mountain and valley spread before him, he made a striking, not easily forgotten, picture.  The head, lightly thrown back, with its wavy, sandy hair worn short, and the finely chiselled profile were cameo-like in their classical regularity.  The lithe, meagre form, well dressed in blackcloth coat and knee breeches, white waistcoat and ruffles of finest linen, black silk stockings and silver-buckled shoes, was energetic, graceful, and well proportioned.  With such a physique it was not wonderful that Mr. Jefferson was famous as shot, horseman, and athlete, even among such noted sportsmen as Virginia could boast of by the score in the latter part of the eighteenth century.  Suddenly he lowered his head and, withdrawing his gaze from the mountains, looked about him with an impatient little sigh.

“I am a savage!  Savage enough to prefer the woods and streams and independence of my Monticello to all the brilliant pleasures which Paris will offer me.  I could find it in my heart to wish that Congress had never urged upon me this mission abroad.  But I have always tried to serve my country at my country’s call, and I shall continue to serve her, though it take me from home and family and friends.  Instead of repining at this exile to France—­for how long I do not know—­I should be thankful for this last beautiful evening at Monticello and for the friends who are come to bid me farewell.  I wonder that the Marquis does not arrive.  I have much of importance to discuss with him.”

Mr. Jefferson had no greater admirer than the Marquis de Lafayette, whose arrival he so impatiently awaited.  He had affairs of weight to talk over with the young Frenchman—­letters of introduction to statesmen with whom Lafayette was most intimate, notes on commercial affairs of France, messages to friends, drafts on bankers in Paris, and a host of details on the present state of politics in France with which he wished to become acquainted before presenting himself at the French court, and which Lafayette, but lately returned from France, could amply furnish him.  And after business should have been finished, Mr. Jefferson was looking forward with keen delight to all that the observant, cultured young nobleman might have to tell him of the progress in the Parisian world of sciences, art, and music (for Mr. Jefferson was an amateur of music), and of those adventures which had attended his triumphal return to America.  ’Twas at General Washington’s invitation that Monsieur de Lafayette was re-visiting, after only three years’ absence, the greatful states where he had first, and so gloriously, embarked in the cause of liberty, and the warmth of his welcome at Mount Vernon—­where indeed Mr. Jefferson’s note, inviting him to Monticello, reached him—­would alone have repaid him for the long journey had all other honors been denied him.  But his progress through the states had been one triumph, marked by lavish fetes and civic parades, not so magnificent, it is true, as those tendered him on his last visit