The French Spy: America At Risk

Thousands gathered at pier side to cheer the arrival of the 34-gun French frigate sailing into Charleston, South Carolina, on April 8, 1793. The cheers doubled, tripled in volume as a colorfully dressed young Frenchman appeared at the ship's bow, doffing his feathered chapeau to wave at the throng. He was the celebrated Adjutant General Edmond-Charles Gen t; he had sailed to the United States as the first minister plenipotentiary, or ambassador of the French Republic to the United States of America. He arrived just as Americans were rebelling against taxes again-the third time in less than 30 years: British taxes in1765 and 1776 and now, in 1793, by their own elected government under George Washington. As before, the French had come to help; for Gen t had two sets of instructions. One directed him as to establish warm diplomatic relations with America as French ambassador. But a second, secret set directed him to ferret out a "mole" in the Washington administration and help unseat George Washington in a treasonous coup. For Gen t led a double life as a master spy. Updated with official French-government documents once thought lost, best-selling author Harlow Giles Unger's THE FRENCH SPY ends with breathtaking twists and turns that will startle readers as much as they did Washington.