144 LOUIS PASTEUR 



converted into a hospital he was deprived of his 

 usual facilities, and yielding to the entreaty of his 

 friends who reminded him that he would be only 

 an extra mouth to feed during the siege, he de- 

 parted with his family for his old home at 

 Arbois. 



There he tried to interest himself in his favorite 

 books and to make plans for future investigations. 

 "His reading," says Radot, "afforded Pasteur a 

 means of consoling himself in his sadness and 

 anxiety, and he was wont to repeat one of his 

 favorite sayings 'Laboremus.' But at times in the 

 midst of hours passed with his wife and daughter 

 there would sound one of those peals of the trum- 

 pet with which the public crier of Arbois would 

 announce the receipt of news. The universal order 

 of things now no longer existed. Full of anguish 

 Pasteur concentrated himself upon that imper- 

 ceptible point in the Universe which is called 

 France. He descended the stairway and mingled 

 with the crowds which gathered on the little bridge 

 of the Cuisance. He listened anxiously to the 

 official communications and then sadly returned to 

 his room where certain souvenirs left by his father 

 emphasized by contrast the present situation of his 

 country." 



