was a bold plan, but the bolder the plan, the more unexpected
it was, and the better chance of success. Every day he would watch for
them along the road.

After securing this definite information, the doctor retired to Vienna
to make further plans.

This account may be in some respects the later elaboration of a story
many times retold. But it sounds probable. At any rate, in some such
way Dr. Bollman gained communication with Lafayette's cell, and
brought the welcome news that friends were working for him. Then they
projected a plan.

The story is again taken up in a coffeehouse in Vienna where Bollman
is accustomed to go. Lafayette has suggested an assistant, and Bollman
realizes that he can do nothing without one. Therefore he is looking
about to find one who shall have spirit and fitness for the work. We
see him now at the supper table, eagerly conversing with a certain
young American, like himself a medical student on his travels.
Curiously enough, it is Francis Kinloch Huger, now twenty-one years
old. They talk of America. Bollman, with elaborate inadvertence,
touches on the personality of Lafayette. The young man relates his
childish memory of the arrival of that enthusiastic youth when he
first came ashore at his father's South Carolina country place.
Bollman tests Huger in various ways and makes up his mind that this is
the best possible person to help him. He broaches the subject. Young
Huger is only too ready--this very enterprise has been his dearest
thought and his dream. The danger does not daunt him. "He did not let
the grass grow under his feet," said his daughter years later, "but
accepted at once."

It was not, however, purely romantic sentiment with him; he did not
accede on the impulse of a moment. "I felt it to be my duty to give him
all the aid in my power," said Colonel Huger to Josiah Quincy many years
later. And though he may not have been conscious of it at the time,
there was still another reason, for he admitted, long afterwards, "I
simply considered myself the representative of the young men of America
and acted accordingly."

The story may here be taken up almost in the words of Colonel Huger's
daughter who wrote it down exactly as her father related it.

[Illustration: FRANCIS KINLOCH HUGER.
This bas-relief, by the sculptor R. Tait McKenzie, shows the
brave young American who, with Dr. Bollman, attempted to
rescue Lafayette from the great fortress of Olmuetz.]

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