EARLY CAREER. 119 



attain the desired end with the least possible fatigue. A 

 few moments' conversation showed the engineer that he 

 had found in the humble labourer of the 15th Battalion 

 of Paris a superior man ; and he accoi'dingly sent him to 

 the "Ecole Polytechnique," which had just been founded. 



Mains then was one of the first pupils of this celebrated 

 institution. He soon gained the good will of Monge, who 

 became his friend ; indeed nothing less than such a warm 

 friendship was necessary to preserve him from the mis- 

 fortunes he would have incurred from his taking a part 

 in the many political movements by which the capital 

 was then agitated. 



On quitting the school, Malus went to Metz, where he 

 was received as a pupil sub-lieutenant of engineers the 

 20th February, 1796. He was named captain on the 

 19th June following; and was sent the next year to the 

 army of the Sambre and Meuse, where he took an active 

 and distinguished part in the actions in which that valiant 

 army was engaged. 



There has been recently found among the family pa- 

 pers, a small bound book, in which Malus, when captain 

 of eno-ineers, and employed in the army of th6 East, 

 traced day by day an abridged narrative of all the events 

 of which he had been an eyewitness, or in which he had 

 taken a direct part. These memoranda, which I have 

 read with the greatest interest, and in which our fellow 

 labourer figures chiefly as a military man, seem to me to 

 deserve a detailed analysis. I have resolved to layit 

 before you, were it only to prove once more, that pro- 

 found knowledge and a scientific genius did not weaken 

 either the zeal, the constancy, the courage, or the spirit 

 of enterprise, which ought to distinguish an officer of the 

 highest military qualities. 



