It was through Deane's activities that La Fayette became a volunteer.

Through him came too the proposal to send to America the Comte de Broglie who should be greater than colonel or general--a generalissimo, a dictator.

He was to brush aside Washington, to take command of the American armies, and by his prestige and skill to secure France as an ally and win victory in the field.

For such services Broglie asked only despotic power while he served and for life a great pension which would, he declared, not be one-hundredth part of his real value.

That Deane should have considered a scheme so fantastic reveals the measure of his capacity, and by the end of 1776 Benjamin Franklin was sent to Paris to bring his tried skill to bear upon the problem of the alliance.