Amitié pour moi, avec les Sentiments le plus vives d'Estime & d'Affection. Vous etiez bien courageuse de monter si haut en l'Air par le Ballon. Et vous etiez bien bonne, qu'étant si près des Cieux, vous n'avez pas pensé de nous quitter & rester chez les Anges. Je vous embrasse bien tendrement, & je vous souhaite toute sorte de Felicité. Adieu." 1

The petite femme de poche replied (June 23, 1787): –

"Vous me complimentez mon cher bon papa sur mon courage d'avoir monté dans un ballon. Helas cela n'a servi qu'à me donner des regrets de ce qu'on ne pouvoit pas aller bien loin avec. Car si cette voiture avoit pu me transporter vers vous j'aurois été aux anges et j'y serois resté mon cher papa et vous auroit prouvé toute la considération toute l'estime que vous avez gravé dans mon cœur d'une manière ineffacable. Je suis enchantée que vous portiez, je fais des vœux bien sincerès pour que vous viviez longtemps avec une santé parfaite. Les grands hommes devraient être immortels pour le bien de l'humanité et des sciences dont vous faites le triomphe. Je vous suis très obligé de toutes les félicités que vous me souhaitez. Hélas je n'en ai plus pour moi j'ai tout perdu, je n'ai plus de mari, il ne vit plus pour moi; tout ce qui ne devrait pas le posséder en jouit. Il abandonne tout, l'honneur, le véritable sentiment ne lui est plus de rien. Il n'aime que ce qui fait mon malheur. Adieu mon cher bon ami je vous assure que tant que j'aurai le souffle de la vie votre petite femme de poche vous aimera, elle vous embrasse de tout son cœur.

"Ce 23 de Juin 1787 Rue Denfer près le Luxembourg No 122. Si vous me faites encore l'amitié de m'écrire voila mon

1 From a rough draft in L. C.

adresse à Mme Le Roy née Baronne de Messey et la suite de l'adresse de ma lettre.

"J'ai vue samedi dernier votre amie Mme Helvétius et nous avons bien parlé de vous, je vous assure de toute son amitié, elle est outrée des procédés de mon mari envers moi, elle sait mieux que personne que je ne les merite nullement, il la fuit et tout ce qui m'aime et n'aime que ce qui a intérêt de me faire hair de lui et ce qui n'aime pas les femmes honnêtes."1

It was a gallant life and a brilliant society that is mirrored in the correspondence of Paris, Passy, and Auteuil. A faint perfume lingers yet about the letters which once throbbed with passion or smiled with joy. Amid the statues and fountains of Versailles fair women had crowned with flowers an ambassador who had embodied all the promise of the alluring future. The last picture that dwells with us presents an old and crippled man, seated in his garden, in Franklin court, waited upon by a "very gross and rather homely" daughter, surrounded by a group of young and boisterous grandchildren, and visited by strangers prompted by curiosity or reverence. A few steps away is the state-house where liberty was proclaimed. His thoughts wander across the sea. His mind is busy with the recollection of friends a thousand leagues away, across whose lives the chill shadow of an impending doom is already falling.

CHAPTER XII

RETURN TO AMERICA

UPON the 2d of May, 1785, Franklin received the permission of Congress to return to America. The following 1 From the original in A. P. S.

day he notified the Count de Vergennes and begged him, inasmuch as his malady prevented him paying his devoirs at Versailles personally, to express respectfully for him to his Majesty the deep sense he had of all the inestimable benefits his goodness had conferred upon America. "My sincere prayers are that God may shower down his blessings on the King, the Queen, their children, and all the royal family to the latest generations." Vergennes replied:

SIR,

Versailles, 22 May, 1785.

I have learned with much concern of your retiring and of your approaching departure for America. You cannot doubt but that the regrets which you will leave will be proportionate to the consideration you so justly enjoy.

I can assure you, Sir, that the esteem the King entertains for you does not leave you anything to desire, and that his Majesty will learn with real satisfaction that your fellow citizens have rewarded, in a manner worthy of you, the important services that you have rendered.

I beg, Sir, that you will preserve for me a share in your remembrance, and never doubt the sincerity of the interest I take in your happiness. It is founded on the sentiments of attachment, of which I have assured you, and with which I have the honour to be, etc.

DE VERGENNES.

The king said to Vergennes when the minister was taking his orders, "Je desire que Monsieur Franklin sait bien traité." The royal present was a large miniature of the king, set with four hundred and eight diamonds of a beautiful water forming a wreath round the picture, and a crown on

the top. It was valued at fifteen hundred louis d'ors. Franklin gave his "introductor" a gold enamelled snuffbox, of about one hundred and fifty louis d'ors' value, and understanding that it would be more agreeable to his assistant, M. de Sequeville, to receive his present in money, he sent him a rouleau of fifty louis d'ors.1

Franklin began at once his preparations for the homeward journey. His malady had advanced to that stage that any exertion or motion was painful to him. For a considerable time he had not been able to go about save on a litter in a barge upon the Seine. The difficulties, therefore, in the way of reaching the sea seemed almost insurmountable. Moreover, he could not but at heavy expense sail from Havre, for a vessel touching at that port thereby made her insurance void, and to insure with permission to touch there meant a large addition to the premium. Attempts had been made in London to accommodate John Jay in that way, "but none would go under from two to four hundred guineas." If Franklin should not be at Havre at the moment of the ship's sailing, the expense of her waiting would be about five guineas a day. M. de Castries, Minister of Marine, wrote to Franklin (July 10, 1785):

SIR

I was not apprized, until within a few hours, of the arrangements which you have made for your departure. Had I been informed of it sooner, I should have proposed to the King to order a frigate to convey you to your own country, in a manner suitable to the known importance of the services

1 W. T. Franklin to Thomas Jefferson, April 27, 1790 (L. C.). Lee and Deane received royal presents worth three hundred louis d'ors.

you have been engaged in, to the esteem you have acquired in France, and the particular esteem which his Majesty entertains for you.

I pray you, Sir, to accept my regrets, and the renewed assurance of the most entire consideration, with which I have the honour to be, Sir, your very humble and very obedient servant,

DE CASTRIES.

One of the queen's litters, borne by Spanish mules, was placed at his disposal by the Duc de Coigny, and at a footpace the long journey to the coast was begun.1

Thomas Jefferson had been appointed, March 10, 1785, Franklin's successor as minister plenipotentiary. He had already been seven months in France under a commission to assist Franklin and Adams in negotiating commercial treaties with the European powers. He had noticed the universal admiration and reverence with which Franklin was regarded. He said: "There appeared to me more respect and veneration attached to the character of Franklin in France than to that of any other person in the same country, foreign or native. I had frequent opportunities of knowing particularly how far these sentiments were felt by the foreign ambassadors and ministers at the court of Versailles. . . . The succession to Dr. Franklin at the court of France was an excellent school of

1 A Paris le 4 Août 1785.

Je suis très aise, Monsieur d'avoir pu faire quelque chose qui vous soit agréable en vous procurant une littière de la petite écurie du Roy pour vous conduire au Havre. Je suis charmé que vous en ayez été content, ainsy que du conducteur, et d'avoir cette nouvelle occasion de vous assurer du parfait et sincère attachement avec lequel j'ay l'honneur d'être, Monsieur, votre très humble et très obeissant serviteur.

LE DUC DE COIGNY.