When war broke out he showed no nice regard for the rules of neutrality and helped the colonies in every way possible.

It was a French writer who led in these activities.

Beaumarchais is known to the world chiefly as the creator of the character of Figaro, which has become the type of the bold, clever, witty, and intriguing rascal, but he played a real part in the American Revolution.

We need not inquire too closely into his motives.

There was hatred of the English, that "audacious, unbridled, shameless people," and there was, too, the zeal for liberal ideas which made Queen Marie Antoinette herself take a pretty interest in the "dear republicans" overseas who were at the same time fighting the national enemy.