ent is told of his early life. Shortly after his
marriage, his wife's family sought for him an honorary position in the
household of the Count de Provence, afterward Louis XVIII King of
France. Lafayette did not wish the appointment. The spirit of Lafayette,
the democrat, was already restive under royal authority. To prevent the
honour being thrust upon him, and in order at the same time not to
offend his family by refusing to accept, he sought an opportunity to
make himself so obnoxious to the Count that the arrangement could not go
through. The chance offered itself at a masked ball where the Count
appeared in a disguise which was instantly penetrated by Lafayette.
Making himself known, he lost no time in engaging in conversation the
royal personage, who thought himself unknown, and with a freedom and
boldness bordering upon discourtesy, he gave voice to facts and opinions
which he knew would be obnoxious to his listener's ear. The future King
of France had little hesitation in making up his mind that the young
Marquis would be a refractory attache, and declined to make the
requested appointment.

Providence, or his own spirit, had saved Lafayette for democracy.

II

In 1775 in the new western hemisphere democracy was born to the modern
world.

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard 'round the world."

Across the vast Atlantic rolled its echoes. Across a trackless sea,
across the lands of France, up through the great White Ways of Paris it
resounded. It knocked against the palace doors of the King of France. On
through the flippant gibe, the careless laugh, the carousing and the din
of the royal court, it reached and touched the spirit of Lafayette.

What was the strange tale that came to him from the New World? Was it a
tale of liberty triumphant and conquering, a tale of success, a tale to
touch the imagination of a soldier through the glory of a winning cause?
Far from it. After a brief temporary success in Massachusetts the cause
of the newly-born confederated American republics seemed to be tottering
upon the brink of total destruction. The rout of the Americans at
Brooklyn and the consequent abandonment of Long Island was followed by
their evacuation of New York City. The American army was becoming
demoralized. The militia were impatient to return home, were disobedient
to