SKETCH OF PAUL BERT. 405 



too dear, and the use of petroleum being a " barbarous expedient," 

 he was anxious to know whether it would not be possible for him 

 to make the Red River, which flows past the capital, produce the 

 required illumination. " Would the expense be great ? " he asked. 

 " Only think, if we 'succeeded, we should be ahead of England and 

 Japan ! . . . Answer, and answer quickly ; my days are numbered." 

 This letter was deposited, by vote, in the archives of the Academy 

 of Sciences at Paris. 



During the first months, of his stay in Tonquin, M. Bert enjoyed 

 the best of health. But the constant friction which existed be- 

 tween himself and the military authorities worried him, and the 

 climate of Hanoi wore upon him. He concealed, as much as pos- 

 sible, the fact that he was becoming ill, and was anxious that none 

 but good reports should go out concerning the country. When 

 called to go to Anam in September, it was remarked on board the 

 steamer that " he was ever full of that good humor which he had 

 the gift of communicating to others. He was always surrounded 

 by a little circle of friends, who left him the stronger and the bet- 

 ter advised. At table his marvelous appetite contrasted curiously 

 with the dejected features and languishing airs of his traveling 

 companions, and it seemed as yet impossible to believe in his un- 

 foreseen, sudden death." " It is difficult," says the author of a let- 

 ter in the " Republique Frangaise," describing a " Last Interview" 

 with him at this time, " to form any idea of the indefatigable 

 activity which M. Bert had displayed ever since his departure 

 from France. At Hanoi he was shut up in his room early in the 

 morning till his family came to call him to breakfast. In the 

 middle of the hot day, at the hour which even the most robust 

 dedicate to rest and quiet, he was found at his work, which only 

 ended at five, with the end of the day. At five — his family were 

 waiting patiently for him ; they were all going to drive out to- 

 gether, but the time passes, and M. Bert does not appear. He is 

 looked for everywhere, and at last he comes, only to tell his friends 

 that an officer is dying at the hospital, or that one of his function- 

 aries is ill, and that he must go and see them both. At the Hanoi 

 hospital, whence the French soldiers and travelers are buried who 

 have died in the neighborhood, M. Bert followed each cofiin to its 

 last resting-place. Times without number he has walked through 

 this hospital, distributing books and medicines, and bringing such 

 consolation which only those can fully appreciate who have been 

 ill away from their own country and their own people," 



Two weeks before his death he telegraphed confidentially to 

 M. de Freycinet that he was ill, and it would be well to appoint 

 his successor. M. de Freycinet replied that it would be better for 

 him to rest, and that his retirement would be detrimental to the 

 public interests ; and he responded : " You are right ; better die at 



