of the
great philosopher had been heard in the council-chamber of Versailles.
But among the secret agents of France we now meet for the first time the
name of De Kalb, a name consecrated in American history by the life that
he laid down for us on the fatal field of Camden. Scarce a step was
taken by the English Ministry that was not instantly communicated by the
Ambassador in London to the French Minister at Versailles, with
speculations, always ingenious, often profound, upon its probable
results. Scarce a step was taken in the Colonies without attracting the
instant attention of the French agent. Never were events more closely
studied or their character better understood. When troops were sent to
Boston, the English Ministry was not without serious apprehensions of
resistance. But when the tidings of their peaceful landing came, while
the English were exulting in their success, the French Ambassador
rejoiced that the wisdom of the Colonial leaders had withheld them from
a form of opposition for which they were not yet ready. The English
Ministry was preparing to enter upon a system of coercion at the point
of the bayonet. "If the Colonists submit under the pressure," said
Choiseul, "it will only be in appearance and for a short time."

Meanwhile his active brain was teeming with projects; the letters of his
agents were teeming with suggestions. Frances counsels caution, dreads
the effects of hasty measures; for the Colonists have not yet learned to
look upon France as a friend, and premature action might serve only to
bind them more firmly to England. Du Chatelet proposes that France and
Spain, sacrificing their old colonial system, should open their colonial
ports to the products of the English Colonies,--thus inflicting a fatal
blow upon England's commerce, while they supplant her in the affections
of the Colonists. A clerk in the Department of Commerce goes still
farther, advocating a full emancipation of the French Colonies, both to
throw off a useless burden and to increase the irritation of the English
Colonies by the spectacle of an independence which they were not
permitted to share.

There is nothing in history more humiliating than to see on what small
hinges great events sometimes turn. Of all the disgraceful intrigues of
a palace filled with intrigues from the day of its foundation, there is
none half so disgraceful as the overthrow of the Duke of Choiseul in
1770. And yet, vile as it was both by its mot