HOME LIFE AND EARLY TRAINING 5 



France. The downfall of Napoleon after the daz- 

 zling and brilliant victories that placed Europe 

 under the feet of France affected him deeply. 

 After his discharge from the Army in 1814 he re- 

 turned to his humble family trade of tanner, re- 

 signing himself, with shattered hopes and wounded 

 pride, to the new regime. 



The life of the solitary and disappointed soldier 

 was soon brightened by the acquaintance of a 

 young girl, Jeanne Etiennette Roqui, whom he 

 used to watch while she was working in a garden 

 on the opposite bank of a small river that ran past 

 the tannery. Feelings other than melancholy 

 broodings began to arise in the breast of the "old 

 soldier" as the villagers called him (he was only 

 twenty-five), and he was married, after what pre- 

 liminaries we do not know, to the young girl of 

 the garden. The marriage proved to be happy. 

 Madame Pasteur is described as kind hearted, viva- 

 cious, imaginative and enthusiastic, — qualities con- 

 trasting quite strongly with the reserve, caution 

 and introspective bent of her husband. The first 

 child died when only a few months old. Then 

 came a daughter, and four years afterward their 

 only son, Louis Pasteur. Two younger daughters 

 completed the Pasteur family. 



