APPENDIX. 315 



September massacres, would undoubtedly have been put 

 to death, if his pupil had not employed the same ardour 

 in rescuing him which he exhibited all his life, when- 

 ever his judgment or his feelings were appealed to. 

 Not satisfied with having stimulated the colleagues of 

 the illustrious mineralogist to bestir themselves until the 

 Academy took a decided step, which was followed by an 

 order of liberation, Geoffroy, at much personal risk, 

 visited his master while in prison. A few days after- 

 wards he exposed himself still more in trying to save 

 his old professors at the College of Navarre. Invested 

 with the insignia of an Inspector of Prisons, he entered, 

 on the morning of the 2nd of September, into the 

 College of Saint Firmin, after having prepared every- 

 thing for the escape of his friends, who, however, 

 refused to leave, from the fear of aggravating the 

 position of the prisoners who still remained in the build- 

 ing. Geoffroy then, as a last resource, showed them a 

 wall which could be easily scaled, and by which they 

 might, when they pleased, make their escape. He then 

 went to pass the night of the 2nd and 3rd of Septem- 

 ber at the spot indicated, where he aided twelve priests 

 in making their escape. It was only at the break of day, 

 when he was assisting the twelfth of the fugitives, that a 

 musket ball struck him, penetrating through his clothes, 

 and thus affording him conclusive evidence that the build- 

 ing was already in the possession of the assassins, and 

 that his devotion could, therefore, be of no farther avail. 

 Haiiy, who had been saved by Geoffroy, obtained 

 for him the post of sub-keeper and demonstrator at 

 the Jardin des Plantes. On the 10th of June of the 

 following year, 1793, a decree of the Convention organ- 

 ised the plan of instruction at the Museum, and founded 

 twelve chairs in that institution. Geoffroy was nomi- 

 nated in this decree as professor of the zoology of ver-; 



