When they entered the inner part of the palace, so the
dispatch ran, "they were received by _les Cents Suisses_ (Swiss Guards),
the major of which announced, '_Les Ambassadeurs des treize provinces
unies,' i.e., The Ambassadors from the Thirteen United Provinces."
During the Revolution in America the newspapers made much of Marie
Antoinette's liking for Benjamin Franklin. Among others, the _New
Hampshire Gazette_ printed this story, which went the rounds of the
States. "Franklin being lately in the gardens of Versailles, showing the
Queen some electrical experiment, she asked him in a fit of raillery if
he did not dread the fate of Prometheus, who was so severely served for
stealing fire from Heaven. 'Yes, please your Majesty' (replied old
Franklin, with infinite gallantry), 'if I did not behold a pair of eyes
pass unpunished which have stolen infinitely more fire from Jove than I
ever did, though they do more mischief in a week than I have done in all
my experiments.'"
On January 20, 1783, at the office of the Count de Vergennes at
Versailles, in the presence of Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, the
representatives of England, France and Spain affixed their signatures to
the preliminary documents declaring war at an end between America and
England. A little over seven months later, on September 3, 1783, at the
Hotel de York in Paris, the final treaty between Great Britain and the
United States was signed.
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