At the time of his passion for the celebrated actress he was very young, and the subsequent course of a busy life spent in seeking honorable distinction where liberty and duty led the way, fully demonstrates the problem, that the greatest capacity for active life is not inconsistent with the strongest susceptibility. Although in common with most of his country-men who had served here, he zealously favored the most extensive reforms at home, and even upon its first appearance welcomed the approach of the revolution which swept over his native land, yet he opposed with zeal the total subversion of the ancient Gallic institutions, avowing himself an advocate

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for royal government limited by parliamentary representations both popular and aristocratic, and equally removed from absolute monarchy on the one hand and anarchy on the other. The tyranny of the demagogues of Paris and the frantic excesses of the people afterward convinced him that honor and duty called for active support to the tottering edifice of royalty; and thenceforward, while life remained, he continued to rally up the royalists of Brittany and La Vendée for a struggle against anarchy. Although among those with whom he then acted many were his equals in rank and some his superiors, yet all, recognizing his remarkable abilities, sub-mitted cheerfully to his guidance, and spoke of and considered him to the last, as a man born to command. In his writings, Washington repeatedly bears testimony to the extraordinary merits and devotedness of the French legionary commander. The fact that he secured the confidence and friendship and received the praises of one who rarely uttered eulogy and was never mistaken in his estimate of men, cannot fail to add much, always, to the weight of La Rouërie's reputation. His cor-respondence with Washington was carried on almost to the end of his life.