Transcriber’s Note: The original publication has been replicated faithfully except as shown in the Transcriber’s Amendments at the end of the text. Words in italics are indicated like _this_. But the publisher also wanted to emphasize items in sentences already italicized, so he printed them in the regular font which is indicated like this: _The pirates then went to +Hispaniola+._ Superscripts are indicated like this: M^r Caron de Beaumarchais. Footnotes are located near the end of the Historical Introduction chapter. * * * * * [Illustration] [Illustration: Portrait of Beaumarchais, by Nattier, 1765] BEAUMARCHAIS _And the War of American Independence_ BY ELIZABETH S. KITE _Diplôme d’instruction Primaire-Supérieure, Paris, 1905 Member of the Staff of the Vineland Research Laboratory_ WITH A FOREWORD BY JAMES M. BECK _Author of “The Evidence in the Case”_ TWO VOLUMES VOLUME ONE ILLUSTRATED [Illustration] BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY RICHARD G. BADGER All Rights Reserved Made in the United States of America The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. TO THE MEMORY OF MY BROTHER “_We have been surprised that no descendant of Beaumarchais was invited to represent France at the unveiling of that Statue of Liberty, upon the pedestal of which his name would not be out of place by the side of that of Lafayette. Since 1870 Mr. Bigelow has invited his compatriots to ask themselves seriously if they have done their whole duty towards the memory of Beaumarchais._” E. Lintilhac. “_Beaumarchais et ses oeuvres_,” Paris, 1887. FOREWORD If “good wine needs no bush” and a “good play needs no epilogue,”--and we have high authority for both these maxims,--then it should also be true that a good book needs no prologue, especially where, as in the case of _Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence_, the author has prefaced a valuable contribution to history by a scholarly and effective introduction.