He Began, It Seems, In Rather A Bullying Manner,
In The Presence Of The Commissioners, To Declaim Against What He
Called the
perfidy and mutiny of the French army against their lawful Sovereign; when
the venerable Lafayette, who was one
Of the commissioners and who is ever
foremost when his country has need of his assistance, remarked to him that
the English revolution in 1688, which the English were accustomed always to
stile glorious, and which he (Lafayette) stiled glorious also, was
effectuated in a similar manner by the British army abandoning King James
and ranging themselves under the standard of the Prince of Orange; that if
it was a crime on the part of the French army to join Napoleon, their
ancient leader who had led them so often to victory, it was a still greater
crime on the part of the English army to go over to the Prince of Orange
who was unknown to them and a foreigner in the bargain; and that therefore
this blame of the French army, coming from the mouth of an Englishman,
surprised him, the more so as the Duke of Marlborough, the boast and pride
of the English, set the example of defection from his Sovereign, who had
been his greatest benefactor. Lord S[tewart], who did not appear to be at
all conscious of this part of our history, was staggered, a smile was
visible on the countenances of all the foreign diplomatists assembled
there, and Lord S[tewart], to hide his confusion, and with an ill-disguised
anger, turned to Lafayette and said that the Allies would not treat until
Napoleon should be delivered to them.
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