It may be readily supposed, that such news kept us awake all night, expecting with impatience the return of day, to restore us to our friends, our families, and our country. At six o’clock, the pilot being on board, he cautiously guided the vessel towards Havre, which we saw gradually becoming more visible on the horizon. At three o’clock we anchored, from the impossibility of approaching nearer without danger in a vessel the size of our frigate. Captain Morris then fired a salute of twenty-four guns, which was answered from the fort a few moments afterwards. At 11 o’clock, a steam-boat having boarded us, we experienced the happiness of seeing our friends.
We also received on board some citizens of Havre, among whom was M. de Laroche, who begged the general to accept of lodgings in his house, as long as he should remain in the city. Mr. Beasley, American consul at Havre, was also among our visiters. Our captain and his officers received them with distinction, and showed them every part of the frigate, whose beautiful proportions and admirable order excited their admiration.
But the time rapidly passed, and the moment of separation from our fellow passengers arrived. It would be difficult to portray the expression of grief and regret that was observable on the faces of all on board, when they advanced for the last time to bid farewell to him whom they had so proudly conducted across the ocean. The officers surrounded him for a long time, not being able to permit him to depart. Their first lieutenant, Mr. Gregory, who had been commissioned by them to express their sentiments, experienced so much emotion, that his voice faltered in pronouncing the first words; but, as if suddenly inspired, the young seaman sprung towards the national flag which floated at the stern of the vessel, rapidly detached it, and presented it to the general, exclaiming, “We cannot confide it to more glorious keeping! Take it, dear general, may it for ever recall to you your alliance with the American nation; may it also sometimes recall to your recollection those who will never forget the happiness they enjoyed of passing twenty-four days with you on board of the Brandywine; and in being displayed twice a year on the towers of your hospitable dwelling, may it recall to your neighbours the anniversary of two great epochs, whose influence on the whole world is incalculable,—the birth of Washington and the declaration of the independence of our country.”
“I accept it with gratitude,” replied the general, “and I hope that, displayed from the most prominent part of my house at La Grange, it will always testify to all who may see it, the kindness of the American nation towards its adopted and devoted son. And I also hope, that when you or your fellow countrymen visit me, it will tell you, that at La Grange you are not on a foreign soil.”
At this moment, the noise of cannon and the huzzas of the sailors on the yards, prevented any further adieus, and we went on board the steam-boat, whence we saw the Brandywine spread her sails, and leave us with the majesty of a floating fortress.
Captain Morris, who was to accompany the general to Paris; Captain Reed, a distinguished officer of the American navy, charged with a scientific mission to Europe by his government; and Mr. Somerville, envoy from the United States to the court of Sweden, left the Brandywine with us; and this vessel, under the command of Lieutenant Gregory, sailed for the Mediterranean, to reinforce the squadron there.
On his landing, General Lafayette perceived that the sentiments expressed towards him by the citizens of Havre, at his departure, had not changed, and he was much affected at their warmth. As to the administration, it was what it ought to have been the preceding year, that is, it permitted a free expression of public opinion, so that in his passage from the quay to Mr. de Laroche’s, the general had not the grief of seeing his friends menaced by the sabres of the gens d’armes, or humiliated by the presence of foreign troops.
General Lafayette ardently desired to see such of his children as could not come to meet him, and waited for him at La Grange, and he therefore decided on leaving Havre the day after his arrival. His son embarked on the Seine with his family and friends, to proceed to Rouen, where he would wait for him, whilst, accompanied by Captain Morris and the author of this journal, he went by land. On leaving the suburb, his carriage was surrounded by a large cavalcade of young men, who asked permission to accompany him to some distance. After an hour’s march, the general stopped to thank his escort, who did not separate from him until they had expressed the most flattering sentiments, through their young leader, Mr. Etesse, to whom his fellow citizens bad also this day given a proof of their esteem and friendship in placing themselves under his orders.
On arriving at Rouen, we stopped at M. Cabanon’s, a worthy merchant, who has always been charged with the interests of his department in the chamber of deputies, whenever his fellow citizens have been unshackled in their choice. As an old friend and colleague of the general, he had insisted on his right of receiving at his table the guest of America, and had prepared him the pleasure of once more being seated with his family and a great number of the most distinguished citizens of the ancient capital of Normandy. Towards the end of the dinner, some one came to announce to the general that a crowd of persons in the street, accompanied by a band of musicians, wished to salute him. He eagerly went out on the balcony to reply to this mark of esteem from the population of Rouen, but scarcely were the first acclamations heard, when detachments of the royal guard and gens d’armes appeared from the extremities of the street, who, without any previous notice, began to disperse the crowd. The moderation with which the royal guard executed the orders they had received from an imprudent and blind administration, proved how repugnant they were to them, but the gens d’armerie, anxious to prove themselves the worthy instruments of the power that employed them, bravely charged on the unarmed citizens, and were not to be checked by the cries of the women and children overthrown by the horses. A manufacturer of Bolbec, an elderly man of Rouen, and several other persons, were severely wounded. Many others were illegally and brutally arrested. After these glorious exploits, the gens d’armes, being conquerors, waited for the appearance of General Lafayette, and, sabre in hand, accompanied the carriage to the hotel where we were to spend the night. But here their success was checked; young men stationed at the door forbid all entrance into this asylum, where many of those who were obliged to fly had taken refuge, and where General Lafayette could receive, in peace, the feeling and honourable congratulations of those citizens who wished, in spite of the interdict of those in authority, to testify the satisfaction they felt at the return of a man, who by the triumphs decreed to him by a free nation had so much added to the glory of the French name.
This atrocious conduct of the magistrates and their servile instruments afflicted us the more, from having a few days previous enjoyed the free expression of the feelings and enthusiasm of the American people, and which in spite of ourselves forced a comparison that was far from being favourable to our own country. The presence of Captain Morris and some of his countrymen who had accompanied him to Paris, added still more to our sorrow and embarrassment. We seemed to read in their stern expression, the feelings they experienced in seeing a people once so energetic in the cause of liberty, now timidly submitting to the despotism of bayonets. As soon as I found an opportunity of speaking to them for a moment, I hastened to tell them that they must not confound prudence and moderation with weakness, which was here only so in appearance. That, in this instance, the citizens could not have supposed that the local authorities would have been foolish enough to oppose the expression of sentiments so inoffensive and natural, and consequently no one had thought of making preparations for a resistance, whose necessity had not been foreseen. Some young men who were near us overhearing this conversation, added with warmth, “we hope our moderation will not be misinterpreted by those who know us, and that they will understand that we only submitted to be thus driven back by some gens d’armes, because we wished to spare our friend General Lafayette the chagrin of being the cause of a greater disturbance.” The American officers applauded the courage and delicacy of this feeling, and comprehended that under other circumstances, the triumph of the police and its gens d’armes over the citizens of Rouen would not be so easy.