and on every important occasion Lafayette
bore a part. He was a member of the Assembly of Notables, and he led a
minority of the nobility who demanded the calling of the States General,
a representative assembly. He presented his famous composition, the
Declaration of Rights, modeled on Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.
He was made by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard
and gave them the white cockade. He represented the people on the great
day of the oath of loyalty to the new constitution. For a time he was
riding on the top wave of popularity.

Lafayette believed in freedom for all people and to every man his
rights. But he thought that France was not yet ready for the form of
government that was succeeding in America. For France he believed the
constitutional monarchy to be the best. He thought--and every one now
thinks--that Louis XVI was a man of good intentions, and he believed
these good intentions would show that monarch what was for the welfare
and happiness of the people. Therefore he defended the king and the
royal family as a part of the form of government that was the best
for France. The newly adopted constitution appeared to him to be the
just expression of royal authority.

In his blind optimism Lafayette could not believe but that his ideas
would in the end have their proper weight. He stood with the nobility,
resting proudly on their good intentions, and facing a brute force
newly awakened by the tocsin of liberty. To this unreasoning instinct,
liberty meant nothing but license. The result of putting this license
into power meant anarchy.

Now came Lafayette's time of difficulty. He was accused of conniving
at the attempt of the king and queen to escape. Afterwards the queen
in her trial testified that Lafayette had known nothing whatever of
the project. Lafayette was also blamed for the death of Foulon, a
minister who was hanged, beheaded, and dragged through the streets by
the mob. The fact was that he did all in his power to control the mob
that caused Foulon's death. They accused him of firing on the mob.
That he did, in defense of the life of the king--first standing before
the cannon to give his life if need be. He was accused of being too
liberal and of being too aristocratic. He was burned between the two
fires. The people seemed determined not to understand him. They said
that if Lafayette truly loved the people it was but another evidence
that his soul was plebeia