Part 41 (2/2)
”When in the course of human events,” and it marches on in stately tones above the silence of the people. At the words ”all men are created free and equal,” the name of Franklin breaks upon the stillness. Jamie the Scotchman joins in the rising applause, and he proudly turns to Jane Mecom and says:
”Only to think what a friend I was to him, too!”
They return by the Granary burying ground. A tall, gray monument holds their attention. It is one that the people loved to visit then, and that touches the heart to-day. At the foot of the epitaph they read again, as they had done many times before:
_”Their youngest son,_ _in filial regard to their memory,_ _places this stone.”_
”His heart was true to the old folks,” said Jamie.
It was the monument that Benjamin Franklin had erected to his parents.
CHAPTER x.x.xVII.
ANOTHER SIGNATURE.--THE STORY OF AUVERGNE SANS TACHE.
SOME years ago I stood on the battlements of Metz, once a French but now a German town. Below the town, with its grand esplanade, on which is a heroic statue of Marshal Ney, rolls the narrow Moselle, and around it are the remains of fortifications that are old in legend, song, and story.
It was here, near one of these old halls, that a young Frenchman saw, as it were, a vision, and the impression of that hour was never lost, but became a turning point in American history.
There had come a report to the English court that Was.h.i.+ngton had been driven across the Jerseys, and that the American cause was lost.
There was given at this time a military banquet at Metz. The Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III, was present, and among the French officers there was a marquis, lately married, who was a favorite of the French court. He had been brought up in one of the heroic provinces of Auvergne, and he had been a.s.sociated with the heroes of Gatinais, whose motto was _Auvergne sans tache_. The Auvergnese were a pastoral people, distinguished for their courage and honor. In this mountainous district was the native place of many eminent men, among them Polignac.
The young French marquis who was conspicuous at the banquet on this occasion was named Lafayette.
The Duke of Gloucester was in high spirits over his cups on this festal night.
”Our arms are triumphant in America!” he exclaimed. ”Was.h.i.+ngton is retreating across the Jerseys.”
A shout went up with glittering wine-cups: ”So ever flee the enemies of George III!”
”Was.h.i.+ngton!” The name rang in the young French officer's ears. He had in his veins the blood of the mountaineers, and he loved liberty and the spirit of the motto _Auvergne sans tache_.
He may never have heard the name of Was.h.i.+ngton before, or, if he had, only as of an officer who had given Braddock unwelcome advice. But he knew the American cause to be that of liberty, and Was.h.i.+ngton to be the leader of that cause.
And Was.h.i.+ngton ”was retreating across the Jerseys.” Where were the Jerseys? He may never have heard of the country before.
He went out into the air under the moon and stars. There came to him a vision of liberty and a sense of his duty to the cause. The face of America, as it were, appeared to him. ”When first I saw the face of America, I loved her,” he said many years afterward to the American Congress.
Was.h.i.+ngton was driven back in the cause of liberty. Lafayette resolved to cross the seas and to offer Was.h.i.+ngton his sword. He felt that liberty called him--liberty for America, which might mean liberty for France and for all mankind.
About this time Benjamin Franklin began to receive letters from this young officer, filled with the fiery spirit of the mountaineers. The officer desired a commission to go to America and enter the army. But it was a time of disaster, and faith in the American cause was very low.
The marquis resolved to go to America at his own expense.
He sailed for that country in May, 1777. He landed off the coast of the Carolinas in June, and made his memorable ride across the country to Philadelphia in that month. Baron de Kalb accompanied him.
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