14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



he. "Ah! if they had been at the bottom of the list! 

 M. Lacuee, leave them alone." 



-Nothing was more curious than the seance to which 

 General Lacuee came to receive the oath of obedience 

 from the pupils. In the vast amphitheatre which con- 

 tained them, one could not discern a trace of the gravity 

 which such a ceremony should inspire. The greater 

 part, instead of answering, at the call of their names, " I 

 swear it," cried out, " Present." 



All at once the monotony of this scene was interrupted 

 by a pupil, son of the Conventionalist Brissot, who called 

 out in a stentorian voice, " I will not take the oath of 

 obedience to the Emperor." Lacuee, pale and with little 

 presence of mind, ordered a detachment of armed pupils 

 placed behind him to go and arrest the recusant. The 

 detachment, of which I was at the head, refused to obey. 

 Brissot, addressing himself to the General, with the 

 greatest calmness said to him, " Point out the place to 

 which you wish me to go ; do not force the pupils to dis- 

 honour themselves by laying hands on a comrade who 

 has no desire to resist." 



The next morning Brissot was expelled. 



About this time, M. Mechain, who had been sent to 

 Spain to prolong the meridional line as far as Formen- 

 tera, died at Castellon de la Plana. His son, Secretary 

 at the Observatory, immediately gave in his resignation. 

 Poisson offered me the situation. I declined his first 

 proposal. I did not wish to renounce the military career, 

 the object of all my predilections, and in which, more- 

 over, I was assured of the protection of Marshal Lannes, 

 a friend of my father's. Nevertheless I accepted, on 

 trial, the position offered me in the Observatory, after a 

 visit which I made to M. de Laplace in company with 



