many of his writings. When
revolutionists took possession of the Lafayette home in Chaviniac,
they sought in every nook and cranny to find evidence that they would
have been glad to use against these representatives of the nobility.
Madame de Lafayette had carefully stuffed all the letters she could
find into the maw of the immense old range in the castle kitchen.
Other treasures were buried in the garden, there to rot before they
could be found again.

Of the extant writings of Lafayette there are six volumes in French,
made up of letters and miscellaneous papers, many of them on weighty
subjects, while numerous letters of Lafayette are to be found among
the correspondence of George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, and other statesmen and generals of Revolutionary days.

Of the English language Lafayette's knowledge was mainly gained during
the six long weeks of his first voyage to America. And what he
acquired he at once put into practice. He learned the language from
books, and from good books. As a result his English, both spoken and
written, had a special polish.

At the College du Plessis Lafayette was an industrious student. All
his life he regarded time as a gift of which the best use was to be
made, and, according to his own expression, he was "not at liberty to
lose it himself, and still less to be the occasion of the loss of it
to others." Therefore he would not, unless it was absolutely
unavoidable, be unpunctual to engagements, or keep people waiting his
pleasure. As a boy in college he never had to be urged to study;
neither was he in any way an unmanageable boy. In spite of the
intensity of his nature, he never deserved to be chastised.

It should be understood that corporal chastisement was the rule in the
schools of that time. In the year 1789 one simple-hearted old
school-master solemnly reported that during the fifty years of his
experience as teacher he administered nine hundred thousand canings,
twenty thousand beatings, one hundred thousand slaps, and twenty
thousand switchings. Among smaller items he mentions ten thousand
fillips and a million and a quarter raps and hits. He hurled a Bible,
a catechism, or a singing-book at some hapless child twelve thousand
times, and caused seven hundred to kneel on peas as a punishment. Then
he punished eight hundred thousand for not learning their lessons and
seventy-six thousand for not learning their Bible verses. So much for
one teacher a ha