“I have not yet been able to obtain direct news of your nephew but I am assured that he is in the Army and well placed, and that he has received honorable mention. As to his contract with Deane, I warn you not to reckon upon that. I do not doubt that he will obtain by his own merits, the grades which Mr. Deane promised him, but Congress will give no heed to a contract made with him. Mr. Deane has far exceeded his powers in granting commissions to officers who were recommended to him in the beginning of his sojourn in France. He had not even the right to make a lieutenant, consequently nearly all who came out with commissions signed by him, and who have not wished to serve until they were placed, have been obliged to return. If M. du Coudray had not died, they would have been greatly embarrassed to place him.... Almost all our officers who brought letters of recommendation, and have conducted themselves well, have advantageous places. La Rouërie is colonel and much esteemed. The Marquis de Lafayette has been wounded in the leg. This did not prevent his keeping the saddle, however, all day. He cried, ‘There, I am wounded, now I am content.’” In the meantime, Beaumarchais had written to de Francy from Paris, “I profit, my dear Francy, of every occasion to send you news; let it be the same with you, I beg of you. Although it is to-day the 20th of December, 1777, my largest ship has not yet set sail; but this is the common lot of all merchantmen destined for America. The ministry fears that our commerce will take away too many sailors at a time when the state may have need of them from one day to another. The most rigorous orders have been given in all the ports, and especially in the ports where I arm. It seems that the force and capacity of my ships have made Lord Stormont attack the ministry in a way to make them fear that he suspects them of favoring an operation, which in truth, is carried on without them and in spite of them. Ready to set sail, my artillery has been taken from me, and the delay in getting it back or in forming another is what detains me in port. I struggle against obstacles of every kind, but as I struggle with all my force, I hope to conquer with patience, and courage and very much money. The enormous loss which all this occasions me seems to touch no one. The minister is inflexible; there is no one, even to Messrs. the deputies at Passy, who do not pretend to the honor of thwarting me,—me—the best friend of their country. At the arrival of my vessel, the _Amphitrite_, which at last unloaded at Lorient a small cargo of rice and indigo, they had the injustice to seize upon it, saying that it was sent to them and not to me; but, as M. de Voltaire has very well said, ‘Injustice in the end produces independence.’ They have very probably taken my patience for weakness, and my generosity for stupidity. In proportion as I have been attached to the interests of America, in so far I have been offended by