VISITED BY M. PONS. 77 
my laborious and perilous adventures; it was from a 
man already in possession of an European reputation, but 
whom I had never seen: M. de Humboldt, after what 
he had heard of my misfortunes, offered me his friend- 
ship. Such was the first origin of a connection which 
dates from nearly forty-two years back, without a single 
cloud ever having troubled it. 
M. Dubois Thainville had numerous acquaintances in 
Marseilles ; his wife was a native of that town, and her 
family resided there. They received, therefore, both of 
them, numerous visits in the parlour of the lazaretto. 
The bell which summoned them, for me alone was dumb ; 
and I remained as solitary and forsaken, at the gates of a 
town peopled with a hundred thousand of my country- 
men, as if I had been in the heart of Africa. One day, 
however, the parlour-bell rang three times (the number 
of times corresponding to the number of my room); I 
thought it must be a mistake. I did not, however, allow 
this to appear. I traversed proudly under the escort of 
my guard of health the long space which separates the 
lazaretto, properly so called, from the parlour ; and there 
I found, with very lively satisfaction, M. Pons, the di- 
recter of the Observatory at Marseilles, and the most 
celebrated discoverer of comets of whom the annals of . 
Astronomy have ever had to register the success. 
At any time a visit from the excellent M. Pons, whom 
I have since seen director of the Observatory at Florence, 
would have been very agreeable to me; but, during my 
quarantine, I felt it unappreciably valuable. It proved 
to me that I had returned to my native soil. : 
Two or three days before our admission to freedom, 
we experienced a loss which was deeply felt by each of 
us. To pass away the heavy time of a severe quarantine, 
