64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 
my power to mitigate a sorrow which she must experi- 
ence before long. 
At the moment when I quitted Spain for Marseilles, 
the Duchess confided to me two letters which I was to 
forward in safety to their addresses. One was destined 
for the Empress-mother of Russia, the other for the 
. Empress of Austria. 
Scarcely had I arrived at Algiers, when I mentioned 
these two letters to M. Dubois Thainville, and begged 
him to send them to France by the first opportunity. 
“TJ shall do nothing of the sort,” he at once answered me. 
“ Do you know that you have behaved in this affair like 
a young inexperienced man, or, to speak out, like a 
blunderer? I am surprised that you did not compre- 
hend that the Emperor, with his pettish spirit, might 
take this much amiss, and consider you, according to the 
contents of the two letters, as the promoter of an intrigue 
in favour of the exiled family of the Bourbons.” Thus 
the paternal advice of the French Consul taught me that 
in all that regards politics, however nearly or remotely, 
one cannot give himself up without danger to the dictates 
of the heart and the reason. 
I enclosed my two letters in an envelope bearing the 
address of a trustworthy person, and gave them into the 
hands of a corsair, who, after touching at Algiers, would 
proceed to France. I have never known whether they 
reached their destination. 
The reigning Dey, successor to the beheaded Dey, 
had formerly filled the humble office of “ épileur” * of 
dead bodies in the mosques. He governed the Regency 
* An ‘‘épileur”’ is a person who removes superfluous hairs. We 
have been unable to ascertain what office of this kind is performed in 
Mohammedan funerals. 
