LEO LESQUEREUX. 459 



position as Professor of French in a young ladies academy at 

 Eisenach, in Saxe-Weimar, hoping to obtain money enough to 

 go later to the university. " They were the happiest days of 

 my life," he has said of this period. " My pupils were from 

 the noble families of Weimar. They were well educated, and 

 came to me for conversation. I remained at Weimar for some 

 time. Then love came and I went back to Switzerland, and I 

 never regretted it." He had been at Eisenach four years 

 when he became engaged to one of his pupils. The young 

 lady was of small fortune, but of noble family, being the 

 daughter of a distinguished soldier, General Von Wolffskel, 

 an attacht! of the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. In her 

 earlier years she had received especial notice from Goethe, 

 and the letters of the poet to his child friend were long proud- 

 ly preserved by her family. When the daughter of the duke 

 was united with Prince William of Prussia, the future Kaiser, 

 Fraulein Von Wolffskel was one of the bridesmaids. Her 

 father was a man of learning, with a strong propensity for 

 science. When young Lesquereux was about to return to his 

 home, the father, who was setting out in the same direction 

 invited him to share his carriage. The marriage was agreed 

 upon during this journey. 



After a short period of teaching at Locle, Lesquereux ob- 

 tained the principalship of an academy at La Chaux de Fonds, 

 which he held for three years. A year after his return to 

 Switzerland he was married, and brought home his bride. At 

 the wedding the groom's best man was a certain Lieutenant 

 Von Moltke. The name has become known in a higher rank 

 since. Lesquereux had been married but a couple of years 

 when a serious misfortune overtook him. A fall down the 

 mountain side overlooking Fleurier when he was about ten 

 years old had injured the hearing of one ear, and now he rap- 

 idly became so deaf that he had to give up teaching and resort 

 to a mechanical trade to support his family. He was at this 

 time twenty-six years of age. 



At first he took up the engraving of watch cases, but find- 

 ing this work injurious to his health he accepted a partner- 

 ship in his father's business, and returned to his old home. 

 " But I could not stick to that work," he wrote many years 

 after to Prof. Lester F. Ward, " and was constantly busy in my 

 hours of rest, that is mostly in the night, with a poor small 



