Franklin held an office under the crown. On Monday morning a letter was brought to him from the postmaster-general. It read:
"The king finds it necessary to dismiss you from the office of deputy postmaster-general in America."
Dismissed in disgrace at the age of sixty-eight! And England laughing. He had nothing left to comfort him now but his conscience—that was the everything.
The old spotted velvet coat; he brought it out on the day of the treaty. It was some nine or more years old now. He stood like a culprit in it one day; it should adorn him now in the hour of his honor.
He was facing eighty years.
He prepared to leave France, where his career had been one of such honor and glory that his fame filled the world.
The court made him a parting present. It was a portrait of the king set in a frame of four hundred diamonds!