ny of his
journeys. At some stations he made friends of the bandits of the
neighborhood, and carried on his observations under their protection, as
it were. In 1807 the tribunal of the Inquisition existed in Valencia;
and Arago was witness to the trial and punishment of a pretended
sorceress,--and this, as he says, in one of the principal towns of
Spain, the seat of a celebrated university. Yet the worst criminals
lived unmolested in the cathedrals, for the "right of asylum" was still
in force. His geodetic observations were mysteries to the
inhabitants, and his signals on the mountain top were believed to be
part of the work of a French spy. Just at this time hostilities broke
out between France and Spain, and the astronomer was obliged to flee
disguised as a Majorcan peasant, carrying his precious papers with him.
His knowledge of the Majorcan language saved him, and he reached a
Spanish prison with only a slight wound from a dagger. It is the first
recorded instance, he says, of a fugitive flying to a dungeon for
safety. In this prison, under the care of Spanish officers, Arago found
sufficient occupation in calculating observations which he had made; in
reading the accounts in the Spanish journals of his own execution at
Valencia; and in listening to rumors that it was proposed (by a Spanish
monk) to do away with the French prisoner by poisoning his food.

The Spanish officer in charge of the prisoners was induced to connive at
the escape of Arago and M. Berthemie (an aide-de-camp of Napoleon); and
on the 28th of July, 1808, they stole away from the coast of Spain in a
small boat with three sailors, and arrived at Algiers on the 3d of
August. Here the French consul procured them two false passports, which
transformed the Frenchmen into strolling merchants from Schwekat and
Leoben. They boarded an Algerian vessel and set off. Let Arago describe
the crew and cargo:--

"The vessel belonged to the Emir of Seca. The commander was a Greek
captain named Spiro Calligero. Among the passengers were five members of
the family superseded by the Bakri as kings of the Jews; two Maroccan
ostrich-feather merchants; Captain Krog from Bergen in Norway; two lions
sent by the Dey of Algiers as presents to the Emperor Napoleon; and a
great number of monkeys."

As they entered the Golfe du Lion their ship was captured by a Spanish
corsair and taken to Rosas. Worst of all, a former Spanish servant of
Arago's--Pablo--was a sailor in the