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[Illustration: LA FAYETTE AND THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR.]




ST. NICHOLAS.

Vol. XIII.      JULY, 1886.      No. 9.

[Copyright, 1886, by THE CENTURY CO.]

LA FAYETTE.

By Mrs. Eugenia M. Hodge.


One hundred and nine years ago, in the month of February, 1777, a young
French guardsman ran away to sea.

And a most singular running away it was. He did not wish to be a sailor,
but he was so anxious to go that he bought a ship to run away in,--for he
was a very wealthy young man; and though he was only nineteen, he held a
commission as major-general in the armies of a land three thousand miles
away--a land he had never seen and