1865—1870 175 



the minute worm hatched from the seed-like egg to the 

 splendid cocoon of white or yellow silk. 



It occurred to Vaillant to suggest a decisive experiment in 

 favour of Pasteur and of the silkworm industry. The Prince 

 Imperial owned in Illyria, about six leagues from Trieste, a 

 property called Villa Vicentina. One of Napoleon's sisters, 

 Elisa Bonaparte, had lived peacefully there after the fall of the 

 first Empire, and had left it to her daughter, Princess Baciocchi, 

 who bequeathed it to the Prince Imperial, with the rest of her 

 fortune. Vines and mulberry trees grew plentifully on that 

 vast domain, but the produce of cocoons was nil, pebrine an(3 

 flachery having devastated the place. Marshal Vaillant, 

 Minister of the Emperor's Household, desired to render the 

 princely property once again productive and, at the same time^ 

 to give his colleague of the Institute an opportunity of *'def 

 initely silencing the opposition created by ignorance and 

 jealousy." In a letter dated October 9, he requested Pasteur 

 to send out 900 ounces of seed to Villa Vicentina, a large quan- 

 tity, for one ounce produced, on an average, thirty kilogrammes 

 of cocoons. Six days later the Marshal wrote to M. Tisserand, 

 the director of the Crown agricultural establishments, who 

 knew Villa Vicentina: "1 have suggested to the Emperor that 

 M. Pasteur should be offered a lodging at Villa Vicentina; the 

 Emperor acquiesces in the most gracious manner. Tell me 

 whether that is possible." 



M. Tisserand, heartily applauding the Marshal's excellent 

 idea, described the domain and the dwelling house. Villa Elisa, 

 a white Italian two-storied house, situated amongst lawns and 

 trees in a park of sixty hectares. "It would indeed be well," 

 continued M. Tisserand, ''that M. Pasteur should find peace, 

 rest, and a return of the health he has so valiantly compromised 

 in his devotion to his country, in the midst of the lands which 

 will be the first to profit by the fruit of his splendid discoveries 

 and where his name will be blessed before long.'* 



Pasteur started three weeks later with his family; the long 

 journey had to be taken in short stages, the state of his health 

 still being very precarious. He stopped at Alais on the way, in 

 order to fetch the selected seed, and on November 25, at 9 

 p.m., he reached Villa Vicentina. The fifty tenants of th^ 

 domain did not suspect that the new arrival would bring back 

 with him the prosperity of former years. Raulin, the ''tem- 

 porizer," joined his master a few weeks later. 



