“We all surrounded her bed, which had been drawn into the middle of the room. She motioned to her sister to sit down by her. Her three daughters were continually applying hot towels to her hands and arms to preserve the last remnant of warmth. We knelt down, following the slow motion of her breath. There was no appearance of pain, the benevolent smile was playing upon her lips, my hand was still within hers; and thus this angel of goodness and love breathed her last. We bathed with tears the lifeless remains of that adorable being. I felt myself dragged away by M. de Mun and M. de Tracy, and so bade my last farewell to her, and to all happiness on earth....
“On Monday that angelic woman was borne to the spot near which repose her grandmother, her mother, and her sister, amongst sixteen hundred other victims....
“We found in her writing-book a letter to me written in 1785, several injunctions made in 1792, and an official will of 1804. This memorandum, which was only a rough copy, was nevertheless a masterpiece of tenderness, of refinement, and of heart-felt eloquence. It speaks of religion with simple and touching sublimity.
“I love, my dear friend, to confide to your bosom all these recollections of the past; for what else now remains, save recollections, of that adorable woman to whom I have owed during thirty-four years an ever-enduring and unclouded happiness? She was attached to me, I may say, by the most ardent feelings; yet never did I perceive in her the slightest shade of selfishness, of displeasure, or of jealousy. If I look back to the days of our youth, how many unexampled proofs of delicacy and generosity come across my mind! She was associated heart and soul with all my political wishes and opinions, and Madame de Tessé might well say that her devotion was a mixture of the catechism and the declaration des droits. I must again refer to an expression of her aunt’s, who said to me yesterday, ‘I never could have believed that it was possible to be so fanatic of your opinions, and at the same time so devoid of party spirit.’
“You know as well as I do all she was, and all she did during the Revolution. It is not for having come to Olmütz, as Charles Fox so elegantly expressed it, on the wings of duty and of love, that I mean to praise her now; it is for having remained in France until she had secured, so far as lay in her power, the material comforts of my aunt and the rights of my creditors; it is for having had the courage to send George to America. What noble imprudence to remain, the only woman in France endangered by the name she bore, but who always refused to change it!
“Each of her petitions and declarations began by these words: La femme La Fayette. Indulgent as she was with respect to calumny and party hatred, never did she allow, even at the foot of the scaffold, a reflection upon me to pass without protesting against it. She had prepared herself to speak in that spirit before the tribunal, and we have all seen how good, simple, and easy in common life was that lofty-minded and courageous woman. Her piety was also of a peculiar nature. I may say that during thirty-four years I never once experienced from it the slightest shadow of inconvenience. No affectation in her religious practices, which were always subordinate to my convenience. I have had the satisfaction of seeing the least pious of my friends as well received, as much esteemed, and their virtues as fully acknowledged by her as if there had been no difference of religious opinions between her and them. Never did she express to me anything but hope, even conviction, that upon mature reflection, with the uprightness of heart she knew I possessed, I should end by being convinced. The recommendations which she has left me are in the same spirit, entreating me to read, for the love of her, several books which I shall examine again with the most solemn attention. She used to call religion sovereign liberty, to make me appreciate it more, and often repeated with pleasure these words of Abbé Fauchet: ‘Jesus Christ, my only master’ (Jésus Christ, mon seul maître).
“This letter would never come to an end, my dear friend, if I gave way to the feelings which inspire it. I shall only add that that angelic woman has, at least, been surrounded with love and regret well worthy of her....
“Adieu, my dear friend; with your help I have borne sorrows great and hard to endure, to which the name of misfortune might have been given until the greatest of all misfortunes had been experienced. But, though absorbed in the deepest grief, though given up to one thought, one devotion not of this world, though still more than ever I feel the want to believe that all does not die with us, I still appreciate the pleasures of friendship—and what a friendship is yours, my dear Maubourg!
“I embrace you in her name, in my own, in the name of all you have been to me since we have known each other.
“Adieu, my dear friend,