2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



The reader has now himself the means of judging 

 whether, as has been said, and even stated in print, I had 

 a hand in the excesses of our first revolution. 



My parents sent me to the primary school in Estagel, 

 where I learnt the rudiments of reading and writing. I 

 received, besides, in my father's house, some private les- 

 sons in vocal music. I was not otherwise either more or 

 less advanced than other children of my age. I enter 

 into these details merely to show how much mistaken are 

 those who have printed that at the age of fourteen or fif- 

 teen years I had not yet learnt to read. 



Estagel was a halting-place for a portion of the troops 

 who, coming from the interior, either went on to Perpig- 

 nan, or repaired direct to the army of the Pyrenees. 

 My parents' house was therefore constantly full of offi- 

 cers and soldiers. This, joined to the lively excitement 

 which the Spanish invasion had produced within me, in- 

 spired me with such decided military tastes, that my 

 family was obliged to have me narrowly watched to pre- 

 vent my joining by stealth the soldiers who left Estagel. 

 It often happened that they caught me at a league's dis- 

 tance from the village, already on my way with the 

 troops. 



On one occasion these warlike tastes had nearly cost 

 me dear. It was the night of the battle of Peires-Tortes. 

 The Spanish troops in their retreat had partly mistaken 

 their road. I was in the square of the village before 

 daybreak ; I saw a brigadier and five troopers come up, 

 who, at the sight of the tree of liberty, called out, " So- 

 mos perdidos ! ' I ran immediately to the house to arm 

 myself with a lance which had been left there by a sol- 

 dier of the levee en masse, and placing myself in ambush 

 at the corner of a street, I struck with a blow of this 



