Some Arboisians, quite forgotten now, imagined that they would add lustre to the local history. General Baron Delort, a peer of France,[11] aide de camp to Louis Philippe, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and the first personage in Arbois--where he beguiled his old age by translating Horace--used to go across the Cuisance bridge without so much as glancing at the tannery where the Pasteur family lived. Whilst the general in his thoughts bequeathed to the town of Arbois his books, his papers, his decorations, even his uniform, he was far from foreseeing that the little dwelling by the bridge would one day become the cynosure of all eyes. Months went by and happy items of news succeeded one another. The _Normalien_ was chiefly interested in the transformations of matter, and was practising in order to become capable of assisting in experiments; difficulties only stimulated him. At the chemistry class that he attended, the process of obtaining phosphorus was merely explained, on account of the length of time necessary to obtain this elementary substance; Pasteur, with his patience and desire for proven knowledge, was not satisfied. He therefore bought some bones, burnt them, reduced them to a very fine ash, treated this ash with sulphuric acid, and carefully brought the process to its close. What a triumph it seemed to him when he had in his possession sixty grammes of phosphorus, extracted from bones, which he could put into a phial labelled “phosphorus.” This was his first scientific joy. Whilst his comrades ironically (but with some discernment) called him a “laboratory pillar,” some of them, more intent upon their examinations, were getting ahead of him.--M. Darboux, the present “doyen” of the Faculty[12] of Science, finds in the Sorbonne registers that Pasteur was placed 7th at the _licence_ examination; two other students having obtained equal marks with him, the jury (Balard, Dumas and Delafosse), mentioned his name after theirs. Those who care for archives would find in the _Journal Général de l’Instruction Publique_ of September 17, 1846, a report of the _agrégation_[13] competition (physical science). Out of fourteen candidates only four passed and Pasteur was the third. His lessons on physics and chemistry caused the jury to say, “He will make an excellent professor.” Many _Normaliens_ of that time fancied themselves called to a destiny infinitely superior to his. Some of them, in later times, used to complacently allude to this momentary superiority when speaking to their pupils. Of all Pasteur’s acquaintances Chappuis was the only one who divined the future. “You will see what Pasteur will be,” he used to say, with an assurance generally attributed to friendly partiality. Chappuis--Pasteur’s confidant--was well aware of his friend’s powers of concentration.