At the end of three months of rest and pleasant walks around
Compiegne, the child remarked: "The three months are up, and I mean to
present myself in July." "You haven't time; it is impossible." He
insisted. So they discovered, at Compiegne, the Pierre d'Ailly school,
in a building which since then has been ruined by a shell. It was his
idea to attend these classes as a day scholar, just for the pleasure of
it. He promised to continue to take care of himself at home. And in the
month of July, at the age of fifteen, he took his bachelor degree, with
mention.
But the bow cannot long remain bent, and hence certain diversions of
his, ending sometimes in storms, but not caused by any ill-will on his
part, for it was repugnant to him to give others pain. The following
autumn he returned to Stanislas College, and resumed his school
exploits.
"Vexed to find that a place had been reserved for him near the
professor, under the certainly justified pretext that he was too much
inclined to talk," again writes Abbe Chesnais, "he was resolved to talk
all the same, whenever he pleased.
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