savages I fear. I am aware that the laws of England would protect me,
though the court of St. James is opposed to me: but I cannot seek
protection in a country at war with my own. _America_, the country of my
heart, would welcome me with joy. Yet my fears for the future destiny of
France, induce me to give the preference to Switzerland, at least for the
present."

After this, he was confined about four years in the prison of Olmutz, when
Henry Bollman, a young German physician, and Francis Huger, an American,
(son of Colonel Huger, of South Carolina, who had first received Lafayette
when he arrived in the United States, in 1777,) made great personal
sacrifices, and exposed themselves to imminent dangers to effect his
escape. General Washington also, then President of the United States,
repeatedly solicited his release, on the ground of his being an American
citizen, as he really was by a legal adoption. But his requests were vain.
It was not consistent with the policy of the "Legitimates" of Europe, to
show any favor to such a friend of liberty as Lafayette, or to listen to
the honorable application of the chief magistrate of the American republic.

We have already seen frequent proofs of the peculiar regard which
Washington cherished for Lafayette. He did not forget him when immured in
the prison at Olmutz. Such was the state of political affairs in Europe,
such the suspicions both of the jacobins in France, and the advocates for
monarchy in the surrounding nations, that a formal and public request for
the release of Lafayette, would have been of no avail. It would probably
have added to the severity of his treatment by his implacable enemies. The
American ministers residing at foreign courts were instructed, however, to
suggest on proper occasions, the wishes of the President of the United
States, for his enlargement. A confidential person was sent to Berlin to
solicit his discharge. But Lafayette had been placed in the custody of the