He seemed destined to long life and quite able
to stand fatigue. Nevertheless, his life was short. He went through the
whole of the war in France without a scratch, after the conclusion of
peace was appointed professor of Sanscrit at the University of conquered
Strasburg, but died of illness shortly afterwards.
A striking contrast to his reticent nature was afforded by the young
Frenchmen of the same age whom I often met. A very rich and very
enthusiastic young man, Marc de Rossieny, was a kind of leader to them;
he had 200,000 francs a year, and with this money had founded a weekly
publication called "_L'Impartial_," as a common organ for the
students of Brussels and Paris. The paper's name, _L'Impartial_,
must be understood in the sense that it admitted the expression of every
opinion with the exception of defence of so-called revealed religion.
The editorial staff was positivist, Michelet and Chasles were patrons of
the paper, and behind the whole stood Victor Hugo as a kind of honorary
director. The weekly preached hatred of the Empire and of theology, and
seemed firmly established, yet was only one of the hundred ephemeral
papers that are born and die every day in the Latin quarter. When it had
been in existence a month, the war broke out and swept it away, like so
many other and greater things.
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