tes,

"The carriage was a miserable one, with tired horses, the
evening dark, scarce a traveller but ourselves on the road.
And to make it more _comfortable_, the driver stopped near a
wood we were to pass through, to tell us that a gang of
eighteen robbers infested that wood, who, but two weeks ago,
had robbed and murdered some travellers on that very spot."

Though absolutely no one in Europe knew that Franklin was expected,
his fame had preceded him. The scientists of France were eager to
render him their homage. French statesmen had learned, at the Court of
St. James, to respect his grandeur of character, and his diplomatic
abilities. He was a very handsome man, with a genial smile, which won
love at sight. The invariable remark of every one, who chanced to meet
him for five minutes was, "What a delightful man." Franklin had none
of the brusqueness which characterizes John Bull. He was always a
gentleman, scrupulously attentive to his rich, elegant, yet simple
dress. He manifested his knowledge of human nature, in carefully
preserving his national garb,--the old continental costume.

Thus wherever he appeared he attracted attention. No man was ever more
courteous. The French Court, at that time, was bound by the shackles
of etiquette, to an almost inconceivable degree. But Franklin was
never embarrassed. He needed no one to teach him etiquette. Instinct
taught him what to do, so that, in the bearing of a well bred
gentleman, he was a model man, even in the court where Louis XIV. and
Louis XV. had reigned with omnipotent sway. The most beautiful
duchess, radiant in her courtly costume, and glittering with jewels,
felt proud of being seated on the sofa by the side of this true
gentleman, whose dress, simple as it was, was in harmony with her own.
The popular impression is entirely an erroneous one, that there was
anything rustic, anything which reminded one of the work shop or the
_blouse_, in the demeanor of Benjamin Franklin, as he moved,
unembarrassed, in the highest circles of fashion then known in the
world.

Franklin was received to the hospitalities of a French gentleman of
wealth and distinction, by the name of Gruel. His elegant apartments
were always crowded with visitors, eager to manifest their respect for
the trans-Atlantic philosopher. Horace Walpole, a warm friend of the
Americans, wrote,

"An account came that Dr. Franklin, at the age of 72, or 74,
and, at