CHAPTER XI
THE SECRET OF LAFAYETTE
THE STORY OF THE WHITE HORSE
Lafayette was born on September 6, 1757, in the province of Auvergne, now Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme, and Haute-Loire. His birthplace was the Château de Chavagnac, situated some six miles from ancient Brionde.
Auvergne was celebrated for men of character and honor rather than wealth and distinction—men who deserved to outlive kings, and whose jewels were virtues. It became a proverb that the men of Auvergne knew no stain, and hence the ensigns and escutcheons of the rugged soldiers of the mountain towns were associated with the motto, “Auvergne sans tache.”
These soldiers kept this motto of their mountain homes ever in view; they would die rather than violate the spirit of it.
Lafayette was of noble family, and appeared at court when a boy. But the gay court did not repress the spirit of Auvergne which lived in him, and grew. He was of noble family, and his father fell at the battle of Minden. The battery that caused his father’s death was commanded by General Phillips, against whom Lafayette fought in the great Virginia campaign.
At the age of sixteen, the spirit of the mountaineers of Auvergne rose within him. He became an ardent advocate of the liberties of men, and he seemed to see the star of liberty rising in the Western world, and he was restless to follow it. He heard of the American Congress as an assembly of heroes of a new era—the new Senate of God and human rights. Princes, after his view, should not violate the law of the people.
The heart of the King of France, while France at first professed neutrality in the American struggle, was with the patriots; so was the sympathy of the gay French court. The boy Lafayette knew this; he longed to carry this secret news to America.
He came to America, as we have described, with this secret in his heart.