Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/685

Rh the privileges of her rank to violate the laws of the empire. On approaching the frontier, the princess concealed in her hair some mulberry-seed and eggs of the butterfly. The guards dared not put their hands on the head of a "Princess of Heaven;" eggs and seeds passed the officer without disturbance, and prospered well in Khokan, situated near the middle of Asia.

And so commenced that journey which was not to be arrested till the entire world possessed the mulberry and the silk-worm; but it was accomplished slowly and with long halts. That which had occurred in China occurred everywhere, each new state that obtained the precious seeds attempting prohibition.

The silk-worm and mulberry got to Europe in 552, under Justinian. At this time two monks of the order of St. Basil delivered to this emperor the seeds, said to have come from the heart of Asia. To smuggle them, they had taken still greater precautions than the Chinese princess, for they hollowed out their walking-sticks, and filled the interior with the precious material. The Emperor Justinian did not imitate the Asiatic potentates, but sought to propagate and extend the silk-manufacture. Morea, Sicily, and Italy, were the first European countries that accepted and cultivated the new products.

It was not till the twelfth or thirteenth century that the silk-worm penetrated into France. Louis XL planted mulberry-trees around his Chàteau of Plessis-les-Tours. Besides, he called a Calabrian named Francis to initiate the neighboring population in raising this precious insect, and developing the several industries that are connected with it. Under Henry IV., sericulture received a great impulse, thanks chiefly, perhaps, to a simple gardener of Nimes named Francois Traucat. It is always said that this nurseryman distributed throughout the neighboring country more than four million mulberry-sprouts. In enriching the country, Traucat acquired a considerable fortune; but he lost it foolishly. He had heard of treasures buried near a great castle which commanded the town of Nimes, and which is called the Castle of Magne. He wished to increase the money he had nobly and usefully gained, by this imaginary gold; he bought the great castle and neighboring ground, and dug the earth, which brought him nothing, till he ruined himself.

The minister of Louis XIV., Colbert, sought also to propagate the mulberry. Sully with reluctance had done the same, and sent trees to various parts of the kingdom, some of which were still living when I was a child. They were called by the name of this minister, and I remember to have seen two of them in my father's grounds, which no longer bore leaves, but were piously preserved as souvenirs of their origin.

To lead in the development of sericulture, a man was needed who would not hesitate to set an example, and to make considerable sacrifices. This man, I am proud to say, was a modest officer, Captain