The Last Heights 



for it was immediately followed by the total 

 collapse of the Empire and the institution of 

 the Republic. Fabre was not even among 

 the number of the pensioned! 



It needed the trumpet-blast of the jubilee 

 (1910) to remind the authorities to com- 

 plete the beau geste of Victor Duruy, and 

 after forty years to replace the rosette of the 

 Legion of the Cross. And it took the loud 

 outcry of indignation uttered by Mistral and 

 the strong feeling aroused by the report, 

 which was echoed by the whole Press, of 

 their involuntary debt to the ex-professor, to 

 obtain for the nonagenarian a pension of two 

 thousand francs (£80) a year, which was 

 nearly fifty years in arrears ! 



The reparation was far from adequate; 

 but it could not be made by means of money. 



" Come at once, or I will have my gen- 

 darmes bring you." In summoning him thus 

 to the Court in order to see and decorate this 

 fine but timid genius, the Emperor, in 1869, 

 had performed a generous action. The 

 President of the Republic did still better, 

 when, in 19 13, in the course of his tour 

 through Provence, he sought to honour by his 

 visit him who had so greatly honoured his 

 mother-country and his native and adopted 

 provinces. 



369 



