this latter argument was afterward abundantly shown by the
history of the country during the first three administrations.
Fortunately upon this occasion Lee sided with Franklin, and the untimely
trial of French friendship was not made. Had it been, it would have been
more likely to jeopardize forever than to precipitate the good fortune
which, though still invisible, was close at hand.

It was not until December 4, 1777, that there broke a great and sudden
rift in the solid cloudiness. First there came a vague rumor of good
news, no one at all knew what; then a post-chaise drove into Dr.
Franklin's courtyard, and from it hastily alighted the young messenger,
Jonathan Loring Austin, whom Congress had sent express from
Philadelphia, and who had accomplished an extraordinarily rapid journey.
The American group of envoys and agents were all there, gathered by the
mysterious report which had reached them, and at the sound of the wheels
they ran out into the courtyard and eagerly surrounded the chaise.
"Sir," exclaimed Franklin, "is Philadelphia taken?" "Yes, sir," replied
Austin; and Franklin clasped his hands and turned to reenter the house.
But Austin cried that he bore greater news: that General Burgoyne and
his whole army were prisoners of war! At the words the glorious sunshine
burst forth. Beaumarchais, the ecstatic, sprang into his carriage and
drove madly for the city to spread the story; but he upset his vehicle
and dislocated his arm. The envoys hastily read and wrote; in a few
hours Austin was again on the road, this time bound to de Vergennes at
Versailles, to tell the great tidings. Soon all Paris got the news and
burst into triumphant rejoicing over the disaster to England.

Austin's next errand was a secret and singular one. Franklin managed
throughout his residence in France to maintain a constant communication
with the opposition party in England. He now thought it wise to enable
them to obtain full information from an intelligent man who was not many
weeks absent from the States. Accordingly he dispatched Austin, using
extreme precautions of secrecy, making him "burn every letter which he
had brought from his friends in America," but giving him in exchange two
other letters, which certainly introduced him to strange society for an
American "rebel" to frequent. During his visit he was "domesticated in
the family of the Earl of Shelburne; placed under the particular
protection of his chaplain, the celebrated