After all, it may be said that a passing civility of this sort involved but little trouble, and was more a matter of good-breeding than anything else.  Let us look, then, at another and widely different case.  Of all the men whom the fortunes of war brought across Washington’s path there was none who became dearer to him than Lafayette, for the generous, high-spirited young Frenchman, full of fresh enthusiasm and brave as a lion, appealed at once to Washington’s heart.  He quickly admitted him to his confidence, and the excellent service of Lafayette in the field, together with his invaluable help in securing the French alliance, deepened and strengthened the sympathy and affection which were entirely reciprocal.  After Lafayette departed, a constant correspondence was maintained; and when the Bastille fell, it was to Washington that Lafayette sent its key, which still hangs on the wall of Mt.  Vernon.  As Lafayette rose rapidly to the dangerous heights of revolutionary leadership, he had at every step Washington’s advice and sympathy.  Then the tide turned; he fell headlong from power, and brought up in an Austrian prison.  From that moment Washington spared no pains to help his unhappy friend, although his own position was one of extreme difficulty.  Lafayette was not only the proscribed exile of one country, but also the political prisoner of another, and the President could not compromise the United States at that critical moment by showing too much interest in the fate of his unhappy friend.  He nevertheless went to the very edge of prudence in trying to save him, and the ministers of the United States were instructed to use every private effort to secure Lafayette’s release, or at least the mitigation of his confinement.  All these attempts failed, but Washington was more successful in other directions.  He sent money to Madame de Lafayette, who was absolutely beggared at the moment, and represented to her that it was in settlement of an account which he owed the marquis.  When Lafayette’s son and his own namesake came to this country for an asylum, he had him cared for in Boston and New York by his personal friends; George Cabot in the one case, and Hamilton in the other.  As soon as public affairs made it proper for him to do it, he took the lad into his own household, treated him like a son, and kept him near him until events permitted the boy to return to Europe and rejoin his father.  The sufferings and dangers of Lafayette and his family were indeed a source of great unhappiness to Washington, and we have the authority of Bradford, his attorney-general, that when the President attempted to talk about Lafayette he was so much affected that he shed tears,—­a very rare exhibition of emotion in a man so intensely reserved.