s were
then in the full blossom of popularity; but there was no hero in all
those brave tales whose adventures appeared more chivalrous and
thrilling.

To be sure, the effort at rescue had resulted in failure. Lafayette
remained in prison. But it was known where he was, and, what was
better, word had been conveyed to him that he was not forgotten. Yet
the conditions of his imprisonment were now more severe than before,
and his mind must have suffered intensely from being thrown back upon
itself after that one hour's prospect of liberty.

On the way from Wesel to Magdeburg Lafayette had had a moment's
conversation with a stranger who told him something of what was
happening in Paris, and of the lawlessness and carnage of the Reign of
Terror. Lafayette saw to what lengths an unregulated mob might go,
even when originally inspired by a noble passion for liberty. He heard
of the death of Louis XVI, and called it an assassination. He realized
that these things were being done in France by the people in whom he
had so blindly, so persistently, believed. He was deeply disappointed.
Yet he did not quite lose faith. The cause of the people was still
sacred to him; they might destroy for him whatever charm there had
been in what he called the "delicious sensation of the smile of the
multitude"; but his belief in the ultimate outcome for democratic
government, as the best form of government for the whole world,
remained unchanged.

And in the prison at Olmuetz he celebrated our great holiday, the
Fourth of July, as usual.

CHAPTER XVII

A WELCOME RELEASE

More than a year had passed after the attempt at rescue when one day
Lafayette heard the big keys turning in the several locks, one after
another, that barred his cell, and in a moment his wife and two
daughters stood before his amazed eyes! Could this be true, or was it
a vision?

It will be remembered that shortly after Lafayette's arrest he had
heard that Madame de Lafayette was imprisoned and was in danger of
perishing on the scaffold. A year later the news was smuggled to him
that she was still alive. But what had been happening to her and to
his three children during all these dismal years?

Through the instrumentality of James Monroe, the ambassador to France
from the United States,--the only foreign power that in the days of
the French Revolution would send its representative,--Madame de
Lafayette was liberated from an imprisonment that tried her soul,