166 LOUIS PASTEUK. 



But opposition still continued. The French 

 Government, shaken by the violence and tenacity of 

 the opponents, hesitated to decide upon this process 

 of culture. The Emperor interposed ; he instructed 

 Marshal Vaillant to propose to Pasteur to go into 

 Austria to the Villa Vicentina, which belonged to the 

 Prince Imperial. For ten years the silk harvest at 

 this place had not sufficed to pay the cost of eggs. 

 Pasteur accepted with joy the prospect of a great 

 decisive experiment. He traversed France and Italy, 

 reclining in a railway carriage or in an arm-chair, 

 and at last arrived at the Imperial villa near Trieste. 

 Pasteur succeeded in a marvellous manner. The 

 sale of the cocoons gave to the villa a nett profit of 

 twenty- six million francs. The Emperor, impressed 

 with the practical value of the system, nominated 

 Pasteur a Senator, in the month of July 1870. But 

 this nomination, like so many other things, was swept 

 away before it had time to appear in the ' Journal 

 Officiel.' Pasteur, however, cared little for the title 

 of Senator. He returned to France on the eve of the 

 declaration of war. 



A patriot to the heart's core, he learned with 

 poignant grief the news of his country's disasters. The 

 bulletins of defeat, which succeeded each other with 

 mournful monotony, threw him into deep despair. For 

 the first time in his life he had not the strength to 

 work. He lived at his little house in Arbois as one 





