ween Ham and Lippstadt, in
Westphalia, was lost by the French, and that the two generals,
mutually accusing each other of this defeat, immediately separated,
and abandoned the campaign.

"During the movement of the battle, de Lamarck's company was
stationed in a position exposed to the direct fire of the enemy's
artillery. In the confusion of the retreat he was forgotten. Already
all the officers and non-commissioned officers had been killed;
there remained only fourteen men, when the oldest grenadier, seeing
that there were no more of the French troops in sight, proposed to
the young volunteer, become so promptly commander, to withdraw his
little troop. 'But we are assigned to this post,' said the boy, 'and
we should not withdraw from it until we are relieved.' And he made
them remain there until the colonel, seeing that the squad did not
rally, sent him an orderly, who crept by all sorts of covered ways
to reach him. This bold stand having been reported to the marshal,
he promoted him on the field to the rank of an officer, although his
order had prescribed that he should be very chary of these kinds of
promotions."

His physical courage shown at this age was paralleled by his moral
courage in later years. The staying power he showed in immovably
adhering to his views on evolution through many years, and under the
direct and raking fire of harsh and unrelenting criticism and ridicule
from friend and foe, affords a striking contrast to the moral timidity
shown by Buffon when questioned by the Sorbonne. We can see that Lamarck
was the stuff martyrs are made of, and that had he been tried for heresy
he would have been another Tycho Brahe.

Soon after, de Lamarck was nominated to a lieutenancy; but so glorious a
beginning of his military career was most unexpectedly checked. A sudden
accident forced him to leave the service and entirely change his course
of life. His regiment had been, during peace, sent into garrison, first
at Toulon and then at Monaco. While there a comrade in play lifted him
by the head; this gave rise to an inflammation of the lymphatic glands
of the neck, which, not receiving the necessary attention on the spot,
obliged him to go to Paris for better treatment.

"The united efforts [says Cuvier] of several surgeons met with no
better success, and danger had become very imminent, when our
_confrere_, the late M. Tenon, with his usual sagacity, recognized