Part 7

Several members of the British Parliament made an effort, at this time, for the enlargement of Lafayette and his three friends from the dungeon of Olmutz. General Fitzpatrick moved for an address to his majesty, stating "that the detention of Lafayette and others by order of the King of Prussia and Emperor of Austria, was dishonorable to the cause of the allies, and praying him to interfere for their release." In support of his motion, he remarked, that although Lafayette was imprisoned by the allied powers on the continent, yet the government of Great Britain would be implicated in the cruel act, unless it should attempt his liberation, as it had now become a member of the coalition against the anarchical conduct of the French. He contended that justice and humanity required them to intercede in behalf of this oppressed and injured man. The generous Briton insisted, that Lafayette, though a friend to civil liberty, was a firm advocate for constitutional principles, and was in favor of the power of the King as in a limited monarchy: and made a powerful appeal to the generosity and honor of his countrymen, to unite in soliciting for the freedom of Lafayette. Colonel Tarlton, then a member of Parliament, who had been opposed to Lafayette in America, in the campaign of 1781, supported the motion of his military friend; and with great eloquence, urged the propriety and justice of his liberation. Mr. Fox also spoke in favor of an address to the King, for this humane purpose. But their arguments and their eloquence were vain. It did not consist with the existing policy of the British cabinet, to listen to the proposition. The motion was lost by a large majority.

Bollman proceeded to Olmutz, and thence to Vienna, where he was so fortunate as to meet with young Huger; and they cordially united in the humane and chivalrous project of rescuing the generous Lafayette, They both repaired immediately to Olmutz, and there became acquainted with two other gentlemen, who favoured their benevolent scheme. But the difficulty of effecting it can be easily imagined. A physician of Olmutz was engaged to make known the plan to Lafayette, when he visited him in prison, then in reality, or apparently in a debilitated state of health. He had, in fact, been attacked with fever at Magdeburg, which at one time was feared would terminate his valuable life, and from the effects of which he had not fully recovered. By him a note was communicated to Lafayette, which he answered with his blood. In a short time, the physician prevailed on the governor of the city to permit his prisoner to take an airing, occasionally, in a coach, attended by a guard. It was concerted, that in one of his short excursions with the governor, he should leave the carriage under some pretence, when he was to be joined by Bollman and Huger, and immediately conducted under cover of a dark night, to the confines of Silesia, beyond the territory of the Emperor of Austria. He alighted from the carriage, near a small wood, and his generous friends, who were ready to protect him, immediately attempted to convey him away on horseback; but the guard, which accompanied the carriage, suspecting some design, pushed forward into the wood, and attempted to seize the noble prisoner, and his brave friends. A desperate struggle ensued, in which the Marquis was wounded; but they succeeded in escaping from the guard. Huger was seen and followed by some of the peasantry; and after a long pursuit was overtaken and secured. The governor and his guard returned to Olmutz; alarm guns were immediately fired, and the whole population for several miles was soon engaged in search of Lafayette and Bollman. They were taken in the course of the evening, at the distance of about ten miles from Olmutz, and conveyed back to the prison, where a most rigorous confinement awaited them. Lafayette was put in irons, and suffered the most excruciating torture. He was in a feeble state, overcome by fatigue, and suffering greatly from the bruises and wounds received in his late attempt to escape. "His anxieties, his anguish (and despair we may almost say,) at finding himself again in the power of his unrelenting jailor, so affected his nerves, that his fever returned with increased and alarming violence. In this state he was allowed nothing but a little damp and mouldy straw; irons were put round his feet, and round his waist was a chain, fastened to the wall, which barely permitted him to turn from one side to the other. No light was admitted into his cell; and he was refused even the smallest allowance of linen.

"The winter of 1794-95 was very severe, but his inhuman jailors did not relax from the rigour of prescribed and systematic oppression. It seemed, indeed as if their object was to put an end to their victim's existence by this ingenious device of incessant cruelty. Worn down by disease and the rigour of the season, his hair fell from his head, and he was emaciated to the last degree. To these physical distresses were soon super added those mental anxieties, which perhaps, were still more difficult to endure. The only information he could obtain respecting the fate of his wife and children, for whom he felt the greatest solicitude, was, that they were confided in the prisons of Paris: and in reply to his enquiries concerning his most generous friends, Bollman and Huger, he was informed by his unfeeling tormentors that they were soon to perish by the hands of the hangman."

Bollman and Huger were kept in close confinement in the prison at Olmutz, for some time, for having attempted to rescue Lafayette from his cruel imprisonment. The keepers of the prison were unfeeling men; and instead of slowing any favour to their prisoners, who ought to have received their admiration, subjected them to unnecessary severity. They were subjected to strict examination, after a long confinement, and the sentence of their judges was in favour of their liberation, on paying a large amount to government. By the aid of some generous friends, they were furnished with the requisite sums, and discharged from the prison. But Lafayette was still detained in prison, and in the same suffering and shameful condition as before mentioned. It was several months before his irons and chains were removed; which was effected through the very benevolent individuals, who had secretly favoured his recent attempt to escape; but who, happily both for him and themselves, were not suspected of any agency in the plot: these were an opulent Jewish merchant, and the chief surgeon to the prisoners. They prevailed also with the civil authority to grant permission to the Marquis to walk an hour each day, in front of the prison, though in custody of a strong guard of soldiers, and no one was allowed to speak to him.

Unutterably painful and distressing must have been the situation of Madame Lafayette ever after the fatal day, when her beloved and affectionate husband felt it his duty to depart from France, and leave her and their three children unprotected, and subject to the insults and severities of an enraged and lawless mob. She and her two daughters, then about fifteen and twelve, were cast into prison in Paris. The family estates were confiscated, and most of his particular friends fell by the stroke of the guillotine. In this agonizing condition, she maintained the most wonderful fortitude and patience; without uncommon firmness and sincere trust in providence, she must have sunk under such deep and complicated distress. While she was in prison, she was often found in a retired spot, engaged in holy and humble supplication to heaven. When she was released from the prison, after about twenty months of degrading confinement, her constitution was greatly enfeebled, and her friends and physician advised her to seek repose at some retired place in the country. But she refused, and feeble and emaciated as she was, she resolved to proceed immediately to Olmutz, and to bury herself in prison with her husband, unless she could possibly procure his liberation. With this purpose in view, she went first to Vienna, to endeavour to concilitate the favor and influence of the Emperor. Through the friendly interposition of two noble females, acquainted at court, she was admitted to an audience with the Emperor.

He received her graciously, and professed a desire that her request might be fulfilled; but gave no positive orders for the liberation of Lafayette because his _political_ engagements with other courts prevented it. He, however, consented that she might visit her husband. She accordingly repaired to Olmutz, to minister, as an angel of light, to his comfort, though not clothed with power to give him that liberty, which they ardently hoped. She and her daughters shared with him the confinement of a dreary prison, for nearly two years. It was not until 1797, that they were set at liberty: and this was immediately owing to the influence of General Bonaparte, on his victories over the Austrians in that year. Lafayette expressed his gratitude for this generous interference; but he made no sacrifice of principle, and was never his admirer or supporter.

While confined in the prison of Olmutz, with her husband, Madame Lafayette, whose health was much impaired by her sorrows and suffering, requested leave to visit Vienna for a week. She was informed her request would be granted on condition, that her daughters should be kept in a separate apartment from their father, and that she herself would never again enter the prison. She declined the offer, with indignation. Her letter on the subject, concludes thus-"Whatever may be the state of my own health and the inconvenience attending the stay of my daughters in this place we will most gratefully take advantage of the goodness his imperial majesty has expressed towards us, by the _permission to share in the miseries of this captivity_."

When the Emperor of Austria agreed to his liberation, he proposed certain conditions, to which Lafayette refused his assent. One was that he should immediately leave Europe and embark to America. "This", said the noble-minded Marquis, "has often been my desire and intention: but as my consent to this proposition, at the present moment, would be an acknowledgment of his right to impose such a condition, I cannot comply with the demand."--The other was, that as the principles which Lafayette professed were supposed to be incompatible with the safety of the Austrian government, the Emperor could not consent that he should again enter his territory without a special permission. To this Lafayette replied, "that there already existed antecedent obligations, of which he could not divest himself; partly towards America, but chiefly towards France; and that he could not engage to do any thing, which should interfere with the rights of his country to his personal services. With these exceptions, he assured the Emperor's ambassador, that it was his firm resolution not to set foot again on any part of his Majesty's dominions."

When he was set free from the long and severe incarceration at Olmutz, Lafayette proceeded to the neutral city of Hamburg, with his family; where he received the kindest and most respectful attentions from some American gentlemen, then in that place, and also from many of the distinguished citizens, who cherished the highest regard for his character, and his meritorious services in the cause of liberty. It was at this time, that his son, George Washington Lafayette, joined the family, on his return from the United States, where he had just then passed several years. After a short residence in Hamburg, Lafayette accepted the invitation of an Hanoverian nobleman, and passed some time at his elegant chateau in Holstein, where his eldest daughter was married to Latour Maubourg, a brother of one of the Marquis' staff officers, who retired with him from France, August 1792; and had shared with him the severities of the prison of Magdeburg and Olmutz. He then resided some time in the family of a French emigrant, living in that vicinity, and who was a distant relative of Madame Lafayette. In this situation he studied the agriculture of Holstein; and gave particular attention to the raising of merino sheep, an object in which he was also engaged after his return to La Grange, his country seat near Paris.

In 1800 a new revolution took place in the French government. The Directors were found to be incompetent to the support of order; cabals and factions still existed, and confusion prevailed through the nation. General Bonaparte, who had led the armies to victory in several campaigns, was ambitious of the sole direction of public affairs. The executive power, by the new constitution, was to be placed in three Consuls, of whom Napoleon was elected chief. A Conservative Senate, so called, was to constitute a part of the Legislature and to be joined with the Consuls also in providing for the public welfare in cases of particular emergency. By the constitutionalists and those opposed to the violent factions, by which France had been long agitated and disgraced, this change was considered as auspicious to the cause of rational liberty. They hoped that a more stable government would be now formed, and that their country would enjoy a season of repose. Lafayette seized this favorable moment to return to France, after an absence of nearly eight years. His patriotic feelings had not abated, though he had suffered so long and so intensely from the hatred of those who directed the destinies of his country. His love of liberty was not weakened, though many of his countrymen, with its sacred name on their lips, had committed excesses almost without a parallel in the most despotic governments. The First Consul incited Lafayette to take a seat in the Conservative Senate; but he declined; by which he gave new proofs of his disinterested and sincere attachment to the constitutional liberty and the rights of the people. After several conversations with Bonaparte, he was satisfied of the ambitious views of this military adventurer. He perceived that the constitution was to serve as an apology for the exercise of unlimited power in the First Consul; and that representatives and senators were to be the humble ministers of his will. He saw that the constitution did not emanate from the will of the people; and was not calculated to secure and promote their welfare. Bonaparte also had discernment to learn, that Lafayette was too sincere a friend to civil liberty and to the interests of the people, to support his purposes, or to submit to his plans of personal aggrandizement.

We shall have a more just estimation of the noble sentiments with which Lafayette was animated, in declining the generous offers of the First Consul, when it is considered, that, in addition to his self-banishment to private life, he also refused an honorable salary of 7000 dollars, when the estates which remained in his possession yielded only 2000 dollars. He had a grant of land from the American Congress, in consideration of his important services in the revolution, estimated to be worth 100,000 dollars. Before the revolution, his income was 50,000 dollars: but the most valuable of his patrimonial property, as well as that which accrued to him in consequence of his marriage, had been seized by the lawless robbers of the revolution.

It was in conformity to the principles, which he had long professed and by which he was constantly guided, that he soon after opposed the election of Bonaparte as Consul for life. He would have consented, perhaps, to the claims of the aspiring Napoleon to be the First Magistrate of France, under a constitution, which expressly defined and restricted his power, and at the same time provided a sufficient guaranty of the liberties of the people.

On this occasion he wrote thus to the First Consul--"When a man, who is deeply impressed with a sense of the gratitude he owes you, and who is too ardent a lover of glory to be indifferent to yours, connects his suffrage with conditional restrictions, those restrictions not only secure him from suspicion, but prove amply, that no one will more gladly than himself behold in you the chief magistrate for life, of a free and independent republic.

"The eighteenth Brumaire saved France from destruction and I felt myself reassured and recalled by the liberal declarations to which you have connected the sanction of your honor. In your consular authority there was afterwards discerned that salutary dictatorial prerogative, which under the auspices of a genius like yours, accomplished such glorious purposes--yet less glorious, let me add, than the restoration of liberty would prove.

"It is not possible, general, that you, the first among that order of mankind, which surveys every age and every country, can desire that a revolution, marked by an unexampled series of stupendous victories and unheard of sufferings, shall give nothing to the world but a renovated system of arbitrary government. The people of this country have been acquainted with their rights too long, to forget them forever: but perhaps they may recover and enjoy them better now than during the period of revolutionary effervescence. And you, by the strength of your character and the influence of public confidence, by the superiority of your talents, your power, and your fortunes, in re-establishing the liberties of France, can allay all agitations, calm all anxieties and subdue all dangers.

"When I wish, then, to see the career of your glory crowned by the honors of perpetual magistracy, I but act in correspondence with my own private sentiments, and am influenced exclusively by patriotic considerations. But all my political and moral obligations, the principles which have governed every action of my life, call on me to pause before I bestow on you my suffrage, until I feel assured that your authority shall be erected on a basis worthy of the nation and yourself.

"I confidently trust, general, that you will recognize here, as you have done on all other occasions, a steady continuance of my political opinions, combined with the sincerest prayers for your welfare, and the deepest sense of all my obligations towards you."

Here closed all connexion between Lafayette and Bonaparte. The First Consul not only avoided all intercourse with one so sincerely devoted to the cause of liberty; but he treated him with that studied neglect, which was little short of persecution. There was indeed nothing congenial either in the character or principles of these two distinguished men. The one was aiming at power by any means, without regard to the rights or happiness of his fellow men; the other was anxious for the permanent establishment of a mild government in his native country, for the true welfare and liberty of the people; and was willing to make every sacrifice for the attainment of such great objects.

The unfriendly feelings of Bonaparte were extended even to the younger Lafayette. This patriotic youth, with much of the public spirit of his noble father, engaged in the service of his country soon after his return from America. He was an aid of the brave Grouchy, general of division; an active, intelligent, meritorious officer, and distinguished on various occasions. But he received neither advancement nor distinction from the Emperor. It was, on the contrary, the wish of Napoleon, that young Lafayette would send in his resignation, and retire from the army. When this was made known to him, he observed, "that as long as his country was involved in war, he should not disgrace himself by a resignation; and that he should be ashamed to think of it, while his companions were daily exposing themselves to danger. It was true, he was an American citizen, but he was first of all a Frenchman and a loyal Frenchman."

G. W. Lafayette was much esteemed by the officers who knew him, of all ranks; and they frequently solicited his promotion; but the Emperor disregarded alike the merits of the youthful hero and the entreaties of his military friends. He continued in the army until the treaty of Tilsit.

To a man of his great sensibility and warmth of affection, the severest affliction which Lafayette has been called to endure, great and various as have been his sufferings, now awaited him. His amiable, his attached and devoted wife was torn from him, in his retreat, within a few years after his return to France; when he more than ever, perhaps, needed her company and solace, to fortify his mind under the multiplied disappointments from the world.

She had never enjoyed perfect health after her imprisonment at Olmutz. But possessed of uncommon fortitude and imbued with religious sentiments, she was still instrumental in promoting the happiness of her husband and family. Her patience, her equanimity, her sweetness of temper never forsook her. But her constitution was broken, and a sudden paralysis deprived her of her physical strength and almost of speech. At the urgent request of her husband, though with reluctance, she was conveyed to Paris for medical assistance; but it proved in vain. She died in December 1807.

While Madame de Lafayette was in the prison in Paris, though treated with the greatest severity by Robespierre and his party, she had the consolation of sharing in the sympathetic kindness and assistance of many individuals, who were willing to expose themselves to the hatred of her cruel persecutors for her relief. A gentleman from Boston, Joseph Russel, Esq. then a resident in Paris, made great efforts for her liberation; although by this generous interference he hazarded his own life. It was through his friendly assistance, that her son G. W. Lafayette, then about fourteen years of age, was conveyed to the United States, where he remained till the discharge of his parents from the dungeons of Olmutz.

About this period, and soon after the death of his amiable wife, General Lafayette received a severe fracture in one of his legs, by a fall, which occasioned his confinement for nearly twelve months, and was the cause of his present lameness. He had been transacting business with the minister of the marine; and in going from the office to his carriage, a distance of two hundred paces, late in the evening, after a heavy rain and sleet, which had rendered it dangerous walking, he fell suddenly and broke a bone.

For six or seven years, till 1814, when Louis XVIII. returned to France to mount the throne of the Bourbons, Lafayette resided at his chateau of La Grange, an inactive spectator of the political changes which took place. No doubt he had a sufficient apology for this inaction and voluntary retreat from public affairs. He was too honest and too candid, too much an enemy to the anarchy of the jacobin factions, and to the despotism of the Emperor, to support either, or to be received into their confidence. He would probably have been satisfied with the restoration of a Bourbon to the throne, if the throne could be founded in a constitution, admitting the representatives of the people to a share in legislation, and defining the extent and the measure of the executive authority. He was animated by the same principles and sentiments which governed him in the part he acted in 1789 and 1792: and although he might acquiesce in a different government, either under the First Consul, or under Louis XVIII. he could not, consistently, and therefore he chose not to forward their views by his own personal influence and support. He was still calumniated by some agents of the Bourbons, yet he declared, on the return of Bonaparte from Elba, to gain the throne of France, "that in all measures, which should promote or be consistent with the liberties of the people, he would aid the cause of the legitimate heir of the crown." The views of Louis' friends and allies were too arbitrary to lead them to expect his approbation and aid.