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planted into Europe, to his great master and patron. When he mentioned to me the present he intended for you, my heart leaped with joy. It is something so truly in character, that no remarks can illustrate it, and is more happily expressive of his remembrance of his American friends than any letters can convey. That the principles of America opened the Bastile is not to be doubted, and therefore the key comes to the right place.

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KEY OF THE BASTILE.

"I should rejoice to be the direct bearer of the marquis's present to your excellency, but I doubt I shall not be able to see my much-loved America till next spring. I shall therefore send it by some American vessel to New York. I have permitted no drawing to be taken here, though it has been often requested, as I think there is a propriety that it should first be presented. But Mr. West wishes Mr. Trumbull to make a painting of the presentation of the key to you." On the 11th of August Washington wrote to Lafayette: "I have received your affectionate letter of the 17th of March by one conveyance, and the token of the victory gained by liberty over despotism by another, for both which testimonials of your friendship and regard I pray you to accept my sincerest thanks. In this great subject of triumph for the New World, and for humanity in general, it will never be forgotten how conspicuous a part you bore, and how much lustre you reflected on a country in which you made the first displays of your character."

The key of the Bastile, and the drawing representing the demolition of the fortress, are at Mount Vernon. The former is preserved in a glass case, and the latter hangs near it, in the same relative position in which they were originally placed by Washington, in the great passage of the mansion.

Directly opposite the key, in the great passage, hangs the spy-glass used by Washington in the Revolution, and after

WASHINGTON'S SPY-GLASS.

ward at Mount Vernon. This was always carried by Billy, his favorite body-servant, to be used in reconnoitring at a distance. Mr. Custis, in his Recollections of Washington, gives the following anecdote in connection with this spy-glass, or telescope, on the field of Monmouth:

"A ludicrous occurrence varied the incidents of the 28th of June. The servants of the general officers were usually well armed and mounted. Will Lee, or Billy, the former huntsman, and favorite body-servant of the Chief, a square, muscular figure, and capital horseman, paraded a corps of valets, and, riding pompously at their head, proceeded to an eminence crowned by a large sycamore-tree, from whence could be seen an extensive portion of the field of battle. Here Billy halted, and, having unslung the large telescope that he always carried in a leathern case, with a martial air applied it to his eye, and reconnoitred the enemy. Washington having observed these manœuvres of the corps of valets, pointed them out to his

officers, observing, 'See those fellows collecting on yonder height; the enemy will fire on them to a certainty.' Meanwhile the British were not unmindful of the assemblage on the height, and perceiving a burly figure well mounted, and with a telescope in hand, they determined to pay their respects to the group. A shot from a six-pounder passed through the tree, cutting away the limbs, and producing a scampering among the corps of valets, that caused even the grave countenance of the general-in-chief to relax into a smile."

The pocket telescope used by Washington throughout the war was presented to President Jackson, by the late George Washington Parke Custis, on the 1st of January, 1830. To this interesting memorial Mr. Custis had affixed a silver plate, with the following inscription:

"Erat Auctoris, est conservatoris, Libertatis. 1775-1783."

On presenting the gift, Mr. Custis observed that, “Although it was in itself of but little value, there was attached unto it recollections of the most interesting character. It had been raised to the eye of the departed Chief, in the most awful and momentous periods of our mighty conflict; it had been his companion from '75 to '83, amid the toils, privations, the hopes, the fears, and the final success of our glorious struggle for independence; and, as the memorial of the hero who triumphed to obtain liberty, it is now appropriately bestowed upon the hero who triumphed to preserve it. Mr. C. requested that, as he (the General) was childless, he would be pleased, at his decease, to leave the telescope as Alexander left his kingdom-'to the most worthy."

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President Jackson accepted the present and the compliment, and made a brief response. Whether he left it "to the most

worthy," at his decease, or where it is now, we have no information.

Washington carried with him to Mount Vernon, with

the key of the Bastile, a

pair of elegant pistols, which, with equally elegant holsters, had been presented to him by the Count de Moustier, the French minister, as a

token of his personal regard. These weapons, it is believed, are the ones presented by Washington to Col. Samuel Hay, of the tenth Pennsylvanian regiment, who stood high in the esteem of his general. They bear the well-known cipher of Washington, and were purchased at the sale of Colonel Hay's effects, after his death in November, 1803, by John Y. Baldwin, of Newark, New Jersey. His son, J. O. Baldwin, presented one of them to Isaac I. Greenwood, of New York, in 1825, in whose possession it remains, the other having been lost on the occasion of a fire which destroyed the residence of his mother. Our engraving represents the preserved one.

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WASHINGTON'S PISTOL.

Mr. Baldwin relates the following anecdote in connection with these pistols:-"When I was a boy," he says, "my father

would frequently take up the Aurora, a newspaper then published in Philadelphia, and marking off about twenty lines, would say, 'Now, Joseph, if you read those correctly, and without a single mistake, you shall fire off one of Washington's pistols.' Such a promise was a high incentive, and if the task was fairly accomplished, my mother would take off her thimble to measure the charge, and my father, having loaded the pistol, I would go to the backdoor with an exulting heart, and lifting the weapon on high, tightly grasped with both hands, pull the trigger."

While at Mount Vernon in the autumn of 1790, Washington received from the Count D'Estaing a small bust of M. Necker, the French minister of finance, or comptroller-general, when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. James Necker was a native of Geneva, in Switzerland. He went to France as ambassador for the republic, where, in 1765, he obtained the office of syndic to the East India Company, and in 1775 was made director of the royal treasury. He exhibited such virtue of character, and such eminent abilities, that twice, though a foreigner, he was made prime minister of France. He was popular with the people at the breaking out of the French Revolution, but that storm was so variable and fickle, that he returned to Switzerland, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1804, at the age of seventy-two years. His daughter married Baron de Staël Holstein, a Swedish ambassador at the court of France. She was the Madame de Staël so well known in the world of letters.

The little bust of Necker sent by D'Estaing to Washington, is upon a bracket over the fireplace in the library at Mount Vernon, where the President placed it himself. Upon

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