194 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



il 



trustfulness supposed that the delimitation would be done on the 

 spot by the officers in command. When he heard that the 

 Prussian troops were continuing their march eastwards, he com- 

 plained to Bismarck, who answered that " the incident cannot 

 have compromised the Eastern Army Corps, as it already was 

 completely routed when the armistice was signed." This cal- 

 culated reserve on Bismarck's part was eminently character- 

 istic of his moral physiognomy, and this encounter between the 

 two Ministers proved once again the inferiority — when great 

 interests are at stake — of emotional men to hard-hearted business 

 men ; however it must be acknowledged that Bismarck's state- 

 ment was founded on fact. The Eastern Corps could have 

 fought no more ; its way was blocked. Without food, without 

 clothes, in many cases without arms, nothing remained to the 

 unfortunate soldiers but the refuge offered by Switzerland. 



Pasteur went to Geneva with his son, who, after recovering 

 from the illness caused by fatigue and privation, succeeded in 

 getting back to France to rejoin his regiment in the early days 

 of February. Pasteur then went on to Lyons and stayed there 

 with his brother-in-law, M. Loir, Dean of the Lyons Faculty 

 of Science. He intended to go back to Paris, but a letter from 

 Bertin dated February 18 advised him to wait. "This is the 

 present state of the Ecole : south wing : pulled down ; will be 

 built up again ; workmen expected. Third year dormitory : 

 ambulance occupied by eight students. Science dormitory and 

 drawing classroom : ambulance again, forty patients. Ground 

 floor classroom : 120 artillery-men. Pasteur laboratory : 210 

 gardes nationaux, refugees from Issy. You had better wait." 

 Bertin added, with his indomitable good humour, speaking of 

 the bombardment : " The first day I did not go out, but I took 

 my bearings and found the formula : in leaving the school, walk 

 close along the houses on my left ; on coming back, keep close 

 to them on my right ; with that I went out as usual. The 

 population of Paris has shown magnificent resignation and 

 patience. ... In order to have our revenge, everything will 

 have to be rebuilt from the top to the bottom, the top 

 especially." 



Pasteur also thought that reforms should begin from the top. 

 He prepared a paper dated from Lyons, and entitled "Why 

 France found no superior men in the hours of peril." Amongst 

 the mistakes committed, one in particular had been before his 

 mind for twenty years, ever since he left the Ecole Normals : 



