French revolutions. This is about one hour. Okay. Im tim marshall the provost for the new school and im delighted to welcome everyone here for this wonderful event to launch laura auricchios new book which is right here. [applause] the Marquis Lafayette reconsidered which came out this month published by knox publishers. This is a research over the course of seven years at a major part of it the tilted personal life from the inside of the passion french hero become of the American Revolution of several freshmen over several to watch the kids. Theres an intimate depiction summit towering figures of the historical period while also eliminating and explore the new role of the press and publication the politics of the time. The personal letters of marquis de lafayette which can be found in in the collection of elaborate of congress and at Cornell University provides many of the books anecdotes. And now a few words about laura. She is a specialist in 18th century french history and art and she received her undergraduate degree from harvard and a ph. D from columbia university. Sheep and recipient of major fellowships from the fulbright foundation, and columbia university. Currently sheep serve as dean of the school of undergraduate studies at the new school for Public Engagement for which im extremely grateful. Should done an amazing job. And four i close one of the reasons why i accepted her kind invitation to come and open this event is time still miffed that she never gave me a job that i applied for but she knocked me back on was to be her driver around france is in shadows and councils. I dont think she took me seriously but i thought i was a great gig, and im still very disappointed you didnt take me up on the offer but nevertheless congratulations on a wonderful book. Its an incredible piece. Im sure im looking forward to reading it but i just love the fact that its actually a real heavy book. Think that its not electronic. Solo work, keys up. [applause] thank you everybody, but especially tim. Yes, as i explained to them at the time the reason that the job went to somebody else was it went to a scotsman who promised to wear a kilt as he drove me throughout the countryside, and he did. And when we [laughter] and when we stopped at a truck stop at one point in the middle of the countryside i was the only woman in the truck stop and he was the only one in a skirt. So it made for quite the scene. But thank you. Thank you tim. Ii am sincerely in that detail in particular for all the support throughout my 12 years here at the new school. Im also people grateful to the rest of leadership at the new school, David Van Zandt mary watson, and also today, particularly to pam tillis and brandon visher done a tremendous job of organizing this event, and luis jaramillo, the director of the graduate writing program at the new school with whom we will be in conversation later. I also want to take a moment just to issue a few personal and professional thanks to vicki wilson, my wonderful editor. Britney more on jello, the wonderful publicist Andres Salomon the wonderful assistant to vicki wilson as well as my family, husband and friends and colleagues of all turned out tonight to make a completely full house, which is absolutely flatters me. Said let you were going to be doing this evening the plan is for me to read for just about 15 minutes and then i look forward to speaking with you and with luis about the book at greater length. The book covers the lafayettes entire life which lasted from 17571834, so quite a long period of time. And lafayette lived a very tumultuous and exciting life. For that reason the book really focuses primarily on two large episodes of his life the two episodes that really defined him. This was history during the American Revolution and during the french revolution. So today im going to read again for no more than 15 minutes from a section about the french revolution. On october 5 1789, alarm bells sounded through the gray paris and on as thousands of market women streamed towards the hotel to the women known to their critics as fish lives wielded pikes and pitchforks as they held heavy cannons across the cobblestones of the town. Were lafayette reached the scene later that morning, a National Guard had just managed to roust the credit would be arsonist from the government building. The guardsmen strain to stem the people pouring in a long the adjacent streets. Incensed by the sorting price of flour which left him unable to feed their families, the women were joined by husbands, brothers and sons, all of whom shouted for bread. A were certain that an aristocratic plot was at the root of their starvation. To versailles, they clamored as lafayette struggled to prevent the march that was rapidly becoming inevitable. From 9 a. M. Until 4 p. M. Lafayette refused to sanction a march to versailles command forbade the guards loyalties were beginning to waver from undertaking any such action. Back and forth he went alternating between closeddoor meetings with elected representatives of the Paris Commune and high decibel debates with the crowd. Convinced an attack on paris was imminent, a young lieutenant from the grenadiers cried out my general, making has fooled us all. You and everyone else. He must be deposed. Us to lafayette refused. Finally, between four and five, he came to understand any opportunity to prevent a march had passed. And as the intrepid contingents dominated by by women and men armed with knives, types, pics and pitchforks start pulling cannons towards versailles but in the meantime the weather had grown steadily worse. Powerful winds have sprung up at a chilling rain was falling. But the clouds determination showed no signs of flagging. After a command from the Paris Commune who authorized, even ordered him to transport himself to versailles, lafayette mounted his white horse and took charge of several National Guard regiments. Together lafayette and his troops accompanied a crowd of some 30,000 armed and angry parisians arranged six abreast on a seven hour trek along 14 miles of dark and muddy roads. According to Marie Antoinettes lady in waiting news of the National Guard has said from paris reach to versailles vatican while the king was hunting about six miles away. And the queen was alone lost and painful thought in her beloved gardens near the pavilion not far from the spot where lafayettes grandfather have taken a fatal flaw in 1736. The Royal Household left left into action. They set out on horseback to encourage louis the 15th to abandon that this hunt and returned to the palace. A government minister charged with overseeing the kings household sent a letter to Marie Antoinette urging the royal family to depart immediately to the chateau some 20 miles southwest. And servants begin packing bags and loading carriages so that the royal family could be whisked to safety. A few carriages were already on the road when an update arrived. The first parisian women were drawing near. Versailles had not been designed to withstand a military attack, but now its limited defenses were mobilized. Gates that it stood open for century were folded shut and locked. The flanders regiment assembled on the rounded plastic front of the chateau and the swiss guard made ready to stand its ground in the inner courtyard and garden. These and other preparations were in progress when louis the 15th and his entourage returned bearing new orders. A king have passed the parisian women as he made his way back from the hunt, indeed been gratified to hear cries of long live the king, from the crowds. Reassured he would be safe at versailles, he called off the move, and worried a show of royal force would cause rather than prevent an escalation of violence he ordered the flanders regiment retired to its barracks. The men dutifully obeyed but as they made their way from their quarters they found itself held with rocks and gunshot. When louis heard the news begin to reconsider his decision but as they put it, the moment to flee was lost. Lafayette and an abyss as he made his way slowly towards versailles to meet a fate i was uncertain at best. As the governor described lafayette marched by compulsion guarded by his own troops who respected and threatened to this was the same lafayette who managed to keep his head up baron hill as the red coats bore down on his attachments from three sides. And now in 1789, he still possessed the composure that answered him so well in 1778. With scores of lives in his hand, not only his own and his companions but also the lives of the royal family, he did everything in his power to ensure a peaceful resolution. With the sound of drums and the flicker of torches heralding his approach lafayette hold the march around 11 00 the Assembly Hall in versailles. There he administered an oath to remind his troops of their allegiances. The men swore to our nation, the law and the king before continuing on. While two officers were sent ahead to the chateau bearing assurances that lafayette came to protect the king and not to oust him, a representative of the king the. To inform lafayette that they saw his coach with pleasure and yet just accepted his declaration of rights. Happily everyone was in agreement on one point. They wanted to see a little bloodshed as possible. Cries filled the air as lafayette do closer to the palace. Long live the king, long live the nation, long live lafayette and liberty shouted the parisians who had been driven by fear and desperation to slog through miles of mud on the road to versailles. Leaving his troops off yet approached around Midnight Company by two civilians representing the paris city government. Facing him from the other side of the padlock grow the swiss guard hesitated. Wary though they were of lafayettes motives, they admitted him to the courtyard and from there into the chateau up the stairs and to the very antichamber where he had waited the king in 1774 when he was presented at court. But on this occasion the room was filled with shouts instead of whispers. Theres cromwell one cried. The lafayette rejected the comparison to the british general who helped orchestrate the execution of king charles i during the english civil war. Mr. Lafayette, cromwell would not have entered alone. Still the acquisition struck a chord. Lafayette knew all too well that with one false move, instead of being a guardian he would have been the usurper. As the marquis remembered the scene, lafayettes voice filled with emotion as he explained to louis the reasoning that compelled him to march. Sire i thought it better to come here to die at the feet of your majesty man to die uselessly elsewhere. Louis xvi was in no position to argue. Taketh lafayette rerun of versailles. By two in the morning some symbols of order had been established. With the kings guards manning calm inside the palace and National Guardsmen patrolling the ground, marie marines when it felt secure enough to go to sleep with for latest station in shares pushed up against the bedroom door. At 4 30 hearing gunshots, they row star. Giving the queen no time to dress, they hustled her through a narrow door and down the back passageway towards the Kings Chamber tossing a petticoat after. As though in a french farce gone grievously awry, the ladies reached the king store only to find it locked. And not inward let him but by then louis was gone. He had taken a more public route to the queens bedroom at the first sound of alarm. In the adjacent room royal guards faced off against armed citizens while the queen reunited with their children and retreated to the bedroom. At last an exchange was reached, and calm returned to the chateau. Daybreak found lafayette conferring with the king and queen in their apartment where the parisian troops now fraternized with the royal guardsmen. From the marble courts below, the clamor grew louder and more menacing. The people were calling in angry tones for Marie Antoinette. At first i got only lafayette who arranges them from the balcony to little effect. He stepped back inside and speaking him with an easy monarch, he brokered another deal. If they came with him to paris as the crowd demanded he would guarantee their safety. They agreed. With that lafayette turned to the queen. Come with me. What, alone on the balcony . Yes madam, let us go. Together Lafayette County murray and when it appeared before the angry crowd. Unable to make himself heard lafayette resorted to a gesture that would be later decided by his enemies as a sign of doubledealing. He kissed the hand of the queen. With his galante pantomime lafayette bestowed his blessing on Marie Antoinette and change the hearts of the people. Long live the general. Long live the queen. To the sound of cheers, they left the balcony and begin preparing for the journey ahead. At approximately 1 00 in the afternoon of october 6, 1789, the royal family set out from versailles in a carriage. Inside, marines went clutched her diamonds. Outside lafayette road beside the monarch on in some way towards keeping pace with the coach. 100 carriages followed behind their International Assembly deputies while thousands of exhausted citizens and soldiers joined the historic journey on foot. It was six in the evening before lafayette reached the hotel and quite dark by the time the royal family moved into a rambling suite of hastily evacuated apartments in their new home which stretched along the banks of the river just west of the louvre. They are louis was fit to live by lafayettes rules and under lafayettes authority. On the morning of october 7 lafayette attended what could only have been a very awkward ceremonial event in the kings new gyms. For better or for worse it seemed that louis xvi would always have lafayette at his side. That the march to versailles ended so calmly with nothing short of extraordinary. October 5 had witnessed its chair fatalities. The heads of two royal bodyguards have been transported to paris. Largescale carnage have been avoided, and much of the credit he longed to lafayette. Is an accountability to think clearly under pressure and his unparalleled credibility with the crowd had allowed him to wrest control from him. Jackknifed lafayette proved to the world that he deserved his repetitious washingtons protege. But the future would bring challenges that might depend too much for any man. Thank you. [applause] can we hear this . Oh, good. Thanks everyone. As we are [inaudible] laura is sexing her microphone slips were passed or no cards were passed out before the meeting with pencils. So please write down your questions and then we will collect them and ask them from up here. That was great laura. Isnt working now . Yes. Excellent. So i was just struck yet again by a detailed that part was that you read and i know that every single bit of that was researched. So i wonder if you could just talk us through some of that research, like especially when lafayette turns to the queen and says come with me to the balcony. Sure. Thank you. And thank you for the question. So yes seven years of research you get a lot of detail. And a good deal of it ends up on the proverbial cutting room floor, but the trick for me in actually writing this book was because lafayette did live so long, and his life was so full of adventure, the trick was figuring out which episode to focus on and then trying to bring those two light as fully as i could do as much detail as i could. So in some cases a detailed comes from newspapers or journals. In this case that particular piece the detail comes from memoirs of lafayette. There are many different accounts of that same event that were written by many, many different people. And so part of the trick also has been to sort out what seems most incredible and what doesnt. That section seems to be verified by a couple of different people, but it is presented exactly as lafayette presented. When youre writing a book like this do you only put in elements that you verified . Yes. And one thing when youre dealing with a figure like lafayette, for example, is been come who is so beloved by so Many Americans and has been so much written about, which find is in the secondary literature you find a lot of untruths or halftruths or partial truths or wishful thinking. All of the above really. So that it becomes i mean i became somewhat obsessive i would say about trying to verify the sources for each one of these anecdotes. I was taken by something you post on your facebook account, which was a picture of some building a Lafayette College and the laureate says lockyer changed his model to why not . Which is a very nice story. So i guess if you could talk over but about just give us scope of what did his life look like . He came to the United States the colonies when he was 19. And then what did the rest of his life look like . Or so i think its important to think about why he came to the colonies when he was 19. Its one of things i think is not this is surely been really sort of fully understood. The fact that he was 19 and the fact that in fact, he had never seen a day of battlefield action before he came your. So its not as though he was a general who is experienced in which is coming over to share his knowledge. He was also coming to america to reinvent himself in the same way that many millions of americans have before and since, in order to create a new life. The fact that he might want to create a new life is something that seems somewhat surprising, but it turns out that he was actually somewhat of a fish out of water where he was. He was at versailles but he was married into the court nobility but is someone who came from the provinces, and he came from the very sort of rustic family and he did not have the graces that he needed to succeed in versailles. So we came here and then america found his Second Chance i say. And here George Washington gave him an opportunity to really hone his skills as a military general. And he became a hero both in america and france for his great successes here. He went back to france and as an american hero, and part of his story that i think is so interesting is that in america he was beloved as a frenchman in america. But in france he was always sort of seen as an american in france. So he sort o