(After explaining clearly the character and ambitions of Lee, his English connections, his influence in Congress, Beaumarchais continued:) “To succeed in his design, it was necessary to dispose of a colleague so formidable as Mr. Deane. This he has done by rendering him in many respects an object of suspicion to Congress. “Having learned that foreign officers demanding commissions were not received favorably by the American Army, he put the worst construction upon the conduct of his colleague who sent them, maintaining that Mr. Deane arbitrarily and in spite of good advice, was responsible for the sending.... Another reason is the officious zeal displayed by M. Lee in constantly writing to Congress that all merchandise, etc., was a present.... Nothing then is easier than for the adroit Lee to blacken the conduct of Mr. Deane by representing it as the result of underhand measures contrived to support demands for money in which he expected to share; and this explains the silence, more than astonishing, that Congress has observed in regard to over ten letters of mine full of details.” Then he draws a faithful picture of Deane’s situation and speaks of his having at first formed the determination not to return until charges should be communicated to him. “I have, however, urged him to go back to face the storm. ‘Lee,’ I have said, ‘accuses you of having arbitrarily sent officers to America; your complete defense is in my portfolio. I have in my possession a cipher letter from this time-serving Lee, urging me to send engineers and officers to the assistance of America, and the letter is written before your arrival in France.’” Then he urged the importance for French interests to have so true and tried a friend as Mr. Deane back in America.