JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 9 
boy, thou art now safe. I have brought 
thee here that I may be able to pay con- 
stant attention to thy studies; thou 
shalt have ample time for pleasures, 
but the remainder must be employed 
with industry and care.’’ 
But the father soon left him on some 
foreign mission for his government and 
the boy chafed as usual under his tasks 
and confinement. One day, too much 
mathematics drove him into making his 
escape by leaping from the window, and 
making off through the gardens attached 
to the school where he was confined. A 
watchful corporal soon overhauled him, 
however, and brought him back, where 
he was confined on board some sort of 
prison ship in the harbour. His father 
soon returned, when he was released, not 
without a severe reprimand. 
We next find him again in the city of 
Nantes struggling “with more odious 
mathematics, and spending all his leis- 
ure time in the fields and woods, study- 
