(274) The Marquis de La Fayette (1757-1834).  Assisted the Americans in the War of Independence.  While in America he sent a challenge to Lord Carlisle, who refused to fight.  He went home to aid the revolutionists in his own country.  In 1789 he placed before the National Assembly a Declaration of Rights based on Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.  It was he who introduced the tricolor.  The Revolution assuming a character beyond constitutional control, he left Paris in 1790 for his estate until called to the head of the Army of Ardennes.  After gaining the three first victories of the war, finding he could not persuade his soldiers to march to Paris to save the Constitution, he went to Liege, where he was seized by the Austrians.  He was again active in the Revolution of 1830.  He was greatly admired and beloved in America.  In 1824, when in America by invitation of Congress, he was voted 200,000 dollars in money and a township of land.

(275) Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802); statesman, financier, and pamphleteer.  On the 3rd of November, 1783, he was made Controller-General, but lost the post in 1787.  “A man of incredible facility, facile action, facile elocution, facile thought. . . . in her Majesty’s soirees, with the weight of a world lying on him, he is the delight of men and women.” (Carlyle, “French Revolution,” book lii. ch. 11.).

(276) George Bussey, fourth Earl of Jersey (1735-1805).

(277) John, second Earl of Ashburnham (1724-1812).

(278) William Digby, Dean of Clonfert (1766-1812).

(1789, Nov. 21?) Saturday night, Richmond.—­I finished my short note of to-day with saying that I intended to have wrote to you a longer letter, but I sent you all which I had time to write before the post went out.  It is, I think, a curious anecdote, and I know it to be a true one; I was surprised to find that the Duke had heard nothing of it, but I suppose that his Highness the D(uke) of O(rleans) does not find it a very pleasant subject to discuss, and if the allegation be true, no one in history can make a more horrid, and at the same time, a more contemptible figure, for I must give him credit for all which might have been, as well as for what was certainly the consequence of his enterprise.  I hope that, for the future, both he and his friend here will (to use Cardinal Wolsey’s expression) “fling away ambition.  By that sin fell the angels.  How can man then hope to win by it?” And of all men, the least, a Regent.  If I had not been interrupted by the Duke’s coming soon after I received the paper, I should have myself wrote a copy of it for Caroline, because I must not have a Welch Lady left out of the secret of affairs. . . .

The Duke(279) looks surprisingly well.  He came from London on purpose to see us, and intended, I believe, to have stayed, at least to dinner, but H(is) R(oyal) H(ighness) interfered, as he often does with my pleasures; so the Duke dined at Carlton House—­I do not say in such an humble, comfortable society, as with us, but what he likes better, avec des princes, qui sont Princes, sans contredit, mais rien audessus.  All in good time, as Me Piozzi(280) frequently in her book, but what she means by it the Devil knows, nor do I care.  I only say, that her book, with all its absurdities, has amused me more than many others have done which have a much better reputation.