nment, whose
treasury was utterly impoverished. In those dark days, even that small
sum was of essential aid. In one of the last of Franklin's letters,
before he sailed, he wrote,

"As to our public affairs, I hope our people will keep up
their courage. I have no doubt of their finally succeeding
by the blessing of God; nor have I any doubt that so good a
cause will fail of that blessing. It is computed that we
have already taken a million sterling from the enemy. They
must soon be sick of their piratical project."

Franklin embarked in the Reprisal, a rapid sailing sloop of war of
sixteen guns. He took with him his grandson, William Temple Franklin,
son of the Tory governor, then a very handsome boy of eighteen, and
Benjamin Franklin Bache, eldest son of his daughter, a lad of seven
years. William Temple Franklin adhered firmly to the political views
of his grandfather. Dr. Franklin intended to place Benjamin in a
school in Paris.

Tory spies were watching every movement of Congress. This mission to
France was kept a profound secret. Had the British government known
that Benjamin Franklin was about to cross the ocean, almost every ship
in the British navy would have been sent in chase of him. On the 26th
of October, 1776, he left Philadelphia, every precaution having been
adopted to keep his departure a secret. The vessel was at anchor at
Marcus Hook, in the Delaware, three miles beyond Chester.

Fierce gales drove them rapidly across the Atlantic. Captain Wickes
had received instructions to avoid fighting, if possible. He was to
devote all his energies to transporting his precious passenger as
rapidly as possible, from shore to shore. They were often chased by
cruisers. The vessel was small, and Franklin, in his old age, was
sadly cramped by his narrow accommodations. He says that of all his
eight voyages this was the most distressing. When near the coast of
France they captured an English brig, with a cargo of lumber and wine.
On the afternoon of the same day, they took another brig, loaded with
brandy and flax seed. England was almost delirious with rage, in
finding that the Americans were bearing away their prizes from the
channel itself, thus bidding proud defiance to those frigates and
fortresses of Great Britain which had overawed the world.

On the 29th of November the Reprisal cast anchor in Quiberon Bay.
Franklin there obtained a post chaise to convey him to Nantes. He
wri