“The dinner hour of five o’clock approaches; the guests of the day have already arrived.  Steuben, the iron drill-master and German soldier of fortune, converses with Mrs. Washington.  He had reduced the simple marksmen of Bunker Hill to the discipline of the armies of Europe and tested their efficiency in the din of battle.  He has leisure now, and scarcely knows how to find employment for his active mind.  He is telling his hostess, in broken German-English, of the whale (it proved to be an eel) he had caught in the river.  Hear his hostess laugh!  And that is the voice of Lafayette, relating perhaps his adventures in escaping from France, or his mishap in attempting to attend Mrs. Knox’s last party.  Wayne, of Stony Point; Gates, of Saratoga; Clinton, the Irish-blooded Governor of New York, and their compatriots—­we may place them all at times beside our Pater Patriae in this old room, and hear amid the mingled hum his voice declare:  ’Happy, thrice happy, shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed anything, who have performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabric of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature, and in establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.’

“In France, some fifty years after the Revolution, Marbois reproduced, as an entertainment for Lafayette, then an old man, this old sitting-room and its table scene.  From his elegant saloon he conducted his guests, among whom were several Americans, to the room which he had prepared.  There was a large open fire-place, and plain oaken floors; the ceiling was supported with large beams and whitewashed; there were the seven small-sized doors and one window with heavy sash and small panes of glass.  The furniture was plain and unlike any then in use.  Down the centre of the room was an oaken table covered with dishes of meat and vegetables, decanters and bottles of wine, and silver mugs and small wine glasses.  The whole had something the appearance of a Dutch kitchen.  While the guests were looking around in surprise at this strange procedure, the host, addressing himself to them said, ‘Do you know where we now are?’ Lafayette looked around, and, as if awakening from a dream, he exclaimed, ’Ah! the seven doors and one window, and the silver camp goblets such as the Marshals of France used in my youth.  We are at Washington’s Headquarters on the Hudson fifty years ago.’”

* * *

  One window looking toward the east;
    Seven doors wide-open every side;
  That room revered proclaims at least
    An invitation free and wide.

  Wallace Bruce.

* * *

The goodness which characterizes Washington is felt by all around him, but the confidence he inspires is never familiar; it springs from a profound esteem for his virtues and a great opinion of his talents.

    Marquis de Chastellux.