MEE ey ok 
4 CARNOT. 
the fortress which they were about to attack ; that, on 
the other hand, by establishing the battery behind a rock, 
which he pointed out, both by word of mouth and by 
gesture, the men would be much less exposed. The 
astonished actors did not know what to do; Madame 
Carnot was distressed at the disturbance which her son 
was occasioning ; the audience burst out laughing ; every 
one was puzzled as to the cause of such an unusual criti- 
cism ; and the supposed frolic was nothing else than the 
revelation of a superior military talent, the first symptom 
of that powerful genius which, despising beaten tracks, 
created, a few years later, new tactics, and proposed to 
replace the scientifically and ingeniously combined forti- 
fications of Vauban, by an altogether different system. 
From the age of twelve to fifteen, Carnot pursued the 
course of studies at the College at Autun. He made 
himself remarkable there by a lively, original turn of 
mind, and by a rare degree of intelligence. He next en- 
tered the “little seminary” of the same town. At,six- 
teen years of age he had finished his Philosophy. The 
firmness which we shall find in him in the course of a 
most stormy career, was already the leading feature in 
his character. The timid professors of the seminary of 
Autun, had a troublesome experience of it on the day 
when their scholar had to support his thesis. 
This ceremony always took place in public. Accord- 
ing to regulations, the liberality of which would, at the 
present day, appear excessive to the authorities of our 
universities, every one of the audience had the right of 
making objections. This criticism might be applied both 
to the principles and to the style. Thus the amour propre 
of the master ran as much risk as that of the pupil, and 
the reputation of a large establishment lay at the mercy 
