Correspondance inédite de La Fayette : lettres de prison, lettres d'exil (1793-1801)

CORRESPONDANCE INÉDITE 329

vous remercier ici de nos obligations particulières envers vous ; plusieurs amis vousauront déjà ditavec quelle sensibilité nous avions appris les témoignages de votre intérèt.

LerTre XLII. A Monsieur Clarkson.

Lehmkuhlen near Ploën, January the 27th 1798. Dear Sir,

I was sure that your philanthropie and friendly heart had felt for us in our misfortunes; your kind favour, dated January the 5, has been affectionately wellcomed, and my family join with me in the tribute of grateful sentiments which TI beg you to accept. My health is now recovered; but the sufferings of my wife in the prison of the coalesced governments have so deeply injured her, that she cannot for the winter move from this place, nor can I guess the time when her painful and lingering condition may be tolerably bettered.

While I did cooperate with you in our African concerns, you saw what opposition we had to encounter namely from the French aristocrats and the Jacobine leaders of that time; procrastination became necessary; yet I was ashamed to tell foreigners how necessary it had been. But I told you that in our doctrine of liberty, you could confidently anticipate a speedy destruction of the slave trade, and an enfranchisement of the negroes, which I wished to be gradual. How the measure has since been hurried, and to what effect, you have seen — to what intent, God knows. Anarchy, to us so detestable, has been to our adversaries a favourite engine. Nor do I need re-