ort in the hope that
those proud men might now have a better thought of the Yankees.

CHAPTER XII

THE FRIEND AND THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM

After Jack had been whirled out of London, Franklin called at his
lodgings and learned that he had not been seen for a day. The wise
philosopher entertained no doubt that the young man had taken ship
agreeably with the advice given him. A report had been running through
the clubs of London that Lionel Clarke had succumbed. In fact he had
had a bad turn but had rallied. Jack must have heard the false report
and taken ship suddenly.

Doctor Franklin went that day to the meeting of the Privy Council,
whither he had been sternly summoned for examination in the matter of
the letters of Hutchinson et al. For an hour he had stood unmoved
while Alexander Wedderburn, the wittiest barrister in the kingdom,
poured upon him a torrent of abuse. Even the Judges, against all
traditions of decorum in the high courts of Britain, laughed at the
cleverness of the assault. That was the speech of which Charles James
Fox declared that it was the most expensive bit of oratory which had
been heard in England since it had cost the kingdom its colonies.

It was alleged that in some manner Franklin had stolen the letters and
violated their sacred privacy. It is known now that an English
nobleman had put them in his hands to read and that he was in no way
responsible for their publication. The truth, if it could have been
told, would have bent the proud heads of Wedderburn and the judges to
whom he appealed, in confusion. But Franklin held his peace, as a man
of honor was bound to do. He stood erect and dignified with a face
like one carved in wood.

The counsel for the colonies made a weak defense. The triumph was
complete. The venerable man was convicted of conduct inconsistent with
the character of a gentleman and deprived of his office as Postmaster
General of the Colonies.

But he had two friends in court. They were the Lady Hare and her
daughter. They followed him out of the chamber. In the great hallway,
Margaret, her eyes wet with tears, embraced and kissed the philosopher.

"I want you to know that I am your friend, and that I love America,"
she said.

"My daughter, it has been a hard hour, but I am sixty-eight years old
and have learned many things," he answered. "Time is the only avenger
I need. It will lay the dust."

The girl embraced and kissed him again an