"'Come, it is late and you must write a letter to the heart of England before you lie down to rest.' "Often thereafter he spoke of Margaret as 'the heart of England.'" CHAPTER XXV THE PAGEANT Jack began to assist Franklin in his correspondence and in the many business details connected with his mission. "I have never seen a man with a like capacity for work," the young officer writes. "Every day he is conferring with Vergennes or other representatives of the King, or with the ministers of Spain, Holland and Great Britain. The greatest intellect in the kingdom is naturally in great request. To-day, after many hours of negotiation with the Spanish minister, in came M. Dubourg, the most distinguished physician in Europe. "'_Mon chere maitre_,' he said. 'I have a most difficult case and as you know more about the human body than any man of my acquaintance I wish to confer with you.' "Yesterday, Doctor Ingenhauz, physician to the Emperor of Austria, came to consult him regarding the vaccination of the royal family of France. "In the evening, M. Robespierre, a slim, dark-skinned, studious young attorney from Arras, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, came for information regarding lightning rods, he having doubts of their legality. While they were talking, M. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, another physician, arrived. He was looking for advice regarding a proposed new method of capital punishment, and wished to know if, in the Doctor's opinion, a painless death could be produced by quickly severing the head from the body. Next morning, M. Jourdan, with hair and beard as red as the flank of my bay mare and a loud voice, came soon after breakfast, to sell us mules by the ship load. "So you see that even I, living in his home and seeing him almost every hour of the day, have little chance to talk with him. Last night we met M. Voltaire--dramatist and historian--now in the evening of his days. We were at the Academy, where we had gone to hear an essay by D'Alembert. Franklin and Voltaire--a very thin old gentleman of eighty-four, with piercing black eyes--sat side by side on the platform. The audience demanded that the two great men should come forward and salute each other. They arose and advanced and shook hands. "'_A la Francaise_,' the crowd demanded. "So the two white-haired men embraced and kissed each other amidst loud applause. "We are up at sunrise and at breakfast, for half an hour or so, I have him to myself. Then we take a little walk in the palace grounds of M. le Ray de Chaumont, Chief Forester of the kingdom, which adjoins us. To the Count's generosity Franklin is indebted for the house we live in. The Doctor loves to have me with him in the early morning. He says breakfasting alone is the most _triste_ of all occupations. "'I think that the words of Demosthenes could not have been more sought than yours,' I said to him at breakfast this morning.