Gazette Of The United States

Interesting particulars of Madame La Fayette.

A little work by a M. Maréchal, lately published in Germany. under the title of " Quelques Reflections sur les Fugitifs Français, " has produced a very considerable sensation. It is spoken of by M. Archenholtz. the author of Minerva, ' with high praise. After making a very just distinction between those emigrants, who, animated by foolish ambition, and blind attachment to the ancient system, led only to stir up foreign powers against their native land, and those men who fled only to save themselves from the horrors of the mountain, he makes a very sensible reflection on the present posture of things:

" In the mean time the war against France continues without interruption. The united powers persist in their projects against the French revolution ; some of its first and most illustrious authors till groan in the prisons of Olmutz; and it appears by their long and cruel captivity, that their oppressors still wish to wage war against liberty. while the king of Prussia, brought back to justice by the voice of true policy. has delivered one of these interesting victims, Alexander Lameth. The narrow limits of German liberty (says M. Archenholtz) restrain me from saying all-that I feel on the subject; but there is one fact which I ought to reveal for the sake of every feeling heart:

The journey of Madame de la Fayette to Vienna, was mentioned in the journals in the month of October last. The Emperor gave her a kind reception, and permitted her to go to Olmutz, to attend her husband and to soften his doom. She flew thither, and arrived with her two daughters, the one 18, the other 16 years of age.. They were all searched with the most scrupulous care, and then thrown, as if they had been malefactors into the depth of the dungeon, where M. de la Fayette was immured ; and, from that moment to the present, the fate of that unhappy man has been theirs ! deprived of exercise, of air, of all communication with the living, this virtuous lady and her two beautiful daughters find the same horrors in Germany, which they suffered under the irons of the jacobins in France! What a fate is theirs ! Madame de la Fayette, after 18 months of the most cruel imprisonment in Paris ; after having by a miracle escaped the scaffold upon which all her family were immolated, she traverses the sea to Hamburg, arrives at Vienna, is favourably received by the Emperor, is allowed by his sanction to Olmutz, and finds herself plunged to the bottom of a dungeon!

" Surely this must be without the knowledge of the Emperor : but this act of barbarity is committed under the name of a prince with the warm affections of a youth, and who enjoys the character of humanity !"

The German writer concludes with a generous sentiment : " How dismal, then, is the destiny of sovereigns! they are always deceived ! The greatest talents, and the genius even of the Great Frederic himself, which embraced everything, could not protect him against this unhappy lot, necessarily common to all kings."