“‘Allow me, sir, to indulge in that hope as in the one of soon owing to you this deep debt of gratitude.
“‘Noailles La Fayette.’
“In December M. Roland obtained from the committee the repeal of the order for my mother’s arrest. She was still under the surveillance to which the ci-devant nobles were subjected, and could not leave the department without express permission. But she was disengaged from her promise, and she was not discouraged. Pecuniary interests also detained my mother in France, not on her own account nor on that of her children, but because she looked upon it as a sacred duty before leaving the country to see the rights of my father’s creditors acknowledged.
“The events of the 31st of May, which assured the triumph of the terrorist party, brought no alteration at first in our situation, but took from us all hopes for the future.
“Towards the middle of June my mother received, through the minister of the United States, two letters from my father, written from the dungeon of Magdebourg. The anxiety they occasioned with respect to my father’s health marred the joy we felt in receiving them....
“At that period of the Revolution, many émigrés’ wives thought it necessary, for the preservation of their children’s fortune and for their personal safety, to obtain a divorce. My mother esteemed and even respected the virtue of several persons who thought themselves obliged to take this step. But as for herself, the scruples of her conscience would not have allowed her to save her life by feigning an act contrary to Christian law, even when no one could be deceived. However, another motive influenced her, though this one would have sufficed. Her love for my father made her find pleasure in all that was a remembrance of him. Whilst many pious and tender wives sought for safety in a pretended divorce, never did she address a request to any administration whatever, or present a petition, without feeling satisfaction in beginning everything she wrote by these words: ‘La Femme La Fayette.’
“On the 21st of Brumaire [Nov. 12] my mother received the intelligence that she was to be arrested on the following day. She kept this news from us till the next morning. The hours passed away in cruel expectation. M. Granchier, commissary of the Revolutionary Committee, arrived at the château in the evening of the same day, with a detachment of the National Guard of Paulhaguet. We all collected in my mother’s room, where the order of the Committee for her arrest was read aloud. She presented the certificate of civism given her by the commune. M. Granchier answered that it was too old, and that it was of no use, not having been countersigned by the Committee.
“‘Citoyen,’ my sister then asked, ‘are daughters prevented from following their mother?’
“‘Yes, mademoiselle,’ answered the commissary.
“She insisted, adding that, being sixteen, she was included in the law. He seemed moved, but changed the subject. My mother kept up everybody’s courage. She tried to persuade us that the separation would not be a long one.