of France, with all his orders and decorations, were arranged in a glass case for preservation and display; while a large number of family portraits, including of course one of himself, were hung upon the walls. On pedestals, in the corners or at the sides, there were two beautifully wrought miniature cannon, inscribed as having been presented to the widow of the old Marquis by Louis XVIII., to take the place of the two British cannon which Washington had presented to Rochambeau after our victory at Yorktown, and which had been seized, and probably recast, during the French Revolution. But upon being shown to my chamber, I found that the room in which the old Marquis slept had been assigned to me, with the original state-bed and much of the antique furniture. On the table reposed the manuscript memoirs of the Marquis, just as he had left them, and just as large portions, if not the whole of them, have been published, beginning as follows: "Manuscript Memoirs, political and military, of Marshal de Rochambeau, written with his own hand." They were of course written in French, but the following translation of the first paragraph will serve to show the noble spirit which dictated them:

"Truth should be the basis of history. I am to write only that which I have seen or known as certain. There will be found some gaps in the pictures I have drawn of the four grand wars in which I have had a part in the course of my life. I preferred to be silent rather than hazard any thing against that first principle of truth and of fidelity, from which no one should ever depart who writes for posterity."

Meantime, between the windows there was a large portrait which could not be mistaken. It was one of Peale's original portraits of Washington, which Washington himself had presented to Rochambeau. It was not a full-length portrait, like that in the possession of Lord Albemarle, of which we have a copy in our gallery, but was, I think, substantially the same picture down to the knees, a large square or three-quarters portrait, in military costume, and with a cannon and other military emblems in the background. It was in perfect preservation, and is worthy of being included among the most notable of the numberless portraits of the Father of his Country.

Next to the portraits of Washington, those of Lafayette may well be a subject of interest, in connection with our Revolutionary history. The full-length portrait of him by Ary Scheffer, taken just before his memorable visit to this country in 1824, is familiar to us. More than one of these