We
had also a course of lectures from Jared Sparks on American
history. They were generally dull and heavy, but occasionally
made intensely interesting when he described some stirring
event of the Revolutionary War. We hung breathless on his
account of the treason of Arnold and its detection and the
class burst out into applause when he ended,--a thing the
like of which never happened in any time in College. There
was a little smattering of instruction in modern languages,
but it was not of much value. We had a French professor named
Viau whom the boys tormented unmercifully. He spoke English
very imperfectly, and his ludicrous mistakes destroyed all
his dignity and rendered it impossible to maintain any discipline
in the class. He would break out occasionally in despair,
"Young zhentlemen, you do not respect me and I have not given
you any reason to." A usual punishment for misconduct in those
days was to deduct a certain number of the marks which determined
rank from the scale of the offending student. M. Viau used
to hold over us this threat, which, I believe, he never executed,
"Young zhentlemen, I shall be obliged to deduce from you.
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