In September following it fell to him to write to Mr.Gallatin on the occasion of the marriage of Gallatin's daughter.

In this union Lafayette had a triple interest.
Besides his personal attachment for Mr.Gallatin, each of the young couple was descended from one of his old companions-in-arms.

The groom, Mr.Byam Kerby Stevens, was a son of Colonel Ebenezer Stevens, of the continental service, who was Lafayette's chief of artillery in his expedition against Arnold in Virginia, in the spring of 1781; the bride, Frances Gallatin, was, on the mother's side, the granddaughter of Commodore James Nicholson, who commanded the gunboats which, improvised by Colonel Stevens, drove out the British vessels from Annapolis Bay and opened the route to the blockaded American flotilla.[22] "PARIS, _September_ 8, 1830.
"MY DEAR FRIEND:--A long time has elapsed since I had the pleasure to hear from you.

I need not, I hope, add, that my affectionate feelings have been continually with you, especially in what related to my young friend whose change of name has more deeply interested every member, and in a very particular manner, the younger part of the family.

Let me hear of you all, and receive my tender regards and wishes, with those of my children and grandchildren.
LAFAYETTE." Both of the young people had the honor of Lafayette's acquaintance,--Mr.
Stevens during a visit to Paris, and Miss Gallatin during her father's residence there as minister, when she was much admired, and was, in the words of Madame Bonaparte (Miss Patterson), 'a beauty.' In this letter Lafayette gives a picturesque account of the three days' fighting at the barricades, and of the departure of the ex-king and the royal army, accompanied by "some twenty thousand Parisians, in coaches, hacks, and omnibus....