The municipality had assigned M.de La Fayette as its head--nor could it have chosen better: an honest people, directed by its instinct, could not have selected a man who would represent it more faithfully.
XXII.
The marquis de La Fayette was a patrician, possessor of an immense fortune, and allied, through his wife, daughter of the Duc d'Ayen, with the greatest families of the court.

Born at Chavaignac in Auvergne on the 6th of September, 1757, married at sixteen years of age, a precocious instinct of renown drove him in 1777 from his own country.

It was at the period of the war of Independence in America; the name of Washington resounded throughout the two continents.

A youth dreamed the same destiny for himself in the delights of the effeminate court of Louis XV.; that youth was La Fayette.

He privately fitted out two vessels with arms and provisions, and arrived at Boston.