Your Endeavors & polite disposition which you discover’d to facilitate my Affairs in Paris to reduce them to a state of necessary Arrangment before I left that Place impresses me with a sense of sincere gratitude: I most kindly accepted the polite offer you made me on my leaving Paris, by the [?] you did me the honor to address to me, of lending your Assistance on every Occasion Mr. Ripley may have for it. I am assured you will advise with his Excellency & remind him of the Necessity of presenting the Resolutions of Congress to Court, without which my late visit to Paris & my intended Return there, will be perfectly useless. I am well aware the Crowd of public Business, at this Moment, naturally tends to bear down like a Torrent, all private or particular Interest by the fence of the more general Concerns: I have however the Claim of priority in Date, & will depend Sir, on the use of your Interest, that His Excellency shall not forget me, I readily conceive my next visit will unavoidably be long but hope not so tedious, as am entirely satisfied thro’ his Excellency’s Interest, I shall have Justice done me, if not from the Court, from his Majesty, to whom I shall appeal in Case of Need. Here I am promised by his Letters & verbally, of his Assistance when being on the spot & acquainted with the Circumstances added to his Consequence will insure me Resolution. I mean Comte d’Estaing—

Till the arrival of this Period I have no claim for his Interest, or the least Excuse or Appology for asking it. My next visit I say will probably have length, as the Minr. will have to give notice to Comte d’Arbaud & order the Remission of all the Papers relative to my Examination and his Pretence for cumendering the Vessel Cargo &c. to the antignean Claimant. These Papers I demanded a Coppy of, when I left the Island; but received for Answer “they were ready for his Majesty, when call’d for.—The [?] of these Circumstances, if tho’t necessary, will likely [?] the [?] of 5 or 6 months—I feel Sir, myself under a necessity of making you my appology for a degree of warmth I shew in speaking unadvisedly of, perhaps that Gentleman; who would have happiness in promoting my Interest nor on Reflection ought I to have had the least Reason to doubt it, if from no other wish than to continue to merit the Approbation of Doctor Franklin; & still have hopes of Benefit thro’ this Influence; But I am persuaded you’ll find some Excuse for me, when you reflect for a moment what must have been my Chagrin, to have found, what, [?] would have been so easily recovered by the least Representation, & what I had reason to believe already secured, by his Excellencys Letters to Mr. J. Lovell many months passed, a [?] of which Mr. Lovell transmitted me, on my arrival in a state of [?] from no other Cause, than the great length of the tale.

I find sir, on my [?] at Bordeaux that the Expectation of Peace has retarded my vessel in fitting away; & think it probable I may tarry here 12. or 14. days so tis probable I may hear from you, & know for certainly whether the other affair I left with Mr. Ridley is or is not totally lost. I do assure you my dear Franklin, the tho’t of the possibility of losing 50,000 Livres for a Person in all Circumstances, but in my situation, must be accompanied with very sensible Pain. However I will not believe there could ever be found so much Littleness in a French Officer of his Rank, as to persuad him to seriously think of entering the Appeal. I will therefore rest satisfied in the safety of this Case—

And assure you of my wishes for your Prosperity & timely Advancement