with a score of men under the English batteries to
reconnoitre their position. His aide-de-camp, struck by a ball, fell at
his side. The officers and orderly dragoons fled precipitately. The
general, though under the fire of the cannon, approached the wounded man
to see whether any help could be afforded him. Finding the wound had been
mortal, he slowly rejoined the group which had got out of the reach of the
cannon. This instance of courage and humanity took place at the battle of
Monmouth. General Clinton, who commanded the English troops, knew that the
Marquis de La Fayette generally rode a white horse; it was upon a white
horse that the general officer who retired so slowly was mounted; Clinton
desired the gunners not to fire. This noble forbearance probably saved M.
de La Fayette's life, for he it was. At that time he was but twenty-two
years of age.--"Historical Anecdotes of the Reign of Louis XVI."]

These lines had been applauded and encored at the French theatre;
everybody's head was turned. There was no class of persons that did not
heartily approve of the support given openly by the French Government to
the cause of American independence. The constitution planned for the new
nation was digested at Paris, and while liberty, equality, and the rights
of man were commented upon by the Condorcets, Baillys, Mirabeaus, etc.,
the minister Segur published the King's edict, which, by repealing that of
1st November, 1750, declared all officers not noble by four generations
incapable of filling the rank of captain, and denied all military rank to
the roturiers, excepting sons of the chevaliers de St. Louis.

["M. de Segur," says Chamfort, "having published an ordinance which
prohibited the admission of any other than gentlemen into the artillery
corps, and, on the other hand, none but well-educated persons being proper
for admission, a curious scene took place: the Abbe Bossat, examiner of
the pupils, gave certificates only to plebeians, while Cherin gave them
only to gentlemen. Out of one hundred pupils, there were not above four
or five who were qualified in both respects."]

The injustice and absurdity of this law was no doubt a secondary cause of
the Revolution. To understand the despair and rage with which this law
inspired the Tiers Etat one should have belonged to that honourable class.
The provinces were full of roturier families, who for ages had lived as
people of property upon their own domains, and