jority of Parliament, and a vast majority of the people (who usually join the war party en masse after the first bloodshed) regarded Franklin as a rebel of the deepest dye, nearly every man in England of whom England now is proud, revered him as a patriot and a sage. At the very time of Franklin's arrival in Paris and during the first weeks of his residence there, no one approached him with sincerer homage, no one more prized his society and conversation, than Charles James Fox, the leader of the English opposition. Four years after, in the course of a debate in the House of Commons, a member having spoken of the contest in America as a Holy War, Mr. Fox said: "To others, the application of such an epithet to the actual contest may appear new; but to me it has no novelty. I was in Paris precisely at the time when the present war began, in 1776, and Dr. Franklin honored me with his intimacy. I recollect, that conversing with him on the subject of the impending hostilities, he, while he predicted their ruinous consequences, compared their principle and their consequences to those of the ancient Crusades. He foretold that we should expend our best blood and treasure in attempting an unattainable object; and that like the holy war of the dark ages, while we carried desolation and slaughter over America, we should finally depopulate, enfeeble, and impoverish Great Britain."*

Nor was it only such as Fox, Burke, Rockingham, Shelburne, Chatham, Priestley, and Price, who befriended America at this time. All the winter a popular subscription had been going on for the benefit of American prisoners of war in England; prisoners whom the government affected to regard as felons. The subscription in February, 1777, amounted to four thousand six hundred and forty-seven pounds sterling ;† and was still proceeding.

For a few weeks Dr. Franklin lived with Mr. Deane at the Hotel de Hamburg amid the whirl and roar of Paris, overwhelmed with the endless rush of visitors. By the time he had discovered that this would not do, the good Genius which in London sent him to Craven Street and Mrs. Stevenson, procured him, near Paris, a most delightful and convenient retreat. At that time Paris, like London, was a great city surrounded by little villages; and the Seine, like the Thames, flowed between verdant

* Wraxall's Memoirs.

+ Gordon's History of the United States, iii., 100.

banks, and past gardens and villas almost to the verge of the metropolis. The villages have long ago been overrun and swallowed up by the spreading cities, leaving only their names to mark the districts where once they stood. Of the villages near Paris one of the most noted was Passy, situated on a lofty hill overlooking the river, the city, and a great expanse of gardens, parks, farms, châteaux, and villages. It is now included within the fortification of Paris, yet retains much of its ancient, leafy, secluded pleasantness, and all its grandeur of situation. At Passy, in houses of their own building, live, or have recently lived, Bellini, Rossini, Lamartine, Erard, Grisi, and other notabilities of Paris and Europe. Thomas Moore lived and wrote a poem there. In 1776, one of the most spacious and sumptuous mansions in the place, called the Hotel de Valentinois, belonged to that munificent friend of America, M. Ray de Chaumont, who lived in part of it himself. M. De Chaumont had been among the first to welcome Dr. Franklin to Paris; had been with him daily; had conceived for him the warmest affection. He now pressed Franklin to accept part of his house at Passy as a place of permanent abode. It was but two miles from the center of Paris; far enough to reduce the crowd of idle visitors, and near enough for easy access. Dr. Franklin accepted the offer. M. De Chaumont would accept no rent for his house as long as the contest of America for independence could be considered doubtful. When the war was over and the country happily settled and prosperous, then Congress, if it pleased, might grant him in compensation a piece of American land. Early in the year 1777 Dr. Franklin established himself at Passy, in a court of the Hotel de Valentinois, and there continued to reside during the whole of his stay in France. He had his own servants and, in all respects, an independent establishment. A chariot and pair was one of his first and most necessary acquisitions.

The impression prevails that a Spartan simplicity characterized the household of Dr. Franklin in France. No such thing. He lived liberally, as became his age, his position, and his office. Spartan simplicity was impossible-as Mrs. Adams discovered, a few years later. "It is the policy of France," she observes in one of her letters home, "to oblige you to keep a certain number of servants, and one will not touch what belongs to the business of another, though he or she has time enough to perform the whole. In

the first place, there is a coachman who does not an individual thing but attend to the carriages and horses; then the gardener, who has business enough; then comes the cook; then the maître d'hôtel; his business is to purchase articles for the family, and oversee that nobody cheats but himself; a valet de chambre; a femme de chambre; a coiffeuse,-for this place, I have a French girl about nineteen, whom I have been upon the point of turning away, because Madame will not brush a chamber; 'it is not de fashion, it is not her business.' I would not have kept her a day longer, but found, upon inquiry, that I could not better myself, and hair-dressing here is very expensive, unless you keep such a madam in the house. There is another indispensable servant, who is called a frotteur; his business is to rub the floors. We have a servant who acts as maître d'hôtel, whom I like at present, and who is so very gracious as to act as footman too, to save the expense of another servant, upon condition that we give him a gentleman's suit of clothes in lieu of a livery. Thus, with seven servants and hiring a charwoman upon occasion of company, we may possibly make out to keep house; with less, we should be hooted at as ridiculous, and could not entertain any company."

Some such retinue as this, I suppose, Dr. Franklin was compelled to maintain at Passy. He appears to have expended in France an average of about thirteen thousand dollars a year.

CHAPTER II.

DR. FRANKLIN AT WORK.

To cheer the friends, and alarm the enemies of the United States, were among Dr. Franklin's first employments in France. His mere presence was cheering; his countenance, his demeanor, his words, all expressed an honest and perfect confidence in the final triumph of the United States. The circle of Americans and devotees of America at Paris heard with joy his exact and hopeful accounts of affairs at home. Besides putting new heart into the cause in France, he sent witty, warning letters across the channel, full of

the unfaltering spirit of America; letters which he knew would be eagerly read in England, and diligently handed about. "We are better armed, better disciplined, better supplied, and more determined than ever," he would write to one friend. "England is undone if she perseveres in so mad a war," he would write to another. To a third, "I sometimes flatter myself that, old as I am, I may possibly live to see my country settled in peace and prosperity, when Britain shall make no more a formidable figure among the powers of Europe." Moral support was what the Cause needed in Europe at that time, and it was moral support that he brought to its aid.

Silas Deane and Beaumarchais, as before intimated, were at their wits' end when Franklin reached Paris. Not only were their laden ships forbidden to depart, but, to complete their misery, the Amphitrite, the only ship they had succeeded in getting off, returned to port after having been at sea three weeks. The precious Du Coudray, peerless General of Artillery, was the cause of this mishap; he having ordered the ship back, alleging that the cabin was inconvenient, and the vessel otherwise unsuitable to his dignity. Beaumarchais raved and took to his bed, sick from disgust and anxiety; he ordered Du Coudray out of his ship, bag and baggage, and told him to go about his business.* Deane, too, tried to shake him off, and the French Cabinet interfered, revoked Du Coudray's leave of absence, and ordered him to join his corps. But the impracticable man had friends in the cabinet and at court, whom the American envoys dared not run the risk of disobliging; and so the dispute was arranged, and a passage was found for him and his train in another ship. By exertions that may be literally described as "unheard of," as well as unrecorded, Beaumarchais succeeded in quieting the apprehensions of the ministry, and in procuring permission, expressed or tacit, for the departure of his vessels. The Amphitrite reached Portsmouth in New Hampshire, in April, and two other vessels arrived in time to aid the campaign.

It was agreed between the three envoys, that, as Mr. Deane had alone been concerned with Roderique Hortalez and Co., he should continue to transact business with that mysterious house unassisted. I should not omit, however, to state, that Dr. Franklin

"Beaumarchais and his Times," by M. de Loménie, p. 292.

joined Mr. Deane in recommending General du Coudray to the President of Congress as an officer of "great reputation." Mr. Deane explains how this came to pass: "M. du Coudray came secretly to Paris. I saw him and expostulated with him on what had passed, urging him to give up for the present all thoughts of prosecuting his voyage to America. He was unwilling to agree to it, and chose to go out at any rate. I told him he must not rely on my doing any thing further in his affairs; he was in danger of being arrested at Paris on account of the order (to join his corps), and left the city privately. After which two gentlemen of high rank, the Duc de Rochefaucault and the Chevalier de Chattelier, waited on Dr. Franklin and myself, Mr. Lee being to the best of my remembrance out of town, and urged that I should not oppose the going out of Monsieur du Coudray. I stated generally my situation, but the character and abilities of this gentleman were so strongly urged by his noble patrons, that Dr. Franklin resolved to write in his favor, and having written the letter, I could no longer refuse joining him in it, which I did, on condition that Monsieur du Coudray should not embark in any of the ships I ordered stores to be sent in, but that he should shift for himself as well as he could."*

So Du Coudray sailed, with his train of hungry officers, carrying in his pocket a letter of introduction signed by Dr. Franklin, and Mr. Deane, and a commission as general-in-chief of artillery in the army of the United States, granted and signed by Silas Deane only. His officers were of all grades, even to sergeants, and were all promised rank in the American army, each one grade higher than he had held in France.

December 28th, five days after Dr. Franklin's arrival in Paris, the three American envoys had their first interview with the Count de Vergennes. The official proceedings against the shipments of Hortalez and Co. were at their hight; i. e., M. de Vergennes was using all his art to soothe Lord Stormont. Nevertheless, he received the envoys with every mark of profound respect. They exhibited their commission, and an outline of such a treaty as Congress desired to conclude with France. They explained the difficulty of making remittances of tobacco and rice from

*Deane Papers, p. 84.