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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Directory giving place to the Consulate, Carnot senior, after 

 two years of exile, reentered France, being called to the Ministry of 

 War by Bonaparte, who, remembering Carnot 's services to him at the 

 beginning of his career, wished to continue the intimate relations that 

 had existed between them during the Directory. Often when the 

 minister came to work with the consul he brought his son, now about 

 four years of age, and left him in the charge of Madame Bonaparte, 

 who was very fond of him. On one such occasion, Madame Bonaparte 

 and some of her ladies, mounted on a little raft, were paddling about 



upon a pond in the palace court. 

 Napoleon, happening along, began 

 to amuse himself by throwing 

 stones at the raft so as to splash 

 the water over the clean dresses 

 of the would-be sailors. The lat- 

 ter feared to manifest their dis- 

 pleasure, but the little boy, after 

 watching the procedure for a 

 while, suddenly faced the con- 

 queror of Marengo and, shaking 

 a stick at him, cried: 'Animal of 

 a First Consul, are you not 

 ashamed to torment these ladies ! ' 

 Sadi showed such interest in 

 machinery and applications of 

 physics that his father early di- 

 rected his studies toward science, 

 and he was just sixteen when 

 he entered the Ecole Polytech- 

 nique in 1812. He made rapid 

 progress, graduating the next year with first rank in the artillery. 

 But he was thought too young for the military school at Metz, and 

 was allowed to continue his studies at Paris for another year. Having 

 fought with his gallant fellow-students at Vincennes in March, 1814, 

 he returned when peace was established to his studies at the Polytech- 

 nique, but left in October with the rank of sixth-cadet of engineers 

 and repaired to Metz as a sublieutenant in the school of practical 

 fortifications. 



The events of 1815 brought Carnot senior again upon the political 

 field during the 'Hundred Days.' This was the occasion for Sadi to 

 make a test of men, of which he never spoke afterwards without dis- 

 gust. His little quarters of sublieutenant were visited by certain supe- 

 rior officers, who did not hesitate to mount three flights of stairs in 

 order to greet the son of the new minister. Waterloo put an end to 



Lazare Nicholas Marguerite Carnot, 

 Father of Nicholas Leonard Sadi Carnot. 



