ight.

At nine o'clock he bade good-by to his friends of a day and embarked
upon the packet boat of the canal, while the air resounded with good
wishes for his voyage. Through Rome they passed by night in an
illumination that turned darkness into daylight, and at every place
they received deputations from the city just ahead of the one where
they were. There were cannon to welcome and cannon to bid farewell. At
Utica three Oneida chiefs demanded an interview on the score of having
been Lafayette's helpers in 1778. They were very old but still
remarkably energetic. Lafayette begged them to accept certain gifts of
silver, and they went away happy.

The traveling was now hastened in order that General Lafayette might
reach Boston by the Fourth of July, 1825, and take part in laying the
corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument. This event in our national
history has been described by Josiah Quincy in his "Figures of the
Past" and by many others. It was a great national celebration, and a
general meeting of Revolutionary comrades, one of whom wore the same
coat he had worn at the battle of Bunker Hill, almost half a century
before, and could point to nine bullet-holes in its texture. Daniel
Webster delivered his grand oration. All Boston was on the alert.
There were a thousand tents on the Common, and a dinner to which
twelve hundred persons sat down. General Lafayette gave a reception to
the ladies of the city. Then there was a ball--with the usual honor
bestowed. Everybody was proud and happy to have General Lafayette as a
national guest on that great day.

One more incident must be related. In July of 1825 the people of
Brooklyn were erecting an Apprentices' Free Library Building at the
corner of Cranberry and Henry streets, later incorporated in the
Brooklyn Institute, and they wished Lafayette to assist in laying the
corner stone. He was brought to Brooklyn in great state, riding in a
canary-colored coach drawn by four snow-white horses. The streets were
crammed with people. Among them were many citizens and their wives, some
old Revolutionary veterans, troops of Brooklyn children, and a number of
negroes who had been freed by the recent New York Emancipation Acts.

Through the closely packed masses of people the carriage of the noble
Frenchman was slowly driven, the antics of the impatient horses
attracting the attention of the small boy as much as the illustrious
visitor himself. As they came near the stand where the