“Full and complete, so that I may know the worst at once,” smiled Ben.
“Very well, then. It is Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. He is enormously rich, has been a captain of dragoons, and has made very great sacrifices at home in France that he might come here and offer his sword to Congress.”
Ben regarded the young Frenchman with increased attention.
“Why,” said the American boy, “here is a generous and unselfish spirit, indeed. To leave a great fortune, honors, no doubt——”
“All that the French king could confer upon one so young,” put in the girl. “But no, he would have none of it. He had heard of the struggle here, and asked Mr. Franklin at Paris for service. After the defeat of Long Island the Americans had no credit in Europe; no one believed in them, it seems, and so Mr. Franklin could secure no ship to carry the French boy and his friends.
“‘We are sorry,’ said Franklin, ‘but you will have to await our better fortune.’
“But not so! He could not wait. He bought a ship of his own and set sail; and here he is, offering himself to Congress, to fight the British.”
After dinner the young Marquis and Ben Cooper were presented to each other, and when the French lad learned that Ben was upon active service with Washington he was delighted.
“You cannot understand,” said he, “how we admire this general of yours in Europe. The great Frederic of Prussia says that his strategy stamps him as the world’s greatest soldier.”
The two were still deeply engaged, Ben relating some camp anecdotes of the commander-in-chief, to Lafayette’s vast admiration, when there was a stir, a rustle, a hum of voices, a crowding to the front; but neither of the young men paid any attention; until, after a little, the voice of old Mr. Claflin said: