336 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



to arms. A rumour spread that the leaders of the Negatives were 

 prepared to open the gates . Orders were given by the revolutionary 

 authorities to search their houses and seize their arms. All 

 patricians were suspected, and one of the houses ordered to be 

 visited was de Saussure's. It was alleged that suspicious groups, 

 amongst them an officer in French uniform, had been seen on his 

 terrace, and that the cellars had been converted into an arsenal. 

 The supposed officer turned out to be a pure Genevese, a man of 

 science and philosopher, de Saussure's friend, Jean Trembley. 



De Saussure, forewarned, was also forearmed. He assembled 

 his family, including his two sisters-in-law, laid in provisions, 

 procured some helpers in the defence, and barricaded the doors 

 and windows. A very full account of the affair exists in some 

 letters written by one of his near neighbours, living on the opposite 

 side of the Rue de la Cite, who was an anxious eye-witness, and 

 had her own house twice ransacked by the amateur grenadiers of 

 the town. I must abridge the good lady's graphic report, but its 

 details are many of them too picturesque to be lost. 1 



Two summonses to surrender were disregarded by de Saussure 

 and his little garrison. These were followed by a close investment. 

 Guards were posted on neighbouring points of vantage with orders 

 to prevent all egress or ingress. A whole day was spent in fruitless 

 parleying. Our eye-witness writes : 



' I do not know if you have noticed a little iron grille in the door 

 [it is still there] used by people who want to communicate with any of 

 the household. Yesterday all the afternoon his friends kept coming 

 to the grille to try to persuade M. de Saussure to open. It was amusing 

 to watch all the great people of the town ringing the bell and then 

 putting their eyes or their ears to the grille while the master of the 

 house came to speak to them and the sergeant of the guard listened 

 with all his ears and at the same time kept back the crowd. At last 

 the Premier Syndic with his attendant came like the others to the 

 grille and asked for admission. He was let in, and the door closed 

 again, to the great disappointment of the crowd, firmly persuaded that 

 the house was crowded with men and arms.' 



Among these would-be peacemakers were Pictet, Tingry, a 

 distinguished chemist belonging to the popular party, Bonnet, 

 who, too infirm to come himself, wrote twice to implore his 



1 The manuscript is in the Public Library at Geneva. 



