Read Ebook: Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence Vol. 2 by Kite Elizabeth Sarah

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Beaumarchais's Earliest Activities in the Cause of American Independence--First Steps of the Government of France-Bonvouloir--Discord Among Parties in England--Beaumarchais's Memoirs to the King--Meets Arthur Lee--Lee's Letter to Congress--King Still Undecided--Curious Letter of Beaumarchais, with Replies Traced in the Handwriting of the King 31

Memoirs Explaining to the King the Plan of His Commercial House--Roderigue Hortal?s et Cie.--The Doctor Dubourg--Silas Deane's Arrival--His Contract with Beaumarchais--Lee's Anger--His Misrepresentations to Congress--Beaumarchais Obtains His Rehabilitation 77

Suspicions of England Aroused Through Indiscretions of Friends of America--Treachery of du Coudray--Counter Order Issued Against Shipments of Beaumarchais--Franklin's Arrival--England's Attempt to Make Peace Stirs France--Counter Order Recalled--Ten Ships Start Out--Beaumarchais Cleared by Vergennes 104

The Declaration of Independence and Its Effect in Europe--Beaumarchais's Activity in Getting Supplies to America--Difficulties Arise About Sailing--Lafayette's Contract with Deane--His Escape to America--Beaumarchais's Losses--Baron von Steuben Sails for America in Beaumarchais's Vessel, Taking the Latter's Nephew, des Epini?res, and His Agent, Theveneau de Francy--The Surrender of Burgoyne--Beaumarchais Finds Himself Set Aside While Others Take His Place--Faces Bankruptcy--Vergennes Comes to His Assistance 126

De Francy Sails for America--His Disappointment in the New World--Beaumarchais Recounts His Grievances against the Deputies at Passy--Rejoices Over American Victories--Manoeuvers to Insure Safety to His Ships--The Depreciation Of Paper Money in America--De Francy Comes to the Aid of Lafayette--Contract between Congress and De Francy Acting for Roderigue et Cie.--Letters of Lee to Congress--Bad Faith of that Body--Deane's Signature to Documents Drawn up by Franklin and Lee--Beaumarchais's Triumph at Aix--Gudin Seeks Refuge at the Temple--Letters of Mlle. Ninon 154

The Marine of Beaumarchais--Success of His Business Undertakings--His Wealth--Ringing Plea of Self-Justification in the Cause of America, Addressed to the Commune of Paris, 1789--The Beautiful House Which He Built in Paris--His Liberality--His Friends--His Home Life--Madame de Beaumarchais--His Daughter, Eug?nie 233

Beaumarchais After his Return from Exile--Takes Up All his Business Activities--Marriage of Eug?nie--Her Portrait Drawn by Julie--Beaumarchais's Varied Interests--Correspondence with Bonaparte--Pleads for Lafayette Imprisoned--Death of Beaumarchais--Conclusion 273

Bibliography 291

Index 295

FACING PAGE

P. A. Caron de Beaumarchais Frontispiece

Charles de Beaumont 26

Charles Gravier--Comte de Vergennes 54

Silas Deane 78

William Carmicha?l 104

Lafayette 126

General John Schuyler 140

General Baron von Steuben 152

Robert Morris 166

The Temple 182

Caesar Augustus Rodney--Attorney General of the U. S. 200

John Jay 220

D'Estaing 232

The Bastille 240

House of Beaumarchais 252

Madame de Beaumarchais 270

BEAUMARCHAIS

It was the summer of 1775. The moment was approaching when the attention of Europe would be directed towards the events transpiring on the other side of the Atlantic, in that New World, of which the old was as yet scarcely conscious. The stand for freedom, for individual rights, for the liberty of expansion which was there made, was destined to rouse the warmest sympathies amongst all classes, especially in France. The enthusiasm which greeted the resistance of the colonies rapidly became a national sentiment which the French government was unable to suppress or even to keep within bounds. To direct this enthusiasm into a practical channel that should lead to immediate and efficient support of the insurged colonies whilst awaiting the active intervention of the government, was to be primarily the work of one man, and that man was Beaumarchais.

But in starting for London on the present occasion, he was unconscious of the historic importance which this journey was destined to assume. The mission with which he was charged was one of the most singular with which any government ever seriously commissioned one of its agents.

Unable to come to any reasonable terms, the negotiations were broken off and the agent returned to France. He was replaced by another who was equally unsuccessful, and for a time the matter was dropped.

In the meantime noise of the affair reached the English government, and d'Eon soon had the satisfaction of receiving large offers from that quarter if he would consent to give up the papers. The Chevalier, whatever his faults, or the violence of his character, was not a traitor; he had no intention of giving the papers in his possession to the English at any price, but he was well satisfied that their value should be thus enhanced.

At this juncture Beaumarchais appeared on the scene. "To interest the latter in his cause, and give him a mark of confidence d'Eon avows with tears that he is a woman, and this avowal was made with so much art that Beaumarchais did not conceive the least doubt."

As to the motives which could have induced le chevalier d'Eon to avow himself a woman, his biographer, already quoted, gives the following explanation:

"His military and diplomatic career was about finished; disgraced, he would disappear from the scene of the world and fall into obscurity. But precisely shadow and silence were a horror to him. If there was a mystery in his existence, if they learned that he was a woman, he would become the hero of the day and of the century; his services would then appear extraordinary. This metamorphosis would attract to him the attention of Europe, and enable him more easily to obtain satisfaction from the French government, who would no longer refuse a woman the price of blood shed and services rendered."

Both Gaillardet and Lom?nie, after a careful examination of all the correspondence in relation to the affair between the Chevalier d'Eon and Beaumarchais, assure us that not a line exists which does not prove that the latter was completely deceived as to the matter of the sex of the Chevalier.

Lintilhac, however, thinks that he has found proofs to the contrary in a letter which begins, "Ma pauvre Chevali?re, or whatever it pleases you to be with me...." London, Dec. 31, 1775. Gudin, in his life of Beaumarchais, says, "It was at a dinner of the Lord Mayor Wilkes that I encountered d'Eon for the first time. Struck to see the cross of St. Louis shining on his breast, I asked Mlle. Wilkes who that chevalier was; she named him to me. 'He has,' I said, 'the voice of a woman.' It is probably from that fact that the talk has all come. At that time I knew nothing more about him; I was still ignorant of his relations with Beaumarchais. I soon learned them from herself. She avowed to me with tears that she was a woman, and showed me her scars, remains of wounds which she had received, when, her horse killed under her, a squadron of cavalry passed over her body and left her dying on the plain."

"No one," says Lom?nie, "could be more na?vely mystified than is Gudin. In the first period of the negotiation, d'Eon is full of attentions for Beaumarchais; he calls him his 'guardian angel' and sends him his complete works in fourteen volumes; for this curious being, this dragoon, woman and diplomat, was at the same time a most fruitful scribbler of paper. He has characterised himself very well in the following letter: 'If you wish to know me, Monsieur the Duke, I will tell you frankly that I am only good to think, imagine, question, reflect, compare, read, write, to run from the rising to the setting sun, from the south to the north, and to fight on the plain or in the mountains ... or I will use up all the revenues of France in a year, and after that give you an excellent treatise on economy. If you wish to have the proof, see all I have written in my history of finance, upon the distribution of public taxes.'"

This, then, was the strange being with whom Beaumarchais had to deal. On the 21st of June, 1775, he received from Vergennes the following letter, which shows in the best possible light the credit which the secret agent of the government had already acquired. He wrote:

"I have under my eyes, Monsieur, the report which you have given M. de Sartine of our conversation, touching M. d'Eon; it is of the greatest exactitude; I have taken in consequence the orders of the King. His Majesty authorizes you to assure to M. d'Eon the regular payment of the pension of 12,000 francs.... The article of the payment of his debts is more difficult; the pretensions of d'Eon are very high in that respect; they must be considerably reduced if we are to come to any arrangement.... M. d'Eon has a violent character, but I do him the justice to believe that his soul is honest, and that he is incapable of treason.... It is impossible that M. d'Eon takes leave of the English King; the revelation of his sex does not permit it; it would be ridiculous for both courts.... You are wise and prudent, you know mankind, and I have no doubt but that you will be able to arrange the affair with d'Eon, if it can be done. Should the enterprise fail in your hands, we shall be forced to consider that it cannot succeed and resolve to accept whatever may come from it.... I am very sensible, Monsieur, of the praises which you have been so good as to give me in your letter to M. de Sartine. I aspire to merit them, and accept them as a gage of your esteem, which will always be flattering to me. Count, I beg you, upon my own, and upon the sentiments with which I have the honor to be very sincerely, Monsieur, etc.

"De Vergennes. "A Versailles, June 21st, 1775."

Every voyage back to Paris, which the interests of his mission necessitated, every letter which it occasioned, was made to subserve itself to this one end which transcended all others; namely, to rouse the young King from that state of indecision and indifference to which he was born, and where he seemed likely to remain.

In the next chapter this subject will be taken up in all its detail; for the present it is necessary only to remind the reader that the matter of which we are now treating is all the while secondary in the mind of Beaumarchais. It is, however, of vital importance in that, at the beginning, it offers the avenue of approach to the King and his ministers which might otherwise have been wanting. Through the masterly way in which he settled the affair with d'Eon, the confidence of the King and of his minister was secured. Before the affair was terminated, an open channel had been established which permitted the whole current of the genius of Beaumarchais to flow direct to its goal.

It will be remembered that the Chevalier d'Eon had borrowed five thousand pounds of his friend the English Admiral, Lord Ferrers, and had left him as security the chest containing the famous correspondence of the late King. Before it could be delivered to Beaumarchais there were many difficult questions to settle, the chief one being the Chevalier's return to France, owing to the resentment still felt by the family of the Comte de Guerchy towards the Chevalier, and the latter's well known violence of temper. The King and M. de Vergennes demanded absolute oblivion of the past and a guarantee that no further scandals should arise. This was difficult to assure, owing to the fiery nature of the Chevalier. Already, as we have seen, the latter had avowed "with tears" that he was a woman.

In a letter to Beaumarchais, the 26th of the same month, M. de Vergennes wrote: "Whatever desire I may have to see, to know, and to hear M. d'Eon, I cannot hide from you a serious uneasiness which haunts me. His enemies watch, and will not pardon easily all that he has said of them.... If M. d'Eon would change his costume everything would be said.... You will make of this observation the use which you shall judge suitable."

The idea appeared not only good to Beaumarchais, but to offer, perhaps, the only solution to the difficulty. He therefore made this the condition of settlement of the debts of d'Eon, the continuation of his pension, as well as of his being allowed to return to France. The same motives which had actuated the Chevalier to declare himself a woman worked now in favor of what Beaumarchais, endowed with full power in his regard, demanded of him. Realizing, as M. de Vergennes had done, that if the matter were not now adjusted, it would never be again taken up; realizing too that his notoriety would be increased tenfold by this metamorphosis, he decided to submit to what was imposed upon him.

Early in October, Beaumarchais wrote to M. de Vergennes: "Written promises to be good are not sufficient to arrest a head which enflames itself always at the simple name of Guerchy; the positive declaration of his sex and the engagement to live hereafter in the costume of a woman is the only barrier which can prevent scandal and misfortunes. I have required this and have obtained it."

After the contract was signed, Beaumarchais still holding the money in reserve, demanded the papers of which it was questioned. The chest was produced. Suddenly realizing, however, that he had no authority to open the chest and to examine the contents, and having but small confidence in the veracity of the chevalier, he hastened back to Versailles, obtained the desired permission, and reappeared in London with his new commission. On opening the chest he found indeed that papers of but small importance were contained therein. D'Eon, blushing, confessed that the letters of which the French government desired to obtain possession were hidden under the floor of his room in London.

"She conducted me to her room," wrote Beaumarchais, "and drew from under the floor five boxes, well sealed and marked, 'Secret Papers to remit to the King alone', which she assured me contained all the secret correspondence, and the entire mass of the papers which she had in her possession. I began by making an inventory, and marking them all so that none could be withdrawn; but, better to assure myself that the entire sequence was there contained, I rapidly ran over them, while she made the inventory."

This want of honor in the Chevalier, whose security left with the Lord Ferrers had been proved of comparatively little value, dispensed Beaumarchais, so he considered, from the necessity of acquitting the full debt contracted by d'Eon. This was afterwards most bitterly reproached to him by the Chevalier. In a letter to Lord Ferrers, Beaumarchais wrote: "I have lived too long and know mankind too well to count upon the gratitude of anyone, or to feel the least annoyance when I see those fail whom I have the most obliged."

The note of 13,933 pounds sterling first addressed to M. de Vergennes had since been increased by 8,223 pounds sterling, of which d'Eon demanded the payment. Beaumarchais, however, true to the interest of the King and his minister, to their great satisfaction, terminated the transaction for a little less than 5,000 pounds sterling. From the determined refusal of Beaumarchais to increase the sum arose the wild fury of d'Eon, who saw his last hope escape him. His invectives against Beaumarchais, his abuse, all had their origin here.

"I assured this demoiselle," wrote Beaumarchais to Vergennes, "that if she was prudent, modest and silent, and if she conducted herself well, I would render so good an account of her to the minister of the King, and even to His Majesty, that I hoped to obtain for her new advantages. I did this the more willingly because I had still in my possession nearly 41,000 francs, from which I expected to recompense every act of submission and of sobriety on her part, by acts of generosity approved successively by the King and by you, Monsieur le Comte, but only as favors, and not as acquittals. It was in this way that I hoped still to dominate and bring into subjection this fiery and deceitful creature."

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