Yesterday arrived two French vessels--one a twenty, some say thirty-six gun frigate; dry goods, and four hundred stand of arms, 't is said they contain. I believe I wrote you that Manly had sailed, but it was only as far as Cape Ann. He and MacNeal both lie at anchor in the harbor. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 170: A man used to ride on an ass, with immense jack boots and his face covered with a horrible mask, and was called Joice junior. His office was to assemble men and boys in mob style, and ride, in the middle of them, to terrify the adherents to the royal government.--_Niles's Principles and Acts of the Revolution_, p. 490.] 173. JOHN ADAMS. Philadelphia, 23 April, 1777. My barber has just left the chamber. The following curious dialogue was the amusement during the gay moments of shaving. "Well, Burne, what is the lie of the day?" "Sir, Mr. ---- told me that a privateer from Baltimore has taken two valuable prizes with sixteen guns each. I can scarcely believe it." "Have you heard of the success of the _Rattlesnake_, of Philadelphia, and the _Sturdy Beggar_, of Maryland, Mr. Burne? These two privateers have taken eleven prizes, and sent them into the West India Islands; nine transports and two Guinea-men." "Confound the ill luck, sir; I was going to sea myself on board the _Rattlesnake_, and my wife fell a-yelping. These wives are queer things. I told her I wondered she had no more ambition. 'Now,' says I, 'when you walk the streets and anybody asks who that is, the answer is, "_Burne the barber's wife_." Should you not be better pleased to hear it said, "_That is Captain Burne's lady_, the captain of marines on board the Rattlesnake"?' 'Oh,' says she, 'I would rather be called Burne the barber's wife, than Captain Burne's widow. I don't desire to live better than you maintain me, my dear.' So it is, sir, by this sweet, honey language, I am choused out of my prizes, and must go on with my soap and razors and pincers and combs. I with she had my ambition." If this letter should be intercepted by the Tories, they will get a booty. Let them enjoy it. If some of their wives had been as tender and discreet as the barber's, their husbands' ambition would not have led them into so many salt ponds. What an _ignis fatuus_ this ambition is? How few of either sex have arrived at Mrs. Burne's pitch of moderation, and are able to say, "I don't desire to live better, and had rather be the Barber's wife than the Captain's widow!" Quite smart, I think, as well as philosophical. 174. JOHN ADAMS. Philadelphia, Saturday Evening, 26 April, 1777.