To Benjamin Franklin from the Comte d’Estaing, 23 June 1781
From the Comte d’Estaing
AL: American Philosophical Society
Passy2 23 june 81
Count d’Estaing returns both his respectful compliments and Acknowledgments to his Exellency Doctor Franklin for the favor he gratifi’d him with: pleasure of meeting a Such Lady3 is a very great one, but wasn’t necessary for usual hapiness and punctuality in obeying the Doctor’s bountys.
Addressed: a Monsieur / Monsieur Franklin Ministre Plenipotentiaire / des Etats unis de l’Amerique / A Passy
2. Where the celebrated admiral maintained a country house: XXXI, 393n.
3. Quite likely this was Chaumont’s daughter, Mme Foucault, with whom BF dined on June 19: Arbelot’s account, April 1-June 30, 1781 (XXXIV, 5n). BF was a close friend of Marie-Elisabeth and Michel Foucault, who had been married since 1772: XXIV, 400–1; XXV, 638; XXVII, lxv; Thomas J. Schaeper, France and America in the Revolutionary Era: the Life of Jacques-Donatien Leray de Chaumont, 1729–1803 (Providence, R.I. and Oxford, 1995), p. 28; Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, p. 134.