y of Paris by the minister of the United States, and was received
with great pomp at the Hotel de Ville, or city hall. Three states,
Maryland, Connecticut, and Virginia, conferred on him the right of
citizenship for himself and his children, an enactment that later
became national; and so Lafayette became an American citizen in legal
form as well as in spirit. How little did he think that this right
would become so precious a boon to him and would be so sorely needed!

The bust in the Hotel de Ville was destroyed at the time of the Terror;
and the day came soon after when nearly all that remained to the "Hero
of Two Worlds" was a certificate of citizenship in a country to which he
was not native, while the owner of the certificate, because of his
principles, was hurried from prison to prison. In 1784 he was riding on
the high tide of success and popularity, but tragic days were soon to
come in the life of America's loyal friend.

Lafayette took his farewell of Congress at Trenton, New Jersey, where
it was then in session. The scene was dignified and affecting. It was
at the close of this ceremony that Lafayette pronounced that wish--one
might call it a prayer--which has been so often quoted.

"May this immense Temple of Freedom ever stand a lesson to oppressors,
an example to the oppressed, and a sanctuary for the rights of
mankind! And may these happy United States attain that complete
splendor and prosperity which will illustrate the blessings of their
government, and in ages to come rejoice the departed souls of their
founders."

Following his return from America at this time, Lafayette made a long
tour through Germany and Austria. His purpose was to improve himself,
he said, by the inspection of famous fields of battle, by conversation
with the greatest generals, and by the sight of well-trained troops.
He visited Frederick the Great who, in the eyes of the exquisite
Frenchman, presented a most untidy appearance in a dirty uniform
covered over with Spanish snuff. He saw him review thirty-one
battalions and seventy-five squadrons, thirty thousand men in all, and
he admired the "perfectly regular machine wound up for forty years" by
which they clicked off their movements. At the table of Frederick,
Lafayette ate, at one time, with Cornwallis on one side and the son of
the king of England on the other; on which occasion the Prussian
despot indelicately amused himself by plying the young soldier with
questions about