Here closed all connexion between Lafayette and Bonaparte. The First Consul not only avoided all intercourse with one so sincerely devoted to the cause of liberty; but he treated him with that studied neglect, which was little short of persecution. There was indeed nothing congenial either in the character or principles of these two distinguished men. The one was aiming at power by any means, without regard to the rights or happiness of his fellow men; the other was anxious for the permanent establishment of a mild government in his native country, for the true welfare and liberty of the people; and was willing to make every sacrifice for the attainment of such great objects.
The unfriendly feelings of Bonaparte were extended even to the younger Lafayette. This patriotic youth, with much of the public spirit of his noble father, engaged in the service of his country soon after his return from America. He was an aid of the brave Grouchy, general of division; an active, intelligent, meritorious officer, and distinguished on various occasions. But he received neither advancement nor distinction from the Emperor. It was, on the contrary, the wish of Napoleon, that young Lafayette would send in his resignation, and retire from the army. When this was made known to him, he observed, "that as long as his country was involved in war, he should not disgrace himself by a resignation; and that he should be ashamed to think of it, while his companions were daily exposing themselves to danger. It was true, he was an American citizen, but he was first of all a Frenchman and a loyal Frenchman."
G. W. Lafayette was much esteemed by the officers who knew him, of all ranks; and they frequently solicited his promotion; but the Emperor disregarded alike the merits of the youthful hero and the entreaties of his military friends. He continued in the army until the treaty of Tilsit.
To a man of his great sensibility and warmth of affection, the severest affliction which Lafayette has been called to endure, great and various as have been his sufferings, now awaited him. His amiable, his attached and devoted wife was torn from him, in his retreat, within a few years after his return to France; when he more than ever, perhaps, needed her company and solace, to fortify his mind under the multiplied disappointments from the world.
She had never enjoyed perfect health after her imprisonment at Olmutz. But possessed of uncommon fortitude and imbued with religious sentiments, she was still instrumental in promoting the happiness of her husband and family. Her patience, her equanimity, her sweetness of temper never forsook her. But her constitution was broken, and a sudden paralysis deprived her of her physical strength and almost of speech. At the urgent request of her husband, though with reluctance, she was conveyed to Paris for medical assistance; but it proved in vain. She died in December 1807.
While Madame de Lafayette was in the prison in Paris, though treated with the greatest severity by Robespierre and his party, she had the consolation of sharing in the sympathetic kindness and assistance of many individuals, who were willing to expose themselves to the hatred of her cruel persecutors for her relief. A gentleman from Boston, Joseph Russel, Esq. then a resident in Paris, made great efforts for her liberation; although by this generous interference he hazarded his own life. It was through his friendly assistance, that her son G. W. Lafayette, then about fourteen years of age, was conveyed to the United States, where he remained till the discharge of his parents from the dungeons of Olmutz.
About this period, and soon after the death of his amiable wife, General Lafayette received a severe fracture in one of his legs, by a fall, which occasioned his confinement for nearly twelve months, and was the cause of his present lameness. He had been transacting business with the minister of the marine; and in going from the office to his carriage, a distance of two hundred paces, late in the evening, after a heavy rain and sleet, which had rendered it dangerous walking, he fell suddenly and broke a bone.
For six or seven years, till 1814, when Louis XVIII. returned to France to mount the throne of the Bourbons, Lafayette resided at his chateau of La Grange, an inactive spectator of the political changes which took place. No doubt he had a sufficient apology for this inaction and voluntary retreat from public affairs. He was too honest and too candid, too much an enemy to the anarchy of the jacobin factions, and to the despotism of the Emperor, to support either, or to be received into their confidence. He would probably have been satisfied with the restoration of a Bourbon to the throne, if the throne could be founded in a constitution, admitting the representatives of the people to a share in legislation, and defining the extent and the measure of the executive authority. He was animated by the same principles and sentiments which governed him in the part he acted in 1789 and 1792: and although he might acquiesce in a different government, either under the First Consul, or under Louis XVIII. he could not, consistently, and therefore he chose not to forward their views by his own personal influence and support. He was still calumniated by some agents of the Bourbons, yet he declared, on the return of Bonaparte from Elba, to gain the throne of France, "that in all measures, which should promote or be consistent with the liberties of the people, he would aid the cause of the legitimate heir of the crown." The views of Louis' friends and allies were too arbitrary to lead them to expect his approbation and aid.
Louis XVIII. had not been long in France, before great discontent was manifested among the citizens at the prospect of his being placed on the throne of his brother. Napoleon and his friends took advantage of this state of things: he left his retreat in the Island of Elba, and returned to Paris. Louis was obliged to retire. Bonaparte, through his brother Joseph, the ex-king of Spain, solicited of Lafayette to accept of a peerage. But he promptly declined; but observed, "that if there should be a convocation of a chamber of representatives," which he strenuously urged, "he would consent to take a part in public affairs, should he be elected." His independence and his want of faith in Napoleon, were preserved, notwithstanding the urgent advances of the latter; and he resolutely refused to go near him till after his final abdication. Yet even at this time, Lafayette thought he might rely on "his cordial opposition to all foreign invasion and influence, and to any family or party which should avail itself of such assistance in order to attack the independence and the liberties of France." Much as he distrusted the views of Bonaparte, and desirous as he was of some explicit guaranty, from him and his supporters, for the liberty of the French people, he would not unite with the Bourbons, who were resolved to place Louis XVIII. firmly on the throne of his ancestors, by any means in their power, and who had collected an army of one million two hundred thousand foreigners to accomplish their object, at the risque of a civil war, and a general slaughter, similar to that with which the unprincipled, revolutionary Jacobins had before afflicted the nation.
Lafayette was now elected a member of the chamber of deputies from his own department, though he had protested against the articles of the constitution of the empire, and of the additional act which conspired against the sovereignty of the people, and the rights of the citizens. This was a strong proof of the sense the people had of his integrity and his patriotism. After the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon returned to Paris, in consternation, and undecided as to the course he would pursue on this signal reverse of fortune. Some of his friends advised him again to abdicate the office of Emperor, which he held by so precarious a tenure; others suggested decisive and bold measures, with a view to fortify himself in power, even in apposition to the will and wishes of the deputies. He attempted to prorogue the chamber of representatives, and have himself proclaimed perpetual dictator. Lafayette was then present in the chamber; and with his usual independence and energy, made the following observations.