Roderigue Hortalez and Company

[4] The ruse was organized by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, a French playwright, watch-maker, inventor, musician, politician, fugitive, spy, publisher, arms-dealer, and revolutionary.

The Seven Years' War had gone badly for France, which had lost nearly all of her North American colonial possessions and had been militarily humiliated by the British.

[6] In 1774, Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes was appointed the foreign minister of France by Louis XVI.

In it Congress suggested to his government that it encourage the rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies by sending secret military aid disguised as a loan.

As a result of Lee's actions, Deane lived in disgrace and poverty for years, and eventually died trying to prove that he was due the money.

In an August 16, 1777, letter from Lee to the "secrete committee of congress", he wrote of Beaumarchais that This gentleman is not a merchant, but is known as a political agent, employed by the French Court.