far as they belonged to this hemisphere, in the quiet of a house within a garden, situated in Passy, at that time a semi-rural suburb of Paris. A large part of a great mansion there, the Hôtel Valentinois, had been placed at his disposal, and that of his colleagues if they would share his occupancy of it, by the owner, M. Le Ray de Chaumont, one of Franklin's most fervid admirers and warmest friends. So thither he migrated early in the year, and here set up his establishment as became an Envoy; far enough from Paris to secure quiet, and to seem but a private dweller in a land which could not officially recognise his presence in any other character.

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This rural seclusion and private innocence notwithstanding, Franklin was very full of work of a public and even death-dealing kind. That is, he soon found himself in the position of Admiralty to a little fleet of privateersmen who waged war upon England in the narrow sea and in neighbouring waters. Their operations were so successful that England, or at least English merchants, began to feel that these islands were in a state of blockade. Lord Chatham spoke in Parliament of “ merce" being "torn to pieces " by them. So dire were the doings, or at least the impressions created, by three or four such tiny craft. Tiny as they were, they gave almost as much trouble and anxiety to their admiral on land as to their enemies at sea. For the brave commanders would assume that they might bring their prizes into French ports, as into Boston or Falmouth, and sell them there; and it was Franklin's weary task to awaken in them some small respect for the law of nations or (oftener still) to obviate the perilous consequences of their transgression thereof. Before the end of February they had collected about a hundred British seamen, prisoners of war. With these victims on hand, the Envoys thought well to approach the English Am

bassador on the subject of an exchange. After some eight or ten weeks' interval, and in reply to a second letter, they heard at last from his lordship. That is, they received a piece of official notepaper, undated, unsigned, and containing only these great words: "The King's Ambassador receives no applications from rebels, unless they come to implore his Majesty's mercy." The retort of the Envoys was more severe than this was crushing, and quite as dignified. "In answer to a letter," it ran, "" which concerns some of the most material interests of humanity, and of the two nations, Great Britain and the United States of America, now at war, we received the enclosed indecent paper as coming from your Lordship, which we return for your Lordship's more mature consideration." But though Lord Stormont was a little unfortunate in his style, and was considered to have rendered himself ridiculous, his attitude was correct enough and implied a view of the situation which was, to say the least, excusable in a British Ambassador. At any rate it was a view from which the British Government could not be induced to recede by any argument, save the argument of triumphing arms.

And as the year wore on, it grew less and less likely that the envoys would have that argument in their favour. The career of the good captains, if bright, was brief, and as autumn turned towards winter the seas that had known their renown knew

them no more. From America came no direct news, and if any rumours came, they were only of defeat. Intelligence from England was all to that effect; the hands of Government strengthened, armies victorious, the American cause regarded as lost by those who had wished it well. On the continent, and even in France, the same conviction gaining ground. And with this darkening of prospects, an ebb of resource. No prizes were being brought in now;

even that good ally, Beaumarchais, was at the end of his efforts. Towards the close of October the envoys were fain to ask the French Government to buy from them a frigate which was then being built to their order in Holland: so little chance did there seem of its being allowed to sail. And such melancholy tokens. Yet even at this time, in a lull that was heavy with hopelessness, and when the outlook was into sheer darkness, Franklin did not for a moment lose his calm, or even his confidence in the ultimate-nay, in the proximate-success of his country's fortunes. He was not only steady himself, but he made others steadfast: he impressed even Arthur Lee with a sense of his greatness. And when, upon the back of this, came news that Philadelphia was taken, and the good Silas Deane was thereupon for going to the French Ministry to demand an alliance at once, under a threat of their making terms, else, with England-Franklin stood firm against that counsel of panic also, as being inconsistent with the dignity and the interests of his country. Seldom in history has there been such sublime and unshakable confidence as this: and never perhaps was such confidence so dramatically and swiftly justified. For it was but a week later (December 4, 1777), that a carriage dashed into the courtyard of the Hôtel Valentinois, and there sprang from it a young man who had travelled hard over land and sea, all the way from Massachusetts, to announce to the representatives of America in Europe that General Burgoyne and his whole army were prisoners of war.

Whether the victory at Saratoga had definitely secured American Independence for the rest of time, was a matter not to be ascertained in half an hour; and its probability might have been comfortably discussed for a good part of a year, without anybody being proved completely in the

wrong, in those days before the telegraph. But the fact that so signal, and by all tokens so decisive, a success had been achieved by the colonists at the end of a two years' resistance to the forces of an Empire, afforded ground enough to go upon for a Government that was already prepared to recognise the independence and sovereignty of the United States, as soon as the situation of affairs gave any colourable pretext for doing so. It was not war against England that the French Court relucted from, but the somewhat delicate act of intervention. Saratoga removed those scruples; and the Government, having promptly come to a decision, acted upon that decision with simplicity, directness and speed. On December 6, the envoys received, along with the congratulations of the Ministry, a request that they would now renew their application for an alliance. The application was soon put in form and delivered, and soon reported upon. On December 17 M. Gérard came to Passy to announce that the French Government had decided to make a treaty with the United States. In the crowded days then following, there was much unprofitable activity of smaller wits, much quiet, swift and sure work of one calm and comprehensive mind, in the neighbourhood of the Hôtel Valentinois. The effects of the former being eliminated, those of the latter remained; and appeared when, on February 6, 1778, there were signed and sealed Three Treaties between the King of France and the Congress of the United States. The first was a Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which bound the two nations to be good friends, to trade fairly, and to allow no superior advantages to any other nation. The second was a Treaty of Alliance, and had reference to the events likely to arise out of the action of France in thus according international recognition to the revolted colonists.

Recognition was intervention, and intervention. would probably mean war. France here bound herself never to withdraw from that war, should war be made upon her, till the Independence of the United States had been achieved; the States in turn bound themselves not to make peace on any terms short of Independence; and neither party to the treaty was to make a separate peace or a separate truce without the consent of the other first obtained. The third, or Secret Treaty, merely provided for the entry of Spain into this compact at a later time. All three treaties, indeed, must be secret treaties for the next few days, because of certain ships then at sea. But the mask was laid aside, the position of affairs revealed to the world, on March 20,1 the date of the famous reception of the American Envoys by the King at Versailles. One ought rather to say, the reception of Dr Franklin and his Associates; for that is how that memorable function phrased itself to the imagination of contemporaries. Everybody has read, somewhere or other, references to the profound impression his appearance there created; his serenity and benevolence of aspect, his dignity, and yet portentous audacity; his own personal white locks worn instead of the wig proper and imperative, an oaken staff in his hand in lieu of the sword of ceremony ! Neverthless, there was too much ceremony in all this for the British Ambassador, who departed next morning without taking leave. Franklin remained to make up for the void thus left in the hearts of all Paris; and perhaps all Paris was never so full of Franklin as now. Το this spring of 1778, it may be noted, belongs another 1 It had been revealed to the British Ministry a week earlier, in a rescript handed in by the French Ambassador in London on March 13. In this document the United States were declared to be in full possession of Independence, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the two nations" was formally announced, and the Treaty of Alliance was not obscurely indicated.