282 ^f. De Savigny. 



ready finished. But, alas ! none of them were destined to be 

 published, at least during his lifetime. 



After several years of microscopic observation, he had been 

 in 1817 for the first time attacked with Tic Doloureux, a, 

 nervousdisorder of the senses, and especially of that of sight. 

 When scarcely recovered, Savigny again betook himself to 

 the researches from which he had lately suffered so much ; and 

 a second and more serious attack assailed him in 1824. This 

 time his sufi*erings were to terminate only with his life. Sa- 

 vigny had foreseen this. Scarcely had the fatal symptoms 

 reappeared, when he said, " I shall not recover : one cannot 

 return twice from the grave." But who could have foreseen 

 that his agony would be prolonged for twenty-seven years, — 

 a terrible destiny, imprisoned in darkness. 



Nor was this all ; — when the darkness became less pro- 

 found, when a gleam of light menaced the eyelids of the 

 martyr of science, a shade, and two black veils, becanie ne- 

 cessary to protect him. And during these twenty-seven years, 

 not a single day passed without suffering ! Happily every 

 day brought its own consolation ! What would have be- 

 come of our unfortunate brother, without one of these extra- 

 ordinary instances of devotedness which God has implanted 

 in the heart of Woman. In the dark retreat, near Versailles, 

 where Savigny suffered for twenty-seven years, a female 

 friend had imprisoned herself with him ; and till the day of 

 his deliverance she did not leave him, but was a voluntary 

 captive for twenty-seven years, in solitude and darkness. We 

 mention such acts, we do not praise them, — they are above 

 all praise. And there are still other consolations which never 

 fail to the most unfortunate, — those of hope. During the 

 hours when his sufferings, though never interrupted, were 

 less severe, and even in his last moments, Savigny looked 

 back on his unpublished works, which had cost him so dear, 

 and which he preserved without seeing, but without for- 

 getting any part of them : — the hope that they would one day 

 be restored to science, and that they would be published as 

 a complementary volume to the great work on Egypt, has 

 been his dying consolation. 



