After

answer left no doubt. I wandered about the

'seemed not much to alarm them, but greater and prepare them for their terrible loss." severity followed; long and insulting cross- some questions and answers I said, "Go: I will examinations hard to bear, and total con- change my clothes, and do you pray to God to fiscation of property. A few trifling orna- give me strength for the task." I changed my ments which they had concealed they en- dress; I went to the Palace between one and deavoured to dispose of through the agency two o'clock; no admittance possible; I asked of M. Grellet the tutor, but the jeweller some one coming out, if it was really the case, who took them died by the guillotine a few hoping that there might be some mistake; their hours after, and without having paid for streets in great agitation; at five o'clock I rethem. Their poverty was extreme; at last turned to the Palace; nothing indicated the dethey were delivered from care for the mor- parture of the condemned. I hung about the row by being without any further pretext steps watching, yet fearing to see those for whom consigned to the Luxembourg. Two months I watched. That hour seemed the longest I have were passed there, and they saw nearly all ever known. At last I see a movement that tells their fellow-prisoners depart for Fouquier me the prison is about to open. I place myself Tinville's bar before their summons came to close to the grille; the first cart is filled, and set out for the Conciergerie late on the comes towards me. There were eight ladies in . night of 21st of July. They reached it it, seven unknown to me: the eighth, to whom faint and exhausted, and with only half a I was quite close, was the Maréchale. A ray of franc in their possession, and were thrust hope crosses my mind for an instant as her into a cell along with three other women, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter are not one of whom survived to describe their de- Madame de Noailles was in white, which she beside her. Alas! they are in the second. demeanour during that night. Madame had worn since the deaths of the Maréchal and d'Ayen felt their danger, but still had hope: Maréchale de Mouchy; she looked not more they cannot condemn us for sharing in a than twenty-four. Madame d'Ayen, forty, in a conspiracy of which we are absolutely ig- déshabille of striped blue and white. Six men norant,' she said. Her daughter expected placed themselves beside them, but respectfully, death, and refused to sleep. Courage, leaving them as much space and liberty as was mother, there is but an hour; why rest possible, which pleased me. The daughter was when one is so near eternity?' were her giving to her mother the most tender and loving words: she continued in fervent prayer. care. I heard the spectators saying b side me, The old Maréchale slept at intervals. At" See the young one, how agitated she is, how nine that morning they went before their she speaks to the other." I seemed to hear her "Look judges, with what result we know: the end words, "Mother, he is not there." is best told in the words of M. Carrichon, again." Nothing escapes me. I assure you, whose narrative we translate here: mother, he is not there." They forgot that I had told them it was impossible for me to get Madame la Maréchale de Noailles, Madame inside the Court. The first cart remains near d'Ayen her daughter-in-law, and Madame la for a quarter-of-an-hour; it advanced, and as Vicomtesse de Noailles her granddaughter, were the second passes I approach the ladies, but confined to their hotel from the month of Novem- they do not recognize me. I follow them, sepber 1793 till the following April. The Terror arated by the crowd, but still always near. was increasing as the victims became more Madame de Noailles, though constantly seeking numerous. One day I said to these ladies, as if me, never perceives me. Madame d'Ayen looks from a presentiment, "If you should go to the troubled. I feel tempted to give it up. I say guillotine I will accompany you if God gives me to myself I have done what I can, everywhere strength.' They took me at my word and said the crowd will be denser-there is no chance. eagerly, "Will you promise it?" "Yes," II was just going to retire when a thunderstorm replied after a moment's hesitation; " and that you may recognize me I will wear a dark-blue coat and a red waistcoat." They frequently reminded me of my promise. The week after Easter 1794, they were all three taken to the Luxembourg. M. Grellet, tutor to the children of the Vicomtesse de Noailles, used to bring me constant intelligence about them. On the 22nd of July (4th Thermidor), between eight and ten o'clock in the morning, I was at home when I heard a knock; I opened the door and saw M. Grellet and his pupils; he looked pale and downcast. Taking me aside he said, "It is all overthe ladies are before the revolutionary tribunalI am come to summon you to fulfil your promise. I shall take these unhappy children to Vincennes,

broke over us: in an instant the streets are as if swept- -not a creature left except those in doorways and at windows; the procession is disordered, horse and foot go faster, so do the tumbrils. I had taken shelter on the doorstep of a shop; as they pass me an involuntary movement made me quit it, and approach the second cart. I found myself alone beside them. Madame de Noailles perceives me and her smile seems to say, "Ah, there you are at last! How thankful we are! How we have looked for you! Mother, there he is." Madame d'Ayen revives; all my irresolution vanishes, I feel by the grace of God full of courage. Drenched with rain and sweat, I continue to walk alongside of them. On the steps of the church of St. Louis I per

ceive one of their friends full of respect and pain. She disappears and her gentle daughter attachment seeking to render them the same takes her place: as I looked at her youthful figservice. His face and attitude show all heure all in white, I thought I beheld the martyrfeels; with inexpressible emotion I touch him dom of some holy virgin: the same calm, the on the shoulder saying, "Bonsoir, mon ami.” same death. The rich young blood flowed The storm was very violent. The ladies suffer abundantly from her head and neck. As they from it especially the old Maréchale, whose threw her body into that abominable heap, large cap is blown off uncovering her grey hairs, "Now she is happy," I exclaimed. It has been as she is shaken about helplessly by the move- said that Madame de Noailles, like her mother, ment of the cart, her hands tied behind her. before dying exhorted their companions, particSome spectators recognize her, and add to her ularly one young man among them whom she torments by their insults. "There she is, the had heard blaspheming; as she mounted the great Maréchale, who was such a great lady scaffold she turned to him with a last appeal, and rode in such magnificent carriages, in the "En grâce, Monsieur, dites pardon.' cart now with the rest." At the entrance of the Faubourg St. Antoine, as the cart moved a Such was the fate that in those days hunlittle slower, I went forward" Here," I said dreds of high-born and delicately-nurtured to myself, "is the best place to give them what women met with a courage that even in the they desire" I turn round and make them a most apparently frivolous never failed them sign. Madame de Noailles understands me. in the supreme moment; while in those of “Mother, M. Carrichon is going to give us whom we have spoken, it attained to the absolution." Immediately they bow their heads resignation and the fervours of Christian with an air of repentance, contrition, hope, and martyrdom. But we must return to Madpiety. I lift my hand and pronounce the form ame de Lafayette at Chavaniac eight months of absolution, then the words which follow very previous to the catastrophe of Thermidor, distinctly. They join perfectly; I shall never when on the 10th of September she found forget the picture. From that moment the storm herself summoned to quit the Château by a of wind and rain ceases, and seems only to have commissary named Aulagnier, from Le Puy, occurred to give us our opportunity. I bless who was the bearer of an order from the God. Their expression shows security, peace, Committee of Public Safety to arrest her. even joy. At last we reach the fatal spot! What a moment! I behold them well and full She was conducted with her daughters to of life, in a few minutes I shall see them no Le Puy, and insisted on being at once more. What an agony! yet not without its con- taken before the Council of the Department. solation in seeing them so resigned. The scaf- Lafayette's letters had been taken from her; fold rises before me, the tumbrils stop: a crowd, she demanded that they should be read for the most part laughing and jeering at the aloud and copies of them taken before they horrid spectacle, jostles the victims as they de- were sent to Paris, because many lies are scend. Madame de Noailles seeks me once more told in the Assembly.' Her frank and courwith her eyes. What do they not express? I understood her looks though words cannot ren- trates that they resolved to forward to M. ageous demeanour so influenced the magisder them. Some near me said, "How happy Roland, then Minister for Home Affairs, that young woman is! how she prays! but what her petition, that if it was considered necgood does it do her?" Ah, the scoundrels! The last adieu exchanged, they stepped down essary by the Government to retain her as from the cart. I could hardly support myself; a hostage, she should be allowed to return I thanked God that I had already given them on parole to Chavaniac. She herself wrote absolution before this dreadful moment. I ap- from Le Puy to Brissot in the same sense. proached the steps leading up to the guillotine; The letter is too long to transcribe, but the an old man was in the act of mounting; after tone of it is remarkable. It is no humble him came a lady whose piety was edifying, but petition, but rather a demand for justice she was unknown to me; then the Maréchale, written in a spirit so haughty that probably her great eyes fixed on vacancy; I had not for- the angry patriot, who once said of her that gotten to do for her what I had done for the the femme Lafayette was the very incarnaothers. I see Madame d'Ayen kneeling, noble, tion of all the pride of the Noailles,' had resigned, contemplating the sacrifice she is about some grounds for his assertion. She conto make to God through the merits of His Son, cludes, speaking of Roland, I cannot tell without fear, calm as I have seen her at sacra- what will be his answer; it is easy to see ment. When the Maréchale had to lay down that if it is dictated by justice it will set me her head the executioner had to cut away the top of her dress to bare her neck. Six ladies fol- at liberty. If you will serve me, you will lowed her, Madame d'Ayen was the tenth. How have the satisfaction of having done a good pleased she seemed to be to die before her daugh-action towards one who has neither the wish ter! The executioner pulled off her cap, which nor the power to hurt you. I consent to was fastened to her hair by a pin, which being owe you this service. NOAILLES LAFAYrudely dragged I saw her features contract with ETTE.'

all the suffering and afflicted, whether delicate and high-born women or coarsest felons. During the winter's imprisonment at Brioude it was still possible to communicate with her children through the assistance of a friend; news, too, from the outer world of the arrests of her mother, grandmother, and sister reached her. In spring she learnt that she, too, must go to Paris, but not to share their captivity in the Luxembourg. On the eve of the celebrated festival which proclaimed the existence of the Etre Suprême to the Parisians she found herself in la Force among a mixed multitude who were waiting their summons to die. Many times here and at le Plessis, where she was moved later, did Madame Lafayette think that her turn had come; the ordeal lasted fifty days, and during this time she composed the following testament for her children :

M. Roland's reply, when it came, permit- | still more terrible prisons of Paris to which ted her to return to Chavaniac a prisoner she was soon transferred, is the same; she and under surveillance of the authorities, was the friend, the consoler, the support of but commented severely on the expression in her letter to Brissot, as savoring of the 'orgueil suranné de 'ce qu'on appelait noblesse. Her parole was now her heaviest burden, for she had heard that Lafayette was to be sent to Spandau; so in spite of the breach of confidence on Brissot's part in showing her letter, her misery making her humble, she wrote again most urgently entreating to be released. Roland had pronounced against the September massacres; and overcoming her repugnance to address him, she wrote him a most touching appeal to be set free to join her husband. The Minister's answer was short but courteous: he had laid her appeal before the Committee, but he begged to observe that it would be very unsafe for a person of her name to travel under the present circumstances in France. But these ciscumstances might change, and she might rely on him to avail himself of a favourable change in her behalf. During three months that she received no news of her husband, except rumours that he was being transferred from one prison to another, she wrote in turns to the Minister of War, to the Duke of Brunswick, and, at the suggestion of her staunch friend Mr. Morris, the American envoy, to the King of Prussia. Most of these letters were unanswered, and all were unavailing to obtain her liberty or his; but Roland was as good as his word, and gave her back her parole, though practically this was useless, as the surveillance of the ci-divants continued as rigerous as ever. The decrees of September brought fresh alarms, but through all these weeks of suspense and danger the courage and patience of this wife and mother never flinched in the daily life of the family, nor in performing acts of kindness to friends and neighbours, while she protested energetically against the injustice of the Administration in putting up her husband's property as that of an emigrant for sale. When Solon Reynaud arrived to put in force in the district the loi des suspects, she was one of the first to be arrested; and separated from her children, she was confined at Brioude, in a house full of noble dames who had long hated her for her republican principles. Their common danger did not by any means soften their hearts towards her, and they received her with the most cutting impertinences, though before long. her exceeding sweetness, and heroism succeeded in conquering their aristocratic prejudices; indeed, the testimony of all who came in contact with her in this and in the

'I have always lived, and I hope by the grace of God to die, in the bosom of the Roman Cathin the principles of this holy religion that I have olic and Apostolic Church. I declare that it is found my support, and in its practice my consolation, and I am confident it will sustain me in death. I believe in Thee, O God, and in all that Thou revealest to Thy Church; I hope all that Thou hast promised; I put all my trust in the merits of Jesus Christ's blood; I desire to conform my life to His; I join my sufferings, and my death to His death. I hope, my God, to love Thee above all things, and to all eternity. I accept without reservation all the means that Thou hast chosen to lead me to this blessed end. With all my heart I forgive my enemies, if I have any, my persecutors whoever they are, and even the persecutors of those whom I love. I pray Thee to pardon them as I pardon them. ful to my country, that I have never taken part in any intrigue that could disturb it, that my most sincere desire is for its welfare, that my attachment to it is unshaken, and that no persecution can alter it. One very dear to my heart is my example in this respect. I give to my children my tenderest blessing, and I entreat God to make them, what had my life been spared it would have been consecrated to do, to make them worthy to be His. Full of confidence in and leave my soul in Thy hands. I know that Thy great mercy, I leave these beloved children,

I declare that I have never ceased to be faith

Thou canst restore and reunite us by Thy power in the great day. In Thee, in Thee alone, is my hope. Have pity upon me, Oh my God.'

With the news that the Reign of Terror was over, came also, as we have seen, the knowledge that among its victims were those so dear to her in the Luxembourg.

But she was not at once released. Her Lafayette wrote begging for some relaxation husband's name was still a possible danger of the rules in their favour, but was curtly to the new rulers of France, who considered it safest to detain her.

refused by M. de Ferraris, Minister of War at Vienna. She and her husband shared one cell, the two girls an adjoining one, though they were allowed to be together during the day; they had no woman to attend on them, they were deprived of air and exercise, of the services of religion, of the power of communicating with friends; they had only a few books and the society of one another. Then and afterwards Madame de Lafayette always said that she never was happier. Her daughter says:

'I cannot describe my mother's happiness; you can only imagine it by remembering what was the ruling passion of her life from the age of fourteen, and how much she had suffered from the absences of my father, and from his incessant occupations and distractions, as well as the great dangers to which he was exposed. She had passed three horrible years almost without a hope of ever seeing him again. Now she possessed him entirely, and every day she saw him revive in her presence, and she used to reproach herself for being too happy while he was still a prisoner.'

Her mental prostration was for a time extreme; gradually the visits of friends, the letters of her children, and the hope of rejoining Lafayette, restored the balance of her mind. The American envoy at last succeeded in obtaining her liberty in January '95. Through the assistance of the same attached and zealous friend, she nerved herself to send out her only son to the United States to the care of General Washington. For her two daughters she had another project, if, when they met, she found their courage equal to it. Her design was to present herself and them to the Emperor at Vienna, and there to implore permission to share her husband's prison at Ölmütz. Some months elapsed before it was possible for her to put it in execution, bnt having obtained a passport for America in the name of the femme Motier and her daughters, they embarked at Dunkirk in a small American vessel which steered for Hamburgh. There she found friends who But spite of this happiness her physical assisted her to reach Vienna, and there frame could not bear up forever under the again she had interest enough among those severe trials to which she had been exposed, to whom she discovered herself, to obtain and protracted confinement produced sympthe audience she had come so far to seek. toms of an alarming kind. For eleven Her petition was granted by the Emperor, months her sufferings, borne without a murwho seemed touched by her devotion, but mur, must have been even greater than she said that the liberty of General Lafayette allowed those beside her to guess, and their was not in his power to grant. It was on liberation, in September 1797, perhaps only the 1st of October that the travellers first came in time to save her life. Lafayette came in sight of Olmütz. Never,' says had been five years a prisoner when the Madame de Lasteyrie, shall I forget the treaty of Campo Formio set him free. In moment when we first saw the walls of the all the towns through which they passed the fortress, or the emotion of my mother.' greatest sympathy was expressed for the The Commandant sent an officer to conduct illustrious captive and his heroic companion. them to the prison, through the long corri- For a time the home circle drew together at dors till they reached the door of Lafayette's Witmold, a château in Holstein belonging cell. No hint or warning had been given to Madame de Tessé, a near and dear relahim of the joyful vision that greeted his tive of Lafayette's. Their son returned dazzled eyes when it turned on its hinges from America, their eldest daughter Anasthat day and admitted those whom he had tasie married the young Charles de Latour feared never to see in life more. For he Maubourg, and the health of Madame de knew this much, that a reign of terror had Lafayette improved. But they were adlasted in France for months which had vised not yet to re-enter France. After the spared neither age nor sex, and of whose 18th Brumaire had altered the face of affairs victims there was no list. For a time he there, husband and wife set out for Paris, hardly dared to inquire the fate of the rest, where they were met by an angry message or to believe that his wife and daughters from the First Consul to the effect that Genwere really to remain with him. They sub-eral Lafayette would have best consulted mitted to every condition of his imprison- his own interests by remaining in Holland ment, and these were sufficiently rigorous. till his name should be effaced from the list Their money was taken from them, also a few forks and spoons in their possession, which reduced them to eat their prison fare with their fingers. Relying on the kind expressions of the Emperor, Madame de

of emigrants. Nothing daunted, however, Madame de Lafayette sought a personal interview with Bonaparte. Je suis charmé de faire votre connaissance, Madame; vous avez beaucoup d'esprit, mais vous n'enten

dez pas les affaires,' was the characteristic | we must think, far the superior of the thin, answer of the great man, who always bullied pedantic, self-sufficient nature which acwomen; but she had spoken with such cepted all her homage as his due; and earnestness, courage, and tact that she never in her sane moments would she have gained her point, and they were once more permitted herself the unconscious irony of free to set up their household gods on French soil, first at Fontenoy, then at Lagrange, a property of the late Madame d'Ayen, near Paris. One other care she had, which was to gain a like permission for their faithful friends and companions in exile, and after many difficulties she accomplished this object.

the little sentence that so well described her idol, when in her wanderings having fancied that he had become a Christian, she suddenly corrected herself — Ah no, I remember, you are Fayettiste.' History or biography presents us, we think, with few women nobler, sweeter, or purer than Adrienne de Lafayette.

Before we take leave of this interesting The rest of that precious life,' says her daugh- woman, we are tempted to lay before our ter, was consecrated to us. Under the despotic readers two unpublished letters addressed sway of Bonaparte honour forbade General La- by Madame de Lafayette to Washington, fayette to accept any post, and the life of private during the captivity of her husband, and citizens, if it did not wholly satisfy his aspirations, more than fulfilled the dearest wishes of before she had joined him at Olmütz. her heart. After so many fatigues and suffer- These letters have been printed in French ings, to be united in peace to her beloved ones in the Miscellany of the Philobiblon Sowas the only joy that life could give her. Neither ciety,' but they are otherwise unknown both the greatness which for a moment had been theirs, nor the éclat which had attended their sorrows and reverses, had excited in her that disease of the imagination which forbids the sufferer the enjoyment of a tranquil and simple existence. Her heroism had shown itself equal to any trial, but the duties and emotions of an obscure destiny would have sufficed for her heart, for love filled it utterly.'

in France and England. Their authenticity is undoubted, for they are taken from the family papers of Mr. Dyson, formerly of Diss in Norfolk, who resided for some time in M. de Lafayette's family, and who was employed, as Madame de Lafayette herself states, to transcribe them, as she was afraid to send them in her own hand-writing. Mr. Dyson kept a copy of the letters, which is still in the possession of his nephew, Thomas Lombe Taylor, Esq., of Starston Hall, Norfolk.

So far Madame de Lasteyrie, who married in these calm years, as did her brother George, and added grandsons and daughters to the happy circle. Death entered it, however, in the autumn of 1807, when low 'Chavaniac, Oct. 8, 1792. fever attacked Madame de Lafayette, to 'SIR,- Without doubt you have learnt our which after a few weeks her shattered con- misfortunes; you know that your disciple, your stitution succumbed. The volume closes friend, has never ceased to be worthy of you with a long letter written immediately after her funeral by the widower to his oldest friend M. de Maubourg. It is full of interest, minutely detailing the sufferings, the weakness, the angelic tenderness of those last days, reviewing a life all given to him, with much unconscious self-revelation on the part of the writer, but it is far too long for insertion here. She had no fear of death, and her husband says she never had believed in any hell for sincere and virtuous human beings of whatever opinions. I know not,' she would say, what will happen to them at death, but God will enlighten them and save them.' Such was doubtless her faith for him she had so ardently loved, and the low delirium of fever seem to unlock only fresh treasures of affection towards him. All her life is summed up in her last words What happiness to have been yours''Je suis toute à vous.' No suspicion ever crossed the horizon of her mind that she who gave so richly was indeed, as

and of liberty: you know that the attachment to the Constitution which he had sworn has gained him the hatred of the powerful faction which wishes to destroy it; that, proscribed by this criminal faction, accused at the head of his army, and wishing to spare his fellow-citizens the commission of a fresh crime, he has avoided the sanguinary fury that pursues the true friends of liberty, and was already on the way to neutral territory; from thence he was prepared to go to your country, there to offer up prayers that his own ungrateful land might find defenders who would serve it with as much disinterested zeal and love of freedom as he had done. His wish was that I and all our family should join him in England, to go and establish ourselves in America, enjoying there the consoling spectacle of this much-desired end before even he had virtues worthy of liberty; but before reaching reached neutral ground - he had to traverse a small part of our enemies' country; there he encountered them, and was taken prisoner. Since the 2nd of August he has been in their hands. He was first conducted to Namur, then to Nivelle, thence to Luxembourg: at last I learn