CHAPTER TWO
"ENTANGLING ALLIANCES"
Enter One of the Most Extraordinary Men that Ever Lived—Paris Taken by Storm—An Ambassador, Secretary of State, War, Navy, and Treasury All in One—A Courier Arrives in Paris with Startling Intelligence—Comedy of English and French Spies—Benjamin Franklin and Louis XVI Sign the Treaty of Alliance—Our Obligation to France.
MEANTIME, Lord Stormont, the British Ambassador, had not been idle. He penetrated the elaborate subterfuges and disguises by which King Louis, Deane, and Hortalez & Co., made shift to outfit the Continental Army and still keep up an appearance of French neutrality, and was in a fair way to nip the scheme in the bud, when there swept into the arena one of the greatest diplomats of all time. He was not only above disguise and deceit, all tricks
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