AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 159 



of tLesc robbers, which, even in full daylight, would have made the hair 

 of one's head stand on end, when, by the faint light of the moon, we 

 perceived a man hiding himself behind a tree. We were six, and yet 

 this sentry on horseback had the audacity to demand our purses or our 

 lives. My servant at once answered bim, " You must then believe us to 

 be very cowardly ; take yourself off, or 1 will bring you down by one 

 shot of my carabine." " I will be off," returned the worthless fellow, 

 " but you will soon hear news of me." Still full of fright at the remem- 

 brance of the stories which they had just been relating, the three " arie- 

 ros " besought us to quit the high road and cast ourselves into a wood 

 which was on our left. We yielded to their proposal, but we lost our 

 way. " Dismount," said they, " the mules have been obeying the bridle, 

 and you have directed them wrongly. Let us retrace our way as far as 

 the high road and leave the mules to themselves; they will well know 

 how to find their right way again." Scarcely had we effected this ma- 

 neuver, which succeeded marvellously well, when we heard a lively dis- 

 cussion taking place at a short distance from us. Some were saying, 

 " We must follow the high road, and we shall meet with them," Others 

 maintained that they must get into the wood ou the left. The barking 

 of the dogs, by which these individuals were accompanied, added to the 

 tumult. During this time we pursued our way silently, more dead than 

 alive. It was two o'clock in the morning. All at once vre saw a faint 

 light in a solitary house ; it was like a light-house for the mariner in the 

 midst of the tempest, and the only means of safety which remained to 

 us. Arrived at the door of the farm, we knocked and asked for hospi- 

 tality. The inmates, very little reassured, feared that we were thieves, 

 and did not hurry themselves to open to us. 



Impatient at the delay, I cried out, as I had received authority to do 

 so, " In the name of the King, open to us." They obeyed an order thus 

 given; we entered pell-mell, and in the greatest haste, men and mules 

 into the kitchen, which was on the ground tloor; and we hurried to ex- 

 tinguish the lights, in order not to awaken the suspicions of the bandits 

 who were seeking for us. Indeed, we heard them, passing and repassing 

 near the house, vociferating with the whole force of their lungs against 

 their unlucky late. We did not quit this solitary house until broad 

 day, and we continued our route for Tortosa, not without having given 

 a suitable recompense to our hosts. I wished to know by what provi- 

 dential circumstance they happened to have a lamp burning at that 

 unseasonable hour. " We had killed a pig," they told me, " in the course 

 of the day, and we were.busy preparing the black puddings." Had the 

 pig lived one day more, or had there been no black puddings, I should 

 certainly have been no longer in this world, and I should not have the 

 opportunity to relate the story of the robbers of Oropeza. 



jSTever could I better appreciate the intelligent measure by which the 

 constituent assembly abolished the ancient division of France into prov- 

 inces, and substituted its division into departments, than in traversing 



