on the face of the sun, and had
watched it as it passed across like a planet in transit--not with the
slow motion of an ordinary sun-spot. The actual time during which the
round spot was visible was one hour, seventeen minutes, nine seconds,
the rate of motion being such that, had the spot crossed the middle of
the sun's disc, at the same rate, the transit would have lasted more
than four hours. The spot thus merely skirted the sun's disc, being at
no time more than about one forty-sixth part of the sun's apparent
diameter from the edge of the sun. Lescarbault expressed his conviction
that on a future day, a black spot, perfectly round and very small, will
be seen passing over the sun, and 'this point will very probably be the
planet whose path I observed on March 26, 1859.' 'I am persuaded,' he
added, 'that this body is the planet, or one of the planets, whose
existence in the vicinity of the sun M. Leverrier had made known a few
months ago' (referring to the preliminary announcement of results which
Leverrier published afterwards more definitely).

Leverrier, when the news of Lescarbault's observation first reached him,
was surprised that the observation should not have been announced
earlier. He did not consider the delay sufficiently justified by
Lescarbault's statement that he wished to see the spot again. He
therefore set out for Orgeres, accompanied by M. Vallee. 'The
predominant feeling in Leverrier's mind,' says Abbe Moigno, 'was the
wish to unmask an attempt to impose upon him, as the person more likely
than any other astronomer to listen to the allegation that his prophecy
had been fulfilled.'

'One should have seen M. Lescarbault,' says Moigno, 'so small, so
simple, so modest, and so timid, in order to understand the emotion with
which he was seized, when Leverrier, from his great height, and with
that blunt intonation which he can command, thus addressed him: "It is
then you, sir, who pretend to have observed the intra-mercurial planet,
and who have committed the grave offence of keeping your observation
secret for nine months. I warn you that I have come here with the
intention of doing justice to your pretensions, and of demonstrating
either that you have been dishonest or deceived. Tell me, then,
unequivocally, what you have seen."' This singular address did not bring
the interview, as one might have expected, to an abrupt end. The lamb,
as the Abbe calls the doctor, trembling, stammered out an account