the King to take the place of the French troops, whom he distrusted.
Lafayette joined with the National Assembly, and then and there proposed
to it the first draft of that French Declaration of Rights for which he
had prophetically left a space on the wall of his home. The essence of
his draft lies in the following extract: "No man can be subject to any
laws, excepting those which have received the assent of himself or his
representatives, and which are promulgated beforehand and applied
legally. The principle of all sovereignty resides in the nation."

On July 14, 1789, the storm broke. The gigantic fortress of the Bastile
which for ages had reared its menacing head among the people of Paris, a
terrible engine of despotic military autocracy, was attacked and taken
by the mob. M. De Launay, its Governor, was killed by a bayonet thrust,
and his head cut from his body and carried through the streets upon a
pitchfork. "And in this bloody manner, into those dungeons where
thousands had wasted away, often without trial and with no knowledge of
the charges against them, liberty sent her first ray of sunlight."

"When oppression renders a revolution necessary, insurrection becomes
the holiest of duties," was the ringing message of Lafayette to the
Assembly. The key of the Bastile was given to him as the representative
of freedom in Europe, and together with a sketch of the ruins of that
fortress of despotism, he sent it to George Washington. "It is a
tribute," he wrote, "which I owe, as a son to my adopted father--as an
aide-de-camp to my general--as a missionary of liberty to its
patriarch."

A National Guard, a new army of two hundred thousand citizen soldiers,
was authorized and formed by the National Assembly, both for the
protection of the rights of the people at home and for resistance to
possible foreign aggression. Lafayette, now thirty-two years of age, was
chosen its commander-in-chief. Thus was born democracy in France.

VI

A foreign peasant, from a land of despotic autocracy, who had just
immigrated to the United States, was once haled into one of our police
courts, charged with almost murdering his wife with a club. His defense
was that he now was in a land of liberty and he thought he could do what
he liked. Multiply this by a million-fold and you have the Reign of
Terror, the second chapter of the French Revolution.

"_Aimez les amis du peuple et l'enthousiasme pour la liberte, mais
reservez l'a