ar her happiness. Every spring she
was confident that he would return the next autumn, and then bore her
disappointment bravely in the assurance that she should see him the
coming spring.

In December, 1774, she was suddenly stricken down by a paralytic
stroke. Five days of unconscious slumber passed away, when she fell
into that deep and dreamless sleep, which has no earthly waking. Her
funeral was attended by a large concourse of citizens, with every
testimonial of respect. Some of Franklin's oldest friends bore the
coffin to the churchyard, where the remains of the affectionate wife
and mother who had so nobly fulfilled life's duties, were placed by
the side of her father, her mother, and her infant son.

Feelingly does Mr. Parton write, "It is mournful to think that for so
many years, she should have been deprived of her husband's society.
The very qualities which made her so good a wife, rendered it
possible for him to remain absent from his affairs."

Franklin, all unconscious of the calamity which had darkened his home,
and weary of the conflict with the British court, was eagerly making
preparations to return to Philadelphia.

The aged, illustrious, eloquent Earl of Chatham, one of the noblest of
England's all grasping and ambitious sons, sought an interview with
Franklin. He utterly condemned the policy of the British cabinet. His
sympathies were, not only from principles of policy, but from
convictions of justice, cordially with the Americans. He felt sure
that unless the court should retrace its steps, war would ensue, and
American Independence would follow, and that England, with the loss of
her colonies, would find mercantile impoverishment and political
weakness. In the course of conversation, he implied that America might
be even then, contemplating independence. Franklin, in his account of
the interview writes,

"I assured him that having more than once traveled almost
from one end of the continent to the other, and kept a great
variety of company, eating, drinking and conversing with
them freely, I had never heard in any conversation from any
person, drunk or sober, the least expression of a wish for a
separation, or a hint that such a thing would be
advantageous to America."

In a subsequent interview, the Earl of Chatham, alluding to the
conduct of Congress, in drawing up the petition and address, said,

"They have acted with so much temper, moderation and w