Volume II Part 13 (1/2)
A few days later he had still more startling news to announce; a mysterious stranger had arrived in Paris, had visited M. Deane, had dined with him, remaining more than two hours. At the end of that time, a lackey of Mr. Deane came into the street, looked anxiously about; seeing a cab (which was none other than the one in the employ of Beaumarchais) he asked if it was engaged; being told that it awaited two ladies, the lackey entered the house and soon the mysterious stranger came into the street and went away on foot, followed, of course, by the cab.
Two more days pa.s.sed, and at the end of that time, Beaumarchais was able to give more definite information. The mysterious stranger proved to be a secretary of the Lord Germaine. ”Beaumarchais,” says Doniol, ”informed as usual before all others, dispatched at once a notice to the ministers. He had followed the English Emissary from the moment of his arrival, informed himself of what he already had accomplished, found out his lodgings and notified the ministers, who sent at once an agent to confer with Deane.” (_Doniol_ II, 64.) Vergennes hastened to inform the Court of Spain of the secret actions of England, with a design to rouse it to action. The moment was indeed a critical one, for the English government was leaving nothing undone to come to terms with the Americans.
January 1, 1777, Beaumarchais wrote to Vergennes:
”I hasten to inform you that an emissary from Lord North arrived in Paris yesterday. He has been watched ever since he left London. He has orders to gain the deputation at Pa.s.sy at any price whatever. This is the moment or never, to cry _tu dors Brutus_. But I know that you are not asleep. From your side you see very well that I do not keep bad guard either.... Be sure that the English ministers are working seriously to make peace with America, and that it is of as much value to the nation that they make it, as it is for Lord Chatham and others.... And so peace with America is absolutely resolved; this is what has been very expressly communicated to me. As for myself, I am informed by the same avenue that the minister of France has given the Americans here help of money by means of Messrs. Grand, that the English ministers know it on good authority and that I am s.h.i.+fted off, which annoys no one in England. I easily believe it. Then I have lost the fruits of the most n.o.ble and unbelievable labors, by the very means that lead others to glory; I have several times guessed as much by the strange things which have struck me in the conduct of the Americans towards me.... Miserable human prudence, thou canst save no one when intrigue is bent upon ruining us.
”M. le Comte, you are the man upon whose equity I have the most counted; you have not even refused at times esteem and well-wis.h.i.+ng to my active zeal. Before I perish as merchant, I demand to be fully justified as agent and trader. I demand to lay before you my accounts, in order that it be proved well that no one else could have done so much with so little means across so many difficulties. It is certain that this summer M. le Comte de Maurepas permitted me to send guns to America, and he promised me that when they were gone I should be reimbursed, because he feared at that time the indiscretion of those about M. le Comte de St. Germain. I bought them, sent them and gave my notes which fall due soon, and yet M. de Maurepas seems to have forgotten his promise. This article and the charging of my vessel at Rochefort, arrives at more than 800,000 francs.
”By the unbelievable retention of my vessel in port, everyone considers me lost and demands his money; nevertheless, though ready to perish through this delay and money not reimbursed, I do not lose my head. You can judge of that by the cold and reasoned work which I put into your hands Sat.u.r.day. But I avow that I am at the end of my courage and my strength by the a.s.surance that Messrs. Grand have secured the confidence which I believed I so well merited.[1] This breaks my heart. I have fulfilled the most th.o.r.n.y of tasks; I must be allowed to prove that I have fulfilled it well; it is in giving my accounts that this truth will appear....
”Be happy, M. le Comte, this year and all years. No one merits to be so, more than you, and no one desires it more truly than
”Beaumarchais.”
[1] Beaumarchais had aided in placing Grand on firm footing with the American Commission (Doniol II, 613).
Although no longer made use of as intermediary, the former agent of the government was not wholly abandoned by Vergennes.
A few days previously Beaumarchais had written:
”M. le Comte: I felt yesterday the sweet influences of your goodness. If I did not obtain what I asked for, at least
I could judge by the gentle tone of the prohibitions that they were less directed against me than forced by events and promises already made. To lose much money is a great evil, when one has very little; but to carry in one's heart the mortal sorrow of displeasing when one has done one's best, and even the best that could be done, under the circ.u.mstances, is a state which kills me. Receive, M. le Comte the warmest testimony of my grat.i.tude.”
On the 22nd of January, 1778, the discarded agent handed in the resume required of him by the ministers. In writing to Vergennes he said: ”This sorrowful Memorial (_Memoire Particuliere, pour les ministres du Roi, et une manifeste pour l'Etat_) which at another time, and on another subject, I could have finished in two hours, has taken me eight days to write, my head being so confused by the frightful medley of objects which it contains, and in regard to which I claim your justice while invoking your mercy.
”I even thought for four days that it had become useless through delay, and abandoned everything to work upon my consular balance-sheet. By a _tour de force_, I put myself on my feet for twelve or fifteen days;-But _grand Dieu_, is this to live? The more I a.s.sume a tranquil air, the more my secret torment increases. I have examined myself well, I have not done the least wrong, and in going over my papers to a.s.sure myself of my state, I have been frightened at all it has been necessary to overcome in the last two years, to arrive where I am. If I am to be aided, you cannot do it too quickly or too secretly for the letters of change are like death, they wait for no one.... If I am not to be, Amen-I have done what I ought, and more than what I could. I learn by sure news that my two vessels of Ma.r.s.eilles are certainly at Charlestown. This, in spite of France and England. Sixty-six cannons, twenty-two mortars, bombs and bullets in proportion; eighty thousand weight of sulphur and my poor guns which have not yet been paid for. All this is in America, by my indefatigable labor, and I have had to deceive all the world, with unbelievable pains, in order to make this s.h.i.+pment secretly. Ah, M. le Comte, it is my balance sheet which will show what an active man you have allowed to be lost and dishonored if you permit this fearful misfortune to accomplish itself. I have no courage to talk of England, because in truth I am dying of sorrow.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL BARON VON STEUBEN]
That the Comte de Vergennes did not lend an altogether deaf ear to this cry of despair, may be judged from the following letter, dated February 15, 1778,
”M. le Comte:
”You have seemed to take a too obliging interest in my fearful situation, for me to allow you to remain ignorant a moment of the excessive joy which I have felt since yesterday. Yesterday, my teeth clenched with fury to be without news, I waited the moment to close my case, refusing to make any payment the 15th, which falling due to-day Sunday, was exigible yesterday, the 14th.
Read, M. le Comte, read I implore you what I received at 2 o'clock, and what I replied this morning, see, my joy is excessive. I am no longer exposed to the dishonor of a bankruptcy, which, notwithstanding all my efforts, I could never have justified, without an involuntary and fatal indiscretion. M.
le Comte de Maurepas received me Monday, like a corsaire who had failed in respect to our flag. I did not say a word, I would have had too much to say. I withdrew, death in my heart. Not that I thought the interests of America abandoned. I know very well that they are not....
”The profound silence which I have imposed upon myself for the past two months, since the departure of the brother of M. Deane, secretly embarked at Bordeaux and bearing ... but this shall be matter for another letter. It is just that M. de Maurepas learns through me of this affair, for if the fear of the most frightful misfortune has rendered me pressing solicitor, I am not a man without virtue; it will be the strongest proof which I can offer of the resignation with which I know how to support the coldness and disdain of those who have protected me. Ah! but I am again saved. It is to you that I render a million thanks for all the efforts which you have made in my favor. Never will I forget the generous efforts which you have made to save me from ruin....”
The moment of the open alliance between France and America was now hastening forward. With it, ends the first phase of the war of the United States against England, ”phase heroic by its enterprise, its constancy, its privations, by the serenity of its chief and by the results obtained, if one considers the nature and quality of the soldiers.” (_Doniol_ III, 260.)
It was to this period that the activities of Beaumarchais in the cause of America essentially belong. The operations, however, now so well under way, he continued to carry on through his agent de Francy, though from henceforward they are wholly private in character.
CHAPTER XXI
_”Any crisis which puts in peril all that society undertakes to secure to us by its laws, uncovers our hearts to the world, strips our native selfishness of all its disguises, and makes us appear to each other pretty nearly as bad as we must always appear to the angels.”_
_Hon. John Bigelow in ”Beaumarchais the Merchant.”_