“La Fayette.”
Regarding this brave action of the Marquis de La Fayette, who had been languishing for five years in his loathsome prison, but who would not purchase liberty at the sacrifice of one iota of his avowed rights and principles, his daughter Virginie says:—
“My mother fully appreciated this noble conduct. In the midst of her sufferings she would willingly have paid with many months of captivity the pleasure caused her by my father’s declaration in answer to the proposals made by the Austrian government. Two months elapsed before we received any new communication. At last General Bonaparte and General Clarke, the French plenipotentiaries, required that the prisoners of Olmütz should be delivered without further delay.
“After many difficulties, the order was forwarded to open the gates of the citadel to the prisoners of Olmütz. We set off for Hamburg on the 19th of September, 1797. Five years and one month had elapsed since my father’s arrest, and twenty-three months since we had joined him. At Dresden, Leipsic, Halle, and Hamburg our journey was a prolonged triumph. Crowds thronged to see my father and his companions.”
Immediately upon his release from prison La Fayette’s first care was to thank M. de Talleyrand, and to write the following letter to General Bonaparte:—
“Hamburg, Oct. 6, 1797.
“Citoyen Général: The prisoners of Olmütz, happy to owe their deliverance to your irresistible arms, had, during their captivity, rejoiced at the thought that their liberty and their life were attached to the victories of the republic and to your personal glory. It is with the utmost satisfaction that they now do homage to their liberator. We should have liked, Citoyen Général, to have offered to you in person the expression of these feelings, to have witnessed with our own eyes the scenes of so many victories, the army which has won them, and the general who has placed our resurrection amongst the miracles he has accomplished. But you know that the journey to Hamburg has not been left to our choice. From the place where we took leave of our jailers we address our thanks to their victor.
“In the solitary retreat on the Danish territory of Holstein, where we shall try to recover our health, we shall unite our patriotic wishes for the republic with the most lively interest in the illustrious general to whom we are still more attached on account of the services he has rendered to the cause of liberty and to our country than for the special obligation we rejoice in owing to him, and which the deepest gratitude has forever engraved in our hearts.
“Salut et respect,
“La Fayette,