Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, December, 1861 | Page 2

luxuries of
rainy, muddy Paris, lined with stores that you cannot help lingering
over, if for nothing else, to wonder at the fertility of the human brain
when it makes itself the willing minister of human caprice--covers the
whole space which the hotel stood on, and unites the Neuve St. Marc
with the once distant Boulevard.
As I passed the porter's lodge, he handed me a letter. The hand was one
that I had never seen before; the address was in French; and the seal,
red wax thinly spread, but something which had been put on it before it
was cool had entirely effaced the impress: as I afterwards learned, it
was the profile of Washington. I opened it, and judge my surprise and
delight on reading the following words:--
"Paris, Thursday.
"I am very sorry not to have had the pleasure to see you when you have
called this morning, my dear Sir. My stay in town will be short. But
you will find me to-morrow from nine in the morning until twelve. I
hope we shall see you soon at La Grange, which I beg of you to
consider as your home, being that of your grandfather's most intimate
friend and brother-in-arms.
"LAFAYETTE."
It was nearly eleven when I reached the Rue d'Anjou and began for the
first time to mount the broad stairway of a Parisian palace. The

General's apartments were on the entresol, with a separate staircase
from the first landing of the principal one; for his lameness made it
difficult for him to go up-stairs, and the entresol, a half-story between
the ground floor and the first story, when, as was the case here, high
enough in the ceiling, is one of the freest and pleasantest parts of a
French house. His apartments comprised five rooms on a line,--an
antechamber, a dining-room, two parlors, and a bed-room, with
windows on the street,--and the same number of smaller rooms on a
parallel line, with their windows on the court-yard, which served for his
secretary and servants. The furniture throughout was neat and plain: the
usual comfortable arm-chairs and sofas, the indispensable clock and
mirror over the mantelpiece, and in each fireplace a cheerful wood-fire.
There were two or three servants in the antechamber, well-dressed, but
not in livery; and in the parlor, into which I was shown on handing my
card, two or three persons waiting for an audience. Fortunately for me,
they were there on business, and the business was soon despatched; and
passing, in turn, into the reception parlor, I found myself in the
presence of the friend of Washington and my grandfather.
He received me so cordially, with such kind inquiries into the object
and cause of my journey, such a fatherly interest in my plans and aims,
such an earnest repetition of the invitation he had given me in his note
to look upon La Grange as my home, that I felt at once that I was no
longer without a guide and protector in a foreign land. It was some time
before I could observe him closely enough to get a just idea of his
appearance; for I had never before been consciously in the presence of
a man who had filled so many pages of real history, and of the history
which above all others I was most interested in. I felt as if a veil had
been suddenly lifted, and the great men I had read of and dreamed of
were passing before me. There were the features which, though
changed, had so often called up a smile of welcome to the lips of
Washington; there was the man who had shared with my grandfather
the perils of the Brandywine and Monmouth, the long winter
encampment, and the wearisome summer march; the man whom
Napoleon had tried all the fascinations of his art upon, and failed to lure
him from his devotion to the cause of freedom; whom Marat and
Robespierre had marked out for destruction, and kings and emperors
leagued against in hatred and fear. It was more like a dream than a

reality, and for the first twenty minutes I was almost afraid to stir for
fear I might wake up and find the vision gone. But when I began to
look at him as a being of real flesh and blood, I found that Ary
Scheffer's portrait had not deceived me. Features, expression, carriage,
all were just as it had taught me to expect them, and it seemed to me as
if I had always known him. The moment I felt this I began to feel at my
ease; and though I never entirely lost the feeling that I had a living
chapter of history before me, I soon learned to look upon him as a
father.
As