The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 7 (March, 1971)

The Vicomte, who was the more lenient of the two allied commissioners, wrote
touchingly to Miss Robinson of the British surrender: "You very often reproached
me to be a great enemy to this nation, however I can assure you that their unhappy
situation hurted my feelings. What disagreeable moment for men of
honor, to be obliged to march upon the sight of their enemies; to ground their
arms and return conducted by militia men. Indeed I would not bear such a spectacle,
if I shall ever find myself in such a situation pity me than I shall want to be
much complained. Lord Cornwallis supports his misfortune with a great fortitude,
he his beloved by his whole army and deserves it."
XW T
ITH THE FRENCH participation in the war concluded, Noailles sailed on
December 23, 1781, from Boston for France aboard the Alliance with
Lafayette. Home again, the Vicomte was rewarded the following spring
with the colonelcy of the king's light horse regiment. Noailles wrote Washington
of his appointment and received a moving reply:
Be assured the Receipt of that Letter afforded me much pleasure, as it gave me the
Satisfaction to be informed of your Health and Welfare, as from your own Mouth.
I am happy Sir! to hear of the favors your Services in America have obtained from
his Most Christian Majesty, and I most sincerely congratulate you on the pleasing
Occasion.
The kind and generous Offices which your Nation have rendered to this Country,
will I hope forever endear them to us, and be a Means of cementing an everlasting
Friendship between France and America. I assure you, I shall ever cherish a particular
Regard for your person and Character, and shall at all Times be happy in an
Assurance of your Happiness and Glory.
Noailles returned to his life in Paris as a dashing military and court figure. Samuel
Breck, who met him as a boy in Boston in 1781 and knew him as a friend later
in Philadelphia, recorded what may have been partly Noailles's own reminiscences:
"No amateur in Paris danced so perfectly as he did, and at the court-balls
he was frequently the partner of Queen Marie Antoinette. It was the custom
among the young men of fashion to wear shoes with leaden soles all the day long
when they expected to dance in the evening, so that on dressing in light pumps
for the party they acquired great buoyancy and cut their entrechats a sixe like a
veritable artist." Breck may have referred there to Noailles's pre-war ballroom
successes, since Marie-Antoinette was not known for her enthusiasm toward the
liberal ideas brought back to France by "Les Americains," as Lafayette, Noailles,
and other veterans were called. One incident during this period gives an idea of
Noailles's robust and sympathetic character; one of his captains, imagining himself
insulted, challenged the Vicomte to a duel. The duel over, with no harm done
to either party, Noailles promoted the captain to major for the spirit he showed.
These were the days loved by Tallyrand: "Qui n'a pas vecu alors ignore le bonheur
de vivre."
Noailles, highly enthusiastic about the American experiment, also devoted
himself in these years to correspondence with American leaders, such as Washington's
banker during the war, Robert Morris of Philadelphia. In 1787 the
Vicomte's political interests led him to join the Assembly of the Notables where
he distinguished himself with reports on the militia and army recruitment. The
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