"LAFAYETTE."

It was nearly eleven when I reached the Rue d'Anjou and began for
the first time to mount the broad stairway of a Parisian palace. The
General's apartments were on the entresol, with a separate staircase
from the first landing of the principal one; for his lameness made
it difficult for him to go up-stairs, and the entresol, a half-story
between the ground floor and the first story, when, as was the case
here, high enough in the ceiling, is one of the freest and pleasantest
parts of a French house. His apartments comprised five rooms on a
line,--an antechamber, a dining-room, two parlors, and a bed-room,
with windows on the street,--and the same number of smaller rooms on a
parallel line, with their windows on the court-yard, which served for
his secretary and servants. The furniture throughout was neat and plain:
the usual comfortable arm-chairs and sofas, the indispensable clock and
mirror over the mantelpiece, and in each fireplace a cheerful wood-fire.
There were two or three servants in the antechamber, well-dressed, but
not in livery; and in the parlor, into which I was shown on handing my
card, two or three persons waiting for an audience. Fortunately for me,
they were there on business, and the business was soon despatched; and
passing, in turn, into the reception parlor, I found myself in the
presence of the friend of Washington and my grandfather.

He received me so cordially, with such kind inquiries into the object
and cause of my journey, such a fatherly interest in my plans and aims,
such an earnest repetition of the invitation he had given me in his note
to look upon La Grange as my home, that I felt at once that I was no
longer without a guide and protector in a foreign land. It was some time
before I could observe him closely enough to get a just idea of his
appearance; for I had never before been consciously in the presence of