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from the towers of the château, they might be spies - so thought the locals. Indeed,
Delambre was recognized by one of them as the person who had a few days earlier
been seeking permission to light signal fires in the city. He was taken in a downpour
across fields to Lagny where he produced his papers. They had, however, been
signed by King Louis XVI who was no longer king. Far from establishing
Delambre's legitimacy, the papers increased suspicion. Delambre explained that his
task was to measure the world and that he was a member of the Academy. “There
is no more 'cademy,” said one of the militia, “We are all equal now.” Delambre and
his colleagues spent the night in jail until the militia received confirmation of the
legitimacy of their mission.
Delambre finished his work at Belle-Assise and set off back to Paris. Barricades had
been set up at the villages to stop aristocrats from fleeing the vengeance of the revolu-
tionaries and the embrace of “Madame Guillotine.” The men were stopped at each
village, examined, and then allowed to continue until they reached Epinay-sur-Seine
when they were again detained by the local militia. The telescopes attracted unwanted
attention, and as usual it seemed that telescopes were seen as useful for spying and were
not documented clearly on the passes and permits.
Delambre tried to explain his mission to measure the Earth but this story
sounded incredible to the gathering crowd. He was taken into St-Denis to account
for himself to the authorities. Meanwhile, a thousand people were assembled in the
square, and Delambre was escorted through them to cries of “Long Live France!
Down with the aristocrats!” Delambre tried to explain what he was doing (Méchain
& Delambre 1806-10):
The instruments were spread out on the square and I was obliged to recommence my lec-
ture on geodesy, the first lessons of which I had given earlier that day in Epinay. I was not
heard any more favorably this time. The day was coming to a close. It was increasingly
difficult to see. My audience was quite large. The front rows heard without understanding.
Others, further back, heard less and saw nothing. Impatient murmurs began to be heard.
A few voices proposed one of those expeditious methods, so much in use those days, which
cut through all difficulties and put an end to all doubts.
The Chief Administrator of the district, Denis-Nicolas Noël, saved Delambre
from the guillotine, taking him inside the town hall under pretext that he would be
questioned more closely. Noël kept Delambre overnight and when the mob dis-
persed Delambre was allowed to complete his journey back to the capital.
Over the winter of 1792/93, Delambre prepared for the expedition into the north.
As the winter weather ameliorated to spring, the Prussian army was massing on the
French border intending to invade and restore the monarchy; the plains of Flanders
were a battlefield, not for the first or last time. Delambre traveled to Dunkerque to
start his survey, intending to work south and as he did so the revolution intensified.
Led by Robespierre and the so-called Committee of Public Safety and ruling on the
basis of rumor and prejudice, Robespierre and crew carried out its wishes by
imprisonment and execution of dissenters and doubters.
Delambre, together with Borda, Lavoisier, Laplace, Coulomb, and Brisson,
were purged from their positions on the Commission for Weights and Measures.
Their offence had been to support the chemist Lavoisier, who had fallen foul of the
