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fight back. It galls me no end, I can tell you. Mr. Jefferson told me, face to face in the consulate in Paris back in ’89, that he strongly supported the construction of a navy. But apparently he has had a change of heart. President Adams is pushing Congress hard to approve all six frigates and to approve the construction and acquisition of additional warships. Please God he succeeds. We’ll need every ship we can lay our hands on if we’re to challenge the French navy.”
    â€œThe French navy ? I didn’t think the French had a navy anymore.”
    â€œThey do, though certainly it’s not what it used to be. Nearly all its commissioned officers were aristocrats, and most of them were carted off to the guillotine or murdered by mutinous crews. Former merchant captains command most French naval vessels today, and few of them have experience in battle. British intelligence reports a handful of French frigates in the Indies, though the main fleets remain bottled up in Toulon and Brest. French privateers and pirates do most of their country’s dirty work in the Indies.”
    â€œI don’t understand, Richard.” Caleb shook his head in confusion. “Why are the French so bent on war with us? Don’t they have enough troubles in Europe dealing with the British? And anyway, don’t we have a treaty with France?”
    â€œThat treaty has gone by the boards. France claims that we violated it, first, by our proclamation of neutrality and, second, by signing the Treaty of London, the one Mr. Jay negotiated with the British. So the French declared the Treaty of Alliance null and void at the same time they declared a guerre de course against us. That declaration gives them the right to seize and search any American vessel bound for a British port. Or so they claim in theory. In practice, they claim it gives them the right to seize any American vessel bound for any port.”
    â€œDon’t they have cause? I mean, France is at war with England,
right? So if the Royal Navy is openly protecting American merchant vessels . . .”
    Richard shrugged. “That depends on your perspective. We are English by descent and we have family in England with whom we are in business. When it comes to war, naturally we favor England over France. But when it comes to commerce, we don’t play favorites. We support free trade—with every country. We’ll treat with the French or the British. Or with the Dutch or the Russians or the Malays. But it’s not the Dutch or the Russians or the Malays who last year seized more than three hundred of our merchantmen. It was French cutthroats perpetrating the worst kinds of atrocities. You want an example? Here’s one. A few months ago a schooner out of New York bound for Jamaica was attacked somewhere off the north coast of Cuba. She was armed and her captain may have put up a fight. If so, he was likely outgunned and forced to strike his colors. No one knows what happened next. No one on board the schooner lived to tell about it. A few corpses washed up on the shore, or what was left after the sharks finished with them. Pickering, our secretary of state, protested to the Spanish ambassador. But what was Spain, a puppet of France, going to do? The answer is they did nothing beyond confirming that a schooner had been sighted sailing westward off Havana shortly before she disappeared.
    â€œI agree with Father that the British can only do so much. It’s up to us, not the British, to protect our merchantmen and answer these atrocities. And the only answer the French seem to understand these days is one delivered by powder and shot.” He uttered those last three words with bitter precision.
    â€œPresident Adams sent a peace delegation to Paris in July,” Thomas Cutler said in a calmer voice. “John Marshall, the leader of the delegation, is an honorable man. So is his colleague Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. The third