I WILL JOIN THE AMERICANS!
One night, in 1776, the old Marshal, Commander of the French forces at Strasburg, was giving a dinner party in honour of the Duke of Gloucester.
This light-hearted English Duke was in disgrace with his royal brother King George the Third of England; so he was taking a little trip abroad. At the Marshal’s dinner he was maliciously regaling the guests with a humorous account of how the Americans had flouted King George and had flung his chests of tea into Boston Harbour, and had declared their Independence.
The Duke’s sympathies were all with the Americans, and he dwelt on their need of volunteers. Amongst the guests—officers in blue and silver, Strasburg grandees in gold-lace and velvet, all exclaiming, laughing, and gesticulating—was one silent, solemn-faced young officer.
He was lean, red-haired, and hook-nosed, and very awkward. He kept his eager eyes fixed on the Duke’s face. Nobody noticed him.
After dinner, he strode across the room to the Duke, and opened his lips for the first time.
“I will join the Americans—I will help them fight for Freedom!” he cried; and as he spoke his face was illuminated. “Tell me how to set about it!”
The young man was the Marquis de Lafayette, nineteen years old, a rich French noble, the adoring husband of a sweet young wife, and the father of one little child.
Edith Sichel (Retold)