There’s a story about Edward Gibbon Eating at a restaurant in Paris during the early years of the American Revolution at the same time that Benjamin Franklin was there drumming up French support for the colonists. Franklin was apparently a massive fan of Gibbon and sent someone over to ask if he could meet him. Gibbon sent the messenger back saying ‘I don’t consort with rebels and traitors’. To which the deeply offended Franklin sent a message back ‘I just thought I might be able to help you write a sequel to your book, entitled “The Decline and Fall of the British Empire”...
Good one. I’ll have to remember that.
On another note-—In a real sense Louis XVI’s French financial support to the colonists helped bring about the downfall of the “ancien regime” there...tough.
Ha! I am reading Jeff Shaara’s ‘The Glorious Cause,’ which relates that story within the novel. I was wondering if it was true or just poetic license.
If anyone loves historical fiction, Shaara’s ‘Rise to Rebellion’ and the sequel I just mentioned are good reads about the American Revolution.