About this time La Fayette met with a severe injury, caused by a fall upon the ice. His hip-bone was broken, and the accident was followed by a long and painful illness.
In 1803 President Jefferson offered to appoint La Fayette governor of the newly acquired territory of Louisiana. The land allotted to La Fayette as a former major-general in the American army was selected from the fertile fields of that territory. But notwithstanding La Fayette’s love for America, he felt constrained to remain in France, and therefore declined the kindly proffered honor.
After Napoleon had been crowned emperor, he is reported to have said to his Council, one day: “Gentlemen, I know your devotion to the power of the throne. Every one in France is corrected; I was thinking of the only man who is not,—La Fayette. He has never retreated from his line. You see him quiet; but I tell you he is quite ready to begin again.”
CHARLES FOX.
During the brief reign of Louis XVIII. and the banishment of Napoleon to Elba, La Fayette appeared only once at court. When the sudden return of Bonaparte startled the world, and the trembling King Louis saw his power depart, one of the king’s minister’s exclaimed: “All is lost! There is no endurance, no indignity, to which the king would not submit, to retain his throne.”
“What!” said another; “even La Fayette?”
“Yes,” replied the first; “even La Fayette himself.”
When Napoleon again resumed the reins of power and re-established an hereditary peerage, La Fayette was pressed to take his seat by Joseph Bonaparte, who had been sent to the marquis by Napoleon; but La Fayette’s reply to the offered honor was consistent with all his former actions.
“Should I ever again appear on the scene of public life, it can only be as the representative of the people.”