AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 189 



Two or three days before our admissioa to freedom, we experienced a 

 loss w^hich was deeply felt by each of us. To pass away the heavy time 

 of a severe quarantine, the little Algerine colony was in the habit of 

 going to an inclosure near the lazaretto, where a very beautiful gazelle, 

 belonging to M. Dubois Thainville, was confined ; she bounded about 

 there in full liberty with a grace which excited our admiration. One of 

 us endeavored to stop this elegant animal in her course ; he seized her 

 unluckily by the leg, and broke it. We all ran, but only, alas ! to wit- 

 ness a scene which excited the deepest emotion in us. 



The gazelle, lying on her side, raised her head sadly ; her beautiful 

 eyes (the eyes of a gazelle !) shed torrents of tears ; no cry of complaint 

 escaped her mouth ; she produced that effect upon us which is always 

 felt when a person who is suddenly struck by an irreparable misfortune, 

 resigns himself to it, and shows his profound anguish only by silent 

 tears. 



Having ended my quarantine, I went at once to Perpignan, to the 

 bosom of my family, where my mother, the most excellent and pious of 

 women, caused numerous masses to be said to celebrate my return, as 

 she had done before to pray for the repose of my soul, when she thought 

 that I had fallen under the daggers of the Spaniards. But 1 soon quit- 

 ted my native town to return to Paris ; and I deposited at the Bureau 

 of Longitude and the Academy of Sciences my observations, which I had 

 succeeded in preserving amidst the perils and tribulations of my long 

 campaign. 



A few days after my arrival, on the 18th of September, 1809, 1 was 

 nominated an academician in the place of Lalande. There were fifty- 

 two voters; I obtained forty -seven voices, M, Poisson four, and M. Nouet 

 one. I was then twenty-three years of age. 



A nomination made with such a majority would appear, at first sight, 

 as if it would give rise to no serious diflQculties ; but it proved otherwise. 

 The intervention of M. de Laplace, before the day of ballot, was active 

 and incessant to have my admission postponed until the time when a 

 vacancy, occurring in the geometry section, might enable the learned 

 assembly to nominate M. Poisson at the same time as me. The author 

 of the Mecanique Celeste had vowed to the young geometer an unbounded 

 attachment, completely justified, certainly, by the beautiful researches 

 which science already owed to him. M. de Laplace could not support 

 the idea that a young astronomer, younger by five years than M. Poisson, 

 a pupil, in the presence of his professor at the Polytechnic School, should 

 become an academician before him. He proposed to me, therefore, to 

 write to the Academy that I would not stand for election until there should 

 be a second place to give to Poisson. I answered by a formal refusal, 

 and giving my reasons in these terms : " I care little to be nominated at 

 this moment. I have decided upon leaving shortly with M. de Humboldt 

 for Thibet. In those savage regions the title of member of the Institute 

 will not smooth the difficulties which we shall have to encounter. But 



