nited States in France,
and who had likewise been ordered by the doctor to report to the Marine
Committee on the charge of infamous conduct, planned to take the
Alliance from Jones, and was supported in the attempt by Lee, who
contended that neither Franklin nor Jones could deprive Landais of a
command given him by Congress. Lee's desire to take the ship from Jones
was augmented by the latter's refusal to make room for the
ex-commissioner's many effects, including two fine coaches,--space which
was much needed for the accommodation of supplies for Washington's army.

Lee and Landais consequently encouraged the discontent among the crew of
the Alliance, and one day, June 13, when Jones was on shore at L'Orient,
Landais went on board the ship, and, supported by his old officers and
by Lee, took possession. When Jones heard of it he was very angry, and
acted, according to Fanning, "more like a madman than a conqueror;" but,
as usual, his anger was quickly controlled and the definite steps he
took in the affair were marked by great moderation. The commandant of
the defenses at L'Orient had received orders from the French government
to fire on the Alliance, if Landais should attempt to take her out of
the harbor; and it seems he would have obeyed and probably sunk the
ship, had not Jones himself interfered, and induced him to stay his
hand. In a letter to Franklin, Jones said:--

"Your humanity will, I know, justify the part I acted in preventing a
scene that would have made me miserable the rest of my life."

Jones was probably not over sorry to lose the Alliance. There was
nothing very thrilling in the prospect of carrying supplies to America,
and Jones at that time hoped fervently to get hold of the Serapis and
other ships and make another warlike cruise against the coast of
England. So Landais sailed away with the Alliance, but to his own ruin,
as the clear-sighted Jones had predicted in a remarkable letter written
a short time before the ship sailed to a mutinous officer on the
Alliance. On the voyage Landais's eccentricity caused his friend Lee to
put him under arrest, and on the arrival in America, a court of inquiry
found him unfit for command, and he never again burdened the service.

Jones was left at L'Orient with the little Ariel, armed with eighteen
twelve-pounders and four six-pounders, a ship loaned by the king to Dr.
Franklin, and with high hopes, as usual, of more glorious opportunities.
But many months i