Reinforcements never came, partly through mismanagement in
France, partly through the vigilance of the British fleet, which
was on guard before Brest. The French had been for generations
the deadly enemies of the English Colonies and some of the French
officers noted the reserve with which they were received. The ice
was, however, soon broken. They brought with them gold, and the
New England merchants liked this relief from the debased
continental currency. Some of the New England ladies were
beautiful, and the experienced Lauzun expresses glowing
admiration for a prim Quakeress whose simple dress he thought
more attractive than the elaborate modes of Paris.
The French dazzled the ragged American army by their display of
waving plumes and of uniforms in striking colors. They wondered
at the quantities of tea drunk by their friends and so do we when
we remember the political hatred for tea. They made the blunder
common in Europe of thinking that there were no social
distinctions in America. Washington could have told him a
different story. Intercourse was at first difficult, for few of
the Americans spoke French and fewer still of the French spoke
English. Sometimes the talk was in Latin, pronounced by an
American scholar as not too bad.
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