To Benjamin Franklin from Marguerite Lecomte and Claude-Henri Watelet, [after 12 February 1779]
From Marguerite Lecomte and Claude-Henri Watelet6
AL: American Philosophical Society
[after February 12, 1779]7
Mde le comte et Mr Watelet ont l’honneur de faire leur compliment bien sinceres a Monsieur franklin et a Monsieur son fils sur le caractere honorable dont ils apprennent que Monsieur franklin est revetu.
[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]
6. Watelet was a patron of the arts and the owner of a little island in the Seine, the Moulin-Joli, on which BF had composed the “Ephemera.” He and his amie Lecomte were frequent hosts of BF: XXIV, 171n; XXVII, 432n. The letter is in Watelet’s hand.
7. Dated by reference to BF’s “caractere honorable,” doubtless his appointment as minister plenipotentiary.