archbishop, a man of very tall figure, was then chief of the
Franciscans; his costume more than negligent, his gray robe, covered
with tobacco, contrasted with the magnificence of the archiepiscopal
palace. He received us with kindness, and promised us all the
recommendations we desired; but, at the moment of taking leave of him,
the whole affair seemed to be spoiled. M. Lanusse and M. Biot went out
of the reception room without kissing the hand of his grace, although he
had presented it to each of them very graciously. The archbishop
indemnified himself on my poor person. A movement, which was very near
breaking my teeth, a gesture which I might justly call a blow of the
fist, proved to me that the chief of the Franciscans, notwithstanding
his vow of humility, had taken offence at the want of ceremony in my
fellow visitors. I was going to complain of the abrupt way in which he
had treated me, but I had the necessities of our trigonometrical
operations before my eyes, and I was silent.

Besides this, at the instant when the closed fist of the archbishop was
applied to my lips, I was still thinking of the beautiful optical
experiments which it would have been possible to make with the
magnificent stone which ornamented his pastoral ring. This idea, I must
frankly declare, had preoccupied me during the whole of the visit.

M. Biot having at last come to seek me again at Valencia, where I
expected, as I have before said, some new instruments, we went on to
Formentera, the southern extremity of our arc, of which place we
determined the latitude. M. Biot quitted me afterwards to return to
Paris, whilst I made the geodesical junction of the island of Majorca to
Iviza, and to Formentera, obtaining thus, by means of one single
triangle, the measure of an arc of parallel of one degree and a half.