Notes on the Life of Arago. 57 



cured for him by the French consul, the ship, when in sight 

 of the French coast, was captured by a Spanish privateer. 

 Arago was carried a prisoner to Catalonia, confined in the 

 fortress of Rosas, and afterwards sent to the hulks at Pa- 

 lamos. Indignant at the insult offered to his flag, the Dey of 

 Algiers demanded and obtained from the Spanish Govern- 

 ment the liberation of Arago, and the whole of the crew. 

 Anxious to return to his country, Arago again set sail for 

 Marseilles, but, when about to enter the harbour, a violent 

 hurricane drove the vessel to sea, and cast it on the rocky 

 shore of Sardinia, then at war with Algiers. Being thus 

 prevented from landing, the vessel in a shattered condition 

 reached Bougia, on the coast of Africa, about three days' 

 journey from Algiers. Assuming the costume of a Bedouin 

 Arab, and protected by a marabout, Arago, travelling on 

 foot, reached Algiers in safety. Unfortunately, however, for 

 our distinguished philosopher, the former Dey, who had res- 

 cued him from the hulks at Palamos, had fallen a victim in 

 an insurrection, and was succeeded by a man of brutal cha- 

 racter, who refused to permit Arago to return to France. 

 The French consul, however, succeeded in obtaining his re- 

 lease, and Arago was safely landed at Marseilles, in the 

 month of August 1809, the vessel in which he had embarked 

 having narrowly escaped from an English cruiser, which had 

 given it chase. 



Upon the death of the celebrated astronomer Lalande, in 

 1809, Arago, though only twenty-three years of age, was, in 

 opposition to the standing rules of the Academy of Sciences, 

 appointed to the vacant place in the section of Astronomy ; 

 and, after a few years, he entered upon that brilliant career 

 of discovery which has immortalized his own name, and 

 added to the glory of his country. Although Arago, when a 

 pupil at the Polytechnic School, had voted against the as- 

 sumption of the consulate for life, yet Buonaparte, who knew 

 how to value an honourable man, never resented this act of 

 hostility, and remembering the courage of the young philo- 

 sopher, he appointed him one of the Professors of the Poly- 

 technic School, and subsequently Director of the Imperial 

 Observatory, in which he resided till his death. 



