Jay, whose influence from this time forward predominated over that of Franklin. Oswald wrote that the French Court evidently wished the Colonies might not be satisfied, and that Lafayette was always "going about the Commissioners," as one of the latter had himself informed him. "M. de Vergennes," he went on to say, "has sent an agent over to London on some particular negotiation, it is thought in favour of Spain. That Court wishes to have the whole of the country from West Florida of a certain width quite up to Canada, so as to have both banks of the Mississippi clear, and would wish to have such a cession from England, before a cession of the Colonies takes place. The Spaniards have the whole French tide, and would gladly complete it by patches from the English pretensions, which they could not hope for, once we have agreed with the Colonies."[1]
At the end of the month of August, De Grasse, who was a prisoner in England, having been exchanged for Lord Cornwallis, returned to France. He had seen Shelburne before leaving England. Taking advantage of a conversation with him, on arriving in Paris he showed some notes to Vergennes for which he claimed a semi-official character, and represented them as containing Shelburne's views on the terms of peace with France. Vergennes however suspected the authenticity of the claim put forward by De Grasse; and for this reason, and in order to sound the general situation, he had determined to send Rayneval to London.
When Rayneval arrived, George III. took a strong objection to his quiet and unpretentious appearance, believing it to be part of the stock-in-trade of Vergennes. "The art of M. de Vergennes, is so well known," he wrote to Shelburne, "that I cannot think he would have sent him if he was an inoffensive man of business, but that he has chosen him for having that appearance, while armed with cunning; which will be more dangerous if under so specious a garb."[2]
