self
from the greatest difficulties. His candor often won him some
indulgence. If he happened to be punished by a timorous master, he
assumed a terrible facial expression and tried to frighten him. But
when, on the contrary, he found himself in the presence of a man of
energy, he pleaded extenuating circumstances, and persevered until he
obtained the least possible punishment. He never resented the infliction
of just punishment, but suffered very much when punished in public. On
the day when the class marks were read aloud, if he suspected that his
own were to be bad, he took refuge in the infirmary to avoid the shame
of public exposure. Honor, for him, was not a vain word.

"He was very sensitive to reproaches. He was an admirer of courage,
audacity, anything generous. Who at Stanislas does not remember his
proud and haughty attitude when a master vexed him in presence of his
classmates, or interfered to end a quarrel in which his own self-respect
was at stake? All his nerves were stretched; his body stiffened, and he
stood as straight as a steel rod, his arms pressed against his legs, his
fists tightly closed, his head held high and rigid, and his face as
yellow as ivory, with its smooth forehead, and his compressed lips
cutting two deep lines around his mouth; his eyes, fixed like two black
balls, seemed to start from the sockets, shooting fire. He looked as if
he were about to destroy his adversary with lightning, but in reality he
retained the most imperturbable sang-froid. He stood like a marble
statue, but it was easy to divine the storm raging within...."[10]

[Footnote 10: Unpublished notes by Abbe Chesnais.]

His tendency, after taking his bachelor's degree, was towards science;
he was ambitious to enter the Ecole polytechnique, and joined the
special mathematics class. Even when very young he had shown particular
aptitude for mechanics, and a gift for invention which we have seen
exercised in his practical jokes as a student. When he was only four or
five years old he constructed a bed out of paper, which he raised by
means of cords and pulleys.

"He passed whole hours," says his Stanislas classmate, Lieutenant
Constantin, "in trying to solve a mathematical problem, or studying some
question which had interested him, without knowing what went on around
him; but as soon as he had solved his problem, or learned something new,
he was satisfied and returned to the present. He was particularly
interested in ev