t." Perhaps
his simple-minded fellow countrymen of the provinces fancied that such a
man would make an imposing figure at an European court. He developed no
other peculiar fitness for his position; he could not even speak
French; and it proved an ill hour for himself in which he received this
trying and difficult honor. By dint of native shrewdness, good luck, and
falling among friends he made a fair beginning; but soon he floundered
beyond his depth, committed some vexatious blunders, and in the course
of conducting some important business at last found himself in a
position where he had really done right but appeared to have done wrong,
without being free to explain the truth. The result was that he was
recalled upon a pretext which poorly concealed his disgrace, that he
found even his reputation for financial honesty clouded, and that his
prospects for the future were of the worst. He was not a man of
sufficient mental calibre or moral strength to endure his unmerited
sufferings with constancy. After prolonged disappointments in his
attempts to set himself right in the opinion of the country, he became
embittered, lost all judgment and patriotism, turned a renegade to the
cause of America, which had wronged him indeed, but rather in ignorance
than from malice, and died unreconciled, a broken and miserable exile.
Such were the perils of the diplomatic service of the colonies in those
days.

Deane arrived in France in June, 1776. He had with him a little ready
money for his immediate personal expenses, and some letters of
introduction from Franklin. It was intended to keep him supplied with
money by sending cargoes of tobacco, rice, and indigo consigned to him,
the proceeds of which would be at his disposal for the public service.
He was instructed to seek an interview with de Vergennes, the French
minister for foreign affairs, and to endeavor with all possible prudence
and delicacy to find out what signs of promise the disposition of the
French government really held for the insurgents. He was also to ask for
equipment for 25,000 troops, ammunition, and 200 pieces of field
artillery, all to be paid for--when Congress should be able! In France
he was to keep his mission cloaked in secure secrecy, appearing simply
as a merchant conducting his own affairs; and he was to write home
common business letters under the very harmless and unsuggestive name of
Timothy Jones, adding the real dispatch in invisible ink. But these