With this desire to help the United States ever in his thoughts he went to see Benjamin Franklin, and with Franklin and the American sea-captain John Paul Jones he planned an expedition against England in which he should lead the land forces and Paul Jones command the fleet. While they were arranging this the French government suggested a greater plan. Spain was to unite with France in defense of America. Details were being worked out when John Paul Jones embarked in his ship, the _Bon Homme Richard_, and had his famous sea-fight with the _Serapis_. But the Spanish government delayed and at last the French gave up the idea of a joint attack on England. Meantime Lafayette joined the French army again and was commissioned a colonel of the King’s Dragoons. While he was waiting at Havre he was presented by Franklin’s grandson with the sword that the Congress of the United States had ordered should be given to him. It was a beautiful sword; the handle was of gold, exquisitely wrought, and decorated, as well as the blade, with figures emblematical of Lafayette’s career in America, with his coat of arms and his motto, “_Cur non?_” And while he waited he was always impatient to be of help to his friends across the Atlantic. To Washington he wrote, “However happy I find myself in France, however well treated by my country and my king, I am so accustomed to being near to you, I am bound to you, to America, to my companions in arms by such an affection, that the moment when I sail for your country will be among the happiest and most wished for of my life.” His great work during that year he spent in France was the winning of a French army, under the Count de Rochambeau, to fight by the side of the Americans. There was opposition to this at first, for neither Louis XVI. nor Marie Antoinette nor the royal princes who surrounded them cared to encourage the spirit of liberty too far. But the people, backed by their hero, Lafayette, demanded it, and at last their persistency won the day. The government of France decided to send an army, commanded by Rochambeau, lieutenant-general of the royal forces, with a fleet of warships and transports and six thousand soldiers, to the aid of America. Lafayette was sent ahead to carry the welcome news to Washington and Congress, and to let them know that there would be no more of the jealousies and disputes that had hindered the success of the French and Americans in the field before. For Lafayette had arranged that the French troops should be under Washington’s orders, that they should accept the leadership of the American officers on the latter’s own ground, and that officers of the United States should be recognized as having equal rank with those of France. This harmony that Lafayette secured had a great deal to do with the final successful outcome of the American Revolution.