tentive ear, with
immovable eyes, and with outstretched neck, listened to this recital
with the liveliest interest. He did not lose a single syllable of it:
one would have sworn that he had for the first time heard of those
memorable events. Gentlemen, it is so delightful a task to please! After
having remarked the effect which he produced, Fourier reverted, with
still greater detail, to the principal fight of those great days: to the
capture of the fortified village of Mattaryeh, to the passage of two
feeble columns of French grenadiers across ditches heaped up with the
dead and wounded of the Ottoman army. "Generals ancient and modern, have
sometimes spoken of similar deeds of prowess," exclaimed our colleague,
"but it was in the hyperbolic style of the bulletin: here the fact is
materially true,--it is true like geometry. I feel conscious, however,"
added he, "that in order to induce your belief in it, all my assurances
will not be more than sufficient."

"Do not be anxious upon this point," replied the officer, who at that
moment seemed to awaken from a long dream. "In case of necessity, I
might guarantee the accuracy of your statement. It was I who, at the
head of the grenadiers of the 13th and 85th semi-brigades, forced the
entrenchments of Mattaryeh, by passing over the dead bodies of the
Janissaries!"

My neighbour was General Tarayre: you may imagine much better than I can
express, the effect of the few words which had just escaped from him.
Fourier made a thousand excuses, while I reflected upon the seductive
influence, upon the power of language, which for more than half an hour
had robbed the celebrated general even of the recollection of the part
which he had played in the battle of giants he was listening to.

The more our secretary had occasion to converse, the greater repugnance
he experienced to verbal discussions. Fourier cut short every debate as
soon as there presented itself a somewhat marked difference of opinion,
only to resume afterwards the same subject upon the modest pretext of
making a small step in advance each time. Some one asked Fontaine, a
celebrated geometer of this Academy, how he occupied his thoughts in
society, wherein he maintained an almost absolute silence: "I observe,"
he replied, "the vanity of mankind, to wound it as occasion offers." If,
like his predecessor, Fourier also studied the baser passions which
contend for honours, riches, and power, it was not in order to engage