e Revolution broke over
France. Then it was doomed. While Lafayette was languishing in the
dungeon at Olmuetz, one of his great anxieties was for his Cayenne
charge. He would have been even more unhappy if he had known that when
the revolutionists took possession of his property, they caused that
estate to be sold, together with all the slaves, who thus went back
into slavery--a great inconsistency in those same revolutionists who
imagined they were working for liberty and enfranchisement!

During this time Lafayette had two great interests: one, a public life
marked by increasing premonitions of national danger; the other, at
Chaviniac where his family stayed and where he was instituting all
sorts of reforms on his own estate and in the village of Chaviniac,
and working steadily for the welfare of the people who were dependent
upon him. He founded an annual fair and a weekly market day. He built
roads at his own expense. In the village he established a resident
physician whose services the poor could have at any time without cost
to themselves. He founded a weaving business and a school to teach the
art. The agricultural advancement of America had interested him, so he
brought a man from England to teach new methods to his farmers. New
implements were imported and new breeds of cattle were introduced. In
every way he brought enlightenment and betterment.

Meantime a spirit was rising that was soon to sweep not only over
Paris but through all the provinces of France. Lafayette saw this
storm coming. One day, in 1789, he was walking in the grand gallery of
the Chateau de Chaviniac with a gentleman of the neighborhood. They
spoke together of what the emancipation of the peasant would mean to
the people of the Auvergne region. At that moment a group of peasants
from his estate came in to offer Lafayette some nosegays and cheeses.
They presented these gifts on bended knees, in an attitude of deep
submission and respect.

"There," said the neighbor, "see how little disposed these peasants
are to receive your boasted emancipation; depend upon it, they think
very little on the matter."

"Well, well," replied Lafayette, "a few years hence we shall see who
was right."

They did! The time was not far distant when the peasants of Auvergne,
as well as the rabble of Paris, went singing:

Ah! ca ira, ca ira, ca ira!
Celui qui s'eleve, on l'abaissera,
Et qui s'abaisse, on l'elevera.

Significant events followed,