Paris. But the national guard, which as a neutral force, whose only law
was in public opinion, and was wavering itself between factions and the
monarchy, might very well maintain safety in a public place, was unable
to serve as a strong and independent support to political power. It was
itself of the people; every serious intervention against the will of the
people, appeared to it as sacrilege. It was a body of municipal police;
it could never again be the army of the throne or the constitution; it
was born of itself on the day after the 14th of July on the steps of the
Hôtel de Ville, and it received no orders but from the municipality. The
municipality had assigned M. de La Fayette as its head--nor could it
have chosen better: an honest people, directed by its instinct, could
not have selected a man who would represent it more faithfully.


XXII.

The marquis de La Fayette was a patrician, possessor of an immense
fortune, and allied, through his wife, daughter of the Duc d'Ayen, with
the greatest families of the court. Born at Chavaignac in Auvergne on
the 6th of September, 1757, married at sixteen years of age, a
precocious instinct of renown drove him in 1777 from his own country. It
was at the period of the war of Independence in America; the name of
Washington resounded throughout the two continents. A youth dreamed the
same destiny for himself in the delights of the effeminate court of
Louis XV.; that youth was La Fayette. He privately fitted out two
vessels with arms and provisions, and arrived at Boston. Washington
hailed him as he would have hailed the open succour of France. It was
France without its flag. La Fayette and the young officers who followed
him assured him of the secret wishes of a great people for the
independence of the new world. The American general employed M. de La