eat eclat the new
ambassadors were presented to the king.

No man of force of character can escape having enemies. Franklin had
many and bitter ones. A cabal plotted the removal of his excellent
grandson, William Temple Franklin. It gives us an insight to the heart
of this venerable septuagenarian to read from his pen,

"It is enough that I have lost my son. Would they add my
_grandson_. An old man of seventy, I undertook a winter
voyage, at the command of Congress, with no other attendant
to take care of me. I am continued here, in a foreign
country, where, if I am sick, his filial attention comforts
me. And if I die, I have a child to close my eyes and take
care of my remains. His dutiful behavior toward me, and his
diligence and fidelity in business, are both pleasing and
useful to me. His conduct, as my private secretary, has been
unexceptionable; and I am confident the Congress will never
think of separating us."

Franklin's great endeavor now was to obtain money. Without it we
could have neither fleet nor army. The treasury of France was empty,
almost to bankruptcy. Never did he struggle against greater obstacles
than during the next three years. It has been truly said, that
Franklin, without intending it, helped to bleed the French monarchy to
death. In addition to the employment of both army and navy, the French
government conferred upon Congress, in gifts or loans, the sum of
twenty-six million francs.

The French troops were received in America with boundless enthusiasm.
Their discipline was admirable. Their respect for the rights of
property was such, that not a barn, orchard or hen-roost was robbed.

John Adams was sent to join Franklin, to aid him in framing terms of
peace, whenever England should be disposed to make such advances. He
was a man of great abilities, of irreproachable integrity, but he had
inherited, from his English ancestry, not only repulsive brusqueness,
but also a prejudice against the French, which nothing could remove.
His want of courtesy; his unconcealed assumption that France was
acting out of unmitigated selfishness, and that consequently the
Americans owed the French no debt of gratitude, often caused Franklin
much embarrassment. This blunt man, at one time wrote so uncourteous,
not to say insulting a letter, to M. de Vergennes, that the French
minister declined having any more correspondence with him. Both
Franklin and