Biographies of distinguished scientific men. First series
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Title: Biographies of distinguished scientific men. First series
Author: F. Arago
Translator: Robert Grant
Baden Powell
W. H. Smyth
Release date: September 30, 2005 [eBook #16775]
Most recently updated: December 12, 2020
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16775
Credits: Produced by Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier, Martin Pettit and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIOGRAPHIES OF DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIFIC MEN. FIRST SERIES ***
Produced by Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier, Martin Pettit and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net
BIOGRAPHIES
OF
DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIFIC MEN.
BY FRANÇOIS ARAGO,
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE.
TRANSLATED BY
ADMIRAL W.H. SMYTH, D.C.L., F.R.S., &c.
THE REV. BADEN POWELL, M.A., F.R.S., &c.
AND
ROBERT GRANT, Esq., M.A., F.R.A.S.
FIRST SERIES.
BOSTON:
TICKNOR AND FIELDS.
M DCCC LIX.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED BY H.O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
TRANSLATORS' PREFACE.
The present volume of the series of English translations of M. Arago's
works consists of his own autobiography and a selection of some of his
memoirs of eminent scientific men, both continental and British.
It does not distinctly appear at what period of his life Arago composed
the autobiography, but it bears throughout the characteristic stamp of
his ardent and energetic disposition. The reader will, perhaps, hardly
suppress a smile at the indications of self-satisfaction with which
several of the incidents are brought forward, while the air of romance
which invests some of the adventures may possibly give rise to some
suspicion of occasional embellishment; on these points, however, we
leave each reader to judge for himself. In relation to the history of
science, this memoir gives some interesting particulars, which disclose
to us much of the interior spirit of the Academy of Sciences, not always
of a kind the most creditable to some of Arago's former contemporaries.
But a far higher interest will be found to belong to those eloquent
memoirs, or éloges of eminent departed men of science, who had attained
the distinction of being members of the Academy.
In these the reader will find a luminous, eminently simple, and popular
account of the discoveries of each of those distinguished individuals,
of a kind constituting in fact a brief history of the particular branch
of science to which he was devoted. And in the selection included in the
present volume, which constitutes but a portion of the entire series, we
have comprised the accounts of men of such varied pursuits as to convey
no inadequate impression of the progress of discovery throughout a
considerable range of the whole field of the physical sciences within
the last half century.
The account given by the author, of the principal discoveries made by
the illustrious subjects of his memoirs, is in general very luminous,
but at the same time presupposes a familiarity with some parts of
science which may not really be possessed by all readers. For the sake
of a considerable class, then, we have taken occasion, wherever the use
of new technical terms or other like circumstances seemed to require it,
to introduce original notes and commentaries, sometimes of considerable
extent, by the aid of which we trust the scientific principles adverted
to in the text will be rendered easily intelligible to the general
reader.
In some few instances also we have found ourselves called upon to adopt
a more critical tone; where we were disposed to dissent from the view
taken by the author on particular questions of a controversial kind, or
when he is arguing in support, or in refutation, of opposing theories on
some points of science not yet satisfactorily cleared up.
We could have wished that our duty as translators and editors had not
extended beyond such mere occasional scientific or literary criticism.
But there unfortunately seemed to be one or two points where, in
pronouncing on the claims of distinguished individuals, or criticizing
their inventions, a doubt could not but be felt as to the perfect
_fairness_ of Arago's judgment, and in which we were constrained to
express an unfavourable opinion on the manner in which the relative
pretensions of men of the highest eminence seemed to be decided,
involving what might sometimes be fairly regarded as undue prejudice,
or possibly a feeling of personal or even national jealousy. Much as we
should deprecate the excitement of any feeling of hostility of this
kind, yet we could not, in our editorial capacity, shrink from the plain
duty of endeavouring to advocate what appeared to us right and true; and
we trust that whatever opinion may be entertained as to the
_conclusions_ to which we have come on such points, we shall not have
given ground for any complaint that we have violated any due courtesy or
propriety in our _mode_ of expressing those conclusions, or the reasons
on which they are founded.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE HISTORY OF MY YOUTH.
An Autobiography of Francis Arago 1
BAILLY.
Introduction 91
Infancy of Bailly.--His Youth.--His Literary Essays.--His
Mathematical Studies 93
Bailly becomes the Pupil of Lacaille.--He is associated
with him in his Astronomical Labours 97
Bailly a Member of the Academy of Sciences.--His Researches
on Jupiter's Satellites 103
Bailly's Literary Works.--His Biographies of Charles V.--of
Leibnitz--of Peter Corneille--of Molière 106
Debates relative to the Post of Perpetual Secretary of
the Academy of Sciences 110
History of Astronomy.--Letters on the Atlantis of Plato
and on the Ancient History of Asia 114
First Interview of Bailly with Franklin.--His Entrance
into the French Academy in 1783.--His Reception.--Discourse.--His
Rupture with Buffon 121
Report on Animal Magnetism 127
Election of Bailly into the Academy of Inscriptions 155
Report on the Hospitals 157
Report on the Slaughter-Houses 165
Biographies of Cook and of Gresset 167
Assembly of the Notables.--Bailly is named First Deputy
of Paris; and soon after Dean or Senior of the Deputies
of the Communes 169
Bailly becomes Mayor of Paris.--Scarcity.--Marat declares
himself inimical to the Mayor.--Events of the 6th of October 179
A Glance at the Posthumous Memoir of Bailly 193
Examination of Bailly's Administration as Mayor 195
The King's Flight.--Events on the Champ de Mars 206
Bailly quits the Mayoralty the 12th of November, 1791.--The
Eschevins.--Examination of the Reproaches that might be
addressed to the Mayor 211
Bailly's Journey from Paris to Nantes, and then from Nantes to
Mélun.--His Arrest in this last Town.--He is transferred to Paris 217
Bailly is called as a Witness in the Trial of the Queen.--His own
Trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal.--His Condemnation to
Death.--His Execution.--Imaginary Details added by ill-informed
Historians to what that odious and frightful Event already
presented 225
Portrait of Bailly.--His Wife 250
HERSCHEL.
Personal History 258
Chronological Table of the Memoirs of William Herschel 266
Improvements in the Means of Observation 271
Labours in Sidereal Astronomy 285
Labours relative to the Solar System 289
Optical Labours 301
LAPLACE.
Preliminary Notice 303
APPENDIX.
(A.) Brief Notice of some other interesting Results
of the Researches of Laplace which have not
been mentioned in the Text 368
(B.) The Mécanique Céleste 372
JOSEPH FOURIER.
Preliminary Notice 374
Birth of Fourier.--His Youth 377
Memoir on the Resolution of Numerical Equations 380
Part played by Fourier in our Revolution.--His Entrance
into the Corps of Professors of the Normal School and
the Polytechnic School.--Expedition to Egypt 384
Fourier Prefect of L'Isère 405
Mathematical Theory of Heat 408
Central Heat of the Terrestrial Globe 419
Return of Napoleon from Elba.--Fourier Prefect of the
Rhone.--His Nomination to the Office of Director of the
Board of Statistics of the Seine 430
Entrance of Fourier into the Academy of Sciences.--His
Election to the Office of Perpetual Secretary.--His Admission
to the French Academy 437
Character of Fourier.--His Death 438
LIVES
OF
DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIFIC MEN.
THE HISTORY OF MY YOUTH:
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO.
I have not the foolish vanity to imagine that any one, even a short time
hence, will have the curiosity to find out how my first education was
given, and how my mind was developed; but some biographers, writing off
hand and without authority, having given details on this subject utterly
incorrect, and of a nature to imply negligence on the part of my
parents, I consider myself bound to put them right.
I was born on the 26th of February, 1786, in the commune of Estagel, an
ancient province of Roussillon (department of the Eastern Pyrenees). My
father, a licentiate in law, had some little property in arable land, in
vineyards, and in plantations of olive-trees, the income from which
supported his numerous family.
I was thus three years old in 1789, four years old in 1790, five years
in 1791, six years in 1792, and seven years old in 1793, &c.
The reader has now himself the means of judging whether, as has been
said, and even stated in print, I had a hand in the excesses of our
first revolution.
My parents sent me to the primary school in Estagel, where I learnt the
rudiments of reading and writing. I received, besides, in my father's
house, some private lessons in vocal music. I was not otherwise either
more or less advanced than other children of my age. I enter into these
details merely to show how much mistaken are those who have printed that
at the age of fourteen or fifteen years I had not yet learnt to read.
Estagel was a halting-place for a portion of the troops who, coming from
the interior, either went on to Perpignan, or repaired direct to the
army of the Pyrenees. My parents' house was therefore constantly full of
officers and soldiers. This, joined to the lively excitement which the
Spanish invasion had produced within me, inspired me with such decided
military tastes, that my family was obliged to have me narrowly watched
to prevent my joining by stealth the soldiers who left Estagel. It often
happened that they caught me at a league's distance from the village,
already on my way with the troops.
On one occasion these warlike tastes had nearly cost me dear. It was the
night of the battle of Peires-Tortes. The Spanish troops in their
retreat had partly mistaken their road. I was in the square of the
village before daybreak; I saw a brigadier and five troopers come up,
who, at the sight of the tree of liberty, called out, "_Somos
perdidos!_" I ran immediately to the house to arm myself with a lance
which had been left there by a soldier of the _levée en masse_, and
placing myself in ambush at the corner of a street, I struck with a blow
of this weapon the brigadier placed at the head of the party. The wound
was not dangerous; a cut of the sabre, however, was descending to punish
my hardihood, when some countrymen came to my aid, and, armed with
forks, overturned the five cavaliers from their saddles, and made them
prisoners. I was then seven years old.[1]
My father having gone to reside at Perpignan, as treasurer of the mint,
all the family quitted Estagel to follow him there. I was then placed as
an out-door pupil at the municipal college of the town, where I occupied
myself almost exclusively with my literary studies. Our classic authors
had become the objects of my favourite reading. But the direction of my
ideas became changed all at once by a singular circumstance which I will
relate.
Walking one day on the ramparts of the town, I saw an officer of
engineers who was directing the execution of the repairs. This officer,
M. Cressac, was very young; I had the hardihood to approach him, and to
ask him how he had succeeded in so soon wearing an epaulette. "I come
from the Polytechnic School," he answered. "What school is that?" "It is
a school which one enters by an examination." "Is much expected of the
candidates?" "You will see it in the programme which the Government
sends every year to the departmental administration; you will find it
moreover in the numbers of the journal of the school, which are in the
library of the central school."
I ran at once to the library, and there, for the first time, I read the
programme of the knowledge required in the candidates.
From this moment I abandoned the classes of the central school, where I
was taught to admire Corneille, Racine, La Fontaine, Molière, and
attended only the mathematical course. This course was entrusted to a
retired ecclesiastic, the Abbé Verdier, a very respectable man, but
whose knowledge went no further than the elementary course of La Caille.
I saw at a glance that M. Verdier's lessons would not be sufficient to
secure my admission to the Polytechnic School; I therefore decided on
studying by myself the newest works, which I sent for from Paris. These
were those of Legendre, Lacroix, and Garnier. In going through these
works I often met with difficulties which exceeded my powers; happily,
strange though it be, and perhaps without example in all the rest of
France, there was a proprietor at Estagel, M. Raynal, who made the study
of the higher mathematics his recreation. It was in his kitchen, whilst
giving orders to numerous domestics for the labours of the next day,
that M. Raynal read with advantage the "Hydraulic Architecture" of
Prony, the "Mécanique Analytique," and the "Mécanique Céleste." This
excellent man often gave me useful advice; but I must say that I found
my real master in the cover of M. Garnier's "Treatise on Algebra." This
cover consisted of a printed leaf, on the outside of which blue paper
was pasted. The reading of the page not covered made me desirous to know
what the blue paper hid from me. I took off this paper carefully, having
first damped it, and was able to read underneath it the advice given by
d'Alembert to a young man who communicated to him the difficulties which
he met with in his studies: "Go on, sir, go on, and conviction will come
to you."
This gave me a gleam of light; instead of persisting in attempts to
comprehend at first sight the propositions before me, I admitted their
truth provisionally; I went on further, and was quite surprised, on the
morrow, that I comprehended perfectly what overnight appeared to me to
be encompassed with thick clouds.
I thus made myself master, in a year and a half, of all the subjects
contained in the programme for admission, and I went to Montpellier to
undergo the examination. I was then sixteen years of age. M. Monge,
junior, the examiner, was detained at Toulouse by indisposition, and
wrote to the candidates assembled at Montpellier that he would examine
them in Paris. I was myself too unwell to undertake so long a journey,
and I returned to Perpignan.
There I listened for a moment to the solicitations of my family, who
pressed me to renounce the prospects which the Polytechnic School
opened. But my taste for mathematical studies soon carried the day; I
increased my library with Euler's "Introduction à l'Analyse
Infinitésimale," with the "Résolution des Equations Numériques," with
Lagrange's "Théorie des Fonctions Analytiques," and "Mécanique
Analytique," and finally with Laplace's "Mécanique Céleste." I gave
myself up with great ardour to the study of these books. From the
journal of the Polytechnic School containing such investigations as
those of M. Poisson on Elimination, I imagined that all the pupils were
as much advanced as this geometer, and that it would be necessary to
rise to this height to succeed.
From this moment, I prepared myself for the artillery service,--the aim
of my ambition; and as I had heard that an officer ought to understand
music, fencing, and dancing, I devoted the first hours of each day to
the cultivation of these accomplishments.
The rest of the time I was seen walking in the moats of the citadel of
Perpignan, seeking by more or less forced transitions to pass from one
question to another, so as to be sure of being able to show the examiner
how far my studies had been carried.[2]
At last the moment of examination arrived, and I went to Toulouse in
company with a candidate who had studied at the public college. It was
the first time that pupils from Perpignan had appeared at the
competition. My intimidated comrade was completely discomfited. When I
repaired after him to the board, a very singular conversation took
place between M. Monge (the examiner) and me.
"If you are going to answer like your comrade, it is useless for me to
question you."
"Sir, my comrade knows much more than he has shown; I hope I shall be
more fortunate than he; but what you have just said to me might well
intimidate me and deprive me of all my powers."
"Timidity is always the excuse of the ignorant; it is to save you from
the shame of a defeat that I make you the proposal of not examining
you."
"I know of no greater shame than that which you now inflict upon me.
Will you be so good as to question me? It is your duty."
"You carry yourself very high, sir! We shall see presently whether this
be a legitimate pride."
"Proceed, sir; I wait for you."
M. Monge then put to me a geometrical question, which I answered in such
a way as to diminish his prejudices. From this he passed on to a
question in algebra, then the resolution of a numerical equation. I had
the work of Lagrange at my fingers' ends; I analyzed all the known
methods, pointing out their advantages and effects; Newton's method, the
method of recurring series, the method of depression, the method of
continued fractions,--all were passed in review; the answer had lasted
an entire hour. Monge, brought over now to feelings of great kindness,
said to me, "I could, from this moment, consider the examination at an
end. I will, however, for my own pleasure, ask you two more questions.
What are the relations of a curved line to the straight line that is a
tangent to it?" I looked upon this question as a particular case of the
theory of osculations which I had studied in Legrange's "Fonctions
Analytiques." "Finally," said the examiner to me, "how do you determine
the tension of the various cords of which a funicular machine is
composed?" I treated this problem according to the method expounded in
the "Mécanique Analytique." It was clear that Lagrange had supplied all
the resources of my examination.
I had been two hours and a quarter at the board. M. Monge, going from
one extreme to the other, got up, came and embraced me, and solemnly
declared that I should occupy the first place on his list. Shall I
confess it? During the examination of my comrade I had heard the
Toulousian candidates uttering not very favourable sarcasms on the
pupils from Perpignan; and it was principally for the sake of reparation
to my native town that M. Monge's behaviour and declaration transported
me with joy.
Having entered the Polytechnic School, at the end of 1803, I was placed
in the excessively boisterous brigade of the Gascons and Britons. I
should have much liked to study thoroughly physics and chemistry, of
which I did not even know the first rudiments; but the behaviour of my
companions rarely left me any time for it. As for analysis, I had
already, before entering the Polytechnic School, learnt much more than
was required for leaving it.
I have just related the strange words which M. Monge, junior, addressed
to me at Toulouse in commencing my examination for admission. Something
analogous occurred at the opening of my examination in mathematics for
passing from one division of the school to another. The examiner, this
time, was the illustrious geometer Legendre, of whom, a few years after,
I had the honour of becoming the colleague and the friend.
I entered his study at the moment when M. T----, who was to undergo his
examination before me, having fainted away, was being carried out in the
arms of two servants. I thought that this circumstance would have moved
and softened M. Legendre; but it had no such effect "What is your name,"
he said to me sharply. "Arago," I answered. "You are not French then?"
"If I was not French I should not be before you; for I have never heard
of any one being admitted into the school unless his nationality had
been proved." "I maintain that he is not French whose name is Arago." "I
maintain, on my side, that I am French, and a very good Frenchman too,
however strange my name may appear to you." "Very well; we will not
discuss the point farther; go to the board."
I had scarcely taken up the chalk, when M. Legendre, returning to the
first subject of his preoccupations, said to me: "You were born in one
of the departments recently united to France?" "No, sir; I was born in
the department of the Eastern Pyrenees, at the foot of the Pyrenees."
"Oh! why did you not tell me that at once? all is now explained. You are
of Spanish origin, are you not?" "Possibly; but in my humble family
there are no authentic documents preserved which could enable me to
trace back the civil position of my ancestors; each one there is the
child of his own deeds. I declare to you again that I am French, and
that ought to be sufficient for you."
The vivacity of this last answer had not disposed M. Legendre in my
favour. I saw this very soon; for, having put a question to me which
required the use of double integrals, he stopped me, saying: "The method
which you are following was not given to you by the professor. Whence
did you get it?" "From one of your papers." "Why did you choose it? was
it to bribe me?" "No; nothing was farther from my thoughts. I only
adopted it because it appeared to me preferable." "If you are unable to
explain to me the reasons for your preference, I declare to you that you
shall receive a bad mark, at least as to character."
I then entered upon the details which established, as I thought, that
the method of double integrals was in all points more clear and more
rational than that which Lacroix had expounded to us in the
amphitheatre. From this moment Legendre appeared to me to be satisfied,
and to relent.
Afterwards, he asked me to determine the centre of gravity of a
spherical sector. "The question is easy," I said to him. "Very well;
since you find it easy, I will complicate it: instead of supposing the
density constant, I will suppose that it varies from the centre to the
surface according to a determined function." I got through this
calculation very happily; and from this moment I had entirely gained the
favour of the examiner. Indeed, on my retiring, he addressed to me these
words, which, coming from him, appeared to my comrades as a very
favourable augury for my chance of promotion: "I see that you have
employed your time well; go on in the same way the second year, and we
shall part very good friends."
In the mode of examination adopted at the Polytechnic School in 1804,
which is always cited as being better than the present organization,
room was allowed for the exercise of some unjustifiable caprices. Would
it be believed, for example, that the old M. Barruel examined two pupils
at a time in physics, and gave them, it is said, the same mark, which
was the mean between the actual merits of the two? For my part, I was
associated with a comrade full of intelligence, but who had not studied
this branch of the course. We agreed that he should leave the answering
to me, and we found the arrangement advantageous to both.
As I have been led to speak of the school as it was in 1804, I will say
that its faults were less those of organization than those of personal
management; for many of the professors were much below their office, a
fact which gave rise to somewhat ridiculous scenes. The pupils, for
instance, having observed the insufficiency of M. Hassenfratz, made a
demonstration of the dimensions of the rainbow, full of errors of
calculation, but in which the one compensated the other so that the
final result was true. The professor, who had only this result whereby
to judge of the goodness of the answer, when he saw it appear on the
board, did not hesitate to call out, "Good, good, perfectly good!" which
excited shouts of laughter on all the benches of the amphitheatre.
When a professor has lost consideration, without which it is impossible
for him to do well, they allow themselves to insult him to an incredible
extent. Of this I will cite a single specimen.
A pupil, M. Leboullenger, met one evening in company this same M.
Hassenfratz, and had a discussion with him. When he reëntered the school
in the morning, he mentioned this circumstance to us. "Be on your
guard," said one of our comrades to him; "you will be interrogated this
evening. Play with caution, for the professor has certainly prepared
some great difficulties so as to cause laughter at your expense."
Our anticipations were not mistaken. Scarcely had the pupils arrived in
the amphitheatre, when M. Hassenfratz called to M. Leboullenger, who
came to the board.
"M. Leboullenger," said the professor to him, "you have seen the moon?"
"No, sir." "How, sir! you say that you have never seen the moon?" "I can
only, repeat my answer--no, sir." Beside himself, and seeing his prey
escape him, by means of this unexpected answer, M. Hassenfratz addressed
himself to the inspector charged with the observance of order that day,
and said to him, "Sir, there is M. Leboullenger, who pretends never to
have seen the moon." "What would you wish me to do?" stoically replied
M. Le Brun. Repulsed on this side, the professor turned once more
towards M. Leboullenger, who remained calm and earnest in the midst of
the unspeakable amusement of the whole amphitheatre, and cried out with
undisguised anger, "You persist in maintaining that you have never seen
the moon?" "Sir," returned the pupil, "I should deceive you if I told
you that I had not heard it spoken of, but I have never seen it." "Sir,
return to your place."
After this scene, M. Hassenfratz was but a professor in name; his
teaching could no longer be of any use.
At the commencement of the second year, I was appointed "_chef de
brigade_." Hatchette had been professor of hydrography at Collioure; his
friends from Roussillon recommended me to him. He received me with great
kindness, and even gave me a room in his lodgings. It was there that I
had the pleasure of making Poisson's acquaintance, who lived next to us.
Every evening the great geometer entered my room, and we passed entire
hours in conversing on politics and mathematics, which is certainly not
quite the same thing.
In the course of 1804, the school was a prey to political passions, and
that through the fault of the government.
They wished forthwith to oblige the pupils to sign an address of
congratulation on the discovery of the conspiracy in which Moreau was
implicated. They refused to do so on the ground that it was not for them
to pronounce on a cause which had been in the hands of justice. It must,
however, be remarked, that Moreau had not yet dishonoured himself by
taking service in the Russian army, which had come to attack the French
under the walls of Dresden.
The pupils were invited to make a manifestation in favour of the
institution of the Legion of Honour. This again they refused. They knew
well that the cross, given without inquiry and without control, would
be, in most cases, the recompense of charlatanism, and not of true
merit.
The transformation of the Consular into the Imperial Government gave
rise to very animated discussions in the interior of the school.
Many pupils refused to add their felicitations to the mean adulations of
the constituted bodies.
General Lacuée, who was appointed governor of the school, reported this
opposition to the Emperor.
"M. Lacuée," cried Napoleon, in the midst of a group of courtiers, who
applauded with speech and gesture, "you cannot retain at the school
those pupils who have shown such ardent Republicanism; you will send
them away." Then, collecting himself, he added, "I will first know their
names and their stages of promotion." Seeing the list the next day, he
did not proceed further than the first name, which was the first in the
artillery. "I will not drive away the first men in advancement," said
he. "Ah! if they had been at the bottom of the list! M. Lacuée, leave
them alone."
Nothing was more curious than the _séance_ to which General Lacuée came
to receive the oath of obedience from the pupils. In the vast
amphitheatre which contained them, one could not discern a trace of the
gravity which such a ceremony should inspire. The greater part, instead
of answering, at the call of their names, "I swear it," cried out,
"Present."
All at once the monotony of this scene was interrupted by a pupil, son
of the Conventionalist Brissot, who called out in a stentorian voice, "I
will not take the oath of obedience to the Emperor." Lacuée, pale and
with little presence of mind, ordered a detachment of armed pupils
placed behind him to go and arrest the recusant. The detachment, of
which I was at the head, refused to obey. Brissot, addressing himself to
the General, with the greatest calmness said to him, "Point out the
place to which you wish me to go; do not force the pupils to dishonour
themselves by laying hands on a comrade who has no desire to resist."
The next morning Brissot was expelled.
About this time, M. Méchain, who had been sent to Spain to prolong the
meridional line as far as Formentera, died at Castellon de la Plana. His
son, Secretary at the Observatory, immediately gave in his resignation.
Poisson offered me the situation. I declined his first proposal. I did
not wish to renounce the military career,--the object of all my
predilections, and in which, moreover, I was assured of the protection
of Marshal Lannes,--a friend of my father's. Nevertheless I accepted, on
trial, the position offered me in the Observatory, after a visit which I
made to M. de Laplace in company with M. Poisson, under the express
condition that I could re-enter the Artillery if that should suit me. It
was from this cause that my name remained inscribed on the list of the
pupils of the school. I was only detached to the Observatory on a
special service.
I entered this establishment, then, on the nomination of Poisson, my
friend, and through the intervention of Laplace. The latter loaded me
with civilities. I was happy and proud when I dined in the Rue de
Tournon with the great geometer. My mind and my heart were much disposed
to admire all, to respect all, that was connected with him who had
discovered the cause of the secular equation of the moon, had found in
the movement of this planet the means of calculating the ellipticity of
the earth, had traced to the laws of attraction the long inequalities of
Jupiter and of Saturn, &c. &c. But what was my disenchantment, when one
day I heard Madame de Laplace, approaching her husband, say to him,
"Will you entrust to me the key of the sugar?"
Some days afterwards, a second incident affected me still more vividly.
M. de Laplace's son was preparing for the examinations of the
Polytechnic School. He came sometimes to see me at the Observatory. In
one of his visits I explained to him the method of continued fractions,
by help of which Lagrange obtains the roots of numerical equations. The
young man spoke of it to his father with admiration. I shall never
forget the rage which followed the words of Emile de Laplace, and the
severity of the reproaches which were addressed to me, for having
patronized a mode of proceeding which may be very long in theory, but
which evidently can in no way be found fault with on the score of its
elegance and precision. Never had a jealous prejudice shown itself more
openly, or under a more bitter form. "Ah!" said I to myself, "how true
was the inspiration of the ancients when they attributed weaknesses to
him who nevertheless made Olympus tremble by a frown!"
Here I should mention, in order of time, a circumstance which might have
produced the most fatal consequences for me. The fact was this:--
I have described above, the scene which caused the expulsion of
Brissot's son from the Polytechnic School. I had entirely lost sight of
him for several months, when he came to pay me a visit at the
Observatory, and placed me in the most delicate, the most terrible,
position that an honest man ever found himself in.
"I have not seen you," he said to me, "because since leaving the school
I have practised daily firing with a pistol; I have now acquired a skill
beyond the common, and I am about to employ it in ridding France of the
tyrant who has confiscated all her liberties. My measures are taken: I
have hired a small room on the Carrousel, close to the place by which
Napoleon, on coming out from the court, will pass to review the cavalry;
from the humble window of my apartment will the ball be fired which will
go through his head."
I leave it to be imagined with what despair I received this confidence.
I made every imaginable effort to deter Brissot from his sinister
project; I remarked how all those who had rushed on enterprises of this
nature had been branded in history by the odious title of assassin.
Nothing succeeded in shaking his fatal resolution; I only obtained from
him a promise on his honour that the execution of it should be postponed
for a time, and I put myself in quest of means for rendering it
abortive.
The idea of announcing Brissot's project to the authorities did not
even enter my thoughts. It seemed a fatality which came to smite me, and
of which I must undergo the consequences, however serious they might be.
I counted much on the solicitations of Brissot's mother, already so
cruelly tried during the revolution. I went to her home, in the Rue de
Condé, and implored her earnestly to coöperate with me in preventing her
son from carrying out his sanguinary resolution. "Ah, sir," replied this
lady, who was naturally a model of gentleness, "if Silvain" (this was
the name of her son) "believes that he is accomplishing a patriotic
duty, I have neither the intention nor the desire to turn him from his
project."
It was from myself that I must henceforth draw all my resources. I had
remarked that Brissot was addicted to the composition of romances and
pieces of poetry. I encouraged this passion, and every Sunday, above
all, when I knew that there would be a review, I went to fetch him, and
drew him into the country, in the environs of Paris. I listened then
complacently to the reading of those chapters of his romance which he
had composed during the week.
The first excursions frightened me a little, for armed with his pistols,
Brissot seized every occasion of showing his great skill; and I
reflected that this circumstance would lead to my being considered as
his accomplice, if he ever carried out his project. At last, his
pretensions to literary fame, which I flattered to the utmost, the hopes
(though I had none myself) which I led him to conceive of the success of
an attachment of which he had confided the secret to me, made him
receive with attention the reflections which I constantly made to him on
his enterprise. He determined on making a journey beyond the seas, and
thus relieved me from the most serious anxiety which I have experienced
in all my life.
Brissot died after having covered the walls of Paris with printed
handbills in favour of the Bourbon restoration.
I had scarcely entered the Observatory, when I became the
fellow-labourer of Biot in researches on the refraction of gases,
already commenced by Borda.
While engaged in this work the celebrated academician and I often
conversed on the interest there would be in resuming in Spain the
measurement interrupted by the death of Méchain. We submitted our
project to Laplace, who received it with ardour, procured the necessary
funds, and the Government confided to us two this important mission.
M. Biot, I, and the Spanish commissary Rodriguez departed from Paris in
the commencement of 1806. We visited, on our way, the stations indicated
by Méchain; we made some important modifications in the projected
triangulation, and at once commenced operations.
An inaccurate direction given to the reflectors established at Iviza, on
the mountain Campvey, rendered the observations made on the continent
extremely difficult. The light of the signal of Campvey was very rarely
seen, and I was, during six months, in the _Desierto de las Palmas_,
without being able to see it, whilst at a later period the light
established at the Desierto, but well directed, was seen every evening
from Campvey. It will easily be imagined what must be the _ennui_
experienced by a young and active astronomer, confined to an elevated
peak, having for his walk only a space of twenty square metres, and for
diversion only the conversation of two Carthusians, whose convent was
situated at the foot of the mountain, and who came in secret,
infringing the rule of their order.
At the time when I write these lines, old and infirm, my legs scarcely
able to sustain me, my thoughts revert involuntarily to that epoch of my
life when, young and vigorous, I bore the greatest fatigues, and walked
day and night, in the mountainous countries which separate the kingdoms
of Valencia and Catalonia from the kingdom of Aragon, in order to
reëstablish our geodesic signals which the storms had overset.
I was at Valencia towards the middle of October, 1806. One morning early
the French consul entered my room quite alarmed: "Here is sad news,"
said M. Lanusse to me; "make preparations for your departure; the whole
town is in agitation; a declaration of war against France has just been
published; it appears that we have experienced a great disaster in
Prussia. The Queen, we are assured, has put herself at the head of the
cavalry and of the royal guard; a part of the French army has been cut
to pieces; the rest is completely routed. Our lives would not be in
safety if we remained here; the French ambassador at Madrid will inform
me as soon as an American vessel now at anchor in the 'Grao' of Valencia
can take us on board, and I will let you know as soon as the moment is
come." This moment never came; for a few days afterwards the false news,
which one must suppose had dictated the proclamation of the Prince of
the Peace, was replaced by the bulletin of the battle of Jéna. People
who at first played the braggart and threatened to root us out, suddenly
became disgracefully cast down; we could walk in the town, holding up
our heads, without fear henceforth of being insulted.
This proclamation, in which they spoke of the critical circumstances in
which the Spanish nation was placed; of the difficulties which
encompassed this people; of the safety of their native country; of
laurels, and of the god of victory; of enemies with whom they ought to
fight;--did not contain the name of France. They availed themselves of
this omission (will it be believed?) to maintain that it was directed
against Portugal.
Napoleon pretended to believe in this absurd interpretation; but from
this moment it became evident that Spain would sooner or later be
obliged to render a strict account of the warlike intentions which she
had suddenly evinced in 1806; this, without justifying the events of
Bayonne, explains them in a very natural way.
I was expecting M. Biot at Valencia, he having undertaken to bring some
new instruments with which we were to measure the latitude of
Formentera. I shall take advantage of these short intervals of repose to
insert here some details of manners, which may, perhaps, be read with
interest.
I will recount, in the first instance, an adventure which nearly cost me
my life under somewhat singular circumstances.
One day, as a recreation, I thought I could go, with a
fellow-countryman, to the fair at Murviedro, the ancient Saguntum, which
they told me was very curious. I met in the town the daughter of a
Frenchman resident at Valencia, Madlle. B----. All the hotels were
crowded; Madlle. B---- invited us to take some refreshments at her
grandmother's; we accepted; but on leaving the house she informed us
that our visit had not been to the taste of her betrothed, and that we
must be prepared for some sort of attack on his part; we went directly
to an armourer's, bought some pistols, and commenced our return to
Valencia.
On our way I said to the calezero (driver), a man whom I had employed
for a long time, and who was much devoted to me:--
"Isidro, I have some reason to believe that we shall be stopped; I warn
you of it, so that you may not be surprised at the shots which will be
fired from the caleza (vehicle)."
Isidro, seated on the shaft, according to the custom of the country,
answered:--
"Your pistols are completely useless, gentlemen; leave me to act; one
cry will be enough; my mule will rid us of two, three, or even four
men."
Scarcely one minute had elapsed after the calezero had uttered these
words, when two men presented themselves before the mule and seized her
by the nostrils. At the same instant a formidable cry, which will never
be effaced from my remembrance,--the cry of _Capitana!_--was uttered by
Isidro. The mule reared up almost vertically, raising up one of the men,
came down again, and set off at a rapid gallop. The jolt which the
carriage made led us to understand too well what had just occurred. A
long silence succeeded this incident; it was only interrupted by these
words of the calezero, "Do you not think, gentlemen, that my mule is
worth more than any pistols?"
The next day the captain-general, Don Domingo Izquierdo, related to me
that a man had been found crushed on the road to Murviedro. I gave him
an account of the prowess of Isidro's mule, and no more was said.
One anecdote, taken from among a thousand, will show what an adventurous
life was led by the delegate of the _Bureau of Longitude_.
During my stay on a mountain near Cullera, to the north of the mouth of
the river Xucar, and to the south of the Albuféra, I once conceived the
project of establishing a station on the high mountains which are in
front of it. I went to see them. The alcaid of one of the neighbouring
villages warned me of the danger to which I was about to expose myself.
"These mountains," said he to me, "form the resort of a band of highway
robbers." I asked for the national guard, as I had the power to do so.
My escort was supposed by the robbers to be an expedition directed
against them, and they dispersed themselves at once over the rich plain
which is watered by the Xucar. On my return I found them engaged in
combat with the authorities of Cullera. Wounds had been given on both
sides, and, if I recollect right, one alguazil was left dead on the
plain.
The next morning I regained my station. The following night was a
horrible one; the rain fell in a deluge. Towards night, there was
knocking at my cabin door. To the question "Who is there?" the answer
was, "A custom-house guard, who asks of you a shelter for some hours."
My servant having opened the door to him, I saw a magnificent man enter,
armed to the teeth. He laid himself down on the earth, and went to
sleep. In the morning, as I was chatting with him at the door of my
cabin, his eyes flashed on seeing two persons on the slope of the
mountain, the alcaid of Cullera and his principal alguazil, who were
coming to pay me a visit. "Sir," cried he, "nothing less than the
gratitude which I owe to you, on account of the service which you have
rendered to me this night, could prevent my seizing this occasion for
ridding myself, by one shot of this carabine, of my most cruel enemy.
Adieu, sir!" And he departed, springing from rock to rock as light as a
gazelle.
On reaching the cabin, the alcaid and his alguazil recognized in the
fugitive the chief of all the brigands in the country.
Some days afterwards, the weather having again become very bad, I
received a second visit from the pretended custom-house guard, who went
soundly to sleep in my cabin. I saw that my servant, an old soldier, who
had heard the recital of the deeds and behaviour of this man, was
preparing to kill him. I jumped down from my camp bed, and, seizing my
servant by the throat,--"Are you mad?" said I to him; "are we to
discharge the duties of police in this country? Do you not see,
moreover, that this would expose us to the resentment of all those who
obey the orders of this redoubted chief? And we should thus render it
impossible for us to terminate our operations."
Next morning, when the sun rose, I had a conversation with my guest,
which I will try to reproduce faithfully.
"Your situation is perfectly known to me; I know that you are not a
custom-house guard; I have learnt from certain information that you are
the chief of the robbers of the country. Tell me whether I have any
thing to fear from your confederates?"
"The idea of robbing you did occur to us; but we concluded that all your
funds would be in the neighbouring towns; that you would carry no money
to the summit of mountains, where you would not know what to do with it,
and that our expedition against you could have no fruitful result.
Moreover, we cannot pretend to be as strong as the King of Spain. The
King's troops leave us quietly enough to exercise our industry; but on
the day that we molested an envoy from the Emperor of the French, they
would direct against us several regiments, and we should soon have to
succumb. Allow me to add, that the gratitude which I owe to you is your
surest guarantee."
"Very well, I will trust in your words; I shall regulate my conduct by
your answer. Tell me if I can travel at night? It is fatiguing to me to
move from one station to another in the day under the burning influence
of the sun."
"You can do so, sir; I have already given my orders to this purpose;
they will not be infringed."
Some days afterwards, I left for Denia; it was midnight, when some
horsemen rode up to me, and addressed these words to me:--
"Stop there, señor; times are hard; those who have something must aid
those who have nothing. Give us the keys of your trunks; we will only
take your superfluities."
I had already obeyed their orders, when it came into my head to call
out--"But I have been told, that I could travel without risk."
"What is your name, sir?"
"Don Francisco Arago."
"_Hombre! vaya usted con Dios_ (God be with you)."
And our cavaliers, spurring away from us, rapidly lost themselves in a
field of "algarrobos."
When _my friend_ the robber of Cullera assured me that I had nothing to
fear from his subordinates, he informed me at the same time that his
authority did not extend north of Valencia. The banditti of the northern
part of the kingdom obeyed other chiefs; one of whom, after having been
taken, was condemned and hung, and his body divided into four quarters,
which were fastened to posts, on four royal roads, but not without
their having previously been boiled in oil, to make sure of their longer
preservation.
This barbarous custom produced no effect; for scarcely was one chief
destroyed before another presented himself to replace him.
Of all these brigands those had the worst reputation who carried on
their depredations in the environs of Oropeza. The proprietors of the
three mules, on which M. Rodriguez, I, and my servant were riding one
evening in this neighbourhood, were recounting to us the "grand deeds"
of these robbers, which, even in full daylight, would have made the hair
of one's head stand on end, when, by the faint light of the moon, we
perceived a man hiding himself behind a tree; we were six, and yet this
sentry on horseback had the audacity to demand our purses or our lives:
my servant, at once answered him--"You must then believe us to be very
cowardly; take yourself off, or I will bring you down by one shot of my
carabine." "I will be off," returned the worthless fellow "but you will
soon hear news of me." Still full of fright at the remembrance of the
stories which they had just been relating, the three "arieros" besought
us to quit the high road and cast ourselves into a wood which was on our
left. We yielded to their proposal; but we lost our way. "Dismount,"
said they, "the mules have been obeying the bridle and you have directed
them wrongly. Let us retrace our way as far as the high road, and leave
the mules to themselves, they will well know how to find their right way
again." Scarcely had we effected this manoeuvre, which succeeded
marvellously well, when we heard a lively discussion taking place at a
short distance from us. Some were saying: "We must follow the high
road, and we shall meet with them." Others maintained that they must get
into the wood on the left. The barking of the dogs, by which these
individuals were accompanied, added to the tumult. During this time we
pursued our way silently, more dead than alive. It was two o'clock in
the morning. All at once we saw a faint light in a solitary house; it
was like a light-house for the mariner in the midst of the tempest, and
the only means of safety which remained to us. Arrived at the door of
the farm, we knocked and asked for hospitality. The inmates, very little
reassured, feared that we were thieves, and did not hurry themselves to
open to us.
Impatient at the delay, I cried out, as I had received authority to do
so, "In the name of the King, open to us!" They obeyed an order thus
given; we entered pell-mell, and in the greatest haste, men and mules,
into the kitchen, which was on the ground-floor; and we hurried to
extinguish the lights, in order not to awaken the suspicions of the
bandits who were seeking for us. Indeed, we heard them, passing and
repassing near the house, vociferating with the whole force of their
lungs against their unlucky fate. We did not quit this solitary house
until broad day, and we continued our route for Tortosa, not without
having given a suitable recompense to our hosts. I wished to know by
what providential circumstance they happened to have a lamp burning at
that unseasonable hour. "We had killed a pig," they told me, "in the
course of the day, and we were busy preparing the black puddings." Had
the pig lived one day more, or had there been no black puddings, I
should certainly have been no longer in this world, and I should not
have the opportunity to relate the story of the robbers of Oropeza.
Never could I better appreciate the intelligent measure by which the
constituent assembly abolished the ancient division of France into
provinces, and substituted its division into departments, than in
traversing for my triangulation the Spanish border kingdoms of
Catalonia, Valencia, and Aragon. The inhabitants of these three
provinces detested each other cordially, and nothing less than the bond
of a common hatred was necessary to make them act simultaneously against
France. Such was their animosity in 1807 that I could scarcely make use
at the same time of Catalonians, Aragons, and Valencians, when I moved
with my instruments from one station to another. The Valencians, in
particular, were treated by the Catalonians as a light, trifling,
inconsistent people. They were in the habit of saying to me, "_En el
reino de Valencia la carne es verdura, la verdura agua, los hombres
mugeres, las mugeres nada_"; which may be translated thus: "In the
kingdom of Valencia meat is a vegetable, vegetables are water, men are
women, and women nothing."
On the other hand, the Valencians, speaking of the Aragons, used to call
them "_schuros_."
Having asked of a herdsman of this province who had brought some goats
near to one of my stations, what was the origin of this denomination, at
which his compatriots showed themselves so offended:
"I do not know," said he, smiling cunningly at me, "whether I dare
answer you." "Go on, go on," I said to him, "I can hear anything without
being angry." "Well, the word _schuros_ means that, to our great shame,
we have sometimes been governed by French kings. The sovereign, before
assuming power, was bound to promise under oath to respect our freedom
and to articulate in a loud voice the solemn words _lo Juro!_ As he did
not know how to pronounce the J he said _schuro_. Are you satisfied,
señor?" I answered him, "Yes, yes. I see that vanity and pride are not
dead in this country."
Since I have just spoken of a shepherd, I will say that in Spain, the
class of individuals of both sexes destined to look after herds,
appeared to me always less further removed than in France, from the
pictures which the ancient poets have left us of the shepherds and
shepherdesses in their pastoral poetry. The songs by which they
endeavour to while away the tedium of their monotonous life, are more
remarkable in their form and substance than in the other European
nations to which I have had access. I never recollect without surprise,
that being on a mountain situated at the junction-point of the kingdoms
of Valencia, Aragon, and Catalonia, I was all at once overtaken by a
violent storm, which forced me to take refuge in my tent, and to remain
there squatting on the ground. When the storm was over and I came out
from my retreat, I heard, to my great astonishment, on an isolated peak
which looked down upon my station, a shepherdess who was singing a song
of which I only recollect these eight lines, which will give an idea of
the rest:--
* * * * *
A los que amor no saben
Ofreces las dulzuras
Y a mi las amarguras
Que s'e lo quo es amar.
Las gracias al me certé
Eran cuadro de flores
Te cantaban amores
Por hacerte callar.
Oh! how much sap there is in this Spanish nation! What a pity that they
will not make it yield fruit!
In 1807, the tribunal of the Inquisition existed still at Valencia, and
at times performed its functions. The reverend fathers, it is true, did
not burn people, but they pronounced sentences in which the ridiculous
contended with the odious. During my residence in this town, the holy
office had to busy itself about a pretended sorceress; it doomed her to
go through all quarters of the town astride on an ass, her face turned
towards the tail, and naked down to the waist. Merely to observe the
commonest rules of decency, the poor woman had been plastered with a
sticky substance, partly honey, they told me, to which adhered an
enormous quantity of little feathers, so that to say the truth, the
victim resembled a fowl with a human head. The procession, whether
attended by a crowd I leave it to be imagined, stationed itself for some
time in the cathedral square, where I lived. I was told that the
sorceress was struck on the back a certain number of blows with a
shovel; but I do not venture to affirm this, for I was absent at the
moment when this hideous procession passed before my windows.
We thus see, however, what sort of spectacles were given to the people
in the commencement of the nineteenth century, in one of the principal
towns of Spain, the seat of a celebrated university, and the native
country of numerous citizens distinguished by their knowledge, their
courage, and their virtues. Let not the friends of humanity and of
civilization disunite; let them form, on the contrary, an indissoluble
union, for superstition is always on the watch, and waits for the moment
again to seize its prey.
I have mentioned in the course of my narrative that two Carthusians
often left their convent in the _Desierto de las Palmas_, and came,
though prohibited, to see me at my station, situated about two hundred
metres higher. A few particulars will give an idea of what certain monks
were, in the Peninsula, in 1807.
One of them, Father Trivulce, was old; the other was very young. The
former, of French origin, had played a part at Marseilles, in the
counter-revolutionary events of which this town was the theatre, at the
commencement of our first revolution. His part had been a very active
one; one might see the proof of this in the scars of sabre cuts which
furrowed his breast. It was he who was the first to come. When he saw
his young comrade march up, he hid himself; but as soon as the latter
had fully entered into conversation with me, Father Trivulce showed
himself all at once. His appearance had the effect of Medusa's head.
"Reassure yourself," said he to his young compeer; "only let us not
denounce each other, for our prior is not a man to pardon us for having
come here and infringed our vow of silence, and we should both receive a
punishment, the recollection of which would long remain." The treaty was
at once concluded, and from that day forward the two Carthusians came
very often to converse with me.
The youngest of our two visitors was an Aragonian, his family had made
him a monk against his will. He related to me one day, before M. Biot,
(then returned from Tarragon, where he had taken refuge to get cured of
his fever,) some particulars which, according to him, proved that in
Spain there was no longer more than the ghost of religion. These details
were mostly borrowed from the secrets of confession. M. Biot manifested
sharply the displeasure which this conversation caused him; there were
even in his language some words which led the monk to suppose that M.
Biot took him for a kind of spy. As soon as this suspicion had entered
his mind, he quitted us without saying a word, and the next morning I
saw him come up early, armed with a light gun. The French monk had
preceded him, and had whispered in my ear the danger that threatened my
companion. "Join with me," he said, "to turn the young Aragonian monk
from his murderous project." I need scarcely say that I employed myself
with ardour in this negotiation, in which I had the happiness to
succeed. There were here, as must be seen, the materials for a chief of
_guerilleros_. I should be much astonished if my young monk did not play
his part in the war of independence.
The anecdote which I am about to relate will amply prove that religion
was, with the Carthusian monks of the _Desierto de las Palmas_, not the
consequence of elevated sentiments, but a mere compound of superstitious
practices.
The scene with the gun, always present to my mind, seemed to make it
clear to me that the Aragon monk, if actuated by his passions, would be
capable of the most criminal actions. Hence, I had a very disagreeable
impression when one Sunday, having come down to hear mass, I met this
monk, who, without saying a word, conducted me by a series of dark
corridors into a chapel where the daylight penetrated only by a very
small window. There I found Father Trivulce, who prepared himself to say
mass for me alone. The young monk assisted. All at once, an instant
before the consecration, Father Trivulce, turning towards me, said these
exact words: "We have permission to say mass with white wine; we
therefore make use of that which we gather from our own vines: this wine
is very good. Ask the prior to let you taste it, when on leaving this
you go to breakfast with him. For the rest, you can assure yourself this
instant of the truth of what I say to you." And he presented me the
goblet to drink from. I resisted strongly, not only because I considered
it indecent to give this invitation in the middle of the mass, but
because, besides, I must own I conceived the thought for a moment that
the monks wished, by poisoning me, to revenge themselves on me for M.
Biot having insulted them. I found that I was mistaken, that my
suspicions had no foundation; for Father Trivulce went on with the
interrupted mass, drank, and drank largely, of the white wine contained
in one of the goblets. But when I had got out of the hands of the two
monks, and was able to breathe the pure air of the country, I
experienced a lively satisfaction.
The right of asylum accorded to some churches was one of the most
obnoxious privileges among those of which the revolution of 1789 rid
France. In 1807, this right still existed in Spain, and belonged, I
believe, to all the cathedrals. I learnt, during my stay at Barcelona,
that there was, in a little cloister contiguous to the largest church of
the town, a brigand,--a man guilty of several assassinations, who lived
quietly there, guaranteed against all pursuit by the sanctity of the
place. I wished to assure myself with my own eyes of the reality of the
fact, and I went with my friend Rodriguez into the little cloister in
question. The assassin was then eating a meal which a woman had just
brought him. He easily guessed the object of our visit, and made
immediately such demonstrations as convinced us that, if the asylum was
safe for the robber, it would not be so long for us. We retired at once,
deploring that, in a country calling itself civilized, there should
still exist such crying, such monstrous abuses.
In order to succeed in our geodesic operations, to obtain the
cöoperation of the inhabitants of the villages near our stations, it was
desirable for us to be recommended to the priests. We went,
therefore,--M. Lanusse, the French Vice-Consul, M. Biot, and I,--to pay
a visit to the Archbishop of Valencia, to solicit his protection. This
archbishop, a man of very tall figure, was then chief of the
Franciscans; his costume more than negligent, his gray robe, covered
with tobacco, contrasted with the magnificence of the archiepiscopal
palace. He received us with kindness, and promised us all the
recommendations we desired; but, at the moment of taking leave of him,
the whole affair seemed to be spoiled. M. Lanusse and M. Biot went out
of the reception room without kissing the hand of his grace, although he
had presented it to each of them very graciously. The archbishop
indemnified himself on my poor person. A movement, which was very near
breaking my teeth, a gesture which I might justly call a blow of the
fist, proved to me that the chief of the Franciscans, notwithstanding
his vow of humility, had taken offence at the want of ceremony in my
fellow visitors. I was going to complain of the abrupt way in which he
had treated me, but I had the necessities of our trigonometrical
operations before my eyes, and I was silent.
Besides this, at the instant when the closed fist of the archbishop was
applied to my lips, I was still thinking of the beautiful optical
experiments which it would have been possible to make with the
magnificent stone which ornamented his pastoral ring. This idea, I must
frankly declare, had preoccupied me during the whole of the visit.
M. Biot having at last come to seek me again at Valencia, where I
expected, as I have before said, some new instruments, we went on to
Formentera, the southern extremity of our arc, of which place we
determined the latitude. M. Biot quitted me afterwards to return to
Paris, whilst I made the geodesical junction of the island of Majorca to
Iviza, and to Formentera, obtaining thus, by means of one single
triangle, the measure of an arc of parallel of one degree and a half.
I then went to Majorca, to measure there the latitude and the azimuth.
At this epoch, the political fermentation, engendered by the entrance of
the French into Spain, began to invade the whole Peninsula and the
islands dependent on it. This ferment had as yet in Majorca only reached
to the ministers, the partisans, and the relations of the Prince of
Peace. Each evening, I saw, drawn in triumph in the square of Palma, the
capital of the island of Majorca, on carriages, the effigies in flames,
sometimes of the minister Soller, another time those of the bishop, and
even those of private individuals supposed to be attached to the
fortunes of the favourite Godoï. I was far from suspecting then that my
turn would soon arrive.
My station at Majorca, the _Clop de Galazo_, a very high mountain, was
situated exactly over the port where _Don Jayme el Conquistator_
disembarked when he went to deliver the Balearic Islands from the Moors.
The report spread itself through the population that I had established
myself there in order to favour the arrival of the French army, and that
every evening I made signals to it. But these reports had nothing
menacing until the moment of the arrival at Palma, the 27th of May,
1808, of an ordnance officer from Napoleon. This officer was M.
Berthémie; he carried to the Spanish squadron, at Mahon, the order to go
in all haste to Toulon. A general rising, which placed the life of this
officer in danger, followed the news of his mission. The Captain-General
Vivés only saved his life by shutting him up in the strong castle of
Belver. They then bethought themselves of the Frenchman established on
the _Clop de Galazo_, and formed a popular expedition to go and seize
him.
M. Damian, the owner of a small kind of vessel called a Mistic, which
the Spanish Government had placed at my disposal, was beforehand with
them, and brought me a costume by means of which I disguised myself. In
directing myself towards Palma, in company with this brave seaman, we
met with the rioters who were going in search of me. They did not
recognize me, for I spoke Majorcan perfectly. I strongly encouraged the
men of this detachment to continue their route, and I pursued my way
towards Palma. At night I went on board the Mistic, commanded by Don
Manuel de Vacaro, whom the Spanish Government had placed under my
orders. I asked this officer if he would conduct me to Barcelona,
occupied by the French, promising him that if they made any attempt to
keep him there, I would at once return and surrender myself a prisoner.
Don Manuel, who up to this time had shown extreme obsequiousness towards
me, had now no words but those of rudeness and distrust. There occurred
on the pier where the Mistic was moored a riotous movement, which Vacaro
assured me was directed against me. "Do not be uneasy," said he to me;
"if they should penetrate into the vessel you can hide yourself in this
trunk." I made the attempt; but the chest which he showed me was so
small that my legs were entirely outside, and the cover could not be
shut down. I understood perfectly what that meant, and I asked M. Vacaro
to let me also be shut up in the castle of Belver. The order for
incarceration having arrived from the captain-general, I got into the
boat, where the sailors of the Mistic received me with emotion.
At the moment of their crossing the harbour the populace perceived me,
commenced a pursuit, and it was not without much difficulty that I
reached Belver safe and sound. I had only, indeed, received on my way
one slight wound from a dagger in the thigh. Prisoners have often been
seen to run with all speed _from_ their dungeon; I am the first,
perhaps, to whom it has happened to do the reverse. This took place on
the 1st or 2d of June, 1808.
The governor of Belver was a very extraordinary personage. If he is
still alive he may demand of me a certificate as to his priority to the
modern hydropathists; the grenadier-captain maintained that pure water,
suitably administered, was a means of treatment for all illnesses, even
for amputations. By listening very patiently to his theories, and never
interrupting him, I won his good opinion. It was at his request, and
from interest in our safety, that a Swiss garrison replaced the Spanish
troop which until then had been employed as the guard of Belver. It was
also through him that I one day learnt that a monk had proposed to the
soldiers who went to bring my food from the town, to put some poison
into one of the dishes.
All my old Majorcan friends had abandoned me at the moment of my
detention. I had had a very sharp correspondence with Don Manuel de
Vacaro in order to obtain the restitution of the passport of safety
which the English Admiralty had granted to us. M. Rodriguez alone
ventured to visit me in full daylight, and bring me every consolation in
his power.
The excellent M. Rodriguez, to while away the monotony of my
incarceration, remitted to me from time to time the journals which were
then published at different parts of the Peninsula. He often sent them
to me without reading them. Once I saw in these journals the recital of
the horrible massacres of which the town of Valencia--I make a mistake,
the _square of the Bull-fights_--had been the theatre, and in which
nearly the whole of the French established in this town (more than 350)
had disappeared under the pike of the bull-fighter. Another journal
contained an article bearing this title: "Relacion de la ahorcadura del
señor Arago e del señor Berthémie,"--literally, "Account of the
execution of M. Arago and M. Berthémie." This account spoke of the two
executed men in very different terms. M. Berthémie was a Huguenot; he
had been deaf to all exhortations; he had spit in the face of the
ecclesiastic who was present, and even on the image of Christ. As for
me, I had conducted myself with much decency, and had allowed myself to
be hung without giving rise to any scandal. The writer also expressed
his regret that a young astronomer had been so weak as to associate
himself with treason, coming under the disguise of science to assist the
entrance of the French army into a friendly kingdom.
After reading this article I immediately made my decision: "Since they
talk of my death," said I to my friend Rodriguez, "the event will not be
long in coming. I should prefer being drowned to being hung. I will make
my escape from this fortress; it is for you to furnish me with the
means."
Rodriguez, knowing better than any one how well founded my apprehensions
were, set himself at once to the work.
He went to the captain-general, and made him feel what would be the
danger of his position if I should disappear in a popular riot, or even
if he were forced to give me up. His observations were so much the
better comprehended, as no one could then predict what might be the
issue of the Spanish revolution. "I will undertake," said the
captain-general Vivés to my colleague Rodriguez, "to give an order to
the commander of the fortress, that when the right moment arrives, he
shall allow M. Arago, and even the two or three other Frenchmen who are
with him in the castle of Belver, to pass out. They will then have no
need of the means of escape which they have procured; but I will take no
part in the preparations which will become necessary to enable the
fugitives to leave the island; I leave all that to your responsibility."
Rodriguez immediately conferred secretly with the brave commander
Damian. It was agreed between them that Damian should take the command
of a half-decked boat, which the wind had driven ashore; that he should
equip it as if for a fishing expedition; that he should carry us to
Algiers; after which his reëntrance at Palmas, with or without fish,
would inspire no suspicion.
All was executed according to agreement, notwithstanding the
inquisitorial surveillance which Don Manuel de Vacaro exercised over the
commander of his "Mistic."
On the 28th July, 1808, we silently descended the hill on which Belver
is built, at the same moment that the family of the minister Soller
entered the fortress to escape the fury of the populace. Arrived at the
shore, we found there Damian, his boat, and three sailors. We embarked
at once, and set sail. Damian had taken the precaution of bringing with
us in this frail vessel the instruments of value which he had carried
off from my station at the Clop de Galazo. The sea was unfavourable;
Damian thought it prudent to stop at the little island of Cabrera,
destined to become a short time afterwards so sadly celebrated by the
sufferings which the soldiers of the army of Dupont experienced after
the shameful capitulation of Baylen. There a singular incident was very
near compromising all. Cabrera, tolerably near to the southern extremity
of Majorca, is often visited by fishermen coming from that part of the
island. M. Berthémie feared, justly enough, that the rumour of our
escape having spread about, they might dispatch some boats to seize us.
He looked upon our going into harbour as inopportune; I maintained that
we must yield to the prudence of the commander. During this discussion,
the three seamen whom Damian had engaged saw that M. Berthémie, whom I
had endeavoured to pass off as my servant, maintained his opinion
against me on a footing of equality. They then addressed themselves in
these terms to the commander:--
"We only consented to take part in this expedition upon condition that
the Emperor's aide-de-camp, shut up at Belver, should not be of the
number of those persons whom we should help off. We only wished to aid
the flight of the astronomer. Since it seems to be otherwise, you must
leave this officer here, unless you would prefer to throw him into the
sea."
Damian at once informed me of the imperative wishes of his boat's crew.
M. Berthémie agreed with me to suffer some abuse such as could only be
tolerated by a servant threatened by his master; all the suspicions
disappeared.
Damian, who feared also for himself the arrival of Majorcan fishermen,
hastened to set sail on the 29th of July, 1808, the first moment that
was favourable, and we arrived at Algiers on the 3d of August.
Our looks were anxiously directed towards the port, to guess what
reception might await us. We were reassured by the sight of the
tri-coloured flag, which was flying on two or three buildings. But we
were mistaken; these buildings were Dutch. Immediately upon our
entrance, a Spaniard, whom, from his tone of authority, we took for a
high functionary of the Regency, came up to Damian, and asked him: "What
do you bring?" "I bring," answered the commander, "four Frenchmen." "You
will at once take them back again. I prohibit you from disembarking." As
we did not seem inclined to obey his order, our Spaniard, who was the
constructing engineer of the ships of the Dey, armed himself with a
pole, and commenced battering us with blows. But immediately a Genoese
seaman, mounted on a neighbouring vessel, armed himself with an oar, and
struck our assailant both with edge and point. During this animated
combat we managed to land without any opposition. We had conceived a
singular idea of the manner in which the police act on the coast of
Africa.
We pursued our way to the French Consul's, M. Dubois Thainville. He was
at his country house. Escorted by the janissary of the consulate, we
went off towards this country house, one of the ancient residences of
the Dey, situated not far from the gate of Bab-azoum. The consul and his
family received us with great amity, and offered us hospitality.
Suddenly transported to a new continent, I looked forward anxiously to
the rising of the sun to enjoy all that Africa might offer of interest
to a European, when all at once I believed myself to be engaged in a
serious adventure. By the faint light of the dawn, I saw an animal
moving at the foot of my bed. I gave a kick with my foot: all movement
ceased. After some time, I felt the same movement made under my legs. A
sharp jerk made this cease quickly. I then heard the fits of laughter of
the janissary, who lay on the couch in the same room as I did; and I
soon saw that he had simply placed on my bed a large hedgehog to amuse
himself by my uneasiness.
The consul occupied himself the next day in procuring a passage for us
on board a vessel of the Regency which was going to Marseilles. M.
Ferrier, the Chancellor of the French Consulate, was at the same time
Consul for Austria. He procured for us two false passports, which
transformed us--M. Berthémie and me--into two strolling merchants, the
one from _Schwekat_, in Hungary, the other from _Leoben_.
The moment of departure had arrived; the 13th of August, 1808, we were
on board, but our ship's company was not complete. The captain, whose
title was Raï Braham Ouled Mustapha Goja, having perceived that the Dey
was on his terrace, and fearing punishment if he should delay to set
sail, completed his crew at the expense of the idlers who were looking
on from the pier, and of whom the greater part were not sailors. These
poor people begged as a favour for permission to go and inform their
families of this precipitate departure, and to get some clothes. The
captain remained deaf to their remonstrances. We weighed anchor.
The vessel belonged to the Emir of Seca, Director of the Mint. The real
commander was a Greek captain, named Spiro Calligero. The cargo
consisted of a great number of _groups_. Amongst the passengers there
were five members of the family which the Bakri had succeeded as kings
of the Jews; two ostrich-feather merchants, Moroccans; Captain Krog,
from Berghen in Norway, who had sold his ship at Alicant; two lions sent
by the Dey to the emperor Napoleon, and a great number of monkeys. Our
voyage was prosperous. Off Sardinia we met with an American ship coming
out from Cagliari. A cannon-shot (we were armed with forty pieces of
small power) warned the captain to come to be recognized. He brought on
board a certain number of counterparts of passports, one of which agreed
perfectly with that which we carried. The captain being thus all right,
was not a little astonished when I ordered him, in the name of Captain
Braham, to furnish us with tea, coffee, and sugar. The American captain
protested; he called us brigands, pirates, robbers. Captain Braham
admitted without difficulty all these qualifications, and persisted none
the less in the exaction of sugar, coffee, and tea.
The American, then driven to the last stage of exasperation, addressed
himself to me, who acted as interpreter, and cried out, "Oh! rogue of a
renegade! if ever I meet you on holy ground I will break your head."
"Can you then suppose," I answered him, "that I am here for my pleasure,
and that, notwithstanding your menace, I would not rather go with you,
if I could?" These words calmed him; he brought the sugar, the coffee,
and the tea claimed by the Moorish chief, and we again set sail, though
without having exchanged the usual farewell.
We had already entered the Gulf of Lyons, and were approaching
Marseilles, when on the 16th August, 1808, we met with a Spanish corsair
from Palamos, armed at the prow with two twenty-four pounders. We made
full sail; we hoped to escape it: but a cannon-shot, a ball from which
went through our sails, taught us that she was a much better sailer than
we were.
We obeyed an injunction thus expressed, and awaited the great boat from
the corsair. The captain declared that he made us prisoners, although
Spain was at peace with Barbary, under the pretext that we were
violating the blockade which had been lately raised on all the coasts of
France: he added, that he intended to take us to Rosas, and that there
the authorities would decide on our fate.
I was in the cabin of the vessel; I had the curiosity to look furtively
at the crew of the boat, and there I perceived, with a dissatisfaction
which may easily be imagined, one of the sailors of the "Mistic,"
commanded by Don Manuel de Vacaro, of the name of Pablo Blanco, of
Palamos, who had often acted as my servant during my geodesic
operations. My false passport would become from this moment useless, if
Pablo should recognize me: I went to bed at once, covered my head with
the counterpane, and lay as still as a statue.
During the two days which elapsed between our capture and our entrance
into the roads of Rosas, Pablo, whose curiosity often brought him into
the room, used to exclaim, "There is one passenger whom I have not yet
managed to get a sight of."
When we arrived at Rosas it was decided that we should be placed in
quarantine in a dismantled windmill, situated on the road leading to
Figueras. I was careful to disembark in a boat to which Pablo did not
belong. The corsair departed for a new cruise, and I was for a moment
freed from the harassing thoughts which my old servant had caused me.
Our ship was richly laden; the Spanish authorities were immediately
desirous to declare it a lawful prize. They pretended to believe that I
was the proprietor of it, and wished, in order to hasten things, to
interrogate me, even without awaiting the completion of the quarantine.
They stretched two cords between the mill and the shore, and a judge
placed himself in front of me. As the interrogatories were made from a
good distance, the numerous audience which encircled us took a direct
part in the questions and answers. I will endeavour to reproduce this
dialogue with all possible fidelity:--
"Who are you?"
"A poor roving merchant."
"Whence do you come?"
"From a country where you certainly never were."
"In a word, what country is it?"
I was afraid to answer, for the passports, steeped in vinegar, were in
the hands of the judge-instructor, and I had forgotten whether I was
from Schwekat or from Leoben. Finally I answered at all hazards:--
"I come from Schwekat."
And this information happily was found to agree with that of the
passport.
"You are as much from Schwekat as I am," answered the judge. "You are
Spanish, and, moreover, a Spaniard from the kingdom of Valencia, as I
perceive by your accent."
"Would you punish me, sir, because nature has endowed me with the gift
of languages? I learn with facility the dialects of those countries
through which I pass in the exercise of my trade; I have learnt, for
example, the dialect of Iviza."
"Very well, you shall be taken at your word. I see here a soldier from
Iviza; you shall hold a conversation with him."
"I consent; I will even sing the goat song."
Each of the verses of this song (if verses they be) terminates by an
imitation of the bleating of the goat.
I commenced at once, with an audacity at which I really feel astonished,
to chant this air, which is sung by all the shepherds of the island.
Ah graciada señora
Una canzo bouil canta
Bè, bè, bè, bè.
No sera gaira pulida
Nosé si vos agradara
Bè, bè, bè, bè.
At once my Ivizacan, upon whom this air had the effect of the _ranz des
vaches_ on the Swiss, declared, all in tears, that I was a native of
Iviza.
I then said to the judge that if he would put me in communication with a
person knowing the French language, he would arrive at just as
embarrassing a result. An _émigré_ officer of the Bourbon regiment
offered at once to make the experiment, and, after some phrases
interchanged between us, affirmed without hesitation that I was French.
The judge, rendered impatient, exclaimed, "Let us put an end to these
trials which decide nothing. I summon you, sir, to tell me who you are.
I promise that your life will be safe if you answer me with sincerity.
"My greatest wish would be to give an answer to your satisfaction. I
will, then, try to do so; but I warn you that I am not going to tell you
the truth. I am son of the innkeeper at Mataro." "I know that innkeeper;
you are not his son." "You are right. I announced to you that I should
vary my answers until one of them should suit you. I retract then, and
tell you that I am a _titiretero_, (player of marionettes,) and that I
practised at Lerida."
A loud shout of laughter from the multitude encircling us greeted this
answer, and put an end to the questions.
"I swear by the d----l," exclaimed the judge, "that I will discover
sooner or later who you are!"
And he retired.
The Arabs, the Moroccans, the Jews, who witnessed this interrogatory,
understood nothing of it; they had only seen that I had not allowed
myself to be intimidated. At the close of the interview they came to
kiss my hand, and gave me, from this moment, their entire confidence.
I became their secretary for all the individual or collective
remonstrances which they thought they had a right to address to the
Spanish Government; and this right was incontestable. Every day I was
occupied in drawing up petitions, especially in the name of the two
ostrich-feather merchants, one of whom called himself a tolerably near
relation of the Emperor of Morocco. Astonished at the rapidity with
which I filled a page of my writing, they imagined, doubtless, that I
should write as fast in Arabic characters, when it should be requisite
to transcribe passages from the Koran; and that this would form both for
me and for them the source of a brilliant fortune, and they besought me,
in the most earnest way, to become a Mahometan.
Very little reassured by the last words of the judge, I sought means of
safety from another quarter.
I was the possessor of a safe-conduct from the English Admiralty; I
therefore wrote a confidential letter to the captain of an English
vessel, The Eagle, I think, which had cast anchor some days before in
the roads at Rosas. I explained to him my position. "You can," I said to
him, "claim me, because I have an English passport. If this proceeding
should cost you too much, have the goodness at least to take my
manuscripts and to send them to the Royal Society in London."
One of the soldiers who guarded us, and in whom I had fortunately
inspired some interest, undertook to deliver my letter. The English
captain came to see me; his name was, if my memory is right, George
Eyre. We had a private conversation on the shore. George Eyre thought,
perhaps, that the manuscripts of my observations were contained in a
register bound in morocco, and with gilt edges to the leaves. When he
saw that these manuscripts were composed of single leaves, covered with
figures, which I had hidden under my shirt, disdain succeeded to
interest, and he quitted me hastily. Having returned on board, he wrote
me a letter which I could find if needful, in which he said to me,--"I
cannot mix myself up in your affairs; address yourself to the Spanish
Government; I am persuaded that it will do justice to your
remonstrance, and will not molest you." As I had not the same persuasion
as Captain George Eyre, I chose to take no notice of his advice.
I ought to mention that some time after having related these particulars
in England, at Sir Joseph Banks's, the conduct of George Eyre was
severely blamed; but when a man breakfasts and dines to the sound of
harmonious music, can he accord his interest to a poor devil sleeping on
straw and nibbled by vermin, even though he have manuscripts under his
shirt? I may add that I (unfortunately for me) had to do with a captain
of an unusual character. For, some days later, a new vessel, The
Colossus, having arrived in the roads, the Norwegian, Captain Krog,
although he had not, like me, an Admiralty passport, made an application
to the commander of this new ship; he was immediately claimed, and
relieved from captivity.
The report that I was a Spanish deserter, and proprietor of the vessel,
acquiring more and more credit, and this position being the most
dangerous of all, I resolved to get out of it. I begged the commandant
of the place, M. Alloy, to come to receive my declaration, and I
announced to him that I was French. To prove to him the truth of my
words, I invited him to send for Pablo Blanco, the sailor in the service
of the corsair who took us, and who had returned from his cruise a short
time before. This was done as I wished. In disembarking, Pablo Blanco,
who had not been warned, exclaimed with surprise: "What! you, Don
Francisco, mixed up with all these miscreants!" The sailor gave the
Governor circumstantial evidence as to the mission which I fulfilled
with two Spanish commissaries. My nationality thus became proved.
That same day Alloy was replaced in the command of the fortress by the
Irish Colonel of the Ultonian regiment; the corsair left for a fresh
cruise, taking away Pablo Blanco; and I became once more the roving
merchant from Schwekat.
From the windmill, where we underwent our quarantine, I could see the
tricoloured flag flying on the fortress of Figueras. The reconnoitring
parties of the cavalry came sometimes within five or six hundred metres;
it would not then have been difficult for me to escape. However, as the
regulations against those who violate the sanitary laws are very
rigorous in Spain, as they pronounce the penalty of death against him
who infringes them, I only determined to make my escape on the eve of
our admission to pratique.
The night being come I crept on all-fours along the briars, and I should
soon have got beyond the line of sentinels who guarded us. A noisy
uproar which I heard among the Moors made me determine to reënter, and I
found these poor people in an unspeakable state of uneasiness, thinking
themselves lost if I left; I therefore remained.
The next day a strong picquet of troops presented itself before the
mill. The manoeuvres made by it inspired all of us with anxiety, but
especially Captain Krog.[3] "What will they do with us?" he exclaimed.
"Alas! you will see only too soon," replied the Spanish officer. This
answer made every one believe that they were going to shoot us. What
might have strengthened me in this idea was the obstinacy with which
Captain Krog and two other individuals of small size hid themselves
behind me. A handling of arms made us think that we had but a few
seconds to live.
In analyzing the feelings which I experienced on this solemn occasion, I
have come to the conclusion that the man who is led to death is not as
unhappy as the public imagines him to be. Fifty ideas presented
themselves nearly simultaneously to my mind, and I did not rack my brain
for any of them; I only recollect the two following, which have remained
engraved on my memory. On turning my head to the right, I saw the
national flag flying on the bastions of Figueras, and I said to myself,
"If I were to move a few hundred metres, I should be surrounded by
comrades, by friends, by fellow citizens, who would receive me
affectionately. Here, without their being able to impute any crime to
me, I am going to suffer death at twenty-two years of age." But what
agitated me more deeply was this: looking towards the Pyrenees, I could
distinctly see their peaks, and I reflected that my mother, on the other
side of the chain, might at this awful moment be looking peaceably at
them.
The Spanish authorities, finding that to redeem my life I would not
declare myself the owner of the vessel, had us conducted without farther
molestation to the fortress of Rosas. Having to file through nearly all
the inhabitants of the town, I had wished at first, through a false
feeling of shame, to leave in the mill the remains of our week's meals.
But M. Berthémie, more prudent than I, carried over his shoulder a great
quantity of pieces of black bread, tied up with packthread. I imitated
him. I furnished myself famously from our old stock, set it on my
shoulder, and it was with this accoutrement that I made my entrance into
the famous fortress.
They placed us in a casemate, where we had barely the space necessary
for lying down. In the windmill, they used to bring us, from time to
time, some provisions, which came from our boat. Here, the Spanish
government purveyed our food. We received every day some bread and a
ration of rice; but as we had no means of dressing food, we were in
reality reduced to dry bread.
Dry bread was very unsubstantial food for one who could see from his
casemate, at the door of his prison, a sutler selling grapes at two
farthings a pound, and cooking, under the shelter of half a cask, bacon
and herrings; but we had no money to bring us into connection with this
merchant. I then decided, though with very great regret, to sell a watch
which my father had given me. I was only offered about a quarter of its
value; but I might well accept it, since there were no competitors for
it.
As possessors of sixty francs, M. Berthémie and I could now appease the
hunger from which we had long suffered; but we did not like this return
of fortune to be profitable to ourselves alone, and we made some
presents, which were very well received by our companions in captivity.
Though this sale of my watch brought some comfort to us, it was doomed
at a later period to plunge a family into sorrow.
The town of Rosas fell into the power of the French after a courageous
resistance. The prisoners of the garrison were sent to France, and
naturally passed through Perpignan. My father went in quest of news
wherever Spaniards were to be found. He entered a café at the moment
when a prisoner officer drew from his fob the watch which I had sold at
Rosas. My good father saw in this act the proof of my death, and fell
into a swoon. The officer had got the watch from a third party, and
could give no account of the fate of the person to whom it had
originally belonged.
The casemate having become necessary to the defenders of the fortress,
we were taken to a little chapel, where they deposited for twenty-four
hours those who had died in the hospital. There we were guarded by
peasants who had come across the mountain, from various villages, and
particularly from Cadaquès. These peasants, eager to recount all that
they had seen of interest during their one day's campaign, questioned me
as to the deeds and behaviour of all my companions in misfortune. I
satisfied their curiosity amply, being the only one of the set who could
speak Spanish.
To enlist their good will, I also questioned them at length upon the
subject of their village, on the work that they did there, on smuggling,
their principal sources of employment, &c. &c. They answered my
questions with the loquacity common to country rustics. The next day our
guards were replaced by some others who were inhabitants of the same
village. "In my business of a roving merchant," I said to these last, "I
have been at Cadaquès;" and then I began to talk to them of what I had
learnt the night before, of such an individual, who gave himself up to
smuggling with more success than others, of his beautiful residence, of
the property which he possessed near the village,--in short, of a number
of particulars which it seemed impossible for any but an inhabitant of
Cadaquès to know. My jest produced an unexpected effect. Such
circumstantial details, our guards said to themselves, cannot be known
by a roving merchant; this personage, whom we have found here in such
singular society, is certainly a native of Cadaquès; and the son of the
apothecary must be about his age. He had gone to try his fortune in
America; it is evidently he who fears to make himself known, having been
found with all his riches in a vessel on its way to France. The report
spread, became more consistent, and reached the ears of a sister of the
apothecary established at Rosas. She runs to me, believes she recognizes
me, and falls on my neck. I protest against the identity. "Well played!"
said she to me; "the case is serious, as you have been found in a vessel
coming to France; persist in your denial; circumstances may perhaps take
a more favourable turn, and I shall profit by them to insure your
deliverance. In the mean time, my dear nephew, I will let you want for
nothing." And truly every morning M. Berthémie and I received a
comfortable repast.
The church having become necessary to the garrison to serve as a
magazine, we were moved on the 25th of September, 1808, to a Trinity
fort, called the _Bouton de Rosas_, a citadel situated on a little
mountain at the entrance of the roads, and we were deposited deep under
ground, where the light of day did not penetrate on any side. We did not
long remain in this infected place, not because they had pity upon us,
but because it offered shelter for a part of the garrison attacked by
the French. They made us descend by night to the edge of the sea, and
then transported us on the 17th of October to the port of Palamos. We
were shut up in a hulk; we enjoyed, however, a certain degree of
liberty;--they allowed us to go on land, and to parade our miseries and
our rags in the town. It was there that I made the acquaintance of the
dowager Duchess of Orleans, mother of Louis Philippe. She had left the
town of Figueras, where she resided, because, she told me, thirty-two
bombs sent from the fortress had fallen in her house. She was then
intending to take refuge in Algiers, and she asked me to bring the
captain of the vessel to her, of whom, perhaps, she would have to
implore protection. I related to my "_raïs_" the misfortunes of the
Princess; he was moved by them, and I conducted him to her. On entering,
he took off his slippers from respect, as if he had entered within a
mosque, and holding them in his hand, he went to kiss the front of the
dress of Madame d'Orleans. The Princess Was alarmed at the sight of this
manly figure, wearing the longest beard I ever saw; she quickly
recovered herself, and the interview proceeded with a mixture of French
politeness and Oriental courtesy.
The sixty francs from Rosas were expended. Madame D'Orleans would have
liked much to assist us, but she was herself without money. All that she
could gratify us with was a piece of sugarbread. The evening of our
visit I was richer than the Princess. To avoid the fury of the people
the Spanish Government sent those French who had escaped the first
massacres back to France in slight boats. One of the _cartels_ came and
cast anchor by the side of our hulk. One of the unhappy emigrants
offered me a pinch of snuff. On opening the snuff-box I found there
"_una onza de oro_," (an ounce of gold,) the sole remains of his
fortune. I returned the snuff-box to him, with warm thanks, after having
shut up in it a paper containing these words:--"My fellow-countryman who
carries this note has rendered me a great service;--treat him as one of
your children." My petition was naturally favourably received; it was by
this bit of paper, the size of the _onza de oro_, that my family learnt
that I was still in existence, and it enabled my mother--a model of
piety--to cease saying masses for the repose of my soul.
Five days afterwards, one of my hardy compatriots arrived at Palamos,
after having traversed the line of posts both French and Spanish,
carrying to a merchant who had friends at Perpignan the proposal to
furnish me with all I was in need of. The Spaniard showed a great
inclination to agree to the proposal; but I did not profit by his good
will, because of the occurrence of events which I shall relate
presently.
The Observatory at Paris is very near the barrier. In my youth, curious
to study the manners of the people, I used to walk in sight of the
public-houses which the desire of escaping payment of the duty has
multiplied outside the walls of the capital; on these excursions I was
often humiliated to see men disputing for a piece of bread, just as
animals might have done. My feelings on this subject have very much
altered since I have been personally exposed to the tortures of hunger.
I have discovered, in fact, that a man, whatever may have been his
origin, his education, and his habits, is governed, under certain
circumstances, much more by his stomach than by his intelligence and his
heart. Here is the fact which suggested these reflections to me.
To celebrate the unhoped-for arrival of _una onza de oro_, M. Berthémie
and I had procured an immense dish of potatoes. The ordnance officer of
the Emperor was already devouring it with his eyes, when a Moroccan, who
was making his ablutions near us with one of his companions,
accidentally filled it with dirt. M. Berthémie could not control his
anger; he darted upon the clumsy Mussulman, and inflicted upon him a
rough punishment.
I remained a passive spectator of the combat, until the second Moroccan
came to the aid of his compatriot. The party no longer being equal, I
also took part in the conflict by seizing the new assailant by the
beard. The combat ceased at once, because the Moroccan would not raise
his hand against a man who could write a petition so rapidly. This
conflict, like the struggles of which I had often been a witness outside
the barriers of Paris, had originated in a dish of potatoes.
The Spaniards always cherished the idea that the ship and her cargo
might be confiscated; a commission came from Girone to question us. It
was composed of two civil judges and one inquisitor. I acted as
interpreter. When M. Berthémie's turn came, I went to fetch him, and
said to him, "Pretend that you can only talk Styrian, and be at ease; I
will not compromise you in translating your answers."
It was done as we had agreed; unfortunately the language spoken by M.
Berthémie had but little variety, and the _sacrement der Teufel_, which
he had learnt in Germany, when he was aide-de-camp to Hautpoul,
predominated too much in his discourse. Be that as it may, the judges
observed that there was too great a conformity between his answers and
those which I had made myself, to render it necessary to continue an
interrogatory, which I may say, by the way, disturbed me much. The wish
to terminate it was still more decided on the part of the judges, when
it came to the turn of a sailor named Mehemet. Instead of making him
swear on the Koran to tell the truth, the judge was determined to make
him place his thumb on the forefinger so as represent the cross. I
warned him that great offence would thus be given; and, accordingly,
when Mehemet became aware of the meaning of this sign, he began to spit
upon it with inconceivable violence. The meeting ended at once.
The next day things had wholly changed their appearance; one of the
judges from Girone came to declare to us that we were free to depart,
and to go with our ship wherever we chose. What was the cause of this
sudden change? It was this.
During our quarantine in the windmill at Rosas, I had written, in the
name of Captain Braham, a letter to the Dey of Algiers. I gave him an
account of the illegal arrest of his vessel, and of the death of one of
the lions which the Dey had sent to the Emperor. This last circumstance
transported the African monarch with rage. He sent immediately for the
Spanish Consul, M. Onis, claimed pecuniary damages for his dear lion,
and threatened war if his ship was not released directly. Spain had then
to do with too many difficulties to undertake wantonly any new ones, and
the order to release the vessel so anxiously coveted arrived at Girone,
and from thence at Palamos.
This solution, to which our Consul at Algiers, M. Dubois Thainville, had
not remained inattentive, reached us at the moment when we least
expected it. We at once made preparations for our departure, and on the
28th of November, 1808, we set sail, steering for Marseilles; but, as
the Mussulmen on board the vessel declared, it was written above that we
should not enter that town. We could already perceive the white
buildings which crown the neighbouring hills of Marseilles, when a gust
of the "mistral," of great violence, sent us from the north towards the
south.
I do not know what route we followed, for I was lying in my cabin,
overcome with sea-sickness; I may therefore, though an astronomer, avow
without shame, that at the moment when our unqualified pilots supposed
themselves to be off the Baléares, we landed, on the 5th of December,
at Bougie.
There, they pretended that during the three months of winter, all
communication with Algiers, by means of the little boats named
_sandalis_, would be impossible, and I resigned myself to the painful
prospect of so long a stay in a place at that time almost a desert. One
evening I was making these sad reflections while pacing the deck of the
vessel, when a shot from a gun on the coast came and struck the side
planks close to which I was passing. This suggested to me the thought of
going to Algiers by land.
I went next day, accompanied by M. Berthémie and Captain Spiro
Calligero, to the Caïd of the town: "I wish," said I to him, "to go to
Algiers by land." The man, quite frightened, exclaimed, "I cannot allow
you to do so; you would certainly be killed on the road; your Consul
would make a complaint to the Dey, and I should have my head cut off."
"Fear not on that ground. I will give you an acquittance."
It was immediately drawn up in these terms: "We, the undersigned,
certify that the Caïd of Bougie wished to dissuade us from going to
Algiers by land; that he has assured us that we shall be massacred on
the road; that notwithstanding his representations, reiterated twenty
times, we have persisted in our project. We beg the Algerine
authorities, particularly our Consul, not to make him responsible for
this event if it should occur. We once more repeat, that the voyage has
been undertaken against his will.
_Signed_: ARAGO and BERTHÉMIE."
Having given this declaration to the Caïd, we considered ourselves quit
of this functionary; but he came up to me, undid, without saying a word,
the knot of my cravat, took it off, and put it into his pocket. All this
was done so quickly that I had not time, I will add that I had not even
the wish, to reclaim it.
At the conclusion of this audience, which had terminated in so singular
a manner, we made a bargain with a Mahomedan priest, who promised to
conduct us to Algiers for the sum of twenty "piastres fortes," and a red
mantle. The day was occupied in disguising ourselves well or ill, and we
set out the next morning, accompanied by several Moorish sailors
belonging to the crew of the ship, after having shown the Mahomedan
priest that we had nothing with us worth a sou, so that if we were
killed on the road he would inevitably lose all reward.
I went, at the last moment, to make my bow to the only lion that was
still alive, and with whom I had lived in very good harmony; I wished
also to say good-bye to the monkeys, who during nearly five months had
been equally my companions in misfortune.[4] These monkeys during our
frightful misery had rendered us a service which I scarcely dare
mention, and which will scarcely be guessed by the inhabitants of our
cities, who look upon these animals as objects of diversion; they freed
us from the vermin which infested us, and showed particularly a
remarkable cleverness in seeking out the hideous insects which lodged
themselves in our hair.
Poor animals! they seemed to me very unfortunate in being shut up in
the narrow enclosure of the vessel, when, on the neighbouring coast,
other monkeys, as if to bully them, came on to the branches of the
trees, giving innumerable proofs of their agility.
At the commencement of the day, we saw on the road two Kabyls, similar
to the soldiers of Jugurtha, whose harsh appearance powerfully allayed
our fancy for wandering. In the evening we witnessed a fearful tumult,
which appeared to be directed against us. We learnt afterwards that the
Mahomedan priest had been the object of it; that it originated with some
Kabyls whom he had disarmed on one of their journeys to Bougie. This
incident, which appeared likely to be repeated, inspired us for a moment
with the thought of returning; but the sailors were resolute, and we
continued our hazardous enterprise.
In proportion as we advanced, our troops became increased by a certain
number of Kabyls, who wished to go to Algiers to work there in the
quality of seamen, and who dared not undertake alone this dangerous
journey.
The third day we encamped in the open air, at the entrance of a forest.
The Arabs lighted a very large fire in the form of a circle, and placed
themselves in the middle. Towards eleven o'clock, I was awakened by the
noise which the mules made, all trying to break their fastenings. I
asked what was the cause of this disturbance. They answered me that a
"_sebâá_" had come roaming in the neighbourhood. I was not aware then
that a "_sebâá_" was a lion, and I went to sleep again. The next day, in
traversing the forest, the arrangement of the caravan was changed. It
was grouped in the smallest space possible; one Kabyl was at the head,
his gun ready for service; another was in the rear, in the same
position. I inquired of the owner of the mule the cause of these unusual
precautions. He answered me, that they were dreading an attack from a
"_sebâá_" and that if this should occur, one of us would be carried off
without having time to put himself on the defensive. "I would rather be
a spectator," I said to him, "than an actor in the scene you describe;
consequently, I will give you two piastres more if you will keep your
mule always in the centre of the moving group." My proposal was
accepted. It was then for the first time that I saw that my Arab carried
a yatagan under his tunic, which he used for pricking on the mule the
whole time that we were in the thicket. Superfluous cautions! The
"_sebâá_" did not show himself.
Each village being a little republic, whose territory we could not cross
without obtaining permission and a passport from the Mahomedan priest
_président_, the priest who conducted our caravan used to leave us in
the fields, and went sometimes a good way off to a village to solicit
the permission without which it would have been dangerous to continue
our route. He remained entire hours without returning to us, and we then
had occasion to reflect sadly on the imprudence of our enterprise. We
generally slept amongst habitations. Once, we found the streets of a
village barricaded, because they were fearing an attack from a
neighbouring village. The foremost man of our caravan removed the
obstacles; but a woman came out of her house like a fury, and belaboured
us with blows from a pole. We remarked that she was fair, of brilliant
whiteness, and very pretty.
Another time we lay down in a lurking-place dignified by the beautiful
name of caravansary. In the morning, when the sun rose, cries of
"_Roumi! Roumi!_" warned us that we had been discovered. The sailor,
Mehemet, he who figured in the scene of the oath at Palamos, entered in
a melancholy mood the enclosure where we were together, and made us
understand that the cries of "Roumi!" vociferated under these
circumstances, were equivalent to a sentence of death. "Wait," said he;
"a means of saving you has occurred to me." Mehemet entered some moments
afterwards, told us that his means had succeeded, and invited me to join
the Kabyls, who were going to say prayers.
I accordingly went out, and prostrated myself towards the East. I
imitated minutely the gestures which I saw made around me, pronouncing
the sacred words,--_La elah il Allah! oua Mahommed raçoul Allah!_ It was
the scene of Mamamouchi of the "Bourgeois Gentilhomme," which I had so
often seen acted by Dugazon,--with this one difference, that this time
it did not make me laugh. I was, however, ignorant of the consequences
it might have brought upon me on my arrival at Algiers. After having
made the profession of faith before Mahomedans--_There is but one God,
and Mahomet is his prophet_, if I had been informed against to the
mufti, I must inevitably have become Mussulman, and they would not have
allowed me to go out of the Regency.
I must not forget to relate by what means Mehemet had saved us from
inevitable death. "You have guessed rightly," said he to the Kabyls;
"there are two Christians in the caravansary, but they are Mahomedans at
heart, and are going to Algiers to be adopted by the mufti into our holy
religion. You will not doubt this when I tell you that I was myself a
slave to some Christians, and that they redeemed me with their money."
"In cha Allah!" they exclaimed with one voice. And it was then that the
scene took place which I have just described.
We arrived in sight of Algiers the 25th December, 1808. We took leave of
the Arab owners of our mules, who walked on foot by the side of us, and
we spurred them on, in order to reach the town before the closing of the
gates. On our arrival, we learnt that the Dey, to whom we owed our first
deliverance, had been beheaded. The guard of the palace before which we
passed, stopped us and questioned us as to whence we came. We replied
that we came from Bougie by land. "It is not possible!" exclaimed all
the janissaries at once; "the Dey himself would not venture to undertake
such a journey!" "We acknowledge that we have committed a great
imprudence; that we would not undertake to recommence the journey for
millions; but the fact that we have just declared is the strict truth."
Arrived at the consular house, we were, as on the first occasion, very
cordially welcomed. We received a visit from a dragoman sent by the Dey,
who asked whether we persisted in maintaining that Bougie had been our
point of departure, and not Cape Matifou, or some neighbouring port. We
again affirmed the truth of our recital; it was confirmed, the next day,
on the arrival of the proprietors of our mules.
At Palamos, during the various interviews which I had with the dowager
Duchess of Orleans, one circumstance had particularly affected me. The
Princess spoke to me unceasingly of the wish she had to go and rejoin
one of her sons, whom she believed to be alive, but of whose death I had
been informed by a person belonging to her household. Hence I was
anxious to do all that lay in my power to mitigate a sorrow which she
must experience before long.
At the moment when I quitted Spain for Marseilles, the Duchess confided
to me two letters which I was to forward in safety to their addresses.
One was destined for the Empress-mother of Russia, the other for the
Empress of Austria.
Scarcely had I arrived at Algiers, when I mentioned these two letters to
M. Dubois Thainville, and begged him to send them to France by the first
opportunity. "I shall do nothing of the sort," he at once answered me.
"Do you know that you have behaved in this affair like a young
inexperienced man, or, to speak out, like a blunderer? I am surprised
that you did not comprehend that the Emperor, with his pettish spirit,
might take this much amiss, and consider you, according to the contents
of the two letters, as the promoter of an intrigue in favour of the
exiled family of the Bourbons." Thus the paternal advice of the French
Consul taught me that in all that regards politics, however nearly or
remotely, one cannot give himself up without danger to the dictates of
the heart and the reason.
I enclosed my two letters in an envelope bearing the address of a
trustworthy person, and gave them into the hands of a corsair, who,
after touching at Algiers, would proceed to France. I have never known
whether they reached their destination.
The reigning Dey, successor to the beheaded Dey, had formerly filled the
humble office of "_épileur_"[5] of dead bodies in the mosques. He
governed the Regency with much gentleness, occupying himself with
little but his harem. This disgusted those who had raised him to this
eminent post, and they resolved upon getting rid of him. We became aware
of the danger which menaced him, by seeing the courts and vestibules of
the consular house full, according to the custom under such
circumstances, of Jews, carrying with them whatever they had of most
value. It was a rule at Algiers, that all that happened in the interval
comprised between the death of a Dey and the installation of his
successor, could not be followed up by justice, and must remain
unpunished. One can imagine, then, why the children of Moses should seek
safety in the consular houses, the European inhabitants of which had the
courage to arm themselves for self-defence as soon as the danger was
apparent, and who, moreover, had a janissary to guard them.
Whilst the unfortunate Dey "épileur" was being conducted towards the
place where he was to be strangled, he heard the cannon which announced
his death and the installation of his successor. "They are in great
haste," said he; "what will you gain by carrying matters to extremities?
Send me to the Levant; I promise you never to return. What have you to
reproach me with?" "With nothing," answered his escort, "but your
insignificance. However, a man cannot live as a mere private man, after
having been Dey of Algiers." And the unfortunate man perished by the
rope.
The communication by sea between Bougie and Algiers was not so
difficult, even with the "_sandalas_," as the Caïd of the former town
wished to assure me. Captain Spiro had the cases landed, which belonged
to me. The Caïd sought to discover what they contained; and, having
perceived through a chink something yellowish, he hastened to send the
news to the Dey, that the Frenchmen who had come to Algiers by land had
among their baggage cases filled with zechins, destined to revolutionize
the Kabylie. They immediately had these cases forwarded to Algiers, and
at their opening, before the Minister of Naval Affairs, all the
phantasmagoria of zechins, of treasure, of revolution, disappeared at
the sight of the stands and the limbs of several repeating circles in
copper.
We are now going to sojourn several months in Algiers. I will take
advantage of this to put together some details of manners which may be
interesting as the picture of a state of things anterior to that of the
occupation of the Regency by the French. This occupation, it must be
remarked, has already fundamentally altered the manners and the habits
of the Algerine population.
I am about to report a curious fact, and one which shows that politics,
which insinuate themselves and bring discord into the bosom of the most
united families, had succeeded, strange to say, in penetrating as far as
the galley-slaves' prison at Algiers. The slaves belonged to three
nations: there were in 1809 in this prison, Portuguese, Neapolitans, and
Sicilians; among these two latter classes were counted partisans of
Murat and those of Ferdinand of Naples. One day, at the beginning of the
year, a dragoman came in the name of the Dey to beg M. Dubois Thainville
to go without delay to the prison, where the friends of the French and
their adversaries had involved themselves in a furious combat; and
already several had fallen. The weapon with which they struck each other
was the heavy long chain attached to their legs.
Each Consul, as I said above, had a janissary placed with him as his
guard; the one belonging to the French Consul was a Candiote; he had
been surnamed _the Terror_. Whenever some news unfavourable to France
was announced in the cafés, he came to the Consulate to inform himself
as to the reality of the fact; and when we told him that the other
janissaries had propagated false news, he returned to them, and there,
yatagan in hand, he declared himself ready to enter the lists in combat
against those who should still maintain the truth of the news. As these
continual threats might endanger him, (for they had no support beyond
his mere animal courage,) we had wished to render him expert in the
handling of arms by giving him some lessons in fencing; but he could not
endure the idea that Christians should touch him at every turn with
foils; he therefore proposed to substitute for the simulated duel a real
combat with the yatagan.
One may gain an exact idea of this savage nature when I mention that,
having one day heard a pistol-shot, the sound of which proceeded from
his room, people ran, and found him bathed in his blood; he had just
shot off a ball into his arm to cure himself of a rheumatic pain.
Seeing with what facility the Deys disappeared, I said one day to our
janissary, "With this prospect before your eyes, would you consent to
become Dey?" "Yes, doubtless," answered he. "You seem to count as
nothing the pleasure of doing all that one likes, if only even for a
single day!"
When we wished to take a turn in the town of Algiers, we generally took
care to be escorted by the janissary attached to the consular house; it
was the only means of escaping insults, affronts, and even acts of
violence. I have just said it was the only means. I made a mistake;
there was one other; that was, to go in the company of a French
"lazarist" of seventy years of age, and whose name, if my memory serves
me, was Father Joshua; he had lived in this country for half a century.
This man, of exemplary virtue, had devoted himself with admirable
self-denial to the service of the slaves of the Regency, and had
divested himself of all considerations of nationality;--the Portuguese,
Neapolitans, Sicilians, all were equally his brethren.
In the times of plague he was seen day and night carrying eager help to
the Mussulmans; thus, his virtue had conquered even religious hatreds;
and wherever he passed, he and the persons who might accompany him
received from multitudes of the people, from the janissaries, and even
from the officials of the mosques, the most respectful salutations.
During our long hours of sailing on board the Algerine vessel, and our
compulsory stay in the prisons at Rosas, and on the hulk at Palamos, I
gathered some ideas as to the interior life of the Moors or the
Coulouglous, which, even now when Algiers has fallen under the dominion
of France, would perhaps be yet worth preserving. I shall, however,
confine myself to recounting, nearly word for word, a conversation which
I had with Raïs Braham, whose father was a "_Turc fin_," that is to say,
a Turk born in the Levant.
"How is it that you consent," said I to him, "to marry a young girl whom
you have never seen, and find in her, perhaps, an excessively ugly
woman, instead of the beauty whom you had fancied to yourself?"
"We never marry without having obtained information from the women who
serve in the capacity of servants at the public baths. The Jewesses are
moreover, in these cases, very useful go-betweens."
"How many legitimate wives have you?"
"I have four, that is to say, the number authorized by the Koran."
"Do they live together on a good understanding?"
"Ah, sir, my house is a hell. I never enter it without finding them at
the step of the door, or at the bottom of the stairs; then, each wants
to be the first to make me listen to the complaints which she has to
bring against her companions. I am about to utter blasphemy, but I think
that our holy religion ought to prohibit a plurality of wives to those
who are not rich enough to give to each a separate habitation."
"But since the Koran allows you to repudiate even legitimate wives, why
do you not send back three of them to their parents?"
"Why? because that would ruin me. On the day of the marriage the father
of the young woman to be married stipulates for a dowry, and the half of
it is paid. The other half may be exacted the day that the woman is
repudiated. It would then be three half dowries that I should have to
pay if I sent back three of my wives. I ought, however, to rectify one
inaccuracy in what I said just now, that my four wives had never agreed
together. Once, they were agreed among themselves in the feeling of a
common hatred. In going through the market I had bought a young negress.
In the evening, when I retired to rest, I perceived that my wives had
prepared no bed for her, and that the unfortunate girl was extended on
the ground. I rolled up my trowsers and laid them under her head as a
kind of pillow. In the morning the distracting cries of the poor slave
made me run to her, and I found her nearly sinking under the blows of my
four wives; for once they understood each other marvellously well."
In February, 1809, the new Dey, the successor of the "épileur," a short
time after having entered on his functions, claimed from two to three
hundred thousand francs,--I do not remember exactly the sum,--which he
pretended was due to him from the French Government. M. Dubois
Thainville answered that he had received the Emperor's orders not to pay
one centime.
The Dey was furious, and decided upon declaring war against us. A
declaration of war at Algiers used to be immediately followed by putting
all the persons of other nations into prison. This time matters were not
pushed to this extreme limit. Our names might be figuring on the list of
the slaves of the Regency; but in fact, so far as I was concerned, I
remained free in the consular house. By means of a pecuniary guarantee,
contracted with the Swedish Consul, M. Norderling, I was even permitted
to live at his country house, situated near the Emperor's fort.
The most insignificant event was sufficient to modify the ideas of these
barbarians. I had come into the town one day, and was seated at table at
M. Dubois Thainville's, when the English Consul, Mr. Blankley, arrived
in great haste, announcing to our Consul the entrance into the port of a
French prize. "I never will uselessly add," said he, generously, "to the
severities of war; I came to announce to you, my colleague, that I will
give up your prisoners on a receipt which will insure me the deliverance
of an equal number of Englishmen detained in France." "I thank you,"
answered M. Dubois Thainville; "but I do not the less deplore this event
that it will retard, indefinitely, perhaps, the settlement of the
account in which I am engaged with the Dey."
During this conversation, armed with a telescope, I was looking through
the window of the dining-room, trying to persuade myself at least that
the captured vessel was not one of much importance. But one must yield
to evidence. It was pierced for a great number of guns. All at once, the
wind having displayed the flags, I perceived with surprise the French
flag over the English flag. I communicated what I observed to Mr.
Blankley. He answered immediately, "You do not surely pretend to observe
better with your bad telescope than I did with my _Dollond_?"
"And you cannot pretend," said I to him in _my_ turn, "to see better
than an astronomer by profession? I am sure of my fact. I beg M.
Thainville's permission, and will go this instant to visit this
mysterious prize."
In short, I went there; and this is what I learnt:--
General Duhesme, Governor of Barcelona, wishing to rid himself of the
most ill-disciplined portion of his garrison, formed the principal part
into the crew of a vessel, the command of which he gave to a lieutenant
of Babastre, a celebrated corsair of the Mediterranean.
There were amongst these improvised seamen a hussar, a dragoon, two
veterans, a miner with his long beard, &c. &c. The vessel, leaving
Barcelona by night, escaped the English cruiser, and got to the entrance
of Port Mahon. An English "lettre de marque" was coming out of the port.
The crew of the French vessel boarded her; and a furious combat on the
deck ensued, in which the French got the upper hand. It was this "lettre
de marque" which had now arrived at Algiers.
Invested with full power by M. Dubois Thainville, I announced to the
prisoners that they were about to be immediately given up to their
Consul. I respected even the trick of the captain, who, wounded by
several sabre-cuts, had contrived to cover up his head with his
principal flag. I re-assured his wife; but my chief care was especially
devoted to a passenger whom I saw with one arm amputated.
"Where is the surgeon," I said to him, "who operated on you?"
"It was not our surgeon," he answered. "He basely fled with a part of
the crew, and saved himself on land."
"Who, then, cut off your arm?"
"It was the hussar whom you see here."
"Unhappy man!" I exclaimed; "what could lead you, when it was not your
profession, to perform this operation?"
"The pressing request of the wounded man. His arm had already swollen to
an enormous size. He wanted some one to cut it off for him with a blow
of a hatchet. I told him that in Egypt, when I was in hospital, I had
seen several amputations made; that I would imitate what I had seen, and
might perhaps succeed. That at any rate it would be better than the blow
of a hatchet. All was agreed; I armed myself with the carpenter's saw;
and the operation was done."
I went off immediately to the American consul, to claim the assistance
of the only surgeon worthy of confidence who was then in Algiers. M.
Triplet--I think I recollect that that was the name of the man of the
distinguished art whose aid I invoked--came at once on board the vessel,
examined the dressing of the wound, and declared, to my very lively
satisfaction, that all was going on well, and that the Englishman would
survive his horrible injury.
The same day we had the wounded men carried on litters to Mr. Blankley's
house; this operation, executed with somewhat of ceremony, modified,
though slightly, the feelings of the Dey in our favour, and his
sentiments became yet more favourable towards us in consequence of
another maritime occurrence, although a very insignificant one.
One day a corvette was seen in the horizon armed with a very great
number of guns, and shaping her way towards the port of Algiers; there
appeared immediately after an English brig of war, in full sail; a
combat was therefore expected, and all the terraces of the town were
covered with spectators; the brig appeared to be the best sailer, and
seemed to us likely to reach the corvette, but the latter tacked about,
and seemed desirous to engage in battle; the English vessel fled before
her; the corvette tacked about a second time, and again directed her
course towards Algiers, where, one would have supposed, she had some
special mission to execute. The brig, in her turn now changed her
course, but held herself constantly beyond the reach of shot from the
corvette; at last the two vessels arrived in succession in the port, and
cast anchor, to the lively disappointment of the Algerine population,
who had hoped to be present without danger at a maritime combat between
the "Christian dogs," belonging to two nations equally detested in a
religious point of view; but shouts of laughter could not be repressed
when it was seen that the corvette was a merchant vessel, and that she
was only armed with wooden imitations of cannon. It was said in the town
that the English sailors were furious, and had been on the point of
mutiny against their too prudent captain.
I have very little to tell in favour of the Algerines; hence I must do
an act of justice by mentioning, that the corvette departed the next day
for the Antilles, her destination, and that the brig was not permitted
to set sail until the next day but one.
Bakri often came to the French Consulate to talk of our affairs with M.
Dubois Thainville: "What can you want?" said the latter, "you are an
Algerine; you will be the first victim of the Dey's obstinacy. I have
already written to Livorno that your families and your goods are to be
seized. When the vessels laden with cotton, which you have in this port,
arrive at Marseilles, they will be immediately confiscated; it is for
you to judge whether it would not better suit you to pay the sum which
the Dey claims, than to expose yourself to tenfold and certain loss."
Such reasoning was unanswerable; and whatever it might cost him, Bakri
decided on paying the sum that was demanded of France.
Permission to depart was immediately granted to us; I embarked the 21st
of June, 1809, on board a vessel in which M. Dubois Thainville and his
family were passengers.
The evening before our departure from Algiers, a corsair deposited at
the consul's the Majorcan mail, which he had taken from a vessel which
he had captured. It was a complete collection of the letters which the
inhabitants of the Baléares had been writing to their friends on the
Continent.
"Look here," said M. Dubois Thainville to me, "here is something to
amuse you during the voyage,--you who generally keep your room from
sea-sickness,--break the seals and read all these letters, and see
whether they contain any accounts by which we might profit how to aid
the unhappy soldiers who are dying of misery and despair in the little
island of Cabrera."
Scarcely had we arrived on board the vessel, when I set myself to the
work, and acted without scruple or remorse the part of an official of
the black chamber, with this sole difference, that the letters were
unsealed without taking any precautions. I found amongst them several
dispatches, in which Admiral Collingwood signified to the Spanish
Government the ease with which the prisoners might be delivered.
Immediately on our arrival at Marseilles these letters were sent to the
minister of naval affairs, who, I believe, did not pay much attention to
them.
I knew almost every one at Palma, the capital of Majorca. I leave it to
be imagined with what curiosity I read the missives in which the
beautiful ladies of the town expressed their hatred against _los
malditos cavachios_, (French,) whose presence in Spain had rendered
necessary the departure for the Continent of a magnificent regiment of
hussars; how many persons might I not have embroiled, if under a mask I
had found myself with them at the opera ball!
Many of the letters made mention of me, and were particularly
interesting to me; I was sure in this instance there was nothing to
constrain the frankness of those who had written them. It is an
advantage which few people can boast having enjoyed to the same degree.
The vessel in which I was, although laden with bales of cotton, had some
corsair papers of the Regency, and was the reputed escort of three
richly laden merchant vessels which were going to France.
We were off Marseilles on the 1st of July, when an English frigate came
to stop our passage: "I will not take you," said the English captain;
"but you will go towards the Hyères Islands, and Admiral Collingwood
will decide on your fate."
"I have received," answered the Barbary captain, "an express commission
to conduct these vessels to Marseilles, and I will execute it."
"You, individually, can do what may seem to you best," answered the
Englishman; "as to the merchant vessels under your escort, they will be,
I repeat to you, taken to Admiral Collingwood." And he immediately gave
orders to those vessels to set sail to the East.
The frigate had already gone a little distance when she perceived that
we were steering towards Marseilles. Having then learnt from the crews
of the merchant vessels that we were ourselves laden with cotton, she
tacked about to seize us.
She was very near reaching us, when we were enabled to enter the port of
the little island of Pomègue. In the night she put her boats to sea to
try to carry us off; but the enterprise was too perilous, and she did
not dare attempt it.
The next morning, 2d of July, 1809, I disembarked at the lazaretto.
At the present day they go from Algiers to Marseilles in four days; it
had taken me eleven months to make the same voyage. It is true that here
and there I had made involuntary sojourns.
My letters sent from the lazaretto at Marseilles were considered by my
relatives and friends as certificates of resurrection, they having for a
long time past supposed me dead. A great geometer had even proposed to
the Bureau of Longitude no longer to pay my allowance to my authorized
representative; which appears the more cruel inasmuch as this
representative was my father.
The first letter which I received from Paris was full of sympathy and
congratulations on the termination of my laborious and perilous
adventures; it was from a man already in possession of an European
reputation, but whom I had never seen: M. de Humboldt, after what he had
heard of my misfortunes, offered me his friendship. Such was the first
origin of a connection which dates from nearly forty-two years back,
without a single cloud ever paving troubled it.
M. Dubois Thainville had numerous acquaintances in Marseilles; his wife
was a native of that town, and her family resided there. They received,
therefore, both of them, numerous visits in the parlour of the
lazaretto. The bell which summoned them, for me alone was dumb; and I
remained as solitary and forsaken, at the gates of a town peopled with a
hundred thousand of my countrymen, as if I had been in the heart of
Africa. One day, however, the parlour-bell rang three times (the number
of times corresponding to the number of my room); I thought it must be a
mistake. I did not, however, allow this to appear. I traversed proudly
under the escort of my guard of health the long space which separates
the lazaretto, properly so called, from the parlour; and there I found,
with very lively satisfaction, M. Pons, the director of the Observatory
at Marseilles, and the most celebrated discoverer of comets of whom the
annals of Astronomy have ever had to register the success.
At any time a visit from the excellent M. Pons, whom I have since seen
director of the Observatory at Florence, would have been very agreeable
to me; but, during my quarantine, I felt it unappreciably valuable. It
proved to me that I had returned to my native soil.
Two or three days before our admission to freedom, we experienced a loss
which was deeply felt by each of us. To pass away the heavy time of a
severe quarantine, the little Algerine colony was in the habit of going
to an enclosure near the lazaretto, where a very beautiful gazelle,
belonging to M. Dubois Thainville, was confined; she bounded about there
in full liberty with a grace which excited our admiration. One of us
endeavoured to stop this elegant animal in her course; he seized her
unluckily by the leg, and broke it. We all ran, but only, alas! to
witness a scene which excited the deepest emotion in us.
The gazelle, lying on her side, raised her head sadly; her beautiful
eyes (the eyes of a gazelle!) shed torrents of tears; no cry of
complaint escaped her mouth; she produced that effect upon us which is
always felt when a person who is suddenly struck by an irreparable
misfortune, resigns himself to it, and shows his profound anguish only
by silent tears.
Having ended my quarantine, I went at once to Perpignan, to the bosom of
my family, where my mother, the most excellent and pious of women,
caused numerous masses to be said to celebrate my return, as she had
done before to pray for the repose of my soul, when she thought that I
had fallen under the daggers of the Spaniards. But I soon quitted my
native town to return to Paris; and I deposited at the Bureau of
Longitude and the Academy of Sciences my observations, which I had
succeeded in preserving amidst the perils and tribulations of my long
campaign.
A few days after my arrival, on the 18th of September, 1809, I was
nominated an academician in the place of Lalande. There were fifty-two
voters; I obtained forty-seven voices, M. Poisson four, and M. Nouet
one. I was then twenty-three years of age.
A nomination made with such a majority would appear, at first sight, as
if it could give rise to no serious difficulties; but it proved
otherwise. The intervention of M. de Laplace, before the day of ballot,
was active and incessant to have my admission postponed until the time
when a vacancy, occurring in the geometry section, might enable the
learned assembly to nominate M. Poisson at the same time as me. The
author of the _Mécanique Céleste_ had vowed to the young geometer an
unbounded attachment, completely justified, certainly, by the beautiful
researches which science already owed to him. M. de Laplace could not
support the idea that a young astronomer, younger by five years than M.
Poisson, a pupil, in the presence of his professor at the Polytechnic
School, should become an academician before him. He proposed to me,
therefore, to write to the Academy that I would not stand for election
until there should be a second place to give to Poisson. I answered by a
formal refusal, and giving my reasons in these terms: "I care little to
be nominated at this moment. I have decided upon leaving shortly with M.
de Humboldt for Thibet. In those savage regions the title of member of
the Institute will not smooth the difficulties which we shall have to
encounter. But I would not be guilty of any rudeness towards the
Academy. If they were to receive the declaration for which I am asked,
would not the savans who compose this illustrious body have a right to
say to me: 'How are you certain that we have thought of you? You refuse
what has not yet been offered to you.'"
On seeing my firm resolution not to lend myself to the inconsiderate
course which he had advised me to follow, M. de Laplace went to work in
another way; he maintained that I had not sufficient distinction for
admission into the Academy. I do not pretend that, at the age of
three-and-twenty, my scientific attainments were very considerable, if
estimated in an _absolute_ manner; but when I judged by _comparison_, I
regained courage, especially on considering that the three last years of
my life had been consecrated to the measurement of an arc of the
meridian in a foreign country; that they were passed amid the storms of
the war with Spain; often enough in dungeons, or, what was yet worse, in
the mountains of Kabylia, and at Algiers, at that time a very dangerous
residence.
Here is, therefore, my statement of accounts for that epoch. I make it
over to the impartial appreciation of the reader.
On leaving the Polytechnic School, I had made, in conjunction with M.
Biot, an extensive and very minute research on the determination of the
coefficient of the tables of atmospheric refraction.
We had also measured the refraction of different gases, which, up to
that time, had not been attempted.
A determination, more exact than had been previously obtained, of the
relation of the weight of air to the weight of mercury, had furnished a
direct value of the coefficient of the barometrical formula which served
for the calculation of the heights.
I had contributed, in a regular and very assiduous manner, during nearly
two years, to the observations which were made day and night with the
transit telescope and with the mural quadrant at the Paris Observatory.
I had undertaken, in conjunction with M. Bouvard, the observations
relating to the verification of the laws of the moon's libration. All
the calculations were prepared; it only remained for me to put the
numbers into the formulæ, when I was, by order of the Bureau of
Longitude, obliged to leave Paris for Spain. I had observed various
comets, and calculated their orbits. I had, in concert with M. Bouvard,
calculated, according to Laplace's formula, the table of refraction
which has been published in the _Recueil des Tables_ of the Bureau of
Longitude, and in the _Connaissance des Temps_. A research on the
velocity of light, made with a prism placed before the object end of the
telescope of the mural circle, had proved that the same tables of
refraction might serve for the sun and all the stars.
Finally, I had just terminated, under very difficult circumstances, the
grandest triangulation which had ever been achieved, to prolong the
meridian line from France as far as the island of Formentera.
M. de Laplace, without denying the importance and utility of these
labours and these researches, saw in them nothing more than indications
of promise; M. Lagrange then said to him explicitly:--
"Even you, M. de Laplace, when you entered the Academy, had done nothing
brilliant; you only gave promise. Your grand discoveries did not come
till afterwards."
Lagrange was the only man in Europe who could with authority address
such an observation to him.
M. de Laplace did not reply upon the ground of the personal question,
but he added,--"I maintain that it is useful to young savans to hold out
the position of member of the Institute as a future recompense, to
excite their zeal."
"You resemble," replied M. Hallé, "the driver of the hackney coach, who,
to excite his horses to a gallop, tied a bundle of hay at the end of his
carriage pole; the poor horses redoubled their efforts, and the bundle
of hay always flew on before them. After all, his plan made them fall
off, and soon after brought on their death."
Delambre, Legendre, Biot, insisted on the devotion, and what they termed
the courage, with which I had combated arduous difficulties, whether in
carrying on the observations, or in saving the instruments and the
results already obtained. They drew an animated picture of the dangers I
had undergone. M. de Laplace ended by yielding when he saw that all the
most eminent men of the Academy had taken me under their patronage, and
on the day of the election he gave me his vote. It would be, I must own,
a subject of regret with me even to this day, after a lapse of forty-two
years, if I had become member of the Institute without having obtained
the vote of the author of the _Mécanique Céleste_.
The Members of the Institute were always presented to the Emperor after
he had confirmed their nominations. On the appointed day, in company
with the presidents, with the secretaries of the four classes, and with
the academicians who had special publications to offer to the Chief of
the State, they assembled in one of the saloons of the Tuileries. When
the Emperor returned from mass, he held a kind of review of these
savans, these artists, these literary men, in green uniform.
I must own that the spectacle which I witnessed on the day of my
presentation did not edify me. I even experienced real displeasure in
seeing the anxiety evinced by members of the Institute to be noticed.
"You are very young," said Napoleon to me on coming near me; and without
waiting for a flattering reply, which it would not have been difficult
to find, he added,--"What is your name?" And my neighbour on the right,
not leaving me time to answer the simple enough question just addressed
to me, hastened to say,--
"_His_ name is Arago?"
"What science do you cultivate?"
My neighbour on the left immediately replied,--
"_He_ cultivates astronomy."
"What have you done?"
My neighbour on the right, jealous of my left hand neighbour for having
encroached on his rights at the second question, now hastened to reply,
and said,--
"_He_ has just been measuring the line of the meridian in Spain."
The Emperor imagining doubtless that he had before him either a dumb man
or an imbecile, passed on to another member of the Institute. This one
was not a novice, but a naturalist well known through his beautiful and
important discoveries; it was M. Lamarck. The old man presented a book
to Napoleon.
"What is that?" said the latter, "it is your absurd _meteorology_, in
which you rival Matthieu Laensberg. It is this 'annuaire' which
dishonours your old age. Do something in Natural History, and I should
receive your productions with pleasure. As to this volume, I only take
it in consideration of your white hair. Here!" And he passed the book to
an aide-de-camp.
Poor M. Lamarck, who, at the end of each sharp and insulting sentence of
the Emperor, tried in vain to say, "It is a work on Natural History
which I present to you," was weak enough to fall into tears.
The Emperor immediately afterwards met with a more energetic antagonist
in the person of M. Lanjuinais. The latter had advanced, book in hand.
Napoleon said to him, sneeringly:--
"The entire Senate, then, is to merge in the Institute?" "Sire,"
replied Lanjuinais, "it is the body of the state to which most time is
left for occupying itself with literature."
The Emperor, displeased at this answer, at once quitted the civil
uniforms, and busied himself among the great epaulettes which filled the
room.
Immediately after my nomination, I was exposed to strange annoyances on
the part of the military authorities. I had left for Spain, still
holding the title of pupil of the Polytechnic School. My name could not
remain on the books more than four years; consequently I had been
enjoined to return to France to go through the examinations necessary on
quitting the school. But in the meantime Lalande died, and thus a place
in the Bureau of Longitude became vacant. I was named assistant
astronomer. These places were submitted to the nomination of the
Emperor. M. Lacuée, Director of the Conscription, thought that, through
this latter circumstance, the law would be satisfied, and I was
authorized to continue my operations.
M. Matthieu Dumas, who succeeded him, looked at the question from an
entirely different point of view; he enjoined me either to furnish a
substitute, or else to set off myself with the contingent of the twelfth
arrondissement of Paris.
All my remonstrances and those of my friends having been fruitless, I
announced to the honourable General that I should present myself in the
Place de l'Estrapade, whence the conscripts had to depart, in the
costume of a member of the Institute; and that thus I should march on
foot through the city of Paris. General Matthieu Dumas was alarmed at
the effect which this scene would produce on the Emperor, himself a
member of the Institute, and hastened, under fear of my threat, to
confirm the decision of General Lacuée.
In the year 1809, I was chosen by the "conseil du perfectionnement" of
the Polytechnic School, to succeed M. Monge, in his chair of Analysis
applied to Geometry. The circumstances attending that nomination have
remained a secret; I seize the first opportunity which offers itself to
me to make them known.
M. Monge took the trouble to come to me one day, at the Observatory, to
ask me to succeed him. I declined this honour, because of a proposed
journey which I was going to make into Central Asia with M. de Humboldt.
"You will certainly not set off for some months to come," said the
illustrious geometer; "you could, therefore, take my place temporarily."
"Your proposal," I replied, "flatters me infinitely; but I do not know
whether I ought to accept it. I have never read your great work on
partial differential equations; I do not, therefore, feel certain that I
should be competent to give lessons to the pupils of the Polytechnic
School on such a difficult theory." "Try," said he, "and you will find
that that theory is clearer than it is generally supposed to be."
Accordingly, I did try; and M. Monge's opinion appeared to me to be well
founded.
The public could not comprehend, at that time, how it was that the
benevolent M. Monge obstinately refused to confide the delivery of his
course to M. Binet, (a private teacher under him,) whose zeal was well
known. It is this motive which I am going to reveal.
There was then in the "Bois de Boulogne" a residence named the _Grey
House_, where there assembled round M. Coessin, the high-priest of a new
religion, a number of adepts, such as Lesueur, the musician, Colin,
private teacher of chemistry at the school, M. Binet, &c. A report from
the prefect of police had signified to the Emperor that the frequenters
of the Grey House were connected with the Society of Jesuits. The
Emperor was uneasy and irritated at this. "Well," said he to M. Monge,
"there are your dear pupils become disciples of Loyola!" And on Monge's
denial, "You deny it," answered the Emperor; "well, then, know that the
private teacher of your course is in that clique." Every one can
understand that after such a remark, Monge could not consent to being
succeeded by M. Binet.
Having entered the academy, young, ardent, and impassioned, I took much
greater part in the nominations than may have been suitable for my
position and my time of life. Arrived at an epoch of life whence I
examine retrospectively all my actions with calmness and impartiality, I
can render this amount of justice to myself, that, excepting in three or
four instances, my vote and interest were always in favour of the most
deserving candidate, and more than once I succeeded in preventing the
Academy from making a deplorable choice. Who could blame me for having
maintained with energy the election of Malus, considering that his
competitor, M. Girard, unknown as a physicist, obtained twenty-two votes
out of fifty-three, and that an addition of five votes would have given
him the victory over the savant who had just discovered the phenomenon
of polarization by reflection, over the savant whom Europe would have
named by acclamation? The same remarks are applicable to the nomination
of Poisson, who would have failed against this same M. Girard if four
votes had been otherwise given. Does not this suffice to justify the
unusual ardour of my conduct? Although in a third trial the majority of
the Academy was decided in favour of the same engineer, I cannot regret
that I supported up to the last moment with conviction and warmth the
election of his competitor, M. Dulong.
I do not suppose that, in the scientific world, any one will he disposed
to blame me for having preferred M. Liouville to M. de Pontécoulant.
Sometimes it happened that the Government wished to influence the choice
of the Academy; with a strong sense of my rights I invariably resisted
all dictation. Once this resistance acted unfortunately on one of my
friends--the venerable Legendre; as to myself, I had prepared myself
beforehand for all the persecutions of which I could be made the object.
Having received from the Minister of the Interior an invitation to vote
for M. Binet against M. Navier on the occurrence of a vacant place in
the section of mechanics, Legendre nobly answered that he would vote
according to his soul and his conscience. He was immediately deprived of
a pension which his great age and his long services rendered due to him.
The _protégé_ of the authorities failed; and, at the time, this result
was attributed to the activity with which I enlightened the members of
the Academy as to the impropriety of the Minister's proceedings.
On another occasion the King wished the Academy to name Dupuytren, the
eminent surgeon, but whose character at the time lay under grave
imputations. Dupuytren was nominated, but several blanks protested
against the interference of the authorities in academic elections.
I said above that I had saved the Academy from some deplorable choices;
I will only cite a single instance, on which occasion I had the sorrow
of finding myself in opposition to M. de Laplace. The illustrious
geometer wished a vacant place in the astronomical section to be granted
to M. Nicollet,--a man without talent, and, moreover, suspected of
misdeeds which reflected on his honour in the most serious degree. At
the close of a contest, which I maintained undisguisedly,
notwithstanding the danger which might follow from thus braving the
powerful protectors of M. Nicollet, the Academy proceeded to the ballot;
the respected M. Damoiseau, whose election I had supported, obtained
forty-five votes out of forty-eight. Thus M. Nicollet had collected but
three.
"I see," said M. de Laplace to me, "that it is useless to struggle
against young people; I acknowledge that the man who is called the
_great elector_ of the Academy is more powerful than I am."
"No," replied I; "M. Arago can only succeed in counterbalancing the
opinion justly preponderating for M. de Laplace, when the right is found
to be without possible contradiction on his side."
A short time afterwards M. Nicollet had run away to America, and the
Bureau of Longitude had a warrant passed to expel him ignominiously from
its bosom.
I would warn those savans, who, having early entered the Academy, might
be tempted to imitate my example, to expect nothing beyond the
satisfaction of their conscience. I warn them, with a knowledge of the
case, that gratitude will almost always be found wanting.
The elected academician, whose merits you have sometimes exalted beyond
measure, pretends that you have done no more than justice to him; that
you have only fulfilled a duty, and that he therefore owes you no
thanks.
Delambre died the 19th August, 1822. After the necessary delay, they
proceeded to fill his place. The situation of Perpetual Secretary is not
one which can long be left vacant. The Academy named a commission to
present it with candidates; it was composed of Messrs. de Laplace,
Arago, Legendre, Rossel, Prony, and Lacroix. The list presented was
composed of the names of Messrs. Biot, Fourier, and Arago. It is not
necessary for me to say with what obstinacy I opposed the inscription of
my name on this list; I was compelled to give way to the will of my
colleagues, but I seized the first opportunity of declaring publicly
that I had neither the expectation nor the wish to obtain a single vote;
that, moreover, I had on my hands already as much work as I could get
through; that in this respect M. Biot was in the same position; and
that, in short, I should vote for the nomination of M. Fourier.
It was supposed, but I dare not flatter myself that it was the fact,
that my declaration exercised a certain influence on the result of the
ballot. The result was as follows: M. Fourier received thirty-eight
votes, and M. Biot ten. In a case of this nature each man carefully
conceals his vote, in order not to run the risk of future disagreement
with him who may be invested with the authority which the Academy gives
to the perpetual secretary. I do not know whether I shall be pardoned if
I recount an incident which amused the Academy at the time.
M. de Laplace, at the moment of voting, took two plain pieces of paper;
his neighbour was guilty of the indiscretion of looking, and saw
distinctly that the illustrious geometer wrote the name of Fourier on
both of them. After quietly folding them up, M. de Laplace put the
papers into his hat, shook it, and said to this same curious neighbour:
"You see, I have written two papers; I am going to tear up one, I shall
put the other into the urn; I shall thus be myself ignorant for which of
the two candidates I have voted."
All went on as the celebrated academician had said; only that every one
knew with certainty that his vote had been for Fourier; and "the
calculation of probabilities" was in no way necessary for arriving at
this result.
After having fulfilled the duties of secretary with much distinction,
but not without some feebleness and negligence in consequence of his bad
health, Fourier died the 16th of May, 1830. I declined several times the
honour which the Academy appeared willing to do me, in naming me to
succeed him. I believed, without false modesty, that I had not the
qualities necessary to fill this important place suitably. When
thirty-nine out of forty-four voters had appointed me, it was quite time
that I should give in to an opinion so flattering and so plainly
expressed. On the 7th of June, 1830, I, therefore, became perpetual
secretary of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences; but, conformably
to the plea of an accumulation of offices, which I had used as an
argument to support, in November, 1822, the election of M. Fournier, I
declared that I should give in my resignation of the Professorship in
the Polytechnic School. Neither the solicitations of Marshal Soult, the
Minister of War, nor those of the most eminent members of the Academy,
could avail in persuading me to renounce this resolution.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] With such precocious heroism it is by no means so clear that the
author might not have had a hand in the revolution, from which he
endeavours above to exculpate himself.
[2] Méchain, member of the Academy of Sciences and of the Institute, was
charged in 1792 with the prolongation of the measure of the arc of the
meridian in Spain as far as Barcelona.
During his operations in the Pyrenees, in 1794, he had known my father,
who was one of the administrators of the department of the Eastern
Pyrenees. Later, in 1803, when the question was agitated as to the
continuation of the measure of the meridian line as far as the Balearic
Islands, M. Méchain went again to Perpignan, and came to pay my father a
visit. As I was about setting off to undergo the examination for
admission at the Polytechnic School, my father ventured to ask him
whether he could not recommend me to M. Monge. "Willingly," answered he;
"but, with the frankness which is my characteristic, I ought not to
leave you unaware that it appears to me improbable that your son, left
to himself, can have rendered himself completely master of the subjects
of which the programme consists. If, however, he be admitted, let him be
destined for the artillery, or for the engineers; the career of the
sciences, of which you have talked to me, is really too difficult to go
through, and unless he had a special calling for it, your son would only
find it deceptive." Anticipating a little the order of dates, let us
compare this advice with what occurred: I went to Toulouse, underwent
the examination, and was admitted; one year and a half afterwards I
filled the situation of secretary at the Observatory, which had become
vacant by the resignation of M. Méchain's son; one year and a half
later, that is to say, four years after the Perpignan "horoscope,"
associated with M. Biot, I filled the place, in Spain, of the celebrated
academician who had died there, a victim to his labours.
[3] This appears to be an oversight, as in a preceding page M. Arago
described the fortunate release of Captain Krog from this captivity.
[4] On my return to Paris I hastened to the Jardin des Plantes to pay a
visit to the lion, but he received me with a very unamiable gnashing of
the teeth. Think then of the marvellous history of the Florentine lion,
the subject of so many engravings, which is offered on the stall of
every printseller to the eyes of the moved and astonished passers-by.
[5] An "_épileur_" is a person who removes superfluous hairs. We have
been unable to ascertain what office of this kind is performed in
Mohammedan funerals.
BAILLY.
BIOGRAPHY READ AT THE PUBLIC SITTING OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, THE
26TH OF FEBRUARY, 1844.
INTRODUCTION.
Gentlemen,--The learned man, illustrious in so many ways, whose life I
am going to relate, was taken from France half a century ago. I hasten
to make this remark, so as thoroughly to show that I have selected this
subject without being deterred by complaints which I look upon as unjust
and inapplicable. The glory of the members of the early Academy of
Sciences is an inheritance for the present Academy. We must cherish it
as we would the glory of later days; we must hallow it with the same
respect, we must devote to it the same worship: the word _prescription_
would here be synonymous with ingratitude.
If it had happened, Gentlemen, that amongst the academicians who
preceded us, a man, already illustrious by his labours, and, without
personal ambition, yet thrown, despite himself, into the midst of a
terrible revolution, exposed to a thousand unrestrained passions, had
cruelly disappeared in the political effervescence--oh! then, any
negligence, any delay in studying the facts would be inexcusable; the
honourable contemporaries of the victim would soon be no longer there to
shed the light of their honest and impartial memory on obscure events;
an existence devoted to the cultivation of reason and of truth would
come to be appreciated only from documents, on which, for my part, I
would not blindly draw, until it shall be proved that, in revolutionary
times, we can trust to the uprightness of parties.
I felt in duty bound, Gentlemen, to give you a sketch of the ideas that
have led me to present to you a detailed account of the life and labours
of a member of the early Academy of Sciences. The biographies which will
soon follow this, will show that the studies I have undertaken
respecting Carnot, Condorcet, and Bailly, have not prevented me from
attending seriously to our illustrious contemporaries.
To render them a loyal and truthful homage, is the first duty of the
secretaries of the Academy, and I will religiously fulfil it; without
binding myself, however, to observe a strict chronological order, or to
follow the civil registers step by step.
Eulogies, said an ancient authority, should be deferred until we have
lost the true measure of the dead. Then we could make giants of them
without any one opposing us. On the contrary, I am of opinion that
biographers, especially those of academicians, ought to make all
possible haste, so that every one may be represented according to his
true measure, and that well-informed people may have the opportunity of
rectifying the mistakes which, notwithstanding every care, almost
inevitably slip into this sort of composition. I regret that our former
secretaries did not adopt this rule. By deferring from year to year to
analyze the scientific and political life of Bailly with their scruples,
and with their usual talents, they allowed time for inconsiderateness,
prejudice, and passions of every kind, to impregnate our minds with a
multitude of serious errors, which have added considerably to the
difficulty of my task. When I was led to form very different opinions
from those that are found spread through some of the most celebrated
works, on the events of the great revolution of 1789, in which our
fellow-academician took an active part, I could not be so conceited as
to expect to be believed on my own word. To propound my opinions then
was insufficient; I had also to combat those of the historians with whom
I differed. This necessity has given to the biography that I am going to
read an unusual length. I solicit the kind sympathy of the assembly on
this point. I hope to obtain it, I acknowledge, when I consider that my
task is to analyze before you the scientific and literary claims of an
illustrious colleague, to depict the uniformly noble and patriotic
conduct of the first President of the National Assembly; to follow the
first Mayor of Paris in all the acts of an administration, the
difficulties of which appeared to be above human strength; to accompany
the virtuous magistrate to the very scaffold, to unroll the mournful
phases of the cruel martyrdom that he was made to undergo; to retrace,
in a word, some of the greatest, some of the most terrible events of the
French Revolution.
INFANCY OF BAILLY.--HIS YOUTH.--HIS LITERARY ESSAYS.--HIS MATHEMATICAL
STUDIES.
John Sylvain Bailly was born at Paris in 1736. His parents were James
Bailly and Cecilia Guichon.
The father of the future astronomer had charge of the king's pictures.
This post had continued in the obscure but honest family of Bailly for
upwards of a century.
Sylvain, while young, never quitted his paternal home. His mother would
not be separated from him; it was not that she could give him the
instruction required from masters in childhood, but a tenderness,
allowed to run to the utmost extreme, entirely blinded her. Bailly then
formed his own mind, under the eye of his parents. Nothing could be
better, it seemed, than the boyhood of our brother academician, to
verify the oft-repeated theory, touching the influence of imitation on
the development of our faculties. Here, the result, attentively
examined, would not by a great deal agree with the old hypothesis. I
know not but, every thing considered, whether it would rather furnish
powerful weapons to whoever would wish to maintain that, in its early
habits, childhood rather seeks for contrasts.
James Bailly had an idle and light character; whilst young Sylvain from
the beginning showed strong reasoning powers, and a passion for study.
The grown man felt in his own element while in noisy gayety.
But the boy loved retirement.
To the father, solitude would have been fatal; for to him life consisted
in motion, sallies, witty conversations, free and easy parties, the
little gay suppers of those days.
The son, on the contrary, would remain alone and quite silent for whole
days. His mind sufficed to itself; he never sought the fellowship of
companions of his own age. Extreme steadiness was at once his habit and
his taste.
The warder of the king's pictures drew remarkably well, but did not
appear to have troubled himself much with the principles of art.
His son Sylvain studied those principles deeply, and to some purpose; he
became a theoretic artist of the first class, but he never could either
draw or paint even moderately well.
There are few young people who would not, at some time or other, have
wished to escape from the scrutinizing eyes of their parents. The
contrary was the case in Bailly's family, for James used sometimes to
say to his friends or to his servants, "Do not mention this peccadillo
to my son. Sylvain is worth more than I am; his morals are very strict.
Under the most respectful exterior, I should perceive in his manner a
censure which would grieve me. I wish to avoid his tacit reproaches,
even when he does not say a word."
The two characters resembled each other only in one point--in their
taste for poetry, or perhaps we ought to say versification, but even
here we shall perceive differences.
The father composed songs, little interludes, and farces that were acted
at the _Italian Comedy_; but the son commenced at the age of sixteen by
a serious work of time,--a tragedy.
This tragedy was entitled _Clothaire_. The subject, drawn from the early
centuries of the French History, had led Bailly by a curious and
touching coincidence to relate the tortures inflicted on a Mayor of
Paris by a deluded and barbarous multitude. The work was modestly
submitted to the actor Lanoue, who, although he bestowed flattering
encouragement on Bailly, dissuaded him frankly from exposing _Clothaire_
to the risk of a public representation. On the advice of the
comedian-author, the young poet took _Iphygenia in Tauris_ for the
subject of his second composition. Such was his ardour, that by the end
of three months, he had already written the last line of the fifth act
of his new tragedy, and hastened to Passy, to solicit the opinion of the
author of _Mahomet II_. This time Lanoue thought he perceived that his
confiding young friend was not intended by nature for the drama, and he
declared it to him without disguise. Bailly heard the fatal sentence
with more resignation than could have been expected from a youth whose
budding self-esteem received so violent a shock. He even threw his two
tragedies immediately into the fire. Under similar circumstances,
Fontenelle showed less docility in his youth. If the tragedy of _Aspar_
also disappeared in the flames, it was not only in consequence of the
criticism of a friend; for the author went so far as to call forth the
noisy judgment of the pit.
Certainly no astronomer will regret that any opinions either off-hand or
well digested, on the first literary productions of Bailly, contributed
to throw him into the pursuit of science. Still, for the sake of
principle, it seems just to protest against the praises given to the
foresight of Lanoue, to the sureness of his judgment, to the excellence
of his advice. What was it in fact? A lad of sixteen or seventeen years
of age, composes two tolerable tragedies, and these essays are made
irrevocably to decide on his future fate. We have then forgotten that
Racine had already reached the age of twenty-two, when he first
appeared, producing _Theagenes and Charicles_, and the _Inimical
Brothers_; that Crébillon was nearly forty years of age when he composed
a tragedy on _The Death of the Sons of Brutus_, of which not a single
verse has been preserved; finally, that the two first comedies of
Molière, _The three rival Doctors_ and _The Schoolmaster_, are no longer
known but by their titles. Let us recall to mind that reflection of
Voltaire's: "It is very difficult to succeed before the age of thirty in
a branch of literature that requires a knowledge of the world and of the
human heart."
A happy chance showed that the sciences might open an honourable and
glorious path to the discouraged poet. M. de Moncaville offered to teach
him mathematics, in exchange for drawing-lessons that his son received
from the warder of the king's pictures. The proposal being accepted, the
progress of Sylvain Bailly in these studies was rapid and brilliant.
BAILLY BECOMES THE PUPIL OF LACAILLE.--HE IS ASSOCIATED WITH HIM IN HIS
ASTRONOMICAL LABOURS.
The mathematical student soon after had one of those providential
meetings which decide a young man's future fate. Mademoiselle Lejeuneux
cultivated painting. It was at the house of this female artist, known
afterwards as Madame La Chenaye, that Lacaille saw Bailly. The
attentive, serious, and modest demeanour of the student charmed the
great astronomer. He showed it in a most unequivocal manner, by
offering, though so avaricious of his time, to become the guide of the
future observer, and also to put him in communication with Clairaut.
It is said that from his first intercourse with Lacaille, Bailly showed
a decided vocation for astronomy. This fact appears to me incontestable.
At his first appearance in this line, I find him associated in the most
laborious, difficult, and tiresome investigations of that great
observer.
These epithets may perhaps appear extraordinary; but they will be so
only to those who have learnt the science of the stars in ancient poems,
either in verse or in prose.
The Chaldæans, luxuriously reclining on the perfumed terraced roofs of
their houses in Babylon, under a constantly azure sky, followed with
their eyes the general and majestic movements of the starry sphere; they
ascertained the respective displacements of the planets, the moon, the
sun; they noted the date and hour of eclipses; they sought out whether
simple periods would not enable them to foretell these magnificent
phenomena a long time beforehand. Thus the Chaldæans created, if I may
be allowed the expression, _Contemplative Astronomy_. Their observations
were neither numerous nor exact; they both made and discussed them
without labour and without trouble.
Such is not, by a great deal, the position of modern astronomers.
Science has felt the necessity of the celestial motions being studied in
their minutest details. Theories must explain these details; it is their
touchstone; it is by details that theories become confirmed or fall to
the ground. Besides, in Astronomy, the most important truths, the most
astonishing results, are based on the measurement of quantities of
extreme minuteness. Such measures, the present bases of the science,
require very fatiguing attention, infinite care, to which no learned man
would bind himself, were he not sustained, and encouraged by the hope of
attaining some capital determination, through an ardent and decided
devotion to the subject.
The modern astronomer, really worthy of the name, must renounce the
distractions of society, and even the refreshment of uninterrupted
sleep. In our climates during the inclement season, the sky is almost
constantly overspread by a thick curtain of clouds. Under pain of
postponing by some centuries the verification of this or that theoretic
point, we must watch the least clearing off, and avail ourselves of it
without delay.
A favourable wind arises and dissipates the vapours in the very
direction where some important phenomenon will manifest itself, and is
to last only a few seconds. The astronomer, exposed to all the
transitions of weather, (it is one of the conditions of accuracy,) the
body painfully bent, directs the telescope of a great graduated circle
in haste upon the star that he impatiently awaits. His lines for
measuring are a spider's threads. If in looking he makes a mistake of
half the thickness of one of these threads, the observation is good for
nothing; judge what his uneasiness must be; at the critical moment, a
puff of wind occasioning a vibration in the artificial light adapted to
his telescope, the threads become almost invisible; the star itself,
whose rays reach the eye through atmospheric strata of various density,
temperature, and refrangibility, will appear to oscillate so much as to
render the true position of it almost unassignable; at the very moment
when extremely good definition of the object becomes indispensable to
insure correctness of measures, all becomes confused, either because the
eye-piece gets steamed with vapour, or that the vicinity of the very
cold metal occasions an abundant secretion of tears in the eye applied
to the telescope; the poor observer is then exposed to the alternative
of abandoning to some other more fortunate person than himself, the
ascertaining a phenomenon that will not recur during his lifetime, or
introducing into the science results of problematical correctness.
Finally, to complete the observation, he must read off the microscopical
divisions of the graduated circle, and for what opticians call _indolent
vision_ (the only sort that the ancients ever required) must substitute
_strained vision_, which in a few years brings on blindness.[6]
When he has scarcely escaped from this physical and moral torture, and
the astronomer wishes to know what degree of utility is deducible from
his labours, he is obliged to plunge into numerical calculations of
repelling length and intricacy. Some observations that have been made in
less than a minute, require a whole day's work in order to be compared
with the tables.
Such was the view that Lacaille, without any softening, exhibited to his
young friend; such was the profession into which the adolescent poet
plunged with great ardour, and without having been at all prepared for
the transition.
A useful calculation constituted the first claim of our tyro to the
attention of the learned world.
The year 1759 had been marked by one of those great events, the memory
of which is religiously preserved in scientific history. A comet, that
of 1682, had returned at the epoch foretold by Clairaut, and very nearly
in the region that mathematical analysis had indicated to him. This
reappearance raised comets out of the category of sublunary meteors; it
gave them definitely closed curves as orbits, instead of parabolas, or
even mere straight lines; attraction confined them within its immense
domain; in short, these bodies ceased for ever to be liable to
superstition regarding them as prognostics.
The stringency, the importance of these results, would naturally
increase in proportion as the resemblance between the announced orbit
and the real orbit became more evident.
This was the motive that determined so many astronomers to calculate the
orbit of the comet minutely, from the observations made in 1759,
throughout Europe. Bailly was one of those zealous calculators. In the
present day, such a labour would scarcely deserve special mention; but
we must remark that the methods at the close of the eighteenth century
were far from being so perfect as those that are now in use, and that
they greatly depended on the personal ability of the individual who
undertook them.
Bailly resided in the Louvre. Being determined to make the theory and
practice of astronomy advance together, he had an observatory
established from the year 1760, at one of the windows in the upper story
of the south gallery. Perhaps I may occasion surprise by giving the
pompous name of _Observatory_ to the space occupied by a window, and the
small number of instruments that it could contain. I admit this feeling,
provided it be extended to the Royal Observatory of the epoch, to the
old imposing and severe mass of stone that attracts the attention of the
promenaders in the great walk of the Luxembourg. There also, the
astronomers were obliged to stand in the hollow of the windows; there
also they said, like Bailly: I cannot verify my quadrants either by the
horizon or by the zenith, for I can neither see the horizon nor the
zenith. This ought to be known, even if it should disturb the wild
reveries of two or three writers, who have no scientific authority:
France did not possess an observatory worthy of her, nor worthy of the
science, and capable of rivalling the other observatories of Europe,
until within these ten or twelve years.
The earliest observations made by Bailly, from one of the windows in the
upper story of the Louvre gallery that looks out on the Pont des Arts,
are dated in the beginning of 1760. The pupil of Lacaille was not yet
twenty-four years old. Those observations relate to an opposition of the
planet Mars. In the same year he determined the oppositions of Jupiter
and of Saturn, and compared the results of his own determinations with
the tables.
The subsequent year I see him associated with Lacaille in observing the
transit of Venus over the sun's disk. It was an extraordinary piece of
good fortune, Gentlemen, at the very commencement of his scientific
life, to witness in succession two of the most interesting astronomical
events: the first predicted and well established return of a comet; and
one of those partial eclipses of the sun by Venus, that do not recur
till after the lapse of a hundred and ten years, and from which science
has deduced the indirect but exact method, without which we should still
be ignorant of the fact that the sun's mean distance from our earth is
thirty-eight millions of leagues.
I shall have completed the enumeration of Bailly's astronomical labours
performed before he became an academician, when I have added, from
observations of the comet of 1762, the calculation of its parabolic
orbit; the discussion of forty-two observations of the moon by La Hire,
a detailed labour destined to serve as a starting point for any person
occupying himself with the lunar theory; finally, also the reduction of
515 zodiacal stars, observed by Lacaille in 1760 and 1761.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] This long list of supposed difficulties in making an exact
observation is hardly worthy of a zealous astronomer. Our author shows
no enthusiasm for his subject here, and ends by ascribing the whole
jeremiad to Lacaille, a man of very great practical perseverance. It is
to be regretted that Arago never refers to observations of his own, but
constantly quotes from others, nor does he always select the best.
--_Translator's Note_.
BAILLY A MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.--HIS RESEARCHES ON JUPITER'S
SATELLITES.
Bailly was named member of the Academy of Sciences the 29th January,
1763. From that moment his astronomical zeal no longer knew any bounds.
The laborious life of our fellow-academician might, on occasion, be set
up against a line, more fanciful than true, by which an ill-natured poet
stigmatized academical honours. Certainly no one would say of Bailly,
that after his election,
"Il s'endormit et ne fit qu'un somme."
"He fell asleep and made but one nap (or sum)."
On the contrary, we cannot but be surprised at the multitude of literary
and scientific labours that he accomplished in a few years.
Bailly's earliest researches on Jupiter's satellites began in 1763.
The subject was happily chosen. Studying it in all its generalities, he
showed himself both an indefatigable computer, a clear-sighted geometer,
and an industrious and able observer. Bailly's researches on the
satellites of Jupiter, will always be his first and chief claim to
scientific glory. Before him, the Maraldis, the Bradleys, the Wargentins
had discovered empirically some of the principal perturbations that
those bodies undergo, in their revolving motions around the powerful
planet that rules them; but they had not been traced up to the
principles of universal attraction. The initiative honour in this
respect belongs to Bailly. Nor is this honour decreased by the ulterior
and considerable improvements that the science has since received; even
the discoveries of Lagrange and of Laplace have left this honour intact.
The knowledge of the satellitic motions rests almost entirely on the
observation of the precise moment when each of those bodies disappears,
by entering into the conical shadow, which the immense opaque globe of
Jupiter projects on the opposite side from the sun. In the course of
discussing a multitude of these eclipses, Bailly was not long in
perceiving that the computers of the Satellitic Tables worked on
numerical data that were not at all comparable with each other. This
seemed of little consequence previous to the birth of the theory; but,
after the analytical discovery of the perturbations, it became desirable
to estimate the possible errors of observation, and to suggest means for
remedying them. This was the object of the very considerable work that
Bailly presented to the Academy in 1771.
In this beautiful memoir, the illustrious astronomer developes the
series of experiments, by the aid of which each observation may give the
instant of the real disappearance of a satellite, distinguished from the
instant of the apparent disappearance, whatever be the power of the
telescope used, whatever be the altitude of the eclipsed body above the
horizon, and consequently, whatever be the transparency of the
atmospheric strata through which the phenomenon is observed, also
whatever be the distance from that body to the sun, or to the planet;
finally, whatever be the sensibility of the observer's sight, all which
circumstances considerably influence the time of apparent disappearance.
The same series of ingenious and delicate observations led the author,
very curiously, to the determination of the true diameters of the
satellites, that is to say, of small luminous points, which, with the
telescopes then in use, showed no perceptible diameter.
I will rest contented with these general considerations; only remarking,
in addition, that the diaphragms used by Bailly were not intended only
to diminish the quantity of light contributing to the formation of the
images, but that they considerably increase the diameter, and in a
variable way, at least in the instance of stars.
Under this new aspect, it will be requisite to submit the question to a
new examination.
Any geometers and astronomers who wish to know all the extent of
Bailly's labours, must not content themselves with consulting the
collections in the Academy of Sciences; for he published, at the
beginning of 1766, a separate work under the modest title of _Essay on
the Theory of Jupiter's Satellites_.
The author commences with the _Astronomical History of the Satellites_.
This history contains an almost complete analysis of the discoveries by
Maraldi, by Bradley, by Wargentin. The labours of Galileo and his
contemporaries are given with less detail and exactness. I have thought
that I ought to fill up the lacunæ, by availing myself of some very
precious documents published a few years since, and which were unknown
to Bailly.
But this I will do in a separate notice, free from all preconceived
ideas, and free from all party spirit; I will not forget that an honest
man ought not to calumniate any one, not even the agents of the
Inquisition.
BAILLY'S LITERARY WORKS.--HIS BIOGRAPHIES OF CHARLES V.--OF
LEIBNITZ--OF PETER CORNEILLE--OF MOLIÈRE.
When Bailly entered the Academy of Sciences, the perpetual secretary was
Grandjean de Fouchy. The bad health of this estimable scholar occasioned
an early vacancy to be foreseen. D'Alembert cast his views on Bailly,
hinted to him the survivorship to Fouchy, and proposed to him, by way of
preparing the way, to write some biographies. Bailly followed the advice
of the illustrious geometer, and chose as the subject of his studies,
the éloges proposed by several academies, though principally by the
French Academy.
From the year 1671 to the year 1758, the prize subjects proposed by the
French Academy related to questions of religion and morality. The
eloquence of the candidates had therefore had to exercise itself
successively on the knowledge of salvation; on the merit and dignity of
martyrdom; on the purity of the soul and of the body; on the danger
there is in certain paths that appear safe, &c. &c. It had even to
paraphrase the _Ave Maria_. According to the literal intentions of the
founder, (Balzac,) each discourse was ended by a short prayer. Duclos
thought in 1758, that five or six volumes of similar sermons must have
exhausted the matter, and on his proposal the Academy decided that, in
future, it would give as the subject of the eloquence prize, the
eulogiums of the great men of the nation. Marshal Saxe, Duguay Trouin,
Sully, D'Aguesseau, Descartes, figured first on this list. Later, the
Academy felt itself authorized to propose the éloge of kings themselves;
it entered on this new branch at the beginning of 1767, by asking for
the éloge of Charles V.
Bailly entered the lists, but his essay obtained only an honourable
mention.
Nothing is more instructive than to search out at what epoch originated
the principles and opinions of persons who have acted an important part
on the political scene, and how those opinions developed themselves. By
a fatality much to be regretted, the elements of these investigations
are rarely numerous or faithful. We shall not have to express these
regrets relative to Bailly. Each composition shows us the serene,
candid, and virtuous mind of the illustrious writer, in a new and true
point of view. The éloge of Charles V. was the starting point, followed
by a long series of works, and it ought to arrest our attention for a
while.
The writings, crowned with the approbation of the French Academy, did
not reach the public eye till they had been submitted to the severe
censure of four Doctors in Theology. A special and digested approbation
by the high dignitaries of the Church, whom the illustrious assembly
always possessed among her members, was not a sufficient substitute for
the humbling formality. If we are sure that we possess the éloge of
Charles V. such as it flowed from the author's pen; if we have not
reason to fear that the thoughts have undergone some mutilation, we owe
it to the little favour that the discourse of Bailly enjoyed in the
sitting of the Academy in 1767. Those thoughts, however, would have
defied the most squeamish mind, the most shadowy susceptibility. The
panegyrist unrolls with emotion the frightful misfortunes that assailed
France during the reign of King John. The temerity, the improvidence of
that monarch; the disgraceful passions of the King of Navarre; his
treacheries; the barbarous avidity of the nobility; the seditious
disposition of the people; the sanguinary depredations of the great
companies; the ever recurring insolence of England; all this is
expressed without disguise, yet with extreme moderation. No trait
reveals, no fact even foreshadows in the author, the future President of
a reforming National Assembly, still less the Mayor of Paris, during a
revolutionary effervescence. The author may make Charles V. say that he
will discard favour, and will call in renown to select his
representatives; it will appear to him that taxes ought to be laid on
riches and spared on poverty; he may even exclaim that oppression
awakens ideas of equality. His temerity will not overleap this boundary.
Bossuet, Massillon, Bourdaloue, made the Chair resound with bold words
of another description.
I am far from blaming this scrupulous reserve; when moderation is united
to firmness, it becomes power. In a word, however, Bailly's patriotism
might, I was about to say ought to, have shown itself more susceptible,
more ardent, prouder. When in the elegant prosopopoeia which closes
the éloge, the King of England has recalled with arrogance the fatal day
of Poitiers, ought he not instantly to have restrained that pride within
just limits? ought he not to have cast a hasty glance on the components
of the Black Prince's army? to examine whether a body of troops,
starting from Bordeaux, recruiting in Guienne, did not contain more
Gascons than English? whether France, now bounded by its natural limits,
in its magnificent unity, would not have a right, every thing being
examined, to consider that battle almost as an event of civil war? ought
he not, in short, to have pointed out, in order to corroborate his
remarks, that the knight to whom King John surrendered himself, Denys de
Morbecque, was a French officer banished from Artois?
Self-reliance on the field of battle is the first requisite for
obtaining success; now, would not our self-reliance be shaken, if the
men most likely to know the facts, and to appreciate them wisely,
appeared to think that the Frank race were nationally inferior to other
races who had peopled this or that region, either neighbouring or
distant? This, let it be well remarked, is not a puerile susceptibility.
Great events may, on a given day, depend on the opinion that the nation
has formed of itself. Our neighbours on the other side of the Channel,
afford examples on this subject that it would be well to imitate.
In 1767, the Academy of Berlin proposed a prize for an éloge of
Leibnitz. The public was somewhat surprised at it. It was generally
supposed that Leibnitz had been admirably praised by Fontenelle, and
that the subject was exhausted. But from the moment that Bailly's essay,
crowned in Prussia, was published, former impressions were quite
changed. Every one was anxiously asserting that Bailly's appreciation of
his subject might be read with pleasure and benefit, even after
Fontenelle's. The éloge composed by the historian of Astronomy will not,
certainly, make us forget that written by the first Secretary of the
Academy of Sciences. The style is, perhaps, too stiff; perhaps it is
also rather declamatory; but the biography, and the analysis of his
works, are more complete, especially if we consider the notes; the
_universal_ Leibnitz is exhibited under more varied points of view.
In 1768, Bailly obtained the award of the prize of eloquence proposed
by the Academy of Rouen. The subject was the éloge of Peter Corneille.
In reading this work of our fellow-academician, we may be somewhat
surprised at the immense distance that the modest, the timid, the
sensitive Bailly puts between the great Corneille, his special
favourite, and Racine.
When the French Academy, in 1768, proposed an éloge of Molière for
competition, our candidate was vanquished only by Chamfort. And yet, if
people had not since that time treated of the author of "Tartufe" to
satiety, perhaps I would venture to maintain, notwithstanding some
inferiority of style, that Bailly's discourse offered a neater, truer,
and more philosophic appreciation of the principal pieces of that
immortal poet.
DEBATES RELATIVE TO THE POST OF PERPETUAL SECRETARY OF THE ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES.
We have seen D'Alembert, ever since the year 1763, encouraging Bailly to
exercise himself in a style of literary composition then much liked, the
style of éloge, and holding out to him in prospect the situation of
Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. Six years after, the
illustrious geometer gave the same advice, and perhaps held out the same
hopes, to the young Marquis de Condorcet. This candidate, docile to the
voice of his protector, rapidly composed and published the éloges of the
early founders of the Academy, of Huyghens, of Mariotte, of Roëmer, &c.
At the beginning of 1773, the Perpetual Secretary, Grandjean de Fouchy,
requested that Condorcet should be nominated his successor, provided he
survived him. D'Alembert strongly supported this candidateship. Buffon
supported Bailly with equal energy; the Academy presented for some
weeks the aspect of two hostile camps. There was at last a strongly
disputed electoral battle; the result was the nomination of Condorcet.
I should regret if we had to judge of the sentiments of Bailly, after
this defeat, by those of his adherents. Their anger found vent in terms
of unpardonable asperity. They said that D'Alembert had "basely betrayed
friendship, honour, and the first principles of probity."
They here alluded to a promise of protection, support, coöperation,
dating ten years back. But was his promise absolute? Engaging himself
personally to Bailly for a situation that might not become vacant for
ten or fifteen years, had D'Alembert, contrary to his duty as an
academician, declared beforehand, that any other candidate, whatever
might be his talents, would be to him as not existing?
This is what ought to have been ascertained, before giving themselves up
to such violent and odious imputations.
Was it not quite natural that the geometer D'Alembert, having to
pronounce his opinion between two honourable learned men, gave the
preference to the candidate who seemed to him most imbued with the
higher mathematics? The éloges of Condorcet were, besides, by their
style, much more in harmony with those that the Academy had approved
during three quarters of a century. Before the declaration of the
vacancy on the 27th of February, 1773, D'Alembert said to Voltaire,
relative to the recueil by Condorcet, "Some one asked me the other day
what I thought of that work. I answered by writing on the frontispiece,
'Justice, propriety, learning, clearness, precision, taste, elegance,
and nobleness.'" And Voltaire wrote, on the 1st of March, "I have read,
while dying, the little book by M. de Condorcet; it is as good in its
departments as the éloges by Fontenelle. There is a more noble and more
modest philosophy in it, though bold."
And excitement in words and action could not be legitimately reproached
in a man who had felt himself supported by a conviction of such distinct
and powerful influence.
Among the éloges by Bailly, there is one, that of the Abbé de Lacaille,
which not having been written for a literary academy, shows no longer
any trace of inflation or declamation, and might, it seems to me,
compete with some of the best éloges by Condorcet. Yet, it is curious,
that this excellent biography contributed, perhaps as much as
D'Alembert's opposition, to make Bailly's claims fail. Vainly did the
celebrated astronomer flatter himself in his exordium, "that M. de
Fouchy, who, as Secretary of the Academy, had already paid his tribute
to Lacaille, would not be displeased at his having followed him in the
same career ... that he would not be blamed for repeating the praises
due to an illustrious man."
Bailly, in fact, was not blamed aloud; but when the hour for retreat had
sounded in M. de Fouchy's ear, without any fuss, without showing himself
offended in his self-love, remaining apparently modest, this learned
man, in asking for an assistant, selected one who had not undertaken to
repeat his éloges; who had not found his biographies insufficient. This
preference ought not to be, and was not, uninfluential in the result of
the competition.
Bailly, if Perpetual Secretary of t
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