LIBERATED FROM THE LAZARETTO. 129 
battle. One wretched woman, of whom I had taken 
eare 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. | 
“JT 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 reéstablishing 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 Clere 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 * 
