to try to undermine the noble constitution which was then forming for France.  This latter report, at this particular time, when the passions of men were so inflamed, and when the stones of Paris had not been long purified from the blood of Foulon and Berthier, might have cost me my life; and I mentioned it to General la Fayette, and solicited his advice.  He desired me to make a public reply to it:  which I did.  He desired me also to change my lodging to the Hotel de Yorck, that I might be nearer to him; and to send to him if there should be any appearance of a collection of people about the hotel, and I should have aid from the military in his quarter.  He said, also, that he would immediately give in my name to the Municipality; and that he would pledge himself to them, that my views were strictly honourable.

On dining one day at the house of the Marquis de la Fayette, I met the deputies of colour.  They had arrived only the preceding day from St. Domingo, I was desired to take my seat at dinner in the midst of them.  They were six in number; of a sallow or swarthy complexion, but yet it was not darker than that of some of the natives of the south of France.  They were already in the uniform of the Parisian National Guards; and one of them wore the cross of St. Louis.  They were men of genteel appearance and modest behaviour.  They seemed to be well informed, and of a more solid cast than those whom I was in the habit of seeing daily in this city.  The account which they gave of themselves was this.  The white people of St. Domingo consisting of less than ten thousand persons, had deputies then sitting in the National Assembly.  The people of colour in the same island greatly exceeded the whites in number.  They amounted to thirty thousand, and were generally proprietors of lands.  They were equally free by law with the former, and paid their taxes to the mother-country in an equal proportion.  But in consequence of having sprung from slaves they had no legislative power, and moreover were treated with great contempt.  Believing that the mother-country was going to make a change in its political constitution, they had called a meeting on the island, and this meeting had deputed them to repair to France, and to desire the full rights of citizens, or that the free people of colour might be put upon an equality with the whites.  They (the deputies) had come in consequence.  They had brought with them a present of six millions of livres to the National Assembly, and an appointment to General la Fayette to be commander-in-chief over their constituents, as a distinct body.  This command, they said, the general had accepted, though he had declined similar honours from every town in France, except Paris, in order to show that he patronized their cause.