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the equipment of Count Rochambeau and his troops for American service, Lafayette once more set sail across the Atlantic, not this time as a fugitive under attainder of high treason, but on board of a frigate which the King of France had given to him for his passage. At the entrance of the port of Boston, on the 27th April, 1780, Lafayette wrote to General Washington :

“I am here, my dear General, joyful at once more finding myself one of your faithful soldiers. ... The day after to-morrow I shall start to join my beloved and reverend General and friend, who will easily recognize the hand of his young soldier. Adieu."*

*Correspondance, 1780. P. 231.

CHAPTER IV.

Jean Baptiste, Count de Rochambeau-His early life in cloister, camp, and court-Count Rochambeau in America-Rochambeau, George Washington, and Lafayette -Rochambeau's letter to Lafayette-The Abbé Robin's description of Boston in the eighteenth century-Religious sects and the sabbath in Boston, 1780-Change in the War and Marine ministry at Versailles-Queen Marie Antoinette and Cabinet Ministers' wives-The Queen nominates a new War Minister-The Queen is opposed by Count de Maurepas-The Queen's complaint to the Duchesse de Polignac-The Queen opposes the King's Prime Minister-A short-lived strong government at Versailles-The Queen's Bonté Incorrigible— Necker's Reforms-Necker's "Account Rendered "Necker's enemies-Original pamphlet against NeckerThe Count d'Artois at the Temple-Turgot's letter against Necker-Charges against Necker-Necker resigns-Malignity of Maurepas-Necker exiled-Portraits of Necker, of his wife, and of his daughter, by Madame de GenlisGrand assembly of the clergy in Paris-Religious revivals in Paris-Pope Clement XIV. and Pope Pius VI.-Letter

of Pope Clement XIV. to a Protestant minister—A Scotch fanatic's attempt to convert the Pope—Contemporary sketches of Pope Pius VI.-Voltaire's letter on the necessity of religion for the people-Contemporary caricature of Voltaire and Rousseau-Social effects of their opinions in 1781-Demand in France for social equality-The Queen takes her daughter to see Nun Louise.

JEAN BAPTISTE, Count de Rochambeau, who, in 1780, was in command of the auxiliary corps sent out by France to the United States of America, was born in 1725, at Vendôme, where his father was Governor. Jean Baptiste was a younger son; and, as such, was destined for the priesthood, whilst his elder brother followed their father's career of arms. Jean Baptiste had been taught to obey. Church creed and old régime family custom left little room for self-will in France in the middle of the eighteenth century; therefore, Jean Baptiste was literally just about to submit to the tonsure at the hands of the Bishop of Blois, when news arrived that his elder brother was dead. The Bishop stopped his scissors. The Church had lost a priest; the State had gained a soldier, who would command others none the worse for having himself learned and practised the lessons of obedience. The

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Bishop improved the occasion; his homily was not lost, although its original intention was reversed.

"Now," said he to Jean Baptiste, "you must serve your King and country with the same zeal with which you would have served God and the Church." From the tutelage of the Bishop of Blois, young Count de Rochambeau was removed to that of Marshal Saxe.

It was war time. Louis XV. was then the "Well Beloved" of his people, and the hero of Flanders. Marshal Saxe was fighting for the King of France. The camp was a stirring change to young Rochambeau, who had been reared in monastic seclusion; but he carried the best lessons of his youth into the camp, and practised them there.*

His name is honourably mentioned by Marshal Saxe, in his dispatches after the siege of Namur. One day Rochambeau climbed a height

*The brave and brilliant, but dissolute, Duc de Lauzun says of him, "He never spoke but of war-facts. In the plain, in your chamber, on your table, on your snuff-box, if you only drew it forth from your pocket, de Rochambeau was always ready to execute military mauœuvres. He was exclusively full of his vocation." De Rochambeau, faithful to the Cross and to the Crown, was a rebuke to de Lauzun, who-true to his time --was constant to neither.

to reconnoitre, and found only two of the enemy's sentinels, who were sleeping. He hastened to impart this intelligence to the Count de Clermont, who profited by it to make a sudden and seasonable attack, and Namur was taken. Throughout the various sieges of that war, Rochambeau distinguished himself. After the peace of Aix-laChapelle, he married, and appeared at the Court of Versailles, whither his fame in the camp had preceded him. Old Marshal Belleisle, the veteran of the French army, the military adviser of Louis XV. in this, the most brilliant part of his reign, and the political tutor of Madame de Pompadour, had sounded Rochambeau's praises at Versailles, declaring that he was the example of the garrison.

The young Count's wounds, his narrow escape from being a priest, and his recent marriage, all added to the eager expectation which awaited him at Versailles; but he was not popular there. His monastic education had not prepared him to shine in a court where badinage was in vogue, where the gay Abbé de Bernis introduced the most serious considerations to the King's notice under the form of brilliant metaphor, where Voltaire wrote plays