Mademoiselle Grouvelle had never married, but it was said that Étienne Arago had proposed to her when she was a young girl; that was a long while back, in 1821 or 1822. Étienne Arago was then, in 1821, a student in chemistry at the École polytechnique, and was about twenty years of age; he made the acquaintance of Grouvelle at Thénard's house. He was a fiery-hearted son of the South; his friends were anxious to make him a propagandist, and through his instrumentality principally, to introduce the secret society of the _Charbonnerie_ into the École; Grouvelle, Thénard, Mérilhou and Barthe being its chief supporters. These germs of Republicanism, sown by the young chemical student, and, even more, by the influence of Eugène Cavaignac, also a student at the École at that time, produced in after life such men as Vanneau, Charras, Lothon, Millotte, Caylus, Latrade, Servient and all that noble race of young men who, from 1830 to 1848, were to be found at the head of every political movement. A year later, _La Charbonnerie_ was recruited by Guinard, Bastide, Chevalon, Thomas, Gauja and many more, who were always first in the field when fighting began. The question of how to introduce the principles of _La Charbonnerie_ into Spain in the teeth of the _cordon sanitaire_ was being debated, in order to establish relations between the patriots of the army and those who were taking refuge in the peninsula. Étienne Arago was thought of, but as he was too poor to undertake the journey, they went to Mérilhou. Mérilhou, as I have said, was one of the ringleaders of Charbonarism. He was then living in the rue des Moulins. Cavaignac and Grouvelle introduced Étienne, and Mérilhou gazed at the neophyte, who did not look more than eighteen. "You are very young, my friend," said the cautious lawyer to him. "That may be, monsieur," Étienne responded, "but young though I am, I have been a Charbonist for two years." "Do you realise to what dangers you would expose yourself if you undertook this propagandist mission?" "Certainly, I do; I expose myself to death on the scaffold." Whereupon the future minister of Louis-Philippe and peer of France, and presiding judge at the Barbés' trial, laid his hand upon Étienne's shoulder, and said, in the theatrical manner barristers are wont to assume-- "_Made animo, generose puer!_" And gave him the necessary money. We shall come across M. Mérilhou again at Barbés' trial, and the _made animo_ will not be thrown away upon us. For the moment, however, we must go back to the trial of the ministers.