“La Tour-Maubourg,
“Bureaux de Pusy.”
Among the letters which greatly gratified La Fayette upon his liberation was the following from Madame de Staël, addressed to him when it was announced that he was to be delivered.
“June 20, 1797.
“I hope this letter will reach you. I should like to be one of the first to tell you of the feelings of indignation, grief, hope, fear, anxiety, discouragement, with which your fate has filled, during these last five years, the hearts of all those who love you. I do not know whether it is possible to make these cruel recollections bearable to you; nevertheless, I may say, that, while calumny was destroying every reputation, while faction, unable to triumph over the cause, was attacking every individual, your misfortunes have preserved your glory; and if your health can be restored to you, you come out whole from a tomb where your name has acquired fresh lustre.
“Come directly to France; there is no other country for you. You will find that republic which your opinions led you to wish for when your conscience bound you to royalty. You will find it illustrated by victory and free from the crimes which stained its origin. You will uphold that republic, because without it no liberty can exist in France, and because, as a hero and as a martyr, you are so united with freedom that I pronounce your name and the name of liberty at the same moment to express what I wish for the honor and welfare of France.
“Come to France; there you will find devoted friends; and let me hope that my constant care for your welfare and my useless efforts to serve you may entitle me to a small place in your thoughts.”
MADAME DE STAËL.
[FROM THE PORTRAIT GALLERY OF EMINENT MEN AND WOMEN.]
During La Fayette’s long imprisonment many persons in England, France, and America interested themselves in efforts in his behalf. Of these one of the most indefatigable was Joseph Masclet, a man of rare merits. During the Reign of Terror he went to England to save his life. He was not personally acquainted with La Fayette, having never even seen him at that time, but he warmly sympathized with his principles and admired his sterling virtues. He constantly wrote against the detention of La Fayette, and published numerous articles in the Hamburg journals upon the subject, using the nom-de-plume of “Eleutheros,” the Greek for freeman. It was in vain that the Austrian cabinet took every measure to discover “Eleutheros,” though several emissaries were sent to London to find the unknown person who thus dared to brave the anger of the Austrian government. Masclet was supported in England in these philanthropic efforts in behalf of La Fayette and his companions in misfortune, Generals Latour-Maubourg and Bureaux de Pusy, who were imprisoned with him in Olmütz, by Fox, Wilberforce, Sheridan, and at their head General Fitzpatrick and General Tarleton, who had fought against La Fayette in Virginia; but these now all united to plead with the Pitt ministry and the calumniators of La Fayette. In December, 1796, General Fitzpatrick made that eloquent speech in the English House of Commons, in behalf of the prisoners at Olmütz, which produced great sensation in Europe, which ended as follows:—