The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1957-12-06
Our Lafayette:
Armand Tuffin Should
Rank High Among Heroes
BY Erik Won Kuehnelt- Leddihn

Our Catholic Lafayette" is not the leftist whose pic
ture we have seen recently on American commemorative
stamps; but rather Armand Tuffin, Marquis de la Roue-
RE, who hailed from devout Brittany and came to Amer
lea before Lafayette staying on after Lafayette had left.
AS a young man, accompanied by his valet, he made
the dangerous sea voyage to the United States after having
received the blessings of the Queen, Marie Antoinette.
He was duly shipwrecked before Long Island and with
his servant swan to the shore holding his purse between
his teeth.
Tuffin' received almost Immediately a commission
and becoming a close friend of Washington, fought hero
iss!Iy through the rest Of the war. He DISTINGUISHED him
self at the siege Of Yorktown and was made q member
Of the Order Of the Cincinnati.
Then his life took a tragic turn. Armand Tuffin mar
ried a lovely girl who died a few months later from con-
sumption. The doctor who treated her, for reasons un-
known to us, developed an internal hatred for our hero
and later contributed to his downfall. Posing as his friend
he plotted his destruction.
There also were dark clouds rising on the political
horizon, and then the situation went from bad to worse.
We know from several letters written TO Washington
that Armand Tuffin toyed with the idea to sail to the
United States and there to become "a free citizen Of
your great country" as he expressed himself.
Yet ne never carried out this plan because the voice
of his conscience told him that it was his duty to stay
and to organize the province against the forces of evil
a%rraigned in Paris.
), Armand found two faithful allies in his underground
work: Major Shaffner, an American friend he had brought
from the other side of the ocean with him, and his beau
tiful cousin Therese.
There seems to be little doubt that Therese hope
lessly loved Armand and that Shaffner with equal hope
lessness loved Therese.
Yet this was not the moment for heart affairs, but
a time for action. The peasants of Western France, pious
and free people who had always lived on a footing of
equality with the noblemen, rose against the yacobins.
Therese acted as Armand's messenger.
Major Shaffner worked in the Vendee, and Ar
mand, who Travelled only during the night, established
a huge network Of resistance. Yet the fiendish doctor,
knowing Of most Of his moves. Instructed the aufhori-
flies.
Death reached Armand in the castle of La Guyo-
marais where he found refuge. The safest supposition is
that he acquired pneumonia or, perhaps, meningitis.
While he was dying, soldiers, instructed by the doctor,
stormed the castle but failed to find him because he was
hiding in the house of a cOttager nearby.
He died a few days later. The doctor, insisting that
Tuffin was in the castle after all, succeeded in persuading
the authorities to make a second, even more thorough in
quiry.
One Of the servants in La cuyomarais, finally spill
ed the beans. He showed the place in the woods where
speedily opened and the corpse was deeapitafed by an
officer. The decaying head was then thrown right into
the face Of the crying mistress Of the castle.
The Jacobins then knew no mercy. All the adult
members of the household of La G~uyomarais were brought
to Paris, tried, and executed. The doctor also informed
the authorities about the temporary residence of Therese
in another castle, and here again everybody was arrested,
tried, and brought to execution.
The sinister men OF the Revolution, knowing The
rese's wish to receive the Sacramenfs before her death.
brought to her an ex-comnvnicafed priest who had
given The oath TO the French Republic.
She dismissed him with contempt. When the barber
came to cut off her hair, she took the scissors from his
hands and boldly removed her black locks. When she
finally mounted the scaffold even the bowling mob fell
silent at the sight of so much beauty and dignity.
Not only Armand Tuffin and Therese, but also Ma
ior Shaffner were united in death. The latter was made
a prisoner by the soldiers of the Revolution and drowned
in the so-ealed "noyades."
heroes. Let the post office, the ordinary textbooks, the
s~culptors, and the painters of street signs celebrate their
Lafayette, but the name of the finest man France sent
to fight as a volunteer for this country certainly remains
Armand Tuffin, Marquis de la Rouerie.
IA ic h oniv cyicfino church in q marriage "a the neceS-