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32 making a full report of the whole for my Lord Stormont, Ambassador of Great Britain. Whatever else failed His Majesty King George III, it was not his secret service.

Franklin had been warned that there were spies in his house but had made the typical reply that he didn't mind, for he had nothing to conceal, not even from his enemies. Perhaps this explains why in the end he had no enemies. At all events, the spies were of considerable service to him at this juncture. They led Lord North to begin frantic negotiations for peace on the spot. Of course, Franklin wanted peace—as we want peace to-day, but not a Hanoverian peace.

However, it was a matter of life and death to get the French Navy behind him. And here the spies did us another good turn. It is said that Vergennes also had his agents in the Passy household. And, by dint of listening at the keyholes and picking from waste baskets and catching snatches of dinner talk,