American affairs. One wonders if in all his travels
Lafayette caught any glimpse on the horizon of a certain grim fortress
wherein, because of his hatred of despots like Frederick, fate decreed
that he was to be immured for five long years.

CHAPTER XIV

GATHERING CLOUDS

The great storm of the French Revolution was now to appear on the
horizon, climb to its height, and break in terror over France. During
these years, from 1784 to 1792, Lafayette was for most of the time in
Paris where he took part in events of great importance and in such a
way as to command respect from those who sympathized with his liberal
ideas and to win detraction from devotees of monarchial systems.

At first, however, no one dreamed what the future held for France.
Lafayette busied himself in doing what he could to further the affairs
of the United States, turning his attention to commercial questions
such as he had never supposed would interest him. Whale-oil, for
instance, became a favorite subject with him; his services on behalf
of that American industry were acknowledged by the seagoing people of
Nantucket who sent him a gigantic, five-hundred-pound cheese, the
product of scores of farms, as a testimonial of their appreciation.

A cause that interested him intensely was slavery. His views on this
subject he summed up in 1786 in a letter to John Adams:

"In the cause of my black brethren I feel myself warmly interested, and
most decidedly side, so far as respects them, against the white part of
mankind. Whatever be the complexion of the enslaved, it does not, in my
opinion, alter the complexion of the crime which the enslaver commits, a
crime much blacker than any African face. It is to me a matter of great
anxiety and concern, to find that this trade is sometimes carried on
under the flag of liberty, our dear and noble stripes, to which virtue
and glory have been constant standard-bearers."

Lafayette not only had a lofty sentiment about the condition of the
slaves, but he put his theory into practice by buying at great expense
an estate in Cayenne, or French Guiana, with a large number of slaves
whom he put under a system of education, with the intention of making
them free as soon as they were fitted for economic independence.
Madame de Lafayette interested herself in the management of this
estate; she provided pastors and teachers to go to Cayenne as
missionaries and educators.

The experiment was going on well when th