“‘It is on my knees, if necessary, that I implore this favor; imagine by that the state I am in.
“‘Noailles La Fayette.’
“M. Roland thus answered:—
“‘I have put, madam, your touching request under the eyes of the committee. I must nevertheless observe that it would seem to me imprudent for a person bearing your name to travel through France, on account of the unpleasant impression which is at the present moment attached to it. But circumstances may alter. I advise you to wait, and I shall be the first to seize a favorable opportunity.’
“My mother answered him immediately as follows:—
“‘I return you thanks, sir, for the ray of hope with which you have brightened my heart, so long unaccustomed to that feeling. Nothing can add to what I owe to my parole and to the administrateurs who rely upon it. No degree of misfortune could ever make me think of breaking my word, but your letter renders that duty a little more supportable, and I already begin to feel something of that gratitude I promised you if, delivered through your hands, I were restored to the object of my affections, and to the happiness of offering him some consolation.
“‘Noailles La Fayette.’
“Three months had elapsed since we had heard anything about my father. The public papers had announced his transfer to Wessel instead of Spandau: since then they had been silent. My mother wrote an unsealed letter to the Duke of Brunswick, entreating the generalissimo of the allied troops to send her some news of her husband through the French army.
“She also wrote thus to the king of Prussia:—
“‘Sir: Your Majesty’s well-known integrity admits of M. de La Fayette’s wife addressing herself to you without forgetting what she owes to her husband’s character. I have always hoped, sir, that Your Majesty would respect virtue wherever it was to be found, and thereby give to Europe a glorious example. It is now five long, dreadful months since I last heard anything of M. de La Fayette, so I cannot plead his cause. But it seems to me that both his enemies and myself speak eloquently in his favor: they by their crimes, I by the violence of my despair. They prove his virtue, and how much he is feared by the wicked; I show how worthy he is of being loved. They make it a necessity for Your Majesty’s glory not to have an object of persecution in common with them. Shall I myself be fortunate enough to give you the occasion of restoring me to life by delivering him?