The _Mariage de Figaro_—Its Composition—Difficulties Encountered in Getting it Produced—It is Played at Grennevilliers—The First Representation—Its Success— _Institut des pauvres mères nourrices_—Beaumarchais at Saint Lazare 212 CHAPTER XXIV The Marine of Beaumarchais—Success of His Business Undertakings—His Wealth—Ringing Plea of Self-Justification in the Cause of America, Addressed to the Commune of Paris, 1789—The Beautiful House Which He Built in Paris—His Liberality—His Friends—His Home Life—Madame de Beaumarchais—His Daughter, Eugénie 233 CHAPTER XXV House of Beaumarchais Searched—The 10th of August—Letter to his Family in Havre—Letter of Eugénie to her Father—Commissioned to Buy Guns for the Government—Goes to Holland as Agent of _Comité de Salut Public_—Declared an Emigré—Confiscation of his Goods—Imprisonment of his Family—The Ninth Thermidor Comes to Save Them—Life During the Terror—Julie again in Evidence—Beaumarchais’s Name Erased from List of Emigrés—Returns to France 253 CHAPTER XXVI Beaumarchais After his Return from Exile—Takes Up All his Business Activities—Marriage of Eugénie—Her Portrait Drawn by Julie—Beaumarchais’s Varied Interests—Correspondence with Bonaparte—Pleads for Lafayette Imprisoned—Death of Beaumarchais—Conclusion 273 Bibliography 291 Index 295 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE P. A. Caron de Beaumarchais Frontispiece Charles de Beaumont 26 Charles Gravier—Comte de Vergennes 54 Silas Deane 78 William Carmichaël 104 Lafayette 126 General John Schuyler 140 General Baron von Steuben 152 Robert Morris 166 The Temple 182 Cæsar Augustus Rodney—Attorney General of the U. S. 200 John Jay 220 D’Estaing 232 The Bastille 240 House of Beaumarchais 252