ecause she thought of him
when she read it. It dwelt upon the union of mature and youthful
qualities in a character, and ran as follows:

"Why talk of youth
When all the ripe experience of the old
Dwells with him? In his schemes profound and cool
He acts with wise precaution, and reserves
For times of action, his impetuous fire.
To guard the camp, to scale the 'leaguered wall,
Or dare the hottest of the fight, are toils
That suit the impetuous bearing of his youth;
Yet like the gray-haired veteran he can shun
The field of peril. Still before my eyes
I place his bright example, for I love
His lofty courage, and his prudent thought;
Gifted like him, a warrior has no age."

The queen's copy of this passage was given to Madame de Campan, the
revered teacher of the young ladies of the court, and it met the fate
of being burned on the very day Marie Antoinette's sad life came to an
end at the hands of the executioner during the height of the Terror.

The queen had shown her interest in Lafayette's arrival by arranging
to have an interview with the young hero when he was making his first
visit to Versailles. At her suggestion Lafayette was now advanced by
the king to be commander of an important regiment in the army of
France, the king's own Dragoons. He was stationed at Saintes and
afterwards at St. Jean-d'Angely, near Rochefort, where the regiment
was conveniently quartered to be ready in case a project for the
invasion of England by way of the British Channel should be carried
out. Such a plan was under consideration, and Lafayette looked forward
with delight to the prospect of action against the country which he
considered the ancient foe of France.

But, to Lafayette's great grief, the plot to invade England failed;
and he was now free to return to Paris and Versailles. The failure of
the British plan also made it rather easier for the minds of
prominent officials to look toward taking some further part in the
American struggle. To aid this Lafayette gladly applied himself; for
while loyal always to his own nation, and standing ready at any point
to leave all to serve France, he had not for a moment forgotten the
needs of his adopted country across the Atlantic. In fact, when he
reached home, he had not waited for his one week's punishment to be
over before beginning to create interest in the cause for which he had
risked his life. Benjamin Franklin, th