neglect this duty soe much as hee does, his absence being the losse of some hundreds to the State, and if wee should have any occasion to make use of a morter-piece without Mr. Hane, there is noebody to undertake that businesse that is fitt for itt[2].' But the Lord-General turned a deaf ear to Lilburne's appeals. He had chosen Hane for a business of much more difficulty than planning forts, and of much greater danger than playing a mortar-piece. He was kept from his professional duties in Scotland to play a part in one of the obscurest and least known episodes of Cromwell's foreign policy. On October 11, 1653, Hane set sail for France on his mysterious mission, and spent the next five months in struggling with the dangers and privations related in this journal. At that time the relations of France with England were still strained and unfriendly. It was still uncertain whether England would ally itself with Spain against France, or with France against Spain. Charles II was a pensioner at the French Court. In 1649 Louis XIV had prohibited the introduction into France of all woollen stuffs or silks manufactured in England, and the Republic had replied by forbidding the introduction into England of wines, woollen stuffs, and silks from France. French corsairs had made prey of English merchantmen, and English ships armed with letters of reprisal had retaliated on French commerce. At the close of 1651 war with France seemed much more probable than war with Holland. The Dutch war had aggravated the situation still further by leading to the confiscation of many French ships on the ground that they carried Dutch goods or contraband of war. In September, 1652, Blake captured a small French fleet sent to relieve and provision the garrison of Dunkirk, and that place in consequence fell into the hands of the Spaniards. At last, in December, 1652, Louis XIV, driven by necessity, recognized the English republic and sent M. de Bordeaux to negotiate with its rulers. But in spite of this recognition the possibility of English intervention in the civil struggles in France was not ended. In September, 1651, the third war of the Fronde--the 'Fronde Espagnole'--began. Condé raised the standard of revolt in Guienne, and Bordeaux became the headquarters of the rebellion.