Vergennes complained of being duped, and felt, or pretended, great indignation at what he called American chicanery; nevertheless, so little did it affect him that, a few days afterwards, he agreed to advance a new loan of six million of livres, to enable America to meet the expenses of the coming year. But there was good reason for suspicion: Vergennes was soon afterwards discovered, in conjunction with Spain, labouring to limit the boundaries assigned to the United States, and earnestly advising the British not to yield too liberally.[52] So anxious was the British minister to announce the coming peace, that eight days before the preliminaries were signed by the American agents, he addressed a letter to the lord mayor of London, to acquaint him with the speedy conclusion of the negotiations, and that parliament would be prorogued in consequence from the 26th of November to the 5th of December. On the 5th of December parliament accordingly met, and the king announced that, in pursuit of a general pacification, he had offered to declare the American colonies free and independent states; and added, with evident discomposure of manner, that in admitting the separation of the colonies from the crown of Great Britain, he had sacrificed every consideration of his own to the wishes and opinion of his people. On the 20th of January, 1783, the preliminaries of peace were signed at Paris, the American signatures being those of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens. Before signing the address, Franklin, it is said, put on triumphantly the dress suit, which he had never worn since the day of Wedderburn’s attack in the British privy council.[53]