aced Sir John (Pringle) so as to stand between the Queen and Madame
Victoire. The King talked a good deal to Sir John, and did me, too, the
honor of taking some notice of me.

"Versailles has had infinite sums laid out in building it and supplying
it with water. Some say the expenses exceeded eighty millions sterling
($400,000,000). The range of buildings is immense; the garden-front most
magnificent, all of hewn stone; the number of statues, figures, urns,
etc., in marble and bronze of exquisite workmanship, is beyond
conception. But the water-works are out of repair, and so is a great
part of the front next the town, looking, with its shabby, half-brick
walls, and broken windows, not much better than the houses in Durham
Yard. There is, in short, both at Versailles and Paris, a prodigious
mixture of magnificence and negligence with every kind of elegance except
that of cleanliness, and what we call tidiness."

Franklin next appeared at the Court of Versailles upon the momentous
occasion of the ratification of the alliance signed in 1778 by France and
America. Dressed in a black velvet suit with ruffles of snowy white,
white silk stockings and silver buckles, the emissary of the United
States appeared in a gorgeous coach at the portals of Versailles. It is
related that the chamberlain hesitated a moment to admit him, for he was
without the wig and sword Court etiquette demanded, "but it was only for
a moment; and all the Court were captivated at the democratic effrontery
of his conduct." Franklin and the four envoys that accompanied him were
conducted to the dressing-room of Louis XVI, who, without ceremony,
assured them of his friendship for the new-born country they represented.
In the evening the Americans were invited to watch the play of the royal
family at the gaming-table, and Dr. Franklin, so Madame Campan relates,
"was honored by the particular notice of the Queen, who courteously
desired him to stand near to her, and as often as the game did not
require her immediate attention, she took occasion to speak to him in
very obliging terms."

The _New York Journal_, under date of July 6, 1778, recounted another
picturesque detail of this presentation of the American envoys at
Versailles. When they entered the inner part of the palace, so the
dispatch ran, "they were received by _les Cents Suisses_ (Swiss Guards),
the major of which announced, '_Les Ambassadeurs des treize provinces
unies,' i.e., The Amba