LUZERNE.

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COUNT DE VERGENNES TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Translation.

Versailles, July 29th, 1782.

Sir,

It is not in quality of a King, the friend and ally of the United
States, (though with the knowledge and consent of his Majesty,) that I
now have the honor to write to your Excellency. It is as a man of
sensibility, and a tender father, who feels all the force of paternal
love, that I take the liberty to address to your Excellency my earnest
solicitations in favor of a mother and family in tears. Her situation
seems the more worthy of notice, on our part, as it is to the humanity
of a nation, at war with her own, that she has recourse, for what she
ought to receive from the impartial justice of her own Generals.

I have the honor to enclose your Excellency a copy of a letter, which
Lady Asgill has just wrote me. I am not known to her, nor was I
acquainted that her son was the unhappy victim, destined by lot to
expiate the odious crime that a formal denial of justice obliges you
to revenge. Your Excellency will not read this letter without being
extremely affected; it had that effect upon the King and Queen, to
whom I communicated it. The goodness of their Majesties' hearts
induces them to desire, that the inquietudes of an unfortunate mother
may be calmed, and her tenderness reassured. I felt, Sir, that there
are cases where humanity itself exacts the most extreme rigor; perhaps
the one now in question may be of the number; but allowing reprisals
to be just, it is not less horrid to those who are the victims; and
the character of your Excellency it too well known, for me not to be
persuaded that you desire nothing more than to be able to avoid the
disagreeable necessity.

There is one consideration, Sir, which, though it is not decisive, may
have an influence on your resolution. Captain Asgill is doubtless your
prisoner, but he is among those whom the arms of the King contributed
to put into your hands at Yorktown. Although this circumstance does
not operate as a safeguard, it however justifies the interest I permit
myself to take in this affair. If it is in your power, Sir, to
consider and have regard to it, you will do what is agreeable to their
Majesties; the danger of young Asgill, the tears, the despair of his
mother, affect them sensibly; and they will se