144 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



school was soon parading the streets. " Before such disorder," 

 concluded the Moniteur, relating the incident (July 10), "the 

 authorities were obliged to order an immediate closure. The 

 school will be reconstituted and the classes will reopen on 

 October 15." 



Both the literary and the political world were temporarily 

 agitated ; the Minister was interviewed. M. Thiers wrote to 

 Pasteur on July 10 : " My dear M. Pasteur, — I have been 

 talking with some members of the Left, and I am certain or 

 almost certain, that the Ecole Normale affair will be smoothed 

 over in the interest of the students. M. Jules Simon intends 

 to work in that direction ; keep this information for yourself, 

 and do the best you can on your side." 



At the idea that the Ecole was about to be reconstituted, 

 that is, that the three great chiefs, Nisard, Pasteur and 

 Jacquinet, would be changed, deep regret was manifested by 

 Pasteur's scientific students. One of them, named Didon, ex- 

 pressed it in these terms : "If your departure from the school 

 is not definitely settled, if it is yet possible to prevent it, all 

 the students of the Ecole will be only too happy to do every- 

 thing in their power. ... As for me, it is impossible to express 

 my gratitude towards you. No one has ever shown me so 

 much interest, and never in my life shall I forget what you 

 have done for me." 



Pasteur's interest in young men, his desire to excite in them 

 scientific curiosity and enthusiasm, were now so well known 

 that Didon and several others who had successfully passed the 

 entrance examinations both for the Ecole Polytechnique and 

 the Ecole Normale, had chosen to enter the latter in order to 

 be under him; by the Normaliens of the scientific section, he 

 •was not only understood and admired, but beloved, almost 

 worshipped. 



Sainte Beuve, who continued to be much troubled at the 

 consequences of his speech, wrote to the Minister of Public 

 Instruction in favour of the rusticated student. Duruy thought 

 so much of Sainte Beuve that the student, instead of being exiled 

 to some insignificant country school, was made professor of 

 seconde in the college of Sens. But it was specified that in the 

 future no letter should be written, no public responsibility 

 taken in the name of the Ecole without the authorization of 

 the Director. 



Nisard left ; Dumas had just been made President of the 



