LIBERATED FROM THK LAZARETTO. 129 



battle. One wretched woman, of whom I had taken 

 care because she was absolutely deserted, begged of me 

 the evening of her death to give a piastre to the grave- 

 diggers, that she might be preserved from becoming a 

 prey to the jackals. I fulfilled her wish, and caused 

 them to bury her at the extremity of the plain where the 

 dead were deposited. 



" I had been already a month in this abominable 

 abode, when Cazola obtained for me the privilege of 

 being put in quarantine in a separate lodging. My soli- 

 tude appeared to me delicious, because I had quitted the 

 society of the dying. I succeeded in reestablishing my 

 health, and in the beginning of Messidor,* I received 

 definitively my liberty, which followed the sacrifice of all 

 my property." 



How heartily must we not congratulate ourselves that 

 Malus escaped, in so unhoped-for a way, from the terri- 

 ble stroke which had mowed down so many victims ! If 

 he had fallen under it, the beautiful branch of optical 

 science, of which he planted the first signal after his 

 return to France, perhaps would not have been created, 

 and the admirable progress which the science has made 

 would not have been reckoned among the most striking 

 claims to the admiration of posterity of which the 19th 

 century may boast. Some time after this, Malus was 

 ordered to proceed to Cathieh, where he established him- 

 self. The delights of this advanced post, where General 

 Le Clerc commanded, are described con amore by him 

 who had just escaped the frightful disease, and the dan- 

 gers not less dreadful of the lazaretto of Lesbieh. 



" We encamped," he says, " in huts whose walls and 

 roofs were composed of palm-leaves interwoven ; we 



* June 19=Messidor 1. 

 6* 



