tales of daring.....................

      When Gilbert turned seven, Madame Chavaniac hired a young local priest, Abbé Fayon, to serve as a live-in tutor.  Fayon taught young Gilbert reading, writing, and math.  He introduced classics like The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, which was the story of the conquest of Lafayette's own homeland.  The province of Auvergne derived its name from the Arverni, an ancient Gallic tribe that produced Vercingetorix, the last and greatest leader of the Gallic resistance to the Roman conquest.  The Battle of Gergovia, one of Caesar's rare defeats in the war, occurred practically in Lafayette's backyard.  The boy thrilled with these tales of daring, adventure, courage, rebellion, and glory.  He said later, "I can recall no time in my life when I did not love stories of glorious deeds, or have dreams of traveling the world in search of fame."

-Mike Duncan, Hero Of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution