e commencement of a confidence with which he has
since continued to treat me, and of a more intimate knowledge of the
amiable features and simple integrity of his character, that has greatly
added to my respect. No one can be pleasanter in private, and he is full
of historical anecdotes, that he tells with great simplicity, and
frequently with great humour. The cabinet contains many portraits, and,
among others, one of Madame de Stael, and one of his own father. The
former I am assured is exceedingly like; it is not the resemblance of a
very fascinating woman. In the latter I find more resemblance to some of
the grandchildren than to the son, although there is something about the
shape of the head that is not unlike that of Lafayette's.

General Lafayette never knew his father, who was killed, when he was
quite an infant, at the battle of Minden. I believe the general was an
only child, for I have never heard him speak of any brother or sister,
nor indeed of any relative at all, as I can remember, on his own side,
though he often alludes to the connexions he made by his marriage. I
asked him how his father happened to be styled the _Comte_ de Lafayette,
and he to be called the _Marquis_. He could not tell me: his grandfather
was the _Marquis_ de Lafayette, his father the _Comte_, and he again was
termed the _Marquis_. "I know very little about it," said be, "beyond
this: I found myself a little _Marquis_, as I grew to know anything, and
boys trouble themselves very little about such matters; and then I soon
got tired of the name after I went to America. I cannot explain all the
foolish distinctions of the feudal times, but I very well remember that
when I was quite a boy, I had the honour to go through the ceremony of
appointing the _cure_ of a very considerable town in Auvergne, of which
I was the Seigneur. My conscience has been quite easy about the
nomination, however, as my guardians must answer for the sin, if there
be any."

I was at a small dinner given by the Comte de Segur, just before we went
to Lagrange, and at which General Lafayette and M. Alexander de Lameth
were also guests. The three had served in America, all of them having
been colonels while little more than boys. In the course of the
conversation, M. de Lameth jokingly observed that the Americans paid the
greater deference to General Lafayette because he was a _Marquis_. For a
long time there had been but one Marquis in England (Lord Rockingham),
an