.

[Illustration: Franklin and Denny.]

During all this time while the governor was plying his guest with these
flatteries and promises, he was offering him wine and drinking his health;
for the people at the dinner table, when they found that the governor did
not return, sent a decanter of Madeira and some glasses into the room
where he and Franklin were sitting. All these civilities and
blandishments, however, on the part of the governor seem to have been
thrown away. Franklin replied with politeness, but yet in such a manner as
to evince a full determination to adhere faithfully to the cause of the
colonists, in case any farther encroachments on their rights should be
attempted.

In fact the breach between the people of the colony and the proprietors in
England soon began to grow wider, under the administration of the new
governor, than they had ever been before, until at length it was decided
to send Franklin to England to lay a remonstrance and petition against the
proceedings of the proprietors, before the king. Franklin accordingly took
passage on board of a packet which was to sail from New York.

A great many embarrassments and delays, however, supervened before he
finally set sail. In the first place, he was detained by certain
negotiations which were entered into between Governors Loudoun of New
York, and Denny of Philadelphia on the one part, and the Philadelphia
Assembly on the other, in a vain attempt to compromise the difficulty,
until the packet in which he had taken passage had sailed, carrying with
her all the stores which he had laid in for the voyage. Next, he found
himself detained week after week in New York by the dilatoriness and
perpetual procrastination of Governor Loudoun, who kept back the packets
as they came in, one after another, in order to get his dispatches
prepared. He was always busy writing letters and dispatches, but they
seemed never to be ready; so that it was said of him by some wags that he
was like the figure of St. George upon the tavern signs, "who though
always on horseback never rides on."

[Illustration: St. George Sign.]

After being detained in this way several weeks, it was announced that the
packets were about to sail, and the passengers were all ordered to go on
board. The packets proceeded to Sandy Hook, and there anchored to wait for
the governor's final dispatches. Here they were kept waiting day after day
for about six