Under the Consulate in 1800, the Prytanée Français was founded, consisting of four separate Colleges. The name was not long after changed to the Prytanée Militaire; and after some time the number was diminished, and La Flèche, which had in 1764 received the youngest pupils of the old Royal Military School, became the seat of the sole remaining establishment; which subsequently sunk to the proportions of a mere junior preparatory school, and became, in fine, the present establishment for military orphans, which still retains the title, and is called the Prytanée Militaire de la Flèche. A _special_ Military School, in the meantime, had been set up at Fontainebleau in 1803, transferred in 1808 to St. Cyr, and thus taking the place of the Prytanée Militaire and of its predecessor, the original Ecole Royale Militaire, gradually assumed its present form.[15] [Footnote 15: Founded the Ecole Royale Militaire, 1751. Junior pupils transferred to La Flèche, 1764. Suppression of the Ecole Royale Militaire and establishment of ten Colleges, 1776. New Ecole Royale Militaire, for the best pupils of the Colleges, 1777. Suppression of the Colleges and of the Ecole Royale Militaire, 1787. Foundation of the Ecole de Mars, May 1794. Foundation of the Prytanée Français at Paris, Versailles, St. Germain, Fontainebleau, 1800. Foundation of the Ecole Spéciale Militaire at Fountainebleau, 1803. The four Schools of the Prytanée Français are converted into the Prytanée Militaire, 1806; and are transferred to La Flèche, 1808. The Ecole Spéciale Militaire is transferred to St. Cyr, also in 1808.] The course of study lasts two years; the usual number of cadets in time of peace is five, or at the utmost six hundred; the admission is by competitive examination, open to all youths, French by birth or by naturalization, who on the first of January preceding their candidature were not less than sixteen and not more than twenty years old. To this examination are also admitted soldiers in the ranks between twenty and twenty-five years of age, who, at the date of its commencement, have been actually in service in their regiments for two years. The general conditions and formalities are the same as those already stated for the Polytechnic. It may be repeated that all the candidates, in accordance with a recent enactment, must have taken the usual degree which terminates the task at the _lycées_--the baccalaureate in sciences.