Life of Count Rumford. 275 



iously awaited the coming up of the French forces. In 

 this situation some incautious proceedings which took 

 place in Munich were interpreted by the Austrian gen- 

 eral as an insult aimed at himself, and he demanded the 

 reason of the Council of the Regency, at the head of which 

 was Rumford. He also gave the menace of an imme- 

 diate attack upon the city if a single Frenchman should 

 be allowed to enter it. 



At this critical moment Rumford availed himself of 

 the ultimate orders of the Elector to take the chief com- 

 mand of the Bavarian forces. His firmness and pres- 

 ence of mind impressed both parties. Neither the French 

 nor the Austrians entered Munich, and that city, escap- 

 ing the direful calamities which had been so imminent, 

 was soon after delivered from the presence of the hostile 

 forces. But before, and while the danger lasted, Munich 

 was full of Bavarian troops, and the Count did not for- 

 get his philosophical and economical experiments, for 

 which he had new and emergent occasions and oppor- 

 tunities. The care of sheltering and feeding this large 

 body of Electoral forces came upon him, and he turned 

 the task to the account of science. He tells us in his 

 Essays how he plied his ingenuity in the processes of 

 cooking, and in his improvements in boilers and in the 

 saving of fuel, to make the soldiers more comfortable than 

 ever they had been before, and at much less expense. 



On the return of the Elector he made the warmest 

 recognition of the value of Rumford's services, which 

 exceeded his ability to reward them. The Count was 

 then placed at the head of the Department of General 

 Police in Bavaria. The services which he rendered in 

 this position, though less brilliant than his military re- 

 forms, were neither less valuable nor less signal. While 



