or services
rendered to me by the Marquis de Lafayette, of which I never yet
have received the account. I could add much; but it is best,
perhaps, that I should say little on this subject. Your goodness
will supply my deficiency.

"The uncertainty of your situation, after all the inquiries I have
made, has occasioned a delay in this address and remittance; and,
even now, the measure adopted is more the effect of a desire to
find where you are, than from any knowledge I have obtained of your
residence."

Soon after this letter was despatched, Washington received one from the
marchioness, dated at Chavaniac on the eighth of October, 1792, which
came by the way of England. It was accompanied by a letter from an
English farmer who had resided several months in the family of
Lafayette, in which, speaking of the marchioness, he said: "Her present
situation is truly affecting; separated from her husband without the
means of hearing from him, herself in captivity under the safeguard of
the municipality, she is anxiously expecting the decision of his and her
own destiny. Under these circumstances, she relies on your influence to
adopt such measures as may effectuate their mutual freedom."

The marchioness was then a prisoner, in utter ignorance of the real fate
of her husband. She had been commanded by the Jacobins to repair to
Paris about the time when the attack was made upon the Tuilleries and
the destruction of the Swiss guard; but they subsequently allowed her to
reside at the place from which her letter was dated. In that letter she
made a solemn appeal to Washington and the nation to aid her in
procuring the liberty of her husband. "He was taken by the troops of the
emperor," she said, "although the king of Prussia retains him a prisoner
in his dominions. And while he suffers this inconceivable persecution
from the enemies without, the faction which reigns within keeps me a
hostage at one hundred and twenty leagues from the capital. Judge, then,
at what distance I am from him. In this abyss of misery, the idea of
owing to the United States and to Washington the life and liberty of M.
de Lafayette kindles a ray of hope in my heart. I hope everything from
the goodness of the people with whom he has set an example of that
liberty of which he is now made the victim. And shall I dare speak what
I hope? I would ask of them through you for an envoy, who shall go to
reclaim him in t