me work
there, and just came in for the revolution. From my windows I had a
fine view of all that was going on. I well remember the pandemonium in
the streets, the aspect of the savage mob, the wanton firing of shots
at quiet spectators, the hoisting of Louis Philippe's nankeen trousers
on the flag-staff of the Tuileries. When bullets began to come through
my windows, I thought it time to be off while it was still possible.
Then came the question how to get my box full of precious manuscripts,
&c., belonging to the East India Company, to the train. The only
railway open was the line to Havre, which had been broken up close to
the station, but further on was intact, and in order to get there we
had to climb three barricades. I offered my _concierge_ five francs to
carry my box, but his wife would not hear of his risking his life in
the streets; ten francs--the same result; but at the sight of a louis
d'or she changed her mind, and with an "Allez, mon ami, allez
toujours," dispatched her husband on his perilous expedition. Arrived
in London I went straight to the Prussian Legation, and was the first
to give Bunsen the news of Louis Philippe's flight from Paris. Bunsen
took me off to see Lord Palmerston, and I was able to show him a
bullet that I had picked up in my room as evidence of the bloody
scenes that had been enacted in Paris. So even a poor scholar had to
play his small part in the events that go to make up history.

CHAPTER VII

EARLY DAYS AT OXFORD

It had been settled that my edition of the Rig-veda should be printed
at the Oxford University Press, and I found that I had often to go
there to superintend the printing. Not that the printers required much
supervision, as I must say that the printing at the University Press
was, and is, excellent--far better than anything I had known in
Germany. In providing copy for a work of six volumes, each of about
1000 pages, it was but natural that _lapsus calami_ should occur from
time to time. What surprised me was that several of these were
corrected in the proof-sheets sent to me. At last I asked whether
there was any Sanskrit scholar at Oxford who revised my proof-sheets
before they were returned. I was told there was not, but that the
queries were made by the printer himself. That printer was an
extraordinary man. His right arm was slightly paralysed, and he had
therefore been put on difficult slow work, such as Sanskrit. There are
more than 300 types which