“In the midst of a fertile and luxuriant wilderness, rising above prolific orchards and antiquated woods, appeared the five towers of La Grange, tinged with the golden rays of the setting sun. Through the branches of the trees appeared the pretty village of Aubepierre, once, perhaps, the dependency of the castle, and clustering near the protection of its walls. A remoter view of the village of D’Hieres, with its gleaming river and romantic valley, was caught and lost alternately in the serpentine mazes of the rugged road; which, accommodated to the grouping of the trees, wound amidst branches laden with ripening fruit, till its rudeness suddenly subsided in the velvet lawn that immediately surrounded the castle. The deep moat, the drawbridge, the ivied tower and arched portals, opening into the square court, had a feudal and picturesque character; and combined with the reserved tints and fine repose of evening, associated with that exaltation of feeling which belonged to the moment, preceding a first interview with those on whom the mind has long dwelt with admiration or interest.
“We found General La Fayette surrounded by his patriarchal family—his excellent son and daughter-in-law, his two daughters (the sharers of his dungeon in Olmütz) and their husbands, eleven grandchildren, and a venerable granduncle, the ex-grand prior of Malta, with hair as white as snow, and his cross and his order worn as proudly as when he had issued forth at the head of his pious troops against the ‘paynim foe,’ or Christian enemy.
“Such was the group that received us in the salon of La Grange; such was the close-knit circle that made our breakfast and our dinner party, accompanied us in our delightful rambles through the grounds and woods of La Grange, and constantly presented the most perfect unity of family interests, habits, tastes, and affections.
“We naturally expect to find strong traces of time in the form of those with whose names and deeds we have been long acquainted, of those who had obtained the suffrages of the world, almost before we had entered it. But, on the person of La Fayette, time has left no impression; not a wrinkle furrows the ample brow; and his unbent and noble figure is still as upright, bold, and vigorous as the mind that informs it. Grace, strength, and dignity still distinguish the fine person of this extraordinary man; who, though more than forty years before the world, engaged in scenes of strange and eventful conflict, does not yet appear to have reached his climacteric.
“Bustling and active in his farm, graceful and elegant in his salon, it is difficult to trace, in one of the most successful agriculturists, and one of the most perfectly fine gentlemen that France has produced, a warrior and a legislator. The patriot, however, is always discernible.
“In the full possession of every faculty and talent he ever possessed, the memory of M. La Fayette has all the tenacity of unworn youthful recollections; and, besides these, high views of all that is most elevated in the mind’s conception. His conversation is brilliantly enriched with anecdotes of all that is celebrated, in character and event, for the last fifty years. He still talks with unwearied delight of his short visit to England, to his friend Mr. Fox, and dwelt on the witchery of the late Duchess of Devonshire with almost boyish enthusiasm. He speaks and writes English with the same elegance he does his native tongue. He has made himself master of all that is best worth knowing in English literature and philosophy.
“I observed that his library contained many of our most eminent authors upon all subjects. His elegant and well-chosen collection of books occupies the highest apartments in one of the towers of the château; and, like the study of Montaigne, hangs over the farm-yard of the philosophical agriculturist. ‘It frequently happens,’ said M. La Fayette, as we were looking out of the window at some flocks which were moving beneath, ‘it frequently happens that my merinos and my hay carts dispute my attention with your Hume or our own Voltaire.’
“He spoke with great pleasure of the visit paid him at La Grange some years ago by Mr. Fox and General Fitzpatrick. He took me out, the morning after my arrival, to show me a tower richly covered with ivy. ‘It was Mr. Fox,’ he said, ‘who planted that ivy! I have taught my children to venerate it.’
“The Château La Grange does not, however, want other points of interest.... Founded by Louis Le Gros, and occupied by the Princes of Lorraine, the mark of a cannon-ball is still visible in one of its towers, which penetrated the masonry, when attacked by Maréchal Turenne. Here in the plain, but spacious, salon-à-manger, the peasantry of the neighborhood and the domestics of the castle assemble every Sunday evening in winter to dance to the violin of the concierge, and are regaled with cakes and eau sucrée. The general is usually, and his family are always, present at these rustic balls. The young people occasionally dance among the tenantry, and set the example of the new steps, freshly imported by their Paris dancing-master.
“In the summer this patriarchal reunion takes place in the park, where a space is cleared for the purpose, shaded by the lofty trees which encircle it. A thousand times, in contemplating La Fayette, in the midst of his charming family, the last years of the life of the Chancellor de l’Hopital recurred to me, ... he whom the naïve Brantome likens to Cato! and who, loving liberty as he hated faction, retired from a court unworthy of his virtues, to his little domain of Vignay, which he cultivated himself.”