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This morning he was to receive them at his house, and his own family, with one or two personal friends, had been invited to witness the interview. Madame de Lasteyrie was soon followed by her daughters, and in a few moments I found myself shaking some very pretty hands, and smiled upon by some very pretty faces.
Arrived at the Mairie, they made Jules de Lasteyrie, Lafayette's grandson, president pro tempore, and proceeded to pass a decree deposing Louis Bonaparte. Scarcely was this done when a battalion of cavalry arrived, and the legislators soon perceived that they were prisoners. After a great deal of altercation with the soldiers, they were marched off to a barrack-yard on the Quai d'Orsay.
They snatched up the last leaves of paper; the pens failed; M. de Luynes wrote to his wife a letter in pencil. There were no wafers; they were forced to send the letters unsealed; some soldiers offered to post them. M. Chambolle's son, who had accompanied his father thus far, undertook to take the letters addressed to Mesdames de Luynes, de Lasteyrie, and Duvergier de Hauranne.
The two dogs a beautiful little fox-terrier and a fine collie went nearly mad, barking and yapping every time the couple appeared their excitement reaching a climax when the actors came in and stretched themselves out on each side of the door, having finally divined the word mat. The dogs made such frantic dashes at them that M. and Mme. de Lasteyrie had to carry them off bodily.
The next morning I went for a walk with M. de Lasteyrie. We strolled up and down the "Allée des Soupirs," so called in remembrance of one of the early chatelaines who trailed her mourning robes and widow's veil over the fallen leaves, bemoaning her solitude until a favoured suitor appeared on the scene and carried her away to his distant home but the Allée still retains its name.
One December morning, in 1870, when the house was full of German troops, Madame de Lasteyrie was awakened by a noise under the archway, and looking out of her window saw, in the dim light, the two guns being carried off by the German soldiers.
We found the family Marquis and Marquise de Lasteyrie and their two sons waiting at the hall door. There is something in perfectly well-bred French people of a certain class that one never sees in any other nationality. Such refinement and charm of manner a great desire to put every one at their ease and to please the person with whom they are thrown for the moment.
She took the arm of Jules de Lasteyrie; and on her sons being separated from her in the narrow passages, she showed the greatest anxiety, crying, "My boys! my boys!" At one time the Comte de Paris was seized by a workman in a blouse; but one of the National Guard took him out of his hands, and the child was passed from one to another till he rejoined his mother.
Distinguished people from all countries came there, anxious to see the great champion of liberty; among them many Americans, who always found a gracious, cordial welcome; one silent guest a most curious episode which I will give in the words of the Marquis de Lasteyrie: "One American, however, in Lafayette's own time, came on a lonely pilgrimage to La Grange; he was greeted with respect, but of that greeting he took no heed.
His second daughter, Virginia, married Monsieur de Lasteyrie, a young gentleman of eminent literary attainments; and who distinguished himself, also, as an officer in the French army, during the reign of Napoleon; particularly in the campaign of Jena, Eylau, Friedland, &c.
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