rvel how the family contrived
to live at all, and madame Palissy had reason for the reproaches and
hard words which she heaped on her husband. The amount of wood alone
necessary to feed the furnaces was enormous, and when Palissy could no
longer afford to buy it, he cut down all the trees and bushes in his
garden, and when they were exhausted burned all the tables and chairs in
the house and tore up the floors. Fancy poor madame Palissy's feelings
one morning when this sight met her eyes. His friends laughed at him and
told tales of his folly in the neighbouring town, which hurt his
feelings; but nothing turned him from his purpose, and except for the
few hours a week when he worked at something which _would_ bring in
money enough to keep his family alive, every moment, as well as every
thought, was given up to the discovery which was so slow in being made.

[Illustration: Fancy poor madame Palissy's feelings.]

Again he bought some cheap pots, which he broke in pieces, and covered
three or four hundred fragments with his mixtures. These he carried,
with the help of a man, to a kiln belonging to some potters in the
forest, and asked leave to bake them. The potters willingly gave him
permission, and the pieces were laid carefully in the furnace. After
four hours Palissy ventured to examine them, and found one of the
fragments perfectly baked, and covered with a splendid white glaze. 'My
joy was such,' he writes, 'that I felt myself another man'; but he
rejoiced too soon, for success was still far distant. The mixture which
produced the white glaze was probably due to Palissy having added
unconsciously a little more of some special substance, because when he
tried to make a fresh mixture to spread over the rest of the pieces he
failed to obtain the same result. Still, though the disappointment was
great, he did not quite cease to 'feel another man.' He had done what he
had wanted once, and some day he would do it again and always.

* * * * *

It seems strange that Palissy did not go to Limoges, which was not very
far off, and learn the trade of enamelling at the old-established
manufactory there. It would have saved him from years of toil and
heartsickness, and his family from years of poverty. But no! he wished
to discover the secret _for himself_, and this he had no right to do at
the expense of other people.

However, we must take the man as he was, and as we read the story of his
in