212 Biographical Notice of M. Le Chevalier Delambre. 
in the College of France. In this situation, he found him- 
self associated with his former master M. Delille, who had been 
appointed to the professorship of Latin Poetry. This eminent 
poet, who was now old and blind, was obliged to appoint a de- 
puty to discharge the duties of his office. In 1812, when he 
had been particularly indisposed, and when great fears had been 
entertained for his life, he made an unexpected recovery, and 
resolved to give the first lecture at the opening of the course. 
Although the lecture did not begin till one o’clock, the doors of 
the lecture-room were closely beset so early as eleven, and the 
other Professors found themselves deserted. The crowd had 
become so great at twelve, that the soldiers who guarded the en- 
trance were pushed from their places, and the crowd filled the 
lecture-room. On this interesting occasion, the old blind poet 
was led to the chair by his favourite pupil Delambre, and by 
M. Lefevre Gineau. 
In the year 1808, M. Delambre was appointed Treasurer of 
the Imperial University ; and upon the return of the Bourbon 
family, he was nominated in 1814 a Member of the Royal 
Council of Public Instruction, a place which he lost in 1815. 
The following extract of a letter which he wrote to his friend 
and pupil Professor Moll in 1814, relative to the taking of 
Paris in 1814, will be read with considerable interest : “ I has- 
ten to inform you, that the events which have followed each 
other in such rapid succession during this last month, have not 
yet directly affected me. On the very day of the siege, in spite 
of the cannonade which I heard from my library, I laboured 
with tranquillity from eight in the morning till midnight, I 
was well persuaded that they would not push their folly so far 
as to defend the town long, and that they would open their 
gates to the Allies, who would pique themselves on their gene- 
rosity. Some days afterwards, I saw foreign troops cover the 
Quays of Paris, pass under my windows, and fill all the streets 
and Boulevards; but no military man has ever been billeted 
upon me. Not having a country-house in the vicinity of Paris, 
like some of my colleagues, I have not had to lodge or feed any 
officer or soldier, or any horses. The devastation has not come 
near me. The future does not offer a very brilliant prospect 
to philosophers; but they ought to know how to content them- 
