“5th. That remittances to be made for the purpose of discharging the debt now due, or to become due to the said Roderigue Hortalès et Cie., shall be made at such times and seasons, as shall be most convenient for the American interest, but are to continue until the entire debt, principal and interest, shall be fully and fairly discharged. “6th. That a commission of 2½ per cent. shall be allowed to the said Roderigue Hortalès et Cie.... on all charges and monies paid and disbursed by them for the account of the United States. “In witness whereof the contracting parties have hereunto set their hands and seals, this 16th day of April in the year of our Lord, 1778. Signed: “William Ellery, James Forbes, William Henry Dayton, William Durer, Jean Baptiste Lazarus Theveneau de Francy. Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress.” [Illustration: ROBERT MORRIS] Naturally enough, having obtained a contract of such precise stipulations, signed, not as formerly, by an agent three thousand miles from the seat of Congress, but by a committee chosen from the bosom of that body, de Francy thought the greatest difficulty of his mission already accomplished, and Beaumarchais, when he received the glad tidings, set about with renewed vigor, the gathering together and dispatching of supplies. The Americans, however, still found reasons for delaying the fulfillment of their part of the contract; and it was only after two more months of ceaseless activity that de Francy succeeded in getting enough tobacco to freight the _Fier Roderigue_ for its return voyage. Which cargo, the second that had reached Beaumarchais, was destined when it arrived in France to be seized upon by Lee, as that of the _Amphitrite_ had been, with the same results. In a letter to Beaumarchais, June, 1778, de Francy announced the order which he had received for the delivery of the tobacco, “The rest of the letter,” says Bigelow, “is filled with complaints of the bad faith of these republicans, who refuse him the vessels they had promised to carry off his tobacco, and urges Beaumarchais to send out at least six himself.”