commonplace precautions were rendered of no avail through the treachery
of Dr. Edward Bancroft, an American resident abroad, who had the
confidence of Congress, but who "accepted the post of a paid American
spy, to prepare himself for the more lucrative office of a double spy
for the British ministers."[38] Deane, going somewhat beyond his
instructions to correspond with Bancroft, told him everything. Bancroft
is supposed to have passed the information along to the British
ministry, and thus enabled them to interpose serious hindrances in the
way of the ingenious devices of the Frenchmen.

[Note 38: Bancroft, _Hist. U. S._ ix. 63.]

Before the arrival of Deane the interests of the colonies had been
already taken in hand and substantially advanced in France by one of the
most extraordinary characters in history. Caron de Beaumarchais was a
man whom no race save the French could produce, and whose traits,
career, and success lie hopelessly beyond the comprehension of the
Anglo-Saxon. Bred a watchmaker, he had the skill, when a mere youth, to
invent a clever escapement balance for regulating watches; had he been
able to insert it into his own brain he might have held more securely
his elusive good fortunes. From being an ingenious inventor he became an
adventurer general, watchmaker to the king, the king's mistresses, and
the king's daughters, the lover, or rather the beloved, of the wife of
the controller of the king's kitchen, then himself the controller,
thence a courtier, and a favorite of the royal princesses. Through a
clever use of his opportunities he was able to do a great favor to a
rich banker, who in return gave him chances to amass a fortune, and lent
him money to buy a patent of nobility. This connection ended in
litigation, which was near ruining him; but he discovered corruption on
the part of the judge, and thereupon wrote his Memorials, of which the
wit, keenness, and vivacity made him famous. He then rendered a private,
personal, and important service to Louis XV., and soon afterwards
another to the young Louis XVI. His capacity for secret usefulness gave
him further occupation and carried him much to London. There he wrote
the "Barber of Seville," and there also he fell in with Arthur Lee and
became indoctrinated with grand notions of the resources and value of
the colonies, and of the ruin which their separation must inflict upon
England. Furthermore, as a Frenchman he naturally consorted with members