“I beg your pardon, sir,” said Franklin, “Philadelphia has taken Howe.” But though he endeavored to put a brave face on the matter, his heart was full of apprehension. A messenger came from the colonies and the commissioners rushed out to meet him, asking if Philadelphia were really taken. “Yes,” answered the messenger. Franklin clasped his hands and turned to stumble back into the house. “But, sir, I have greater news than that,” continued the messenger. “General Burgoyne and his whole army are prisoners of war.” The French government hesitated no longer; in a few weeks it openly recognized the United States, and made a treaty with them. In 1785 Franklin returned home. He was now nearly eighty, but his public life was not at an end. He was elected President of Pennsylvania and the next year he was sent as a delegate to the Convention which met to form a Constitution for the United States. In April, 1790, he died and was buried in his adopted home in Philadelphia. He had years before written an epitaph for himself. “The Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, (Like the cover of an old book, Its contents torn out, And stripped of its lettering and gilding,) Lies here food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not be lost, For it will, (as he believed) appear once more In a new And more beautiful Edition Corrected and Amended By The Author.” Montcalm and Wolfe You have heard of the beginnings of the French power in America--how Cartier and La Salle, Marquette and Champlain, explored the country and claimed it in the name of their king. They went up and down the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and established along the streams their trading-posts and military forts. The English meanwhile, settled along the Atlantic coast and established farms and villages. The English patents granted to their colonists the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The French claimed and were occupying the Mississippi valley. The English pressed westward and crossed the Alleghany Mountains through gaps made by the rivers which the French claimed; the French pressed eastward along these same rivers. Contact and conflict were inevitable. The French foresaw it and made their preparations accordingly. From the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi, they established posts and organized their forces. French traders, French missionaries, French settlers, upheld the power of their king. They made friends with the Indians of many tribes, but from the day that Champlain joined battle against the Iroquois, the Five Nations were the deadly enemies of the French and therefore the friends of the English.