To Benjamin Franklin from the Comte de Sarsfield, 25 January 1777
From the Comte de Sarsfield3
ALS: American Philosophical Society
January the 25th 1777
Sir
As I never will lose the memory of the honour I had of your acquaintance in london Some years ago, I am not less Confident that you have not quite forgotten it. I hope to be in paris within Some few weeks, and it will make me very happy to be able of assuring you my Self of my attachment and respect. In the mean while I beg leave, Sir, to present you my Brother.4 He is also my best friend, he wishes very much the honour of being known to you, and will inform me of many particularities relating to you which I desire extremely to find at your Satisfaction. I am with the Greatest regard and attachment Sir your most humble and obedient Servant
Sarsfield
Give me leave, Sir, to present my best Compliments to Mr. Deane.
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur franklin / A Paris
Notation: Sarsfiel Jan 25. 77
3. A French officer of Irish extraction, who had known BF in London in 1767: above, XIV, 205. Sarsfield renewed the acquaintance in person and by correspondence when he arrived in Paris. His next note that survives is an AL of April 15, 1777 (identified by the handwriting; APS), to accompany two gazettes, which he asked BF to return.
4. Jacques-Hyacinthe, vicomte de Sarsfield, a French cavalry officer: Dictionnaire de la noblesse, XVIII, 292. He apparently called with this letter when BF was out, for he wrote on the back of it an invitation to dinner the following Saturday at his house. He, like his brother, had considerable subsequent correspondence with BF. The only item in it that may belong in this volume is a two-sentence note from the vicomte (APS) asking whether he may call at Passy the next day; it is dated “Vendredi 25 avril,” and was therefore written in either 1777 or 1783.