140 EULOGY ON GAY-LUSSAC. 



Veudcans. Gay-Lussac might gladly have donned the military capote 

 and shouldered his musket, but his filial affection prevailed; he proved 

 that, according to the letter of the law (he was but fifteen years of age) 

 he was exempt from joiuiug the defenders of the republic, and he was 

 left undisturbed. After the ninth thermidor, Gay-Lussac's father, who 

 had fortunately remained in the prisons of Saint Leonard, regained his 

 liberty. The first use he made of it was to devote himself to the future 

 of the highly-gifted son, who, during his imprisonment, had given him 

 the most intelligent proofs of love. He placed him at M. Savouret's 

 school in Paris.* This was in 1795. The scarcity and impossibility of 

 procuring food for his pupils induced M. Savouret to close his estab- 

 lishment. Gay-Lussac was soon after received into the boarding-school 

 of M. Sensier, which, established first at Nanterre and afterward at 

 Passy, outside of the walls of Paris, enjoyed some advantages of which 

 the schools of the capital were deprived at that time. 



I have recently met in our assemblies old college-mates of Gay-Lussac, 

 and all have preserved the most pleasant recollections of him. One of 

 them,M. Uarblay, a representative of the people, said to me, with feeling: 

 "He was the model of his schoolfellows; we never saw him, notwith- 

 standing his uncommon spirit, give way toward any one to an impulse 

 of anger or impatience; as to his diligence, that was never relaxed." A 

 pupil, taken to the theater by his friend, when asked at what hour he 

 returned, would reply : "I do not know, but it must have beeu very 

 late, as there was no light in Gay-Lussac's chamber." 



The difficulties under which M. Savouret had succumbed very soou 

 reached M. Sensier himself. Of all his pupils, he alone retained Gay- 

 Lussac, whose parents secretly were in the habit of sending him small 

 quantities of flour. Reduced to the most cruel extremities, Madame 

 Sensier every night carried to Paris, for sale, the milk of two cows, fed 

 in her garden, but the road being unsafe, Gay-Lussac begged aud ob- 

 tained the favor of daily escorting his benefactress, armed with a large 

 sword suspended to his belt. It was during the return, which was made 

 by daylight, that our friend, stretched on the straw of the cart of the 

 impromptu milk-woman, studied geometry and algebra, thus preparing 

 himself for the examinations for the Polytechnic School, which he was 

 soon to undergo. 



The sixth Nivose, year VI, after brilliant examinations, Gay-Lussac 

 received the much-coveted title of pupil of the Polytechnic School. 

 We see him in this establishment always conversant with the required 

 duties, and giving during the hours of recreation private lessons to 

 young men who were intended for public services. It was in this way 

 he added small sums to the thirty francs that each pupil of the original 

 Polytechnic School received as his monthly allowance, and that he suc- 



* I regard as a duty the preservation in this biography of the names of all persons 

 who had any relations with our friend in his yonih. 



