On the 1st of August 1773, a horseman, who was approaching the town of
Peronne in France, discovered by the wayside a boy, apparently about
eleven years of age, clad in rags, evidently suffering from want, and
uttering piercing cries. Stirred with pity for this unfortunate
object, the traveller dismounted, and, finding his efforts to comfort
his new acquaintance, or to discover the cause of his sorrow,
unavailing, persuaded him to accompany him to the town, where his
immediate necessities were attended to. The boy ate ravenously of the
food which was set before him, but continued to preserve the strictest
silence, and, at length, it was discovered that he was deaf and dumb.
A charitable woman, moved by his misfortunes, gave him a temporary
home, and at the end of a few weeks he was transferred to the
Bicêtre--then an hospital for foundlings--through the intervention of
M. de Sartine, the well-known minister of police. Here his conduct was
remarkable. From the first day of his entrance he shrank from
association with the other inmates, who were for the most part boys
belonging to the lower orders, and by so doing earned their ill-will,
and brought upon himself their persecution. Indeed, so uncomfortable
did his new home prove through the malignity of his fellow-pensioners,
that the health of the poor waif gave way, and it was found necessary
to remove him to the Hôtel Dieu of Paris. Here he was noticed by the
Abbé de l'Epée, who was attracted by his quiet and aristocratic
manners and gentle demeanour, and who at the same time considered
that, by reason of his intelligence, he was likely to prove an apt
pupil in acquiring the manual alphabet which the worthy ecclesiastic
had invented. Accordingly, the Abbé removed him to his own house, and
in a few months had rendered him able to give some account of himself
by signs. His story was that he had a distinct recollection of living
with his father and mother and sister, in a splendid mansion, situated