The American commissioners met in Paris on February 5, 1778, for the signing of the treaty. Vergennes’s secretary had a cold, however, so the ceremony was put off for a day. At both gatherings, Franklin appeared without his usual brown coat. Instead, he wore a suit of blue Manchester velvet that was faded and a bit worn. Silas Deane, finding this puzzling, asked why. “To give it a little revenge,” Franklin answered. “I wore this coat the day Wedderburn abused me at Whitehall.” It had been four years since his humiliation in the Cockpit, and he had saved the suit for such an occasion.
