t nine months seemed an ample provision for
it, ... I do not conceive that I disobeyed an order of Congress,
and that if I did the circumstances will excuse it.... In short,
the dreadful consequences of ruin to our public credit, both in
America and Europe, that must attend the protesting a single
Congress draft for interest, after our funds were out, would have
weighed with me against the payment of more money to those
gentlemen, if the demand had otherwise been well founded. I am,
however, in the judgment of Congress, and if I have done amiss,
must submit dutifully to their censure."

Burgoyne's surrender had a market value; it was worth ready money in
France and Spain. Upon the strength of it the former lent the States
3,000,000 livres; and the like amount was engaged for by Spain. But,
says Bancroft, "when Arthur Lee, who was equally disesteemed in
Versailles and Madrid, heard of the money expected of Spain, he talked
and wrote so much about it that the Spanish government, who wished to
avoid a rupture with England, took alarm, and receded from its
intention."[69]

[Note 69: Bancroft, _Hist. U. S._ ix. 480.]

In February and March, 1779, came demands from the officers of the
frigate Alliance for their pay; but Franklin was "neither furnished
with money nor authority for such purposes." It seemed, however, too
hard to tell these gallant fellows, whose perilous and useful service
was in European waters, that they could not have a dollar until they
should get safely back to the States; so Franklin agreed to pay for one
suit of clothes for each of them. But he begged them to be as "frugal as
possible," and not make themselves "expensively fine" from a notion that
it was for the honor of the State, which could be better promoted in
more sensible ways.

May 26, 1779, he complains to the committee of foreign affairs that,
whereas the commissioners had agreed to find in Paris means of paying
interest on a loan of $5,000,000, that loan had been doubled, while, on
the other hand, they had been "drained by a number of unforeseen
expenses," including "orders and drafts" of Congress. "And now," he
says, "the drafts of the treasurer of the loans coming very fast upon
me, the anxiety I have suffered and the distress of mind lest I should
not be able to pay them, have for a long time been very great indeed. To
apply again to this court for money for a particular purpose, which they