Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/35

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IN AMERICAN DIPLOMACY
15

that hidden about his person were letters instructing him to purchase supplies for a rebellious army from the benevolent and neutral government of France. His letters, although scrupulously opened by neighbouring Englishmen of an inquisitive disposition, would hardly reveal the fact, the pith of them being invisible except to the eyes of John Jay, of New York, who had a special acid to display the writing.

Now he had been told to look up a Dr. Dubourg in Paris, one of the innumerable high-minded and capable men that were followers of Franklin in all parts of Europe, and to confide in him and in one Mr. Edward Bancroft. He was delighted to find that Bancroft had arrived before he had, and to discover both gentlemen awaiting his coming. He would probably have been less delighted if he could have seen the full and exhaustive report of his right name, his antecedents, his lodgings, and even the minutest details of his private instructions which the genial Mr. Bancroft placed at once in the hands of the infuriated ambassa-