An Etcher s Voyage of Discovery. 287 



Greek and Roman heroes they read about in their text- 

 books at the college. One of these youths was called 

 Neapoleonne de Bounaparte,* and the two others were 

 brothers of his. Napoleon did not remain quite four 

 months at the college of Autun (the fact is unknown to 

 all his biographers), but his brother Joseph stayed here 

 as many years. Napoleon's little cell (the colleges had 

 cells in those days) still existed two or three years 

 since. It was positively known to be one of the five or 

 six that remained, but which there was no means of 

 ascertaining. 



At length the towers of Autun, which showed them- 

 selves in glimpses during the windings of the river, and 

 completed in this way a hundred pretty compositions, 

 disappeared finally behind a spur of hill clothed with a 

 dense pine forest. Once more the canoe floated on a 

 quite lonely river without evidence of human labor or 

 habitation, except now and then the smoke of a distant 

 farm, or the cry of the drivers of oxen, generally the 

 name of each animal, sung out with a musical cadence. 

 It was pleasant to get into the perfect country again, 

 though Autun scarcely seems a city, and the Arroux 

 flows past it undisturbed by human interference except 

 when the strong brown-skinned horsemen ride up to 

 their waists in the water, and the fishermen cast their 

 nets. 



Westwards rose the blue mass of the Beuvray, where 

 recent investigations have fixed the site of a city older 

 than Augustodunum, the Bibracte of the Gauls. But 

 * So entered on the college books. 



