace had been signed at Versailles on January 20, 1782. He longed
to carry the news to America himself, but was told that he could do much in Spain to
secure advantageous trade agreements between that country and the United States. So
he contented himself with borrowing a vessel from the fleet that was now without a
destination, and sending two letters by it. One, very dignified in tone, was addressed to
Congress. The other, to Washington, was joyously personal. "If you were a mere man like
Cæsar or the King of Prussia," he wrote, "I would almost regret, on your account, to see
the end of the tragedy in which you have played so grand a role. But I rejoice with you,
my dear General, in this peace which fulfils all my desires.... What sentiments of pride
and joy I feel in thinking of the circumstances which led to my joining the American
cause!... I foresee that my grandchildren will be envied when they celebrate and honor
your name. To have had one of their ancestors among your soldiers, to know that he had
the good fortune to be the friend of your heart, will be the eternal honor that shall glorify
them; and I will bequeath to the eldest among them, so long as my posterity shall
endure, the favor you have been pleased to bestow upon my son George."
The ship on which these letters were sent was called, appropriately, La Triomphe; and, as
he hoped, it did actually carry the news of peace to America, reaching port ahead of all
others.
For himself, he remained in Spain, doing what he could for America. The things he
witnessed there made him a better republican than ever. He wrote to his aunt that the
grandees of the court looked rather small, "especially when I saw them upon their
knees." Absolute power, exercised either by monarchs or subjects, was becoming more
and more distasteful to him. The injustice of negro slavery, for example, wrung his heart.
In the very letter to Washington announcing peace he wrote: "Now that you are to taste
a little repose, permit me to propose to you a plan that may become vastly useful to the
black portion of the human race. Let us unite in buying a little property where we can try
to enfranchise the negroes and employ them merely as farm laborers." He did buy a
plantation called Belle Gabrielle in Cayenne, French Guiana, and lavished money and
thought upon it. It was an experiment in which his wife heartily joined, sending out
teachers for the black tenantry and making their souls and morals her special care. The
French Revolution put an end to this, as it did to so many enterprises; and it seems a
bitter jest of fortune that when Lafayette's property was seized these poor creatures were
sold back again into slavery—in the name of Freedom and Equality.
In March, 1783, Lafayette took his wife to Chavaniac, possibly for the first time. One of
the two aunts who made the old manor-house their home had just died, leaving the
other desolate. While Adrienne won the affections of the lonely old lady, her husband set
about improving the condition of the peasants on the estate. Bad harvests had brought
about great scarcity of food. His manager proudly showed his granaries full of wheat,
remarking, "Monsieur le Marquis, now is the time to sell." The answer, "No, this is the
time to give away," left the worthy steward breathless. Whether Lafayette's
philanthropies would win the approval of social workers to-day we do not know. The list

of enterprises sounds well. During the next few years he built roads, brought an expert
from England to demonstrate new methods in agriculture, imported tools and superior
breeds of animals, established a weekly market and an annual fair, started the weaving
industry and a school to teach it, and established a resident physician to look after the
health of his tenants. He was popular with them. On his arrival he was met in the town of
Rion by a procession headed by musicians and the town officials, who ceremoniously
presented "the wine of honor" and were followed by local judges in red robes who "made
him compliments," while the people cried, "Vive Lafayette!" and danced and embraced,
"almost without knowing one another." A few weeks later the tenants from a neighboring
manor came bringing him a draught of wine from their town, and expressing the wish
that they might come under his rule. This he was able to gratify a few years later, when
he bought the estate.
In May, 1783, Lafayette realized the long-cherished dream of having a home of his own.
The Hôtel de Noailles was very grand and very beautiful, and while he was away fighting
it was by far the best place for Adrienne and the children; but it belonged to her people,
not to him. From camps he had written her about this home they were some day to have
together; and now that he had returned to France to stay they bought a house in the rue
de Bourbon and set up their domestic altar there. They had three children; for a daughter
had been born to them in the previous September. Like George, she was as American as
her father could make her. "I have taken the liberty of naming her Virginia," he wrote
General Washington. Benjamin Franklin, to whom he also announced the new arrival,
hoped he would have children enough to name one after each state of the Union.
In May, also, something happened which must have pleased Lafayette deeply. He was
given the Cross of Saint-Louis, the military decoration his father had worn; and the man
who received him into the order was his father-in-law, the Duc d'Ayen, who had so
bitterly opposed his going to America.
With large estates in the country, a new house in town, a list of acquaintances which
included everybody worth knowing in Paris and more notables in foreign countries than
even he could write to or receive letters from, and a keen interest in the politics,
philanthropy, and commerce of two hemispheres, he might have passed for a busy man.
Yet he found time for an entirely new enthusiasm. A German doctor named Mesmer had
made what he believed to be important discoveries in a new force and a new mode of
healing, called animal magnetism. Lafayette enrolled himself as a pupil. "I know as much
as ever a sorcerer knew!" he wrote enthusiastically to Washington. On paying his
initiation fee of a hundred golden louis he had signed a paper promising not to reveal
these secrets to any prince, community, government, or individual without Mesmer's
written consent, but the disciple was eager to impart his knowledge to his great friend
and hoped to gain permission. Louis XVI was satirical. "What will Washington think when
he learns that you have become first apothecary boy to Mesmer?" he asked.
Lafayette was planning a visit to America and sent a message to Mrs. Washington that he
hoped "soon to thank her for a dish of tea at Mount Vernon." "Yes, my dear General,
before the month of June is over you will see a vessel coming up the Potomac, and out of
that vessel will your friend jump, with a panting heart and all the feelings of perfect
happiness." He did indeed make the visit during the summer of 1784, though a few

weeks later than June. Whether they had time during his ten days at Mount Vernon to
talk about Mesmer history does not state. The hours must have been short for all the
things clamoring to be said. Then Lafayette made a tour that carried him to Portsmouth,
New Hampshire, as far west as Fort Schuyler, for another treaty-making powwow with his
red brothers the Indians, and south to Yorktown. Everywhere bells pealed and balls and
dinners were given. Before he turned his face toward France he had a few more quiet
days at Mount Vernon with Washington, who accompanied him on his homeward way as
far as Annapolis. At parting the elder man gave him a tender letter for Adrienne, and on
the way back to Mount Vernon wrote the words of farewell which proved prophetic: "I
have often asked myself, since our carriages separated, whether that was the last sight I
ever should have of you; and though I wished to say No, my fears answered Yes."
Washington lived fourteen years longer; but in the mean time the storm of the French
Revolution broke and everything that had seemed enduring in Lafayette's life was
wrecked. Until that storm burst letters and invitations and presents flashed across the see
as freely as though propelled by Mesmer's magic fluid. Mrs. Washington sent succulent
Virginia hams to figure at dinners given by the Lafayettes in Paris. A picture of the
household in the rue de Bourbon has come down to us written by a young officer to his
mother:
"I seemed to be in America rather than in Paris. Numbers of English and Americans were
present, for he speaks English as he does French. He has an American Indian in native
costume for a footman. This savage calls him only 'father.' Everything is simple in his
home. Marmontel and the Abbé Morrolet were dinner guests. Even the little girls spoke
English as well as French, though they are very small. They played in English, and
laughed with the Americans. This would have made charming subjects for English
engravings."
Lafayette on his part sent many things to that house on the banks of the Potomac. He
sent his friends, and a letter from him was an infallible open sesame. He sent his own
accounts of journeys and interviews. He sent animals and plants that he thought would
interest Washington, the farmer. Asses, for example, which were hard to get in America,
and rare varieties of seeds. In time he sent the key of the Bastille. But that, as romancers
say, is "another story," and opens another chapter in Lafayette's life.

XX
THE PASSING OF OLD FRANCE
Lafayette took his business of being a soldier seriously, and in the summer of 1785 made
another journey, this time in the interest of his military education. Frederick II, King of
Prussia, was still living. Lafayette obtained permission to attend the maneuvers of his
army, counting himself fortunate to receive lessons in strategy from this greatest warrior
of his time. He was not surprised to find the old monarch bent and rheumatic, with
fingers twisted with gout, and head pulled over on one side until it almost rested on his
shoulder; or to see that his blue uniform with red facings was dirty and sprinkled with
snuff. But he was astonished to discover that the eyes in Frederick's emaciated old face
were strangely beautiful and lighted up his countenance at times with an expression of
the utmost sweetness. It was not often that they transformed him thus from an untidy
old man to an angel of benevolence. Usually they were keen, sometimes mockingly
malicious.
It was certainly not without malice that he seated the young French general at his table
between two other guests, Lord Cornwallis and the Duke of York; and in the course of
long dinners amused himself by asking Lafayette questions about Washington and the
American campaigns. Lafayette answered with his customary ardor, singing praises of his
general and even venturing to praise republicanism in a manner that irritated the old
monarch.
"Monsieur!" Frederick interrupted him in such a flight. "I once knew a young man who
visited countries where liberty and equality reigned. After he got home he took it into his
head to establish them in his own country. Do you know what happened?"
"No, Sire."
"He was hanged!" the old man replied, with a sardonic grin. It was plain he liked
Lafayette or he would not have troubled to give him the warning.
Lafayette continued his journey to Prague and Vienna and Dresden, where he saw other
soldiers put through their drill. Then he returned to Potsdam for the final grand
maneuvers under the personal direction of Frederick, but a sudden acute attack of gout
racked his kingly old bones, and the exercises which, in his clockwork military system,
could no more be postponed than the movements of the planets, were carried out by the
heir apparent, to Lafayette's great disappointment. He wrote Washington that the prince
was "a good officer, an honest fellow, a man of sense," but that he would never have the
talent of his two uncles. As for the Prussian army, it was a wonderful machine, but "if the
resources of France, the vivacity of her soldiers, the intelligence of her officers, the
national ambition and moral delicacy were applied to a system worked out with equal
skill, we would as far excel the Prussians as our army is now inferior to theirs—which is
saying a great deal!"

Vive la France! Vivent moral distinctions! He may not have realized it, but Lafayette was
all his life more interested in justice than in war.
Almost from the hour of his last return from America the injustice with which French
Protestants were treated filled him with indignation. Though not openly persecuted, they
were entirely at the mercy of official caprice. Legally their marriages were not valid; they
could not make wills; their rights as citizens were attacked on every side. To use
Lafayette's expression, they were "stricken with civil death." He became their champion.
Everybody knew that very radical theories had been applauded in France for many years,
even by the men who condemned them officially. Dislike of liberal actions, however, was
still strong, as Lafayette found when he attempted to help these people. His interest in
them was treated as an amiable weakness which might be overlooked in view of his
many good qualities, but should on no account be encouraged. "It is a work which
requires time and is not without some inconvenience to me, because nobody is willing to
give me one word of writing or to uphold me in any way. I must run my chance," he
wrote Washington. He did, however, get permission from one of the king's ministers to go
to Languedoc, where Protestants were numerous, in order to study their condition and
know just what it was he advocated. Evidence that he gathered thus at first hand he
used officially two years later before the Assembly of Notables. So his championship of
the French Protestants marks the beginning of this new chapter in Lafayette's life, his
entrance into French politics.
Outwardly the condition of the country remained much as it had been; but discontent
had made rapid progress during the years of Lafayette's stay in America. An answer
attributed to the old Maréchal de Richelieu sums up the change. The old reprobate had
been ill and Louis XVI, with good intentions, but clumsy cruelty, congratulated him on his
recovery. "For," said the king, "you are not young. You have seen three ages." "Rather,"
growled the duke, "three reigns!" "Well, what do you think of them?" "Sire, under Louis
XIV nobody dared say a word; under Louis XV they spoke in whispers; under your
Majesty they speak loudly."
This education in discontent had proceeded under three teachers: extravagance, hunger,
and the success of America's war of independence. Louis really desired to see his people
happy and prosperous. He had made an attempt at reforms, early in his reign, but,
having neither a strong will nor a strong mind, it speedily lapsed. Even under his own
eyes at Versailles many abuses continued, merely because they had become part of the
cumbersome court etiquette which Frederick II had condemned back in the days of
Louis's grandfather. Many other abuses had increased without even the pretense of
reforming them. There was increased personal extravagance among the well-to-do;
increased extortion elsewhere. Tax-collectors were still going about shutting their eyes to
the wealth of men who had influence and judging the peasants as coldly as they would
judge cattle. In one district they were fat; they must pay a heavier tax. Chicken feathers
were blowing about on the ground? That meant the people had poultry to eat; the screw
could be given another vigorous turn. Among all classes there seemed to be less and less
money to spend. With the exception of a few bankers and merchants, everybody from
the king down felt poor. The peasants felt hungry. The poor in cities actually were very
hungry; almost all the nobles were deeply in debt. In short, the forces for good and ill

which had already honeycombed the kingdom when Lafayette was a boy had continued
their work, gnawing upward and downward and through the social fabric until only a very
thin and brittle shell remained. And, as the Maréchal de Richelieu pointedly reminded his
weak king, people were no longer afraid to talk aloud about these things.
The success of the Revolution in America had done much to remove the ban of silence.
Loans made by France had added to the scarcity of money; and it was these loans which
had brought America success. The people across the ocean had wiped the slate clean
and begun afresh. Why not follow their example? In the winter of 1782, when Paris was
suffering from the Russian influenza, a lady with a clever tongue and the eye of a
prophet had said, "We are threatened with another malady which will come from America
—the Independenza!" Thoughtful people were beginning to believe that a change was
only a matter of time; but that it would come slowly and stretch over many years.
Meanwhile the months passed and the glittering outer shell of the old order of things
continued to glitter. Lafayette divided his time between Paris, the court, and Chavaniac.
He made at least one journey in the brilliant retinue of the king. He dined and gave
dinners. He did everything in his power to increase commerce with the United States. He
took part in every public movement for reform, and instituted small private ones of his
own. One of these was to ask the king to revoke a pension of seven hundred and eighty
livres that had been granted him when he was a mere baby, and to divide it between a
retired old infantry officer and a worthy widow of Auvergne. Incidentally people seemed
to like him in spite of his republicanism. It was no secret to any one that he had come
home from America a thorough believer in popular government.
His fame was by no means confined to France and the lands lying to the west of it.
Catherine II of Russia became curious to see this much-talked-of person and invited him
to St. Petersburg. Learning that she was soon to start for the Crimea, he asked leave to
pay his respects to her there; but that was a journey he never made. Before he could set
out Louis XVI called a meeting of the Assembly of Notables, to take place on February
22, 1787. This was in no true sense a parliament; only a body of one hundred and forty-
four men who held no offices at court, selected arbitrarily by the king to discuss such
subjects as he chose to set before it. The subject was to be taxation, how to raise money
for government expenses, a burning question with every one.
Deliberative assemblies were no new thing in France. Several times in long-past history a
king had called together representative men of the nobles, the clergy, and even of the
common people, to consider questions of state and help bring about needed reforms.
Such gatherings were known as States General. But they had belonged to a time before
the kings were quite sure of their power, and it was one hundred and seventy years since
the last one had been called. Little by little, in the mean time, even the provincial
parliaments, of which there were several in different parts of France, had been sapped of
strength and vitality. There was a tendency now to revive them. Lafayette had stopped in
Rennes on his way home from Brest after his last trip across the Atlantic, to attend such
a gathering in Brittany, where he owned estates, his mother having been a Breton.
Favoring representative government as he did, he was anxious to see such assemblages
meet frequently at regular intervals.

The call for the Assembly of Notables had come about in an unexpected way. Some years
before, the Minister of Finance, Necker, had printed a sort of treasurer's report showing
how public funds had been spent. This was a great novelty, such questions having been
shrouded in deepest mystery. Everybody who could read read Necker's report. It was
seen on the dressing-tables of ladies and sticking out of the pockets of priests. Necker
had meant it to pave the way for reforms, because he believed in cutting down expenses
instead of imposing more taxes. It roused such a storm of discussion and criticism that
he was driven from the Cabinet; after which his successor, M. Calonne, "a veritable
Cagliostro of finance," managed to juggle for four years with facts and figures before the
inevitable day of reckoning came. This left the country much worse off than it had been
when he took office; so badly off, in fact, that the king called together the Assembly of
Notables.
By an odd coincidence it held its first meeting at Versailles on a date forever linked in
American minds with ideas of popular liberty—the 22d of February. For practical work, it
was divided into seven sections or committees, each one of which was presided over by a
royal prince. If the intention had been to check liberal tendencies among its members,
the effort was vain. The spirit of independence was in it, and it refused to solve the king's
financial riddles for him.
From the beginning Lafayette took an active and much more radical part than some of his
friends wished. He worked in behalf of the French Protestants. He wanted to reform
criminal law; to give France a jury system such as England had; and he advocated
putting a stop to the abuses of lettres de cachet. He was very plain-spoken in favor of
cutting down expenses, particularly in the king's own military establishment, in pensions
granted to members of the royal family, and in the matter of keeping up the palaces and
pleasure-places that former monarchs had loved, but which Louis XVI never visited. He
believed in taxing lands and property belonging to the clergy, which had not as yet been
taxed at all. He wanted the nobility to pay their full share, too, and he thought a
treasurer's report should be published every year. Indeed, he wanted reports printed
about all departments of government except that of Foreign Affairs.
This was worse than amiable weakness, it was rank republicanism; the more dangerous
because, as one of the ministers said, "all his logic is in action." The queen, who had
never more than half liked him, began to distrust him. Calonne, who was about to leave
the treasury in such a muddle, declared that he ought to be shut up in the Bastille; and a
remark that Lafayette was overheard to make one day when the education of the
dauphin was under discussion did not add to his popularity with the court party. "I think,"
he said, "that the prince will do well to begin his study of French history with the year
1787."
One day he had the hardihood to raise his voice and say, "I appeal to the king to convene
a national assembly." There was a hush of astonishment and of something very like fear.
"What!" cried a younger brother of the king, the Comte d'Artois, who presided over the
section of which Lafayette was a member. "You demand the convocation of the States
General?" "Yes, Sire." "You wish to go on record? To have me say to the king that M. de
Lafayette has made a motion to convene the States General?" "Yes, Monseigneur—and

better than that!" by which Lafayette meant he hoped such an assembly might be made
more truly representative than ever before.
That Lafayette realized the personal consequences of his plain speaking there is no
doubt. He wrote to Washington, "The king and his family, as well as the notables who
surround him, with the exception of a few friends, do not pardon the liberties I have
taken or the success I have gained with other classes of society." If he cherished any
illusions, they were dispelled a few months later when he received a request from the
king to give up his commission as major-general.
As for his appeal for a meeting of the States General, nobody possessed the hardihood to
sign it with him, and it had no immediate consequences. Before the Assembly of Notables
adjourned it advised the king to authorize legislative assemblies in the provinces, which
he did, Lafayette being one of the five men named by the monarch to represent the
nobility in his province of Auvergne. At the sessions of this provincial assembly he further
displeased the members of his own class, but the common people crowded about and
applauded him wherever he went. "He was the first hero they had seen, and they were
never tired of looking at him," a local chronicler states, with disarming frankness.
The situation grew worse instead of better. The country's debt increased daily. The
Assembly of Notables held another session; but it was only to arrange details for the
meeting of the States General which the king had at last been forced to call. It was to
meet in May, 1789, and was to be made up, as the other had been, of nobles, clergy, and
more humble folk, called the bourgeoisie, or the Third Estate. But there was one
immense difference. Instead of being appointed by the king, these were to be real
representatives, nobles elected by the nobles, clergy by the clergy, and the common
people expressing their own choice. In addition, people of all classes were invited to draw
up cahiers—that is, statements in writing showing the kind of reforms they desired.
The nobles and clergy held small meetings and elected delegates from among their own
number. The Third Estate elected men of the upper middle class, or nobles of liberal
views. Lafayette found considerable opposition among the nobles of Auvergne, but the
common people begged him to represent them, promising to give him their unanimous
vote if he would do so. He preferred, however, to make the fight in his own order and
was successful, taking his seat, when the States General convened, as a representative of
the nobility of Auvergne.

XXI
THE TRICOLOR
When the representatives of the people of France, to the number of more than twelve
hundred, came together in a great hall in the palace at Versailles on the 5th of May,
1789, the king opened the session, with the queen and royal princes beside him on a
throne gorgeous with purple and gold. Immediately in front of him sat his ministers, and
in other parts of the hall were the three orders in separate groups. The nobles were
brilliant in ruffles and plumes. The Third Estate was sober enough in dress, but there
were six hundred of them; twice as many in proportion as had ever been allowed in a
similar gathering. Most of them were lawyers; only forty belonged to the farming class. In
the group of clergy some wore the flaming scarlet robes of cardinals, some the plain
cassocks of village priests; and events proved that these last were brothers in spirit with
the six hundred. The galleries were crowded with ladies and courtiers and envoys from
distant lands. Even roofs of neighboring houses were covered with spectators bent on
seeing all they could.
The queen looked anxious. She had no fondness for reforms; but of the two upon the
throne she had the stronger character and was therefore the better king. She was brave,
quick to decide, and daring to execute. Unfortunately she was also narrow-minded and
had little sympathy with the common people. Louis had already proved himself a
complete failure as a ruler. He was a good husband, a lover of hunting, and a passable
locksmith. It was a bit of tragic irony that his hobby should have been the making of
little, smoothly turning locks. After his one attempt at reform he had not even tried to
govern, but spent his days in meaningless detail, while the country drifted toward ruin.
Necker, who was once more in charge of the treasury, meant to keep the States General
very busy with the duty for which they had been convened, that of providing money. But
if the Notables had been refractory, this assembly was downright rebellious. A quarrel
developed at the very outset about the manner of voting. In previous States General the
three orders had held their meetings separately, and in final decisions each order had
cast only one vote. The nobles and clergy could be counted on to vote the same way,
which gave them a safe majority of two to one. Expecting the rule to hold this time, very
little objection had been raised to the proposal that the Third Estate elect six hundred
representatives instead of three hundred. The people liked it and it meant nothing at all.
Now that the six hundred had been elected, however, they contended that the three
orders must sit in one assembly and that each man's vote be counted separately, which
made all the difference in the world. A few liberals among the nobles and more than a
few of the clergy in simple cassocks appeared to agree with them. The quarrel continued
for six weeks, and meanwhile neither party was able to do any work.
At the end of that time the number favoring the new way of voting had increased. These
declared themselves to be the National Assembly of France and that they meant to begin

the work of "national regeneration" at once, whether the others joined them or not.
Reforms were to be along lines indicated in the cahiers, or written statements of
grievances, that voters had been urged to draw up at the time of the election. Tens of
thousands of these had been received, some written in the polished phrases of courtiers,
some in the earnest, ill-chosen words of peasants. All expressed loyalty to the king; and
almost all demanded a constitution to define the rights of people and king alike. Among
other things they asked that lettres de cachet be abolished; that the people be allowed
liberty of speech; that the States General meet at regular intervals; and that each of the
three orders pay its just share of the taxes.
Soon after the liberals declared their intention of going to work they found the great hall
at Versailles closed and were told curtly that it was being prepared for a royal session.
They retired to a near-by tennis-court, lifted the senior representative from Paris, an
astronomer named Bailly, to a table, elected him president of their National Assembly,
and took an oath not to disband until they had given France a constitution. A few days
later the king summoned all the members of the States General to the great hall, scolded
them for their recent acts in a speech written by somebody else, commanded that each
order meet in future by itself, and left the hall to the sound of trumpets and martial
music. The clergy and the nobles obediently withdrew. The Third Estate and a few
liberals from the other orders remained. The king's master of ceremonies, a very
important personage indeed, came forward and repeated the king's order. Soldiers could
be seen behind him. There was a moment's silence; then Mirabeau, a homely, brilliant
nobleman from the south of France, who had been rejected by his own order, but elected
by the Third Estate, advanced impetuously toward the master of ceremonies, crying, in a
loud voice, "Go tell your master that we are here by the will of the people, and that we
shall not leave except at the point of the bayonet." Next he turned to the Assembly and
made a motion to the effect that persons laying hands upon any member of the
Assembly would be considered "infamous and traitors to the nation—guilty of capital
crime." The master of ceremonies withdrew and reported the scene to the king. Louis,
weak as water, said: "They wish to remain? Let them." And they did remain, to his
undoing.

THE BASTILLE
From a contemporary print

SIEGE OF THE BASTILLE
Lafayette was in an embarrassing position. He sympathized with the Third Estate, yet he
had been elected to represent the nobles, and his commission bound him to vote
according to their wishes. He considered resigning in order to appeal again to the voters
of Auvergne; but before he came to a decision the king asked the nobles and clergy to
give up their evidently futile opposition. Lafayette took his place with the others in the
National Assembly, but refrained for a time from voting. The king and his ministers
seemed to have no settled policy. One day they tried to please the Third Estate; on
another it was learned that batteries were being placed where they could fire upon the
Assembly and that regiments were being concentrated upon Paris. It was upon a motion
of Mirabeau's for the removal of these threatening soldiers that Lafayette broke his
silence and began to take part again in the proceedings of the Assembly.
On the 11th of July, about a fortnight after the nobles and clergy had resumed their
seats, he presented to the Assembly his Declaration of Rights, modeled upon the
American Declaration of Independence, to be placed at the head of the French
Constitution. Two days later he was elected vice-president of the Assembly "with
acclamations." Toward evening of the 14th the Vicomte de Noailles came from Paris with
the startling news that people had been fighting in the streets for hours; that they had
gained possession of the Bastille, the gray old prison which stood in their eyes for all that

was hateful in the old regime; that its commander and several of its defenders had been
murdered; and that their heads were being carried aloft on pikes among the crowds.
On the 15th the king came with his brothers to the Assembly and made a conciliatory
speech, after which Lafayette hurried away to Paris at the head of a delegation charged
with the task of quieting the city. They were met at the Tuileries gate and escorted to the
Hôtel de Ville, where the City Council of Paris, a parliament in miniature, held its
meetings. Lafayette congratulated the city on the liberty it had won, delivered the king's
message, and turned to go. As he was leaving the room somebody cried out saying that
here was the man Paris wanted to command its National Guard, and that Bailly, who
accompanied him, ought to be mayor. It was one of those sudden ideas that seem to
spread like wildfire. Lafayette stopped, drew his sword, and, acting upon that first
impulse which he was so apt to follow, swore then and there to defend the liberty of
Paris with his life if need be. He sent a message to the National Assembly asking
permission to assume the new office, and on the 25th took, with Bailly, a more formal
oath. The force of militia which he organized and developed became the famous National
Guard of Paris; while this governing body at the Hotel de Ville which had so informally
elected him, enlarged and changing from time to time as the Revolution swept on,
became the famous, and infamous, "Commune." Lafayette himself, not many days after
he assumed the new office, ordered the destruction of the old Bastille. One of its keys he
sent to Washington at Mount Vernon. Another was made into a sword and presented by
his admirers to the man whose orders had reduced the old prison to a heap of stones.
The court party was aghast. The Comte d'Artois and two of his friends shook the dust of
their native land from their feet and left France, the first of that long army of émigrés
whose flight still further sapped the waning power of the king. Louis was of one mind one
day, another the next. Against the entreaties and tears of the queen he accepted an
invitation to visit Paris and was received, as Lafayette had been, with cheers. He made a
speech, ratifying and accepting all the changes that had taken place; and to celebrate
this apparent reconciliation between the monarch and his subjects Lafayette added the
white of the flag of the king to red and blue, the colors of the city of Paris, making the
Tricolor. Up to that time the badge of revolution had been green, because Camille
Desmoulins, one of its early orators, had given his followers chestnut leaves to pin upon
their caps. But the livery of the Comte d'Artois, now so hated, was green, and the people
threw away their green cockades and enthusiastically donned the red, white, and blue,
echoing Lafayette's prediction that it would soon make the round of Europe.
The passions which had moved the city of Paris spread outward through the provinces as
waves spread when a stone is cast into a pool. One town after another set up a municipal
government and established national guards of its own. Peasants in country districts
began assaulting tax-collectors, hanging millers on the charge that they were raising the
price of bread, and burning and looting châteaux in their hunt for old records of debts
and judgments against the common people. July closed in a veil of smoke ascending from
such fires in all parts of the realm.
All day long on the 4th of August the Assembly listened to reports of these events, a
dismaying recital that went on and on until darkness fell and the candles were brought in.
About eight o'clock, when the session seemed nearing its end, De Noailles mounted the

platform and began to speak. He said that there was good reason for these fires and the
hate they disclosed. The châteaux were symbols of that kind of unjust feudal government
which was no longer to be tolerated. He moved that the Assembly abolish feudalism. His
motion was seconded by the Duc d'Aiguillon, the greatest feudal noble in France, with the
one exception of the king. The words of these two aristocrats kindled another sort of fire
—an emotional fire like that of a great religious revival. Noble after noble seemed
impelled to mount the platform and renounce his special privileges. Priests and prelates
followed their example. So did representatives of towns and provinces. The hours of the
day had passed in increasing gloom; the night went by in this crescendo of generosity. By
morning thirty or more decrees had been passed and feudalism was dead, so far as law
could kill it.
The awakening from this orgy of feeling was like the awakening from any other form of
emotional excess. With it came the knowledge that neither the world nor human nature
can be changed overnight. When the news went abroad there were many who
interpreted as license what had been given them for liberty. Forests were cut down.
Game-preserves were invaded and animals slaughtered. Artisans found themselves out of
work and hungrier than ever because of the economy now necessarily practised by the
nobility. Such mighty reforms required time and the readjustment of almost every detail
of daily life. Even before experience made this manifest the delegates began to realize
that towns and bishoprics and provinces might refuse to ratify the impulsive acts of their
representatives; and some of the nobles who had spoken for themselves alone did not
feel as unselfish in the cold light of day as they had believed themselves to be while the
candles glowed during that strange night session. The final result was to bring out
differences of opinion more sharply and to widen the gulf between conservatives who
clung to everything which belonged to the past and liberals whose desire was to give the
people all that had been gained and even more.

XXII
THE SANS-CULOTTES
Lafayette's position as commander of the National Guard of Paris was one of great
importance. "He rendered the Revolution possible by giving it an army," says a writer of
his own nation, who does not hesitate to criticize him, but who also assures us that from
July, 1789, to July, 1790, he was perhaps the most popular man in France. Being a born
optimist, he was sure that right would soon prevail. If he had too great belief in his own
leadership it is not surprising, since every previous undertaking of his life had succeeded;
and he certainly had more experience in revolution than any of his countrymen—an
experience gained in America under the direct influence of Washington. He had gone to
America a boy afire with enthusiasm for liberty. He returned to France a man, popular
and successful, with his belief in himself and his principles greatly strengthened. He was
impulsive and generous, he had a good mind, but he was not a deep thinker, and from
the very nature of his mind it was impossible for him to foresee the full difficulty of
applying in France the principles that had been so successful in America. In France
politics were much more complicated than in a new country where there were fewer
abuses to correct. France was old and abuses had been multiplying for a thousand years.
To borrow the surgeon's phrase, the wound made by revolution in America was a clean
wound that healed quickly, "by the first intention." In France the wound was far more
serious and horribly infected. It healed in time, but only after a desperate illness.
It is interesting that three of Lafayette's most influential American friends, Washington,
Jefferson, and Gouverneur Morris, had misgivings from the first about the situation in
France, fearing that a revolution could not take place there without grave disorders and
that Lafayette could not personally ride such a storm. Morris, who was then in Paris,
urged caution upon him and advised him to keep the power in the hands of the nobility.
When Lafayette asked him to read and criticize his draft of The Declaration of Rights
before it was presented to the Assembly, Morris suggested several changes to make it
more moderate; "for," said this American, "revolutions are not won by sonorous phrases."
Although keen for reform and liking to dress it in sonorous phrases, Lafayette had no
wish to be rid of the king. He did not expect to have a president in France or the exact
kind of government that had been adopted in the United States. "Lafayette was neither
republican nor royalist, but always held that view half-way between the two which
theorists call a constitutional monarchy," says a French writer. "In all his speeches from
1787 to 1792 he rarely used the word 'liberty' without coupling it with some word
expressing law and order."
Events proved that he was too thoroughly a believer in order to please either side. One
party accused him of favoring the aristocrats, the other of sacrificing everything for the
applause of the mob. What he tried to do was to stand firm in the rush of events, which
was at first so exhilarating and later changed to such an appalling sweep of the furies. If

he had been less scrupulous and more selfish he might have played a greater role in the
Revolution—have risen to grander heights or failed more abjectly—but for a time he
would have really guided the stormy course of events. As it was, events overtook him,
carried him with them, then tossed him aside and passed him by. Yet even so he
managed for three years to dominate that tiger mob of Paris "more by persuasion than
by force." This proves that he was no weakling. Jefferson called him "the Atlas of the
Revolution."
There was opposition to him from the first. Mirabeau and Lafayette could never work
wholeheartedly together, which was a pity, for with Mirabeau's eloquence to carry the
National Assembly and Lafayette's popularity with the National Guard they could have
done much. The cafés, those people's institutes of his young days, speedily developed
into political clubs of varying shades of opinion, most of which grew more radical hourly.
Marie Antoinette continued to be resentful and bitter and did all in her power to thwart
reform and to influence the king. In addition to parties openly for and against the new
order of things there were individuals, both in high and low places, who strove to spread
disorder by underhand means and to use it for selfish ends. One was the powerful Duc
d'Orléans, cousin of the king, very rich and very unprincipled, whose secret desire was to
supplant Louis upon the throne. He used his fortune to spread discontent through the
Paris mob during the long cold winter, when half the inhabitants of the town went
hungry. His agents talked of famine, complained of delay in making the Constitution, and
gave large sums to the poor in ways that fed their worst passions, while supplying their
very real need for bread.
Even after the lapse of one hundred and thirty years it is uncertain just how much of a
part he played in the stormy happenings of the early days of October, 1789. On the night
of the 2d of October the king and queen visited the hall at Versailles where the Garde du
Corps, the royal bodyguard, was giving a banquet. The diners sprang to their feet and
drank toasts more fervent than discreet. In the course of the next two days rumor spread
to Paris that they had trampled upon the Tricolor and substituted the white of the
Bourbons. Out of the garrets and slums of the city the mob boiled toward the Hôtel de
Ville, crying that a counter-revolution had been started and that the people were
betrayed. Lafayette talked and harangued. On the 5th he held the crowds in check from
nine o'clock in the morning until four, when he learned that a stream of malcontents,
many of them women, had broken away and started for Versailles, muttering threats and
dragging cannon with them.
Lafayette had confessed to Gouverneur Morris only a few days before that his National
Guard was not as well disciplined as he could wish. Whether this was the reason or
because he felt it necessary to get express permission from the Hôtel de Ville, there was
delay before he and his militia set out in pursuit. He had sworn to use the Guard only to
execute the will of the people. For what followed he has been severely blamed, while
other witnesses contend just as hotly that he did all any commander could do. That night
he saved the lives of several of the Garde du Corps; posted his men in the places from
which the palace guard had been withdrawn by order of the king; made each side swear
to keep the peace; gave his personal word to Louis that there would be no violence; saw
that everything was quiet in the streets near the palace where the mob still bivouacked;

then, worn with twenty hours' incessant labor, went to the house of a friend for a little
sleep.
That sleep was the cause of more criticism than any act of his seventy-six years of life;
for the mob, driven by an instinct for evil which seems strongest in crowds at dawn,
hurled itself against the palace gates, killed the two men on guard before the queen's
door, and forced its way into her bedchamber, from which she fled, half dressed, to take
refuge with the king. Lafayette hurried back with all possible haste; made his way to the
royal couple; addressed the crowd in the palace courtyard, telling them the king would
show his trust by going back with them voluntarily to take up his residence in Paris; and
persuaded the queen to appear with him upon a balcony, where, in view of all the
people, he knelt and kissed her hand. After that he led out one of the palace guard and
presented him with a tricolored cockade; and, touched by these tableaux, the mob
howled delight. That night, long after dark, the royal family entered the Tuileries, half
monarchs, half prisoners. But discontent had been only partly appeased, and during the
melancholy ride to the city Marie Antoinette gave the mob its watchword. Seeing a man
in the dress of the very poor riding on the step of her coach she had remarked
disdainfully that never before had a sans-culotte—a man without knee-breeches—
occupied so honorable a position. The speech was overheard and taken up and shouted
through the crowd until "sans-culotte" became a symbol of the Revolution.
The events of that day proved that Lafayette had not the quality of a great leader of
men. How much of his ill success was due to bad luck, how much to over-
conscientiousness in fulfilling the letter of his oath, how much to physical weariness, we
may never know. The royal family believed he had saved their lives, and the vilest
accusations against him, including the one that he really wished Louis to fall a victim of
the mob, appear to have been manufactured twenty-five years later in the bitterness of
another political struggle. It is significant that very soon after the king came to Paris
Lafayette held a stormy interview with the Duc d'Orléans, who forthwith left France.
Since that melancholy ride back to Paris the rulers of France have never lived at
Versailles. Within ten days the National Assembly followed the king to town, and during
the whole remaining period of the Revolution the mob had the machinery of government
in its keeping. It invaded the legislative halls to listen to the making of the Constitution, it
howled approval of speeches or drowned them in hisses, and called out from the
windows reports to the crowds packing the streets below.
Political clubs soon became the real censors of public opinion, taking an ever larger place
in the life of the people, until, alas! they began to take part in the death of many of
them. The most influential club of all was the Jacobins, known by that name because of
the disused monastery where it held its meetings. It began as an exclusive club of well-
to-do gentlemen of all parties, who paid large dues and met to discuss questions of
interest. Then it completely changed its character, took into its organization other clubs in
Paris and other cities, and by this means became a vast, nation-wide political machine of
such iron discipline that it was said a decree of the Jacobins was better executed than
any law passed by the National Assembly. When its decrees grew more radical its
membership changed by the simple process of expelling conservative members, until
Robespierre became its controlling spirit. Another club more radical still was the

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