To this appeal the commodore replied, “I feel your reasons for urging frugality. And as I have not, hitherto, been among the extravagant servants of America, so you may depend upon it, my regard for you will make me particularly nice in my present situation.” By the middle of April the Alliance, under the very energetic and skilful superintendence of Commodore Jones, was ready for sea. Competent judges declared that it was one of the finest frigates to be found in France. Though it was manifestly for Commodore Jones’s pecuniary interest to remain with his splendid ship in the region of rich prizes, where at any time, in a few hours, he could run into the fortified ports of France, yet, without a murmur, he undertook the more humble employment of conveying stores to America. There were four gentlemen in Paris, including one of the commissioners, Mr. Arthur Lee, who wished to take passage with him. Landais, when he fled from the Texel, left his trunks on board the Alliance. Doctor Franklin wrote to Commodore Jones: “Captain Landais has demanded of me an order to you, to deliver to him his trunks. I find him so exceedingly captious and critical, and so apt to misconstrue, as an intended injustice, every expression in a language which he does not immediately understand, that I am tired of writing anything for him or about him, and am determined to have nothing further to do with him.” Innumerable difficulties had arisen about the adjustment and distribution of the prizes. The sailors had not received their wages, and not even a dollar of their prize money. Many of them were in a state of great destitution. Their chests of clothing had gone down in the Bon Homme Richard; and after the long delay in the Texel they were almost in rags. Landais, having been commissioned by the American Congress, demanded to be sent to this country for trial upon the charges brought against him. This request had been granted, and Dr. Franklin had furnished him with funds to pay his passage, in the Luzerne, an American merchant ship. There were many very serious charges tabled against him. In defence of the most severe accusation, that he had fired into the Bon Homme Richard, he presented the plea that the two ships were lashed together, and that he could not fire into the Serapis, without some of his shot being liable to strike the Richard. But the testimony given by Nathaniel Fanning seems conclusive, as it was corroborated by much other testimony. He was stationed in the main-top of the Richard, where he remained during the whole action.