régime made it clear he was no more welcome in France than in Austria. His fervor for constitutional, republican rule threatened the New Directory as much as it had the Austrian emperor. Napoléon himself saw Lafayette as a threat to his own growing popularity. The French and the Austrians soon agreed that the solution lay in exiling Lafayette from Europe in America. They opened negotiations with Robert Parish, the American consul at Hamburg, then an independent city state with commercial ties to the United States and an important funnel for American trade to midcontinent countries like Prussia and Austria with no formal relations with the United States. Gouverneur Morris was in Hamburg on business and helped Parish negotiate America’s agreement to receive “the entire caravan of La Fayettes, wife, children and their companions” at the consulate and assure their departure within twelve days—presumably to America. 44
On September 19, 1797, five years and a month after the Austrians had taken Lafayette prisoner and twenty-three months after Adrienne, Anastasie, and Virginie had joined him, an Austrian major led the Lafayette family and their friends out of Olmütz on the road to Hamburg, four hundred miles to the northwest. Crowds hailed them along the way with cheers, flowers, and expressions of sympathy. Messengers intercepted them with pleas from Paris Fayettistes to return and seize power from the Directory. “I might have exploited popular enthusiasm, the devotion of the National Guard and all that for my own profit,” he recalled, but he was unwilling to violate his principles by seizing power unconstitutionally. 45
Two weeks later, the caravan reached the banks of the Elbe River, across from Hamburg. To his and his family’s amazement, American ships clogged the harbor, with flags flying high in his honor. An American captain invited them to dine on board, and it was late afternoon before American sailors rowed them from the ship to the Hamburg side of the river. Robert Parish stood in front of a cheering crowd to greet them and lead them to the consulate, where the two Lafayettes collapsed on a sofa and sobbed uncontrollably. The French knight seemed a broken man. When he finally found the strength to stand, he embraced Parish and sobbed, “My friend, my dearest friend, my deliverer! See the work of your generosity. My poor, poor wife.” Prison life had eroded Adrienne’s beauty and aristocratic bearing. She had not yet turned forty, but her hair had grayed, the hauteur of her cheeks and forehead had collapsed; her once-graceful alabaster limbs had swollen out of shape into thick, scarlet, scabrous appendages. Moved to tears himself, Parish retreated to his study and sent word to Morris, who came with the Austrian minister to effect the official transfer of the prisoners to American custody. 46
The Lafayettes had little rest during the few days permitted them in Hamburg. Lafayette, Maubourg, and Pusy visited the French consul, who offered them Foreign Minister Talleyrand’s promise of passports to France if they pledged allegiance to the New Directory. Once a member of Lafayette’s liberal Society of Thirty, the wily chameleon had survived the Terror by fleeing to America, where he made a small fortune speculating in finance before returning to France to serve Napoléon. Lafayette and the others sent a dutiful message of thanks to Napoléon:
Citizen general,
The prisoners of Olmütz, fortunate in owing their deliverance to the benevolence of their nation and to your irresistible military strength, rejoiced, while in captivity, in the knowledge that their liberty and their lives were tied to the victories of the Republic and to your personal glory. Today, they rejoice in the homage they wish to pay to their liberator. 47
After signing the letter with the others, Lafayette remained true to his principles, however, and refused to swear allegiance to the new government, which had come to power by
On September 19, 1797, five years and a month after the Austrians had taken Lafayette prisoner and twenty-three months after Adrienne, Anastasie, and Virginie had joined him, an Austrian major led the Lafayette family and their friends out of Olmütz on the road to Hamburg, four hundred miles to the northwest. Crowds hailed them along the way with cheers, flowers, and expressions of sympathy. Messengers intercepted them with pleas from Paris Fayettistes to return and seize power from the Directory. “I might have exploited popular enthusiasm, the devotion of the National Guard and all that for my own profit,” he recalled, but he was unwilling to violate his principles by seizing power unconstitutionally. 45
Two weeks later, the caravan reached the banks of the Elbe River, across from Hamburg. To his and his family’s amazement, American ships clogged the harbor, with flags flying high in his honor. An American captain invited them to dine on board, and it was late afternoon before American sailors rowed them from the ship to the Hamburg side of the river. Robert Parish stood in front of a cheering crowd to greet them and lead them to the consulate, where the two Lafayettes collapsed on a sofa and sobbed uncontrollably. The French knight seemed a broken man. When he finally found the strength to stand, he embraced Parish and sobbed, “My friend, my dearest friend, my deliverer! See the work of your generosity. My poor, poor wife.” Prison life had eroded Adrienne’s beauty and aristocratic bearing. She had not yet turned forty, but her hair had grayed, the hauteur of her cheeks and forehead had collapsed; her once-graceful alabaster limbs had swollen out of shape into thick, scarlet, scabrous appendages. Moved to tears himself, Parish retreated to his study and sent word to Morris, who came with the Austrian minister to effect the official transfer of the prisoners to American custody. 46
The Lafayettes had little rest during the few days permitted them in Hamburg. Lafayette, Maubourg, and Pusy visited the French consul, who offered them Foreign Minister Talleyrand’s promise of passports to France if they pledged allegiance to the New Directory. Once a member of Lafayette’s liberal Society of Thirty, the wily chameleon had survived the Terror by fleeing to America, where he made a small fortune speculating in finance before returning to France to serve Napoléon. Lafayette and the others sent a dutiful message of thanks to Napoléon:
Citizen general,
The prisoners of Olmütz, fortunate in owing their deliverance to the benevolence of their nation and to your irresistible military strength, rejoiced, while in captivity, in the knowledge that their liberty and their lives were tied to the victories of the Republic and to your personal glory. Today, they rejoice in the homage they wish to pay to their liberator. 47
After signing the letter with the others, Lafayette remained true to his principles, however, and refused to swear allegiance to the new government, which had come to power by
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