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