AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FEANCIS AKAGO. 153 



jrarslial Lances, a friend of my fatlier's. Nevertheless I accepted, on 

 trial, the position otiered me in the observatory, after a visit vhioh I 

 made to M. de Laplace in company with M. Poisson, under the esi)ress 

 condition that I could reenter the artillery if that should suit me. It 

 was from this cause that my name remained inscribed on the list of the 

 pupils of the school. I was only detached to the observatory on a 

 special service. 



I entered this establishment, then, on the nomination of Poisson, my 

 friend, and through the intervention of Laplace. The latter' loaded me 

 with civilities. I was happy and proud when I dined in the line de 

 Tournon with the great geometer. My mind and my heart were much 

 disposed to admire all, to respect all, that was connected with him who 

 had discovered the cause of the secular equation of the moon, had found 

 in the movement of this planet the means of calculating the ellipticity 

 of the earth, had traced to the laws of attraction the long inequalities 

 of Jupiter and of Saturn, &c., »S:c. But what was my disenchantment 

 when one day I heard Madame de Laplace, approaching her husband, 

 say to him, '' Will you intrust to me the key of the sugar." 



Some days afterward, a second incident affected me still more vividly. 

 M. de Lai)lace's son was i)reparing for the examinations of the Poly- 

 technic School. He came sometimes to see me at the observatory. In 

 one of his visits I explained to him the method of continued fractions, 

 by help of which Lagrange obtains the roots of numerical equations. 

 The young man spoke of it to his father with admiration. I shall never 

 forget the rage which followed the words of Emile de Laplace, and the 

 severity of the reproaches which were addressed to me, for having pat- 

 ronized a mode of proceeding which may be very long in theory, but 

 which evidently can in no way be found fault with on the score of its 

 elegance and precision. Never had a jealous prejudice shown itself 

 more openly, or under a more bitter form. "Ah !" said I to myself, 

 "how true was the inspiration of the ancients when they attributed 

 weaknesses to him who nevertheless made Olympus treud)le by a frown." 



Here I should mention, in order of time, a circumstance w'hich might 

 have produced the most fatal consequences for me. The fact was this : 



I have described above, the scene which caused the expulsion of 

 Brissot's son from the Polytechnic School. I had entirely lost sight of 

 him for several months, when he came to pay me a visit at the obser 

 A'atory, and placed me in the most delicate, the most terrible i^osition- 

 that an honest man ever found himself in. 



"I have not seen you," he said to me, "because since leaving the 

 school I have practiced daily firing with a pistol; I have now acquired 

 a skill beyond the common, and I am about to employ it in ridding 

 France of the tyrant who has confiscated all her liberties. My measures 

 are taken ; I have hired a small room on the Carrousel, close to the 

 place by which Napoleon, on coming out from the court, will pass to 



