munition, and clothing
into an American port. Moreover, the ships from America which were to
have brought him payment in the shape of tobacco and other American
commodities failed to arrive; his royal copartners declined to make
further advances; the ready money was gone, credit had been strained to
the breaking point, and a real bankruptcy impended over the sham firm.
Thus in the autumn and early winter of 1776 prospects in France wore no
cheerful aspect for the colonies. It was at this juncture that Franklin
arrived, and he came like a reviving breeze from the sea.

Long and anxiously did Congress wait to get news from France; not many
trustworthy ships were sent on so perilous a voyage, and of those that
ventured it only a few got across an ocean "porcupined" with English
warships. At last in September, 1776, Franklin received from Dr. Dubourg
of Paris, a gentleman with whom his friendship dated back to his French
trip in 1767, a long and cheering letter full of gratifying
intelligence concerning the disposition of the court, and throwing out a
number of such suggestions that the mere reading them was a stimulus to
action. Congress was not backward to respond; it resolved at once to
send a formal embassage. Franklin was chosen unanimously by the first
ballot. "I am old and good for nothing," he whispered to Dr. Rush, "but,
as the storekeepers say of their remnants of cloth, 'I am but a fag end
and you may have me for what you please.'"[39] Thomas Jefferson and
Deane were elected as colleagues; but Jefferson declined the service and
Arthur Lee was put in his stead. The Reprisal, sloop of war, of sixteen
guns, took Dr. Franklin and his grandson on board for the dangerous
voyage. It was a very different risk from that which Messrs. Slidell and
Mason took nearly a century later. They embarked on a British mail
steamship, and were subject, as was proved, only to the ordinary perils
of navigation. But had Franklin been caught in this little rebel craft,
which had actually been captured from English owners and condemned as
prize by rebel tribunals, and which now added the aggravating
circumstance that she carried an armament sufficient to destroy a
merchantman but not to encounter a frigate, he would have had before him
at best a long imprisonment, at worst a trial for high treason and a
halter. Horace Walpole gave the news that "Dr. Franklin, at the age of
seventy-two or seventy-four, and at the risk of his head, had bravel