estate, and exposed to all the temptations of "the gayest and most
luxurious city on earth at the period of its greatest corruption. He
escaped unhurt." Having completed his college education, he married at
the age of sixteen the daughter of the Duke D'Ayen, of the family of
Noailles. She was younger than himself and was always "the encourager
of his virtues, and the heroic partner of his sufferings, his great
name, and his honorable grave." [3]

In the summer of 1776 (says Mr. Everett), and just after the American
declaration of independence, Lafayette was stationed at Metz, a
garrisoned town on the road from Paris to the German frontier with the
regiment to which he was attached as a captain of dragoons, not then
nineteen years of age. The Duke of Gloucester, the brother of the King
of England happened to be on a visit to Metz, and a dinner was given to
him by the commandant of the garrison. Lafayette was invited with other
officers to the entertainment. Dispatches had just been received by the
duke from England relating to American affairs--the resistance of the
Colonists, and the strong measures adopted by the ministers to crush
the rebellion. Among the details stated by the Duke of Gloucester was
the extraordinary fact that these remote, scattered, and unprotected
settlers of the wilderness had solemnly declared themselves an
independent people. That word decided the fortunes of the enthusiastic
listener, and not more distinctly was the great declaration a charter
of political liberty to the rising States, than it was a commission to
their youthful champion to devote his life to the same cause.

The details which he heard were new to him. The American contest was
known to him before but as a rebellion--a tumultuary affair in a remote
transatlantic colony. He now, with a promptness of perception which,
even at this distance of time, strikes us as little less than