It was easy for him to resist them when the
British were winning victories and he was dreaming of a return to
the Fatherland with a comfortable accumulation of pay, but it was
different when reverses overtook British arms. Then many hundreds
slipped away; and today their blood flows in the veins of
thousands of prosperous American farmers.
CHAPTER VIII. THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE AND ITS RESULTS
Washington badly needed aid from Europe, but there every
important government was monarchical and it was not easy for a
young republic, the child of revolution, to secure an ally.
France tingled with joy at American victories and sorrowed at
American reverses, but motives were mingled and perhaps hatred of
England was stronger than love for liberty in America. The young
La Fayette had a pure zeal, but he would not have fought for the
liberty of colonists in Mexico as he did for those in Virginia;
and the difference was that service in Mexico would not hurt the
enemy of France so recently triumphant. He hated England and said
so quite openly. The thought of humiliating and destroying that
"insolent nation" was always to him an inspiration. Vergennes,
the French Foreign Minister, though he lacked genius, was a man
of boundless zeal and energy.
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