Franklin, the agent of the colonies, stood in his humble place, calm and undisturbed to all outward appearance, but he was cut to the quick as he heard this assembly of representative Englishmen laughing at his supposed dishonor. Says one of that day, "At the sallies of the orator's sarcastic wit all the members of the Council, the president himself not excepted, frequently laughed outright." Benjamin Franklin went home, and put away his spotted velvet coat. He might want it again. It would be a reminder to him--a lesson of life. He might wear it again some day. The next day, being Sunday, the eminent Dr. Priestley came to take breakfast with him. Dr. Franklin said: "Let me read the arraignment twice over. I have never before been so sensible of the power of a good conscience. If I had not considered the thing for which I have been so much insulted the best action of my life, and which I certainly should do again under like circumstances, I could not have supported myself." Franklin held an office under the crown. On Monday morning a letter was brought to him from the postmaster-general. It read: "The king finds it necessary to dismiss you from the office of deputy postmaster-general in America." Dismissed in disgrace at the age of sixty-eight! And England laughing. He had nothing left to comfort him now but his conscience--that was the everything. The old spotted velvet coat; he brought it out on the day of the treaty. It was some nine or more years old now. He stood like a culprit in it one day; it should adorn him now in the hour of his honor. He was facing eighty years. He prepared to leave France, where his career had been one of such honor and glory that his fame filled the world. The court made him a parting present. It was a portrait of the king set in a frame of _four hundred diamonds_! CHAPTER XL. IN SERVICE AGAIN. IT has been said that Franklin forgot to be old. Verging upon eighty, he had asked to be recalled from France, and he dreamed of quiet old age among his grandchildren on the banks of the Schuylkill, where so many happy years of his middle life had been spent. He was recalled from France, but, as we have before stated, this was an age in America when men sought the councils of wisdom and experience. Pennsylvania needed a President or Governor who could lay the foundations of early legislation with prudence, and she turned to the venerable Franklin to fill the chair of state. He was nominated for the office of President of Pennsylvania, and elected, and twice re-elected; and we find him now, over eighty years of age, in activities of young manhood, and bringing to the office the largest experience of any American. He was among the first of most eminent Americans to crown his life after the period of threescore and ten years with the results of the scholarship of usefulness.