194 Biographical Notice of 
ceived the name of Ducrotay from the place where he dis- 
embarked. After having thus placed the nobility of his 
ancestors under the egis of Scottish loyalty, he added that, 
under Francis I., the government of the Chateau d’Arques, 
which was at that time rendered an important post from its 
position, was entrusted to one Robert Ducrotay ; that the 
fortune of this family still increased under the descendants 
of the latter, who had the rare address to conciliate the 
favour of five successive monarchs, had been henoured with 
particular marks of esteem by Henry III., and received from 
Henry IV., who found in him an intrepid auxiliary at the 
battle of Arques, the confirmation of his titles of nobility, 
privileges, &e. 
It was, therefore, in the bosom of a family proud of histo- 
rical recollections and confident in its privileges, that the first 
moral impressions of the young Ducrotay de Blainville were 
formed. He was a younger son, and had the misfortune, at 
an early age, to lose his father. He received elementary 
instructions from the Curé, who resided near his paternal 
dwelling, and at a later period joined his eldest brother at 
the military school of Beaumont-en-Auge. The manage- 
ment of this school was in the hands of the Benedictine 
monks of Saint-Maur. One word is sufficient in its com- 
mendation ; it had the honour to rank Laplace among its 
pupils. 
The storm of the Revolution, by dispersing associations 
of ecclesiastics, too soon deprived young Blainville of this 
excellent means of instruction. He had scarcely reached 
his fifteenth year, when he was thrown back on the hands of | 
a frail, oppressed mother, whose blind affection could oppose 
no sufficient barrier to a youth of a difficult temperament. 
All the value of a father’s life, and the high importance of 
the experience of the head of a family who disguises none 
of the stern obligations of life from him who is to support 
the honour of his name, are often not appreciated till after 
a long series of disappointments. 
At the age of nineteen, Henri de Blainville, desirous to 
push himself forward in the public service by his talents, 
spent some months at Rouen attending a school for drawing. — 
