II ill MMm CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library DC 203.W34 1912 Napoleon a sketch of his life, character 3 1924 022 779 635 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022779635 NAPOLEON Press of . THE JEFFERSONIAN PUB. CO. Thomson, Georgia NAPOLEON A Sketch of HIS LIFE, CHARACTER, STRUGGLES, AND ACHIEVEMENTS THOMAS ^. WATSON Author of "The Story of France," etc. ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS AND FACSIMILES Thomson, Georgia THE JEFFERSONIAKf PUB. CO. 1913 Alt rights reserved Copyright, 1903 THOMAS E. WATSON Assignee, 1912 TO MY WIFE tfswrgta SDurliam Matfion PREFACE In this volume the author has made the effort to portray Napoleon as he appears to an average man. Archives have not been rummaged, new sources of information have not been discovered; the author merely claims to have used such authorities, old and new, as are accessible to any diligent student. No attempt has been made to give a full and detailed account of Napoleon's life or work. To do so would have required the labor of a decade, and the result would be almost a library. The author has tried to give to the great Corsican his proper historical position, his true rating as a man. and a ruler, — together with a just estimate of his achievements. Thomson, Georgia, Deo. 24. 1901. vli CONTENTS' CHAPTEB PAGB I. Corsica i II. Boyhood , 17 III. Lieutenant 37 IV. Revolution ......... 47 V. Returns Home 58 VI. First Service 70 VII. At Marseilles 86 VIII. 13th of Vendemiaire 94 IX. The Young Republic 115 X. Josephine 123 XI. The Army of Italy , 135 XII. Milan 148 XIII. Mantua , . . .159 XIV. Campo Formio 175 XV. Josephine at Milan 188 XVI. Egypt 196 XVII. The Siege of Acre 211 XVIII. The Return to France 221 XIX. The Removal of the Councils .... 230 XX. The Fall of the Directory 242 XXI. First Consul 256 XXII. Marengo 275 XXIII. The Code Napoleon 294 ix X COJ^TBNTK CHAPTEB PAGB XXIV. Plot and Conspieacy 310 XXV. Empeeok 329 XXVI. Distribution of Honoks 349 XXVII. Jbna 355 XXVIII. Entry into. Berlin 363 XXIX. Warsaw 372 XXX. Habits and Characteristics .... 386 XXXI. High-water Mark 412 XXXII. Spain 425 XXXIII. Wagram 435 XXXIV. The Divorce 450 XXXV. Moscow 470 XXXVI. The Retreat 491 XXXVII. In Paris Again 502 XXXVni. Metternich 514 XXXIX. Dresden and Leipsic 523 XL. Ketreat from Leipsic 543 XLI. The Frankfort Proposals .... 557 XLII. The Fall op Paris 571 XLIII. Elba 583 XLIV. Elba ......... 598 XLV. Louis XVIII , . . ,612 XLVT. The Eeturn from Elba 628 XLVII. Reorganization .... . . 635 XLVIIT. Waterloo ........ 647 XLIX. Waterloo 657 L. St. Helena . 672 LI. St. Helena 687 INDEX. ..... ... 705 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Napoleon. From a portrait by Lassalle . . . Frontispiece FACING PAGE Napoleon. From an engraving by Tomkins of a drawing from life during tire campaign in Italy .... 70 Letter from Napoleon to General Carteadx, dated AT Toulon. In facsimile 80 Napoleon. From a print in the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane. The original engraving by G. Fiesinger, after a miniature by Jean-Baptiste-Paulin Guerin. Deposited in the National Library, Paris, 1799 136 Letter from Napoleon in Italy to Josephine. In fac- simile 160 Josephine in 1800. From a pastel by P. P. Prud'hon . . 1^8 Napoleon. From the painting by Paul Delaroohe entitled " General Buonaparte crossing the Alps " . ." . . 200 Napoleon as First Consul, at Malmaison. From a paint- ing by J. B. Isabey 256 Josephine in 1809. From a water-color by Isabey . . . 338 Maria Louisa. From the portrait by Gerard in the Louvre . 460 Letter from Napoleon to Countess Walewski, dated April 16, 1814. In facsimile 562 The King op Rome. From the painting by Sir T. Lawrence 690 NAPOLEON CHAPTER I /CORSICA, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, has an extreme width of 52 miles and length of 116. It is within easy reach of Italy, France, Spain, Sardinia, and the African coast. Within 54 miles lies Tuscany, while Genoa is distant but 98, and the French coast at Nice is 106. Across the island strides a chain of mountains, divid- ing it into two nearly equal parts. The slopes of the hills are covered with dense forests of gigantic pines and chest- nuts, and on their summits rests eternal snow. Down from these highlands rapid streams run to the sea. There are many beautiful valleys and many fine bays and harbors. The population of the island was, in the eighteenth cen- tury, about 130,000. The Italian type predominated. In religion it was Roman Catholic. The history of Corsica has been wonderfully dramatic. Peopled originally by the Celts, perhaps, the island has been so often war-swept, so often borne down under the rush of stronger nations, that the native race almost disap- peared. The Greeks from Asia Minor, back in the dim ages, seized upon a part of the coast and colonized it. Carthage, in her day of greatness, was its mistress ; and then came Rome, whose long period of supremacy left its 2 NAPOLEON , chap. stamp upon the people, bringing as it did multitudes of Italians, with tlieir language, customs, and religion. After the day of Rome came Germans, Byzantine Greeks, Moors, Goths, Vandals, and Longobards. For centuries the island was torn by incessant war, the Gorsicans doing their utmost to keep themselves free from foreign masters. The feudal system was fastened upon the struggling people by the chiefs of the invaders. The crags were crowned with castles, and half-savage feudal lords ruled by the law of their own fierce lusts. They waged war upon each other, they ground down the native races. Unable to defend themselves, miserably poor, but full of desperate courage, the Gorsicans fled from the coasts to escape the pirate, and to the mountains to resist the feudal robber. In their distress the peasants found a leader in Sambuccio, who organized them into village communities, — a democratic, self-ruling confederation. There were no serfs, no slaves, in Gorsica ; freedom and equality the people claimed and fought for ; and under Sambuccio they totally routed the barons. The great leader died; the barons took up arms again; the peasants appealed to the margrave of Tuscany for aid ; an army came from Italy, the barons were beaten, and the village confederation restored. From a.d. 1020 to a.d. 1070, Tuscany protected the Gorsicans; but the popes, having looked upon the land with eyes of desire, claimed it for the Ghurch, and, through skilful manipulations (such as are common in cases of that kind), the people were per- suaded to submit. In the year 1098 Pope Urban II. sold the island to Pisa, and for one hundred years Gorsica remained under the dominion of that republic. Genoa, however, envied Pisa this increase of territory, I CORSICA 3 claimed the island for herself, and backed her claim by arms. Corsica was rent by the struggle, and the Corsicans themselves were divided into hostile camps, one favoring Pisa, the other Genoa. The leader of the Pisan faction, Guidice della Rocoa, kept up, for many years, an unequal struggle, showing won- derful courage, fertility of resource, rigorous justice, and rare clemency. He killed his own nephew for having out- raged a female prisoner for whose safety he, Della Rocca, had given his word. Old and blind, this hero was betrayed by his bastard son, delivered to the Genoese, and died in a wretched Genoese dungeon ; and with his downfall passed away the Pisan sovereignty. A period of anarchy followed the death of Della Rocca. The barons were unmerciful in their extortions, and the people were reduced to extreme misery. After many years appeared another valiant patriot of the Rocca race, Arrigo della Rocca (1392). He raised the standard of revolt, and the people rallied to him. He beat the Geno- ese, was proclaimed Count of Corsica, and ruled the land for four years. Defeated at length by the Genoese, he went to Spain to ask aid. Returning with a small force, he routed his enemies and became again master of the island. Genoa sent another army, Arrigo della Rocca was poisoned (1401), and in the same year Genoa submitted to France. Corsica kept up the struggle for independence. Vin- centello, nephew of Arrigo della Rocca, was made Count of Corsica, and for two years maintained a gallant contest. Genoa poured inmore troops, and the resistance was crushed. Vincentello left the island. Soon returning with help from Aragon, he reconquered the county with the excep- tion of the strongholds of Calvi and Bonifaccio. Inspired 4 NAPOLEON chap, by the success of Vincenliello, the young king of Aragon, Alfonso, came in person with large forces to complete the conquest. Calvi was taken, but Bonifaccio resisted all efforts. The place was strongly Genoese, and for months the endurance of its defenders was desperately heroic, Women and children and priests joined with those who manned the walls, and all fought together. Spanish cour- age was balked, Spanish pride humbled, and Alfonso sailed away. Vinceutello, bereft of allies, lost ground. He gave his own cause a death-blow by abusing a girl whose kinsmen rose to avenge the wrong. The guilty man and indomitable patriot determined to seek aid once more in Spain ; but Genoa captured him at sea, and struck off his head on the steps of her ducal palace (14-34). Then came anarchy in Corsica again. The barons fought, the peasants suffered. Law was dead. Only the dreaded vendetta ruled — the law of private vengeance. So harried were the people by continued feuds, rival con- tentions, and miscellaneous tumult, that they met in gen- eral assembly and decided to put themselves under the protection of the bank of St. George of Genoa. The bank agreed to receive this singular deposit (1453). The Corsican nobles resisted the bank, and terrible scenes followed.. Many a proud baron had his head struck off, many of them left the country. Aragon favored the nobles, and they came back to renew the fight, defeat the forces of the bank, and reconquer most of the island. In 1464 Francesco Sforza of Milan took Genoa, and claimed Corsica as a part of his conquest. The islanders preferred Milan to Genoa, and but for an accidental brawl, peaceful terms might have been arranged. But the brawl occurred, and there was no peace. Years of war, rapine, I CORSICA 5 and universal wretchedness followed. Out of the murk appears a valiant figure, Giampolo, taking- up with marvel- lous tenacity and fortitude the old fight of Corsica against oppression. After every defeat, he rose to fight again. He never left the field till Corsican rivalry weakened and ruined him. Then, defiant to the last, he went the way of the outlaw to die in exile. Renuccio della Rocca's defection had caused Giampolo to fail. After a while Rocca himself led the revolt against Genoa, and was overthrown. He left the island, but came again, and yet again, to renew the hopeless com- bat. Finally his own peasants killed him to put an end to the niiserable war, there being no other method of turning the indomitable man (1511). Resistance over, the bank of Genoa governed the island. The barons were broken, their castles fell to ruin. The common people kept up their local home-rule, enjoyed a share in the government, and were in a position much better than that of the common people in other parts of Europe. But the bank was not satisfied to let matters rest there ; a harsh spirit soon became apparent ; and the privileges which the people had enjoyed- were sup- pressed. Against this tyranny rose now the strongest leader the Corsicans had yet found, Sampiero. Humbly born, this man had in his youth sought adventures in foreign lands. He had served the House of Medici, and in Flor- ence became known for the loftiness and energy of his character. Afterward he served King Francis I., of France, by whom he was made colonel of the Corsican regiment which he had formed. Bayard was his friend, and Charles of Bourbon said of liim, " In the day of battle 6 NAPOLEON chap. the Corsican colonel is worth ten thousand men " ; just as another great warrior, Archduke Charles of Austria, said of another great Corsican, serving then in France (1814), "Napoleon himself is equal to one hundred thousand men." In 1547 Sampler went back to Corsica to select a wife. So well established was his renown that he was given the only daughter of the Lord of Ornano, the beautiful Van- nina. The bank of Genoa, alarmed by the presence of such a man in the island, threw him into prison. His father-in-law, Francesco Ornano, secured his release. Genoa, since her delivery from French dominion by Andrea Doria, was in league with the Emperor of Ger- many, with, whom the French king and the Turks were at war. Hence it was that Sampiero could induce. France and her allies to attack the Genoese in Corsica. In 1553 came Sampiero, the French, and the Turks ; and all Cor- sica, save Calvi and Bonifaccio, fell into the hands of the invaders. Bonifaccio was besieged in vain, until, by a stratagem, it was taken. Then the Turks, indignant that Sampiero would not allow them to plunder the city and put all the Genoese to the sword, abandoned the cause, and sailed away. Calvi still held out. The Emperor sent an . army of Germans and Spaniards ; Cosmo de Medici also sent troops ; Andrea Doria took command, and the French were everywhere beaten. Sampiero quarrelled with the incapable French commander, went to France to defend himself from false reports, made good his pur- pose, then returned to the island, where he became the lion of the struggle. He beat the enemy in two pitched bat- tles, and kept up a successful contest for six years. Then came a crushing blow. By the treaty of Cambray, France I COESICA 7 agreed with Spain that Corsica should be given back to Genoa. Under this terrible disaster, Sampiero did not despair. Forced to leave the island, he wandered from court to court on the continent, seeking aid. For four years he went this dreary round, — to France, to -Navarre, to Flor- ence. He even went to Algiers and to Constantinople. During this interval it was that Genoa deceived and en- trapped Vannina, the wife of the hero. She left her home and put herself in the hands of his enemies. One of Sampiero's relatives was fool enough to say to him, " I had long expected this." — "And you concealed it !" cried Sampiero in a fury, striking his relative to the heart with a dagger. Vannina was pursued and caught, Sam- piero killed her with his own hand. Failing in his efforts to obtain foreign help, the hero came back to Corsica to make the fight alone (1564). With desperate courage he marched from one small vic- tory to another until Genoa was thoroughly aroused. An army of German and Italian mercenaries was sent over, and the command given to an able general, Stephen Doria. The war assumed the most sanguinary character. Genoa seemed bent on utterly exterminating the Corsi- cans and laying waste the entire country. Sampiero rose to the crisis ; and while he continued to beseech France for aid, he continued to fight with savage ferocity. He beat Doria in several encounters, and finally, in the pass of Luminada, almost annihilated the enemy. Doria, in despair, left the island, and Sampiero remained master of the field. With his pitifully small forces he had foiled the Spanish fleet, fifteen thousand Spanish soldiers, and. an army of mercenaries ; and had in succession beaten tha 8 NAPOLEON chap. best generals Genoa could send. All this he had done with half -starved, half -armed peasants, whose only strength lay in the inspiration of their patriotism and the uncon- querable spirit of their leader. Few stronger men have lived and loved, hoped and dared, fought and suffered, than this half-savage hero of Corsica. With all the world against him Sampiero fought without fear, as another great Corsican was to do. In open fight he was not to be crushed : on this his ene- mies were agreed, therefore treachery was tried. Genoa bribed some of the Corsican chiefs ; Vannina's cousins were roused to seek revenge ; Vittolo, a trusted lieuten- ant, turned against his chief ; and a monk, whom Sam- piero could not suspect, joined the conspirators. The monk delivered forged letters to Sampiero, which led him to the ambuscade where his foes lay in wait. He fought like the lion he was. Wounded in the face, he wiped the blood out of his eyes with one hand while his sword was wielded by the other. Vittolo shot him in the back,, and the Ornanos rushed upon the dying man, and cut off his head (1567). The fall of Sampiero created intense satisfaction in Genoa, where there were bell-ringings and illuminations. In Corsica it aroused the people to renewed exertions; but the effort was fitful, for the leader was dead. In a great meeting at Orezzo, where three thousand patriots wept for the lost hero, they chose his son Alfonso their commander-in-chief. After a struggle of two years, in which the youth bore himself bravely, he made peace and left the country. Accompanied by many companions in arms, he went to France, formed his followers into a Corsican regiment. I CORSICA 9 of which Charles the Ninth appointed him colonel. Other Corsicans, taking refuge in Rome, formed them- selves into the Pope's Corsican guard. Thrown back into the power of Genoa, Corsica suf- fered all the ills of the oppressed. Wasted by war, famine, plague, misgovernment, a more wretched land was not to be found. Deprived of its privileges, drained of its resources, ravaged by Turks and pillaged by Chris- tians, it bled also from family feuds. The courts being corrupt, the vendetta raged with fury. In many parts of the country, agriculture and peaceful pursuits were abandoned. And this frightful condition prevailed for half a century. The Genoese administration became ever more unbear- able. A tax of twelve dollars was laid on every hearth. The governors of the island were invested with the power to condemn to death without legal forms or proceedings. One day, a poor old man of Bustancio went to the Genoese collector to pay his tax. His money was a little short of the amount due — a penny or so. The official refused to receive what was offered, and threat- ened to punish the old man if he did not pay the full amount. The ancient citizen went away grumbling. To his neighbors, as he met them, he told his trouble. He complained and wept. They sympathized and wept. Frenzied by hjs own wrongs, the old man began to denounce the Genoese generally, — their tyranny, cruelty, insolence, and pppression. Crowds gathered, the excite- ment grew, insurrectionary feelings spread throughout the land. Soon the alarm bells were rung, and the war trumpet sounded from mountain to mountain. This was in October, 1729. 10 NAl^OLEON CHAP. A war of forty years ensued. Genoa hired a large body of Germans from the Emperor, and eight thousand of these mercenaries landed in Corsica. At first they beat the ill-armed islanders, who marched to battle bare of feet and head. But in 1732 the Germans were almost destroyed in the battle of Calenzala. Genoa called on the Emperor for more hirelings. They were sent ; but before any decisive action had taken place, there arrived orders from the Emperor to make peace. Corsica had appealed to him against Genoa, and he had decided that the Corsicans had been wronged. Corsica submitted to Genoa, but her ancient privileges were restored, taxes, were' remitted, and other reforms promised. No sooner had the Germans left the island than Gen- oese and Corsicans fell to fighting again. Under Hya- cinth Paoli and Giafferi, the brave islanders defeated the- Genoese, at all points ; and Corsica, for the moment, stood redeemed. In 1735 the people held a great meeting at Corte and proclaimed their independence. A government was organized, and the people were declared to be the only source of the laws. Genoa exerted all her power to put down the revolt- The island was blockaded, troops poured in, the best, generals were sent. The situation of the Corsicans was. desperate. They stood in need of almost everything requisite to their defence, except brave men. The- blockade cut off any hope of getting aid from abroad. English sympathizers sent two vessels laden with sup- plies, and keen was the joy of the poor islanders. With the munitions thus obtained they stormed and took Alesia. I CORSICA 11 But their distress was soon extreme again, and the struggle hopeless. At this, the darkest hour, came a very- curious episode. A German adventurer, Theodore de Neuhoff, a baron of Westphalia, entering the port with a single ship, under the British flag, offered himself to the Corsicans as their king. Promises of the most exhilarat- ing description he made as to the men, money, munitions of war he could bring to Corsican relief. Easily believing what was so much to their interest, and perhaps attaching too much iniportanoe to the three English ships which had recently brought them supplies, the Corsican chiefs actu- ally accepted Neuhoff for their king. The compact between King Theodore and the Corsicans was gravely reduced to writing, signed, sealed, sworn to, and delivered. Then they all went into the church, held solemn religious services, and crowned Theodore with a circlet of oak and laurel leaves. Theodore took himself seriously, went to work with zeal, appointed high digni- taries of the crown, organized a court, created an order of knighthood, and acted as if he were a king indeed. He marched against the oppressors, fought like a madman, gained some advantages, and began to make the situation look gloomy, to the Genoese. Resorting to a detestable plan, they turned loose upon the island a band of fifteen hundred bandits, galley-slaves, and outlaws. These villains made havoc wherever they went. In the meantime, the Corsican chiefs began to be impatient about the succors which Theodore had prom- ised. Evasions and fresh assurances answered for a while, but finally matters reached a crisis. Theodore was told, with more or less pointedness, that either the succors must come or that he must go. To avoid a storm, he went, 12 NAPOLEON chap. saying that he would soon return with the promised relief. Paoli and the other Corsican chiefs realized that in catch- ing at the straw this adventurer had held out to them, they had made themselves and Corsica ridiculous. They ac- cordingly laid heavy blame on Theodore. Cardinal Fleury, a good old Christian man, who was at this time (1737) minister of France, came forward with a proposition to interfere in behalf of Genoa, and reduce the Corsicans to submission. Accordingly French troops were landed (1738), and the islanders rose en masse to resist. Bonfires blazed, bells clanged, war trumpets brayed. The whole population ran to arms. The French were in no haste to fight, and for six months negotiations dragged along. Strange to say, the Corsicans, in their misery, gave hostages to the French, and agreed to trust their cause to the king of France. At this stage who should enter but Theodore ! The indefatigable man had ransacked Europe, hunting sympathy for Corsica, and had found it where Americans found it in a similar hour of need — in Holland. He had managed to bring with him several vessels laden with cannon, small arms, powder, lead, lances, flints, bombs, and grenades. The Corsican peo- ple received him with delight, and carried him in triumph to Cervioile, where he had been crowned ; biit the chiefs bore him no good-will, and told him that circumstances had changed. Terms must be made with France ; Corsica could not at this time accept him as king — oaths, religious services, and written contract to the contrary notwith- standing. Theodore sadly sailed away. The appeal to the French king resulted in the treaty of Versailles, by whose terms some concessions were made to the Corsicans, who were positively commanded to lay I CORSICA 13 down their arms and submit to Genoa. Corsica resisted, but was overcome by France. In 1741 tlie Frpnch with- drew from the island, and almost immediately war again raged between Corsican and Genoese. In 1748 King Theodore reappeared, bringing munitions of war which the island greatly needed. He seems to have succeeded in getting the Corsicans to accept his supplies, but they showed no inclination to accept himself. Once again he departed — to return no more. The gallant, generous adventurer went to London, where his creditors threw him into prison. The minister, Walpole, opened a subscription which secured his release. He died in Eng- land, and was buried in St. Anne's churchyard, London, December, 1756. Peace was concluded between Genoa and Corsica, whose privileges were restored. For two years quiet reigned. Family feuds then broke out, and the island was thrown into confusion. Following this came a general rising against the Genoese, in which the English and Sardinians aided the Corsicans. Genoa applied to France, which sent an army. Dismayed by the appearance of the French, the island came to terms. Cursay, the com- mander of the French, secured for the unfortunate people the most favorable treaty thej' had ever obtained. Dis- satisfied with Cursay, the Genoese prevailed on France to recall him. Whereupon the Corsicans rose in arms, Gaf- fori being their chief. He displayed the genius and the courage of Sampiero, met with the success of the earlier hei'o, and like him fell by treachery. Enticed into an ambuscade, Gaffori was slain by Corsicans, his own brother being one of the assassins. The fall of the leader did not dismay the people. They chose other leaders. 14 NAPOLEON chap. and continued the fight. Finally, in July, 1755, the cele- brated Paschal Paoli was chosen commander-in-chief. At this time he was but twenty-four years old. Well educated, mild, firm, clear-headed, and well balanced, he was very much more of a statesman than a warrior. His first measure, full of wisdom, was the abolition of the vendetta. Mainly by the help of his brother Clemens, Paoli crushed a rival Corsican, Matra, and established himself firmly as ruler of the island. Under his administration it flourished and attracted the admiring attention of all European liberals. Genoa, quite exhausted, appealed to France, but was given little help. As a last resort, treachery was tried: Corsican was set against Corsican. The Matra family was resorted to, and brothers of him who had led the first revolt against Paoli took the field at the head of Genoese troops. They were defeated. Genoa again turned to France, and on August 6, 1764, was signed an agreement by which Corsica was ceded to France for four years. French garrisons took possession of the few places which Genoa still held. During the four years Cboiseul, the French minister, prepared the way for the annexation of Corsica to France. As ever before, there were Corsicans who could be used against Corsica. Buttaf uoco, a noble of the island, professed himself a con- vert to the policj'^ of annexation. He became Choi^eul's apostle for the conversion of others. So adroitly did he work with bribes and other inducements, that Corsica was soon divided against herself. A large party declared in favor of the incorporation of the island with France. In 1768 the Genoese realized that their dominion was gone. A bargain was made between two corrupt and despotic I COliSICA 16 powers by which the one sold tO' the other an island it did not own, a people it could not conquer, — an island and a people whose government was at that moment a model of wisdom, justice, and enlightened progress. Alone of all the people of Europe, Corsica enjoyed self-government, political and civil freedom, righteous laws, and honest ad- ministration. Commerce, agriculture, manufactures, had sprung into new life under Paoli's guidance, schools had been founded, religious toleration decreed, liberty of speech and conscience proclaimed. After ages of com- bat against awful odds, the heroic people had won free- dom, and, by the manner in which it was used, proved that they had deserved to win it. Such were the people who were bargained for and bought by Choiseul, the min- ister of France, at and for the sum of 1400,000. The Bourbons had lost to England an empire beyond seas — by this act of perfidy and brutality they hoped to recover some of their lost grandeur. Terrible passions raged in Corsica when this infamous bargain became known. The people flew to arms, and their wrongs sent a throb of sympathy far into many lands. But France sent troops by the tens of thousands ; and while the Corsicans accomplished wonders, they could not beat foes who outnumbered them so heavily. Paoli was a faithful chief, vigilant and brave, but he was no Sampiero. His forces were crushed at Ponte Nuovo on June 12, 1769, and Corsica laid down her arms. The long chapter was ended, and one more wrong triumphant. Chief among the painful features of the dirama was that Buttafuoco and a few other Corsicans took service with France, and made war upon their own people. Paoli with a band of devoted supporters left the island. 16 NAPOLEON chap, j From Leghorn, through Germany and Holland, his jour- ney was a triumphal progress. Acclaimed by the liber- als, honors were showered upon him by the towns through which he passed; and in England, where he made his home, he was welcomed by the people and pensioned by the government. The French organized their administration without diffi- culty. The Buttafuoco element basked in the warmth of success and patronage. For a while all was serene. Later on the French grip tightened, the Corsican time-honored privileges were set aside, the old democracy was no longer the support of a government which relied more and more on French soldiers. Power, taken from the village com- munities, was placed entirely in the hands of a military governor and a council of twelve nobles. Frenchmen filled all the important offices. The seat of government was moved from Corte to Bastia and Ajaccio. The dis- content which these changes caused broke into open rebel- lion. The French crushed it with savage cruelty. After that Corsica was a conquered land, which offered no fur- ther resistance ; but whose people, excepting always those who had taken part with France, nursed intensely bitter feelings against their conquerors. Of this fiery, war-worn, deeply wronged people. Napo- leon Bonaparte was born ; and it must be remembered that before his eyes opened to the light his mother had thrilled with all the passions of her people, her feet had followed the march, her ears had heard the roar of battle. As Dumas finely says, "The new-born child breathed air that was hot with civil hates, and the bell which sounded liis baptism still quivered with the tocsin." CHAPTER II "T^ROM St. Charles Street you enter on a very small square. An elm trefe stands before a yellowish gray plastered house, with a flat roof and a projecting balcony. It has six front windows in each of its three stories, and the doors look old and time-worn. On the corner of this house is an inscription, Letitia Square. The traveller knocks in vain at the-door. No voice answers." Such is the picture, drawn in 1852, of the Bonaparte mansion in Ajaccio. Few tourists go to see it, for Corsica lies not in the direct routes of the world's trade or travel. Yet it is a house whose story is more fascinating, more marvellous, than that of any building which cumbers the earth this day. We shut our eyes, and we see a picture which is richer than the richest page torn from romance. We see a lean, sallow, awkward, stunted lad step forth from the door of the old house and go forth into the world, with no money in his pocket, and no powerful friends to lift him over the rough places. He is only nine years old when he leaves home, and we see him weep bitterly as he bids his mother good-by. We see him at school in France, isolated, wretched, unable at first to speak the language, fiercely resenting the slights put upon his poverty, his ignorance, his family, his country — suffering, but never subdued, c 17 18 NAPOLEON chap. We see him rise against troubles as the eagle breasts the storm. We see him lay the- better half of the civilized world at his feet. We see him bring sisters and brothers from the island home, and put crowns on their heads. We see him shower millions upon his mother ; and we hear him saj"- to his brother on the day he dons the robes of empire, " Joseph, suppose father were here — ! " As long as time shall last, the inspiration of the poor and the ambitious will be the Ajaccio lawyer's son : not Alexander, the born king; not psesar, the patrician; but Napoleon, the moneyless lad from despised Corsica, who stormed the high places of the world, and by his own colossal strength of character, genius, and industry took them ! As long as time shall last his name will inspire not only the individual, but the masses also. Wherever a people have heard enough, read enough, thought enough to feel that absolutism in king or priest is wrong ; that special privilege in clan or clique is wrong; that monopoly of power, patronage, wealth, or opportunity is wrong, there the name of Napoleon will be spoken with reverence, despot though he became, for in his innermost fibre he was a man of the people, crushing to atoms feudalism, caste, divine right, and hereditary imposture. As early as the year 947 there had been Bonapartes in Corsica, for the name of one occurs as witness to a deed in that year. There were also Bonapartes in Italy ; and men of that name were classed with the nobles of Bologna, Treviso, and Florence. It is said that during the civil wars of Italy, members of the Bonaparte family took II BOYHOOD 19 refuge in Corsica, and that Napoleon's origin can be traced to this source. It is certain that the Bonapartes of Corsica continued to claim kindred with the Italian family, and to class themselves as -patricians . of Italy ; and both these claims were recognized. In Corsica they ranked with the nobility, a family of importance at Ajaccio. At the time of the French invasion the representatives of the family were Lucien, archdeacon of Ajaccio, and Charles Bonaparte, a young man who had been left an orphan at the age of fourteen. Born in 1746, Charles Bonaparte married, in 1764, Letitia Ramolino, a Corsican girl of fifteen. She was of good family, and she brought to her husband a dowry at least equal to his own estate. Beautiful, high- spirited, and intelligent, Madame Letitia knew nothing of books, knew little of the manners of polite society, and was more of the proud peasant than of the grand lady. She did not know how to add up a column of fig- ares; bat time was to prove that she possessed .judgment, common sense, inflexible courage, great loftiness and en- ergy of character. Misfortune did not break her spirit, and prosperity did not turn her head. She was frugal, industrious, strong physically and mentally, " with a man's head on a woman's shoulders," as Napoleon said of her. Charles Bonaparte was studying law in Italy when the war between France and Corsica broke out. At the call of Paoli, the student dropped his books and came home to join in the struggle. He was active and effi- cient, one of Paoli's trusted lieutenants. After the battle of Ponte Nuovo, realizing that all was lost, he gave in 20 NAPOLEON chap. his submission (May 23, 1769) to the French, and re- turned to Ajaccio. The policy of the French was to conciliate the leading Corsicans, and special attention seems to have been given to Charles Bonaparte. His mansion in Ajaccio, noted for its hospitality, became the favorite resort of General Mar- beuf, the bachelor French governor of the island. With an ease which as some have thought indicated suppleness or weakness of character, Bonaparte the patriot became Bonaparte the courtier. He may have convinced himself that incorporation with France was best for Corsica, and that his course in making the most out of the new order of things was wisdom consistent with patriotism. Resistance to France having been crushed, the policy of conciliation inaugurated, and the Corsicans encouraged to take part in the management of their own affairs, su)3Ject to France, one might hesitate before condemn- ing the course of Charles Bonaparte in Corsica, just as we may hesitate between the policies of Kossuth and Deak in Hungary, or of Kosciusko and Czartoryski in Poland. We may, and do, admire the patriot who resists to the death; and, at the same time, respect the citizen who fights till conquered, and then makes the best of a bad situation. In 1765 Madame Letitia Bonaparte gave birth to her first child; in 1767, to her second, both of whom died while infants. In 1768 was born Joseph, and on August 15, 1769, Napoleon.i 1 During the period of this pregnancy, Corsica was in the storm of war ; and Madame Bonaparte, following her husband, was in the midst of the sufferings, terrors, and brutalities which such a war creates. The air was still electrical with the hot passions of deadly strife when u BOYHOOD . 21 Other children came to the Bonapartes in the years fol- lowing, the survivors of these being : Elisa, Lucien, Louis, Pauline, Caroline, and Jerome. To support this large family, and to live in the hospitable fashion which custom required of a man of his rank, Charles Bonaparte found a difficult matter, especially as he was a pleasure-loving, ex- travagant man whose idea of work seemed to be that of a born courtier. He returned to Italy after the peace; spent much of his patrimony there ; made the reputation of a sociable, intelligent, easy-going gentleman ; and took his degree of Doctor of Laws, at Pisa, in November, 1769. It was his misfortune to be cumbered with a mortgaged estate and a hereditary lawsuit. Whatever surplus the mortgage failed to devour was swallowed by the lawsuit. His father had expensively chased this rainbow, pushed this hopeless attempt to get justice ; and the steps of the father were followed by the son. It was the old story of a sinner, sick and therefore repentant ; a priest holding the keys to heaven and requiring payment in advance. ; a craven surrender of estate to purchase the promise of sal- vation. Thus the Jesuits got Bonaparte houses and lands, the young wife's time came. On the 15th of August, 1769, Madame Bonaparte, a devout Catholic, attended service at the church ; hut feel- ing lahor approaching, hastened home, and was harely ahle to reach her room before she was delivered of Napoleon on a rug upon the floor. The authority for this statement is Madame Bonaparte herself, who gave that account of the matter to the Permons in Paris, on the 18th of IBrumaire, the day on which the son thus born was struggling for supreme power in France. The story which represents the greatest of men and warriors as having come into the world upon a piece of carpet, or tapestry, upon which the heroes of the "Iliad" were represented, is a fable, according to the ex- press statement made by Madame Bonaparte to the American General Lee, in Rome, in 1830. 22 NAPOLEON chap. in violation of the terms of an ancestor's will, the lawsuit being the effort of the legal heirs to make good the testa- ment of the original owner. In spite of all they could do, the Bonapartes were never able to recover the property. Charles Bonaparte, a man of handsome face and figure, seems to have had a talent for making friends, for he was made assessor to the highest court of Ajaccio, a member of the council of Corsican nobles, and later, the representa- tive of these nobles to France. With the slender income from his wife's estate and that from his own, aided by his official earnings, he maintained his family fairly well ; but his pretensions and expenditures were so far beyond what he was really able to afford that, financially, he was never at ease. It was the familiar misery of the gentleman who strives to gratify a rich man's tastes with a poor man's purse. There was his large stone mansion, his landed estate, his aristocratic associates, his patent of nobility signed by the Duke of Florence; and yet there was not enough money in the house to school the children. The widowed mother of Madame Letitia had married a second husband, Fesch, a Swiss ex-captain of the Genoese service, and by this marria-ge she had a sou, Joseph Fesch, known to Napoleonic chronicles as "Uncle Fesch." This eleven-year-old uncle taught the young Napoleon the alphabet. In his sixth year Napoleon was sent to a dame's school. For one of the little girls at this school the lad showed such a fondness that he was laughed at, and rhymed at, by the other boys. u BOYHOOD 23 Napoleon di mezza calz^tta Fa I'armore a Giacominetta.^ The jeers and the rhyme Napoleon answered with sticks and stones. It is not very apparent that he learned anything here, for we are told that it was the Abbe Recco who taught him to read; and it was this Abbe whom Napoleon remem- bered in his will. As to little Giacominetta, Napoleonic chronicles lose her completely, and she takes her place among the " dream children " of very primitive poesy. Just what sort of a boy Napoleon was at this early period, it is next to impossible to say. Perhaps he did not differ greatly froin other boys of his own age. Probably he was more fractious, less inclined to boyish sports, quicker to qtiarrel and fight. But had he never become famous, his youthful symptoms would never have been thought to indicate anything uncommon either for good or evil. At St. Helena, the weary captive amused himself by picturing the young Napoleon as the bad boy of the town. He quarrelled, he fought, he bit and scratched, he terror- ized his brothers and sisters, and so forth. It may be true, it may not be ; his mother is reported as saying that he was a "perfect imp of a child," but the authority is doubtful. The Bonaparte family usually spent the summer at a small country-seat called Milleli. Its grounds were beau- tiful, and there was a glorious view of the sea. A large granite rock with a natural cavity, or grotto, offered a cool, quiet retreat; and this is said to have been Napoleon's favorite resort. In after years he improved the spot, built 1 Napoleon with his stockings half off Makes love to Giacominetta. 24 NAPOLEON chaj. a small summer-house there, and used it for study and meditation. It is natural to suppose that Napoleon as a child absorbed a good deal of Corsican sentiment. His wet-nurse was a Corsican peasant, and from her, his parents, his playmates, and his school companions he probably heard the story of Corsica, her wrongs, her struggles, and her heroes. Delia Rocca, Sampiero, Gaffori, and Paoli were names familiar to his ears. At a very early age he had all the passions of the Corsican patriot. The French were masters, but they were hated. While the Bonapartes had accepted the situation, they may not have loved it. The very servants in the house vented their curses on '* those dogs of French." General Marbeuf, the warm friend of the family, encouraged Charles Bonaparte to make the attempt to have the children educated at the expense of France. In 1776 written application was made for the admis- sion of Joseph and Napoleon into the military school of Brienne. At that time both the boys were on the safe side of the age-limit of ten years.. But the authori- ties demanded proofs of nobility, — four generations thereof, — according to Bourbon law; and before these proofs could be put into satisfactory shape, Joseph was too old for Brienne. Chosen in 1777 by the nobles of Corsica as their deputy to France, Charles Bonaparte set out for Versailles in 1778, taking with him his sons Joseph and Napoleon. Joseph Fesch accompanied the party as far as Aix, where he was to be given a free education for the priesthood by the seminary at that place. Joseph and Napoleon both stated in after years that their father visited Florence on u BOYHOOD 25 the way to France, and was given an honorable reception at the ducal court. The Bishop of Autun,. nephew of General Marbeuf, had been interested in behalf of the Bonapartes ; and it was at his school that Joseph was to be educated for the Church. Napoleon was also placed there till he could learn French enough for Brienne. . On January 1, 1779, therefore, he began his studies. The Abbe Chardon, who was his teacher, says that he was a boy of thoughtful and gloomy character. " He had no playmate and walked about by himself." Very naturally. He was a stranger to all the boys, he was in a strange country, he could not at first speak the language, he could not understand those who did speak it — how was the homesick lad to be sociable and gay under such conditions ? Besides, he was Corsican, a despised rep- resentative of a conquered race. And the French boys taunted him about it. One day, according to the teacher, the boys threw at him the insult that " the Corsic'ans were a lot of cowards." Napoleon flashed out of his re- serve and replied, " Had you been but four to one you would never have conquered us, but you were ten to one." To pacify him the teacher remarked, " But you had a good general — Paoli." — "Yes," answered the lad of ten, "and I would like to resemble him." According to the school register and to Napoleon's own record, he remained at Autun till the 12th of May, 1779. He had learned "enough French to converse freely, and to make little themes and translations." In the meantime, Charles Bonaparte had been attending his king, the young Louis XVI., at Versailles. Courtier in France as in Aiaccio, the adroit lawyer had pleased. 26 NAPOLEON chap. A bounty from the royal purse swelled the pay of the Corsican delegates, a reward for "their excellent be- havior"; and for once Charles Bonaparte was moderately supplied with funds. On May 19, 1779, Napoleon entered the college of Brienne. Its teachers were incompetent monks. The pupils were mainly aristocratic French scions of the privi- leged nobility, proud, idle, extravagant, vicious. Most of these young men looked down upon Napoleon with scorn. In him met almost every element necessary to stir their dislike, provoke their ridicule, or excite their anger. In person he was pitifully thin and short, with lank hair and awkward manners ; his speech was broken French, mispronounced and ungrammatical ; it was obvious that he was poor ; he was a Corsican ; and instead of being humble and submissive, he was proud and defiant. Dur- ing the five years Napoleon spent here he was isolated, m(jody, tortured by his own discontent, and the cruelty of his position. He studied diligently those branches he liked, the others he neglected. In mathematics he stood first in the school, in history and geography he did fairly well ; Latin, German, and the ornamental studies did not attract him at all. The German teacher considered him a dunce. But he studied more in the library than in the schoolroom. While the other boys were romping on the playground, Napoleon was buried in some corner with a book. On one occasion Naj)oleon, on entering a room and see- ing a picture of Choiseul which hung therein, burst into a torrent of invective against the minister who had bought Corsica. The school authorities punished the blasphemy. At another time one of the young French nobles scorn- n BOYHOOD 27 fully said to Napoleon, "Your father is nothing but a wretched tipstaff." Napoleon challenged his insulter, and was imprisoned for his temerity. Upon another occasion he was condemned by the quar- termaster, for some breach of the rules, to wear a peni- tential garb and to eat his dinner on his knees at the door of the common dining-room. The humiliation was real and severe ; for doubtless the French lads who had been bullying him were all witnesses to the disgrace, and were looking upon the culprit with scornful eyes, while they jeered and laughed at him. Napoleon became hys- terical under the strain, and began to vomit. The prin- cipal of the school happening to pass, was indignant that such a degradation should be put upon so dutiful and dili- gent a scholar, and relieved him from the torture. " Ah, Bourrienne ! I like you : you never make fun of me ! " Is there nothing pathetic in this cry of the heart- sick boy ? To his father, Napoleon wrote a passionate appeal to be taken from the school where he was the butt of ridi- cule, or to be supplied with sufficient funds to maintain himself more creditably. General Marbeuf interfered in his behalf, and supplied him with a more liberal allowance. The students, in turn, were invited to the table of the head-master. One day when this honor was accorded Napoleon, one of the monk -professors sweetened the boy's satisfaction by a contemptuous reference to Corsica and to Paoli. It seems well-nigh incredible that the cleri- cal teachers should have imitated the brutality of the supercilious young nobles, but Bourrienne is authority for the incident. Napoleon broke out defiantly against the 28 NAPOLEON chap. teacher, just as he had done against his fellow-students : "Paoli was a great man; he loved his country; and I will never forgive my father for his share in uniting Corsica to France. He should have followed Paoli." Mocked by some of the teachers and tormented by the richer students, Napoleon withdrew almost completely within himself. He made no complaints, prayed for no relief, but fell back on his own resources. When the boys mimicked his pronunciation, turned his name into an offensive nickname, and flouted him with the subjection of his native land, he either remained disdainfully silent, or threw himself single-handed against his tormentors. To each student ■ was given a bit of ground that he might use it as he saw fit. Napoleon annexed to his own plat two adjacent strips which their temporary owners had abandoned ; and by hedging and fencing made for himself a privacy, a solitude, which he could not other- wise get. Plere he took his books, here he read and pondered, liere he indulged his tendency to day-dreaming, to building castles in the air. His schoolmates did not leave him at peace even here. Occasionally they would band together and' attack his fortress. Then, says Burgoing, one of his fellow-stu- dents, " it was a sight to see him burst forth in a fury to drive off the intruders, without the slightest regard to their numbers." Much as he disliked his comrades, there was no trace of meanness in his resentments. He suffered punishment for things he had not done rather than report on the real offenders. Unsocial and unpopular, he nevertheless en- joyed a certain distinction among the students as well as with the teachers. His pride, courage, maturity of I 11 BOYFIOOD 29 thought, and quick intelligence arrested attention and I compelled respect. When the students, during the severe winter of 1783-84, were kept within doors, it was Napoleon who suggested mimic war as a recreation. A snow fort was built, and the fun was to attack and defend it with snow- balls. Then Napoleon's natural capacity for leadership was seen. He at one time led the assailants, at another the defenders, as desperately in earnest as when he after- ward attacked or defended kingdoms. One student refusing to obey an order. Napoleon knocked him down with a chunk of ice. Many years after this unlucky person turned up with a scar on his face, and reminded the Emperor Napoleon of the incident ; whereupon Napo- leon fell into one of his best moods, and dealt liberally with the petitioner. During the whole time Napoleon was at Brienne he remained savagely Corsican. He hated the French, and did not hesitate to say so. Of course the French here meant were the pupils of the school — the big boys who jeered at his poverty, his parentage, his countrymen. It is worth notice that he never by word or deed sought to disarm his enemies by pandering to their prejudices. He made no effort whatever to ingratiate himself with them by surrendering any of his own opinions. He would not even compromise by concealing what he felt. He was a Corsican to the core, proud of his island heroes, proud of Paoli, frankly detesting those who had trampled upon his country. It must have sounded even to the dull ears of ignorant monks as something remarkable when this shabby-looking lad, hardly in his teens, cried out, defiantly, " I hope one day to be able to give Corsica 30 NAPOLEON chap. her freedom ! " He had drunk in the wild stories the peasants told of Sampiero; he had devoured the vivid annals of Plutarch, and his hopes and dreams were already those of a daring man. During these years at Brienne, General Marbeuf con- tinued to be Napoleon's active friend. He seems to have regularly supplied him with money, and it was the General's interference which secured his release from imprisonment in the affair of the duel. Through the same influence Napoleon secured the good-will of Madame de Brienne, who lived in the chateau near the school. This lady warmed to the lad, took him to her house to spend holidays aiud vacations, and treated him with a motherly kindness which he never forgot. The character which Napoleon established at Brienne varied with the point of view. To the students generally he appeared to be unsocial, quarrelsome, and savage. To some of the teachers he seemed to be mild, studious, grate- ful. To others, imperious and headstrong. M. de Keralio reported him officially as submissive, upright, thoughtful, "conduct most exemplary." On all he made the impres- sion that he was inflexible, not to be moved after he has taken his stand. Pichegru, afterward conqueror of Hol- land, and after that supporter of the Bourbons, was a pupil-teacher to Napoleon at Brienne, and is thought to have been the quartermaster who put upon him the shame of eating on his knees at the dining-room door. Bourbon emissaries were eager to win over to their cause the brill- iant young general, Bonaparte, and suggested the matter to Pichegru. " Do not try it," said he. " I knew him at Brienne. His character is inflexible. He has taken his side, and will not change." II BOYHOOD 31 When Napoleon, in his last years, came to speak of his school days, he seemed to have forgotten all that was un- pleasant. Time had swept its effacing fingers over the actual facts, and he had come to believe that he had not only been happy at Brienne, but had been a jolly, frolick- some fellow^ a very cheerful, sociable, popular lad. It was some other youth who had shunned his fellows, fenced himself within a garden wall, combated all intrud- ers with sticks and stones, and hated the French because they teased him so. The real Napoleon, according to the captive Emperor, was a boy like other boys, full of fun, frolic, tricks, and games. One of the sportive tricks of the merry and mythical Bonaparte was this : An old com- mandant, upward of eighty, was practising the boys at target-shooting with a cannon. He complained that the aim was bad, none of the balls hit the target. Presently, he asked of those near him if they had seen the ball strike. After half a dozen discharges, the old general bethought himself of counting the balls. Then the trick was ex- posed — the boys had slipped the balls aside each time the gun was loaded. Another anecdote told by the Emperor brings him more immediately within the circle of oiir sympathies. Just above his own room at the college was a fellow-student who was learning to play on the horn. He practised loudly, and at all hours. Napoleon found it impossible to study. Meeting the student on the stairs. Napoleon feelingly remonstrated. The horn player was in a huff at once, as a matter of course. His room was his own, and he would blow horns in it as much as he pleased. " We will see about that," said Napoleon, and he challenged the offender to mortal combat. Death could have no terrors 32 NAPOLEON cha*. compared to the incessant tooting in the room above, and Napoleon was determined to take his chances on sudden sword thrust rather than the slow tortures of the horn practice. Fellow-students interfered, a compromise was reached, and the duel did not come off. TIiq student who roused the ire of Napoleon in this extreme manner was named Bussey, and in the campaign of 1814 Napoleon met him again, received offers of service from him, and named him aide-de-camp. It is a pleasure to be able to record that this fellow-student of Brienne remained faithful to Naptoleou to the very last, in 1814 and again in 1815. In the year 1810 the Emperor Napoleon, divorced from Josephine, was spending a few days in seclusion in the Trianon at Versailles, awaiting the coming of the Austrian wife, "the daughter of the Caesars." Hortense and Ste- phanie Beauharnais were with him, and Stephanie mis- chievously asked him if he knew how to waltz. Napoleon answered : — "When I was at the military school I tried, I don't know how many times, to overcome the vertigo caused by waltzing, without being able to succeed. Our dancing- master had advised us when practising to take a chair in our arms instead of a lady. I never failed to fall down with the chair, which I squeezed affectionately, and to break it. The chairs in my room, and those of two or three of my comrades, disappeared one after another." The Emperor told this story in his gayest manner, and the two ladies laughed, of course ; but Stephanie insisted that he should even now learn to waltz, that all Germans waltzed, that his new wife would expect it, and that as the Empress could only dance with the Emperor, he must not deprive her of such a pleasure. 11 BOYHOOD , 33 " You are right," exclaimed Napoleon. " Come ! give me a lesson." Thereupon he rose, took the merry Stephanie in his arms, and went capering around the room to the music of his own voice, humming the air of The Queen of Prussia. After two or three turns, his fair teaclier gave him lip in despair ; he was too hopelessly awkward ; and she flattered him, while pronouncing him a failure, by saying that he was made to give lessons and not receive them. Toward the close of 1783 a royal inspector of the mili- tary schools, Keralio by name, examined the students at Brienne for the purpose of selecting those who were to be promoted to the higher military school at Paris. M. de Keralio was greatly impressed by Napoleon, and. emphati- cally recommended his promotion. This inspector'having died, his_ successor examined Napoleon the second time, and passed him on to the Paris school, Avhich he entered on October 30, 1784. On tlie certificate which went with him from Brienne were the words, " Character masterful, imperious, and headstrong." When Napoleon alighted from the coach which brought him from Brienne to Paris, and stood, a tiny foreign boy, in the midst of the hurly-burly of a great city, he must have felt himself one of the loneliest and most insignifi- cant of mortals. Demetrius Permon found him in the Palais Royal, " where he was gaping and staring with wonder at everything he saw. Truly, he looked like a fresh importation." M. Permon invited the lad to dine, and found him "very morose," and feared that he had 34 NAPOLEON chap. "more self-conceit than was suitable to his condition."- Napoleon made this impression upon Permon by declaim- ing violently against the luxury of the young men at the military school, denouncing the system of education which prevailed there, comparing it unfavorably to the system of ancient Sparta, and announcing his intention of memo- rializing the minister of war on the subject. Napoleon, at the military school of Paris, continued to be studious, and to read almost constantly. He was obe- dient to the authorities, and defiant to the young aristo- crats who surrounded him and looked down on him. The extravagance, indolence, and superciliousness of the noble students, together with the general luxury which pre- vailed in the establishment, disgusted and enraged a scholar who had no money to spend, and who had come there to study. When he, as head of the State, came to reorganize the educational system of France, he did not forget -the lessons taught by his own experience. As a man he adopted a system which avoided all the abuses which as a boy he had denounced. During this period he may have occasionally visited the Permons in Paris and his sister Elisa, who had been admitted into the State school at St. Cyr. Madame D'Abrantes so relates in her Memoirs; and while there is a difficulty about dates, her narrative is, perhaps, substantially correct. It is a lifelike picture she paints of Napoleon's gloom at Paris and Elisa's sorrow at St. Cyr : Napoleon wretched because he could not pay his way among the boys; Elisa miserable because she could not keep step with the girls. Napojeon sulked and denounced luxury; Elisa wept and bewailed her poverty. Elisa was consoled by a tip given by Madame Permon. As II BOYHOOD S5 for Napoleon, he refused to borrow : " I have no right to add to the burdens of my mother." On final examination, August, 1785, Napoleon stood forty-second in his class — not a brilliant mark, certainly, but it sufficed. He received his appointment of sub-lieu- tenant with joy unbounded. His days of tutelage were over: henceforth he was a man and an officer. Having chosen the artillery service, he set out with Des Mazis, a friend he had made at the military school, to join the regi- ment of La Fere, which was stationed at Valence. Ac- cording to one account. Napoleon borrowed money from a cloth merchant to make this journey ; according to another, Des Mazis paid the way of both. However that may be, it seems that when the young officers reached Lyons, a gay city of the south, they relaxed the rigors of mili- tary discipline to such an extent that their money all vanished. The remainder of the distance to Valence was made on foot. Those biographers who devote their lives to defaming Napoleon, lay stress on the alleged fact that he was edu- cated by the King. In becoming an adherent of the Revo- lution, these writers say that he betrayed an amount of moral obliquity quite appalling. Louis XVI. was king while Napoleon was at. Brienne, and the suggestion that Napoleon owed a debt of gratitude to Louis XVI. is amusing. The tax-payers, the people, educated Napo- leon ; and whatever debt of gratitude he owed, he owed to them. In going with the Revolution, he went with those who had paid his schooling. He himself drew this distinction at the time. When M. Demetrius Permon 36 NAPOLEON chap, ii rebuked him for criticising royalty, throwing the alleged debt ,oi gratitude in his teeth, the boy replied, "The State educates rae; not the King." Of course Permon could not admit the distinction, he being a noble of the Old Order; nor can biographers who write in the interest of modern Toryism admit it. But the distinction is there, nevertheless; the boy saw it, and so does impartial history. CHAPTER III "VTAPOLEON carried with him to his new home a letter of introduction from the Bishop of Autun to the ex- Abbot of St. Ruffe, and with this leverage he made his way into the best society of Valence. For the first time cir- cumstances were favorable to him, and the good effects of the change were at once evident. Occupying a better place in life than before, he _ was more contented, more sociable. He mingled with the people about him,, and made friends. No longer a waif, a charity boy from abroad, thrust among other boys who looked down upon him as a social inferior, he was now an officer of State, housed, fed, clothed, salaried at the public expense. No longer under the wheels, he held a front seat in that won- drous vehicle which men call government, and in which a few so comfortably ride while the many so contentedly wear harness and pull. No longer subject to everybody's orders. Napoleon had become one of the masters in God's world here below, and could issue orders himself. Glori- ous change ! And the sun began to look bright to "Lieutenant Bonaparte of the King's Royal Academy." He cultivated l;iimself and others socially. He found some congenial spirits among the elderly men of the place ; also some among the young women. In the hours not spent in study, and not claimed by his duties, he 37 38 NAPOLEON chap. could be found chatting at the coffee-house, strolling with brother officers, dancing at the neighborhood balls, and playing the beau amid the belles of this high provincial circle. To one of these young ladies, according to tradition and his own statement, he lost his heart. But when we seek to know something more definite, tradition and his own statements differ. If we are to accept his version, the courtship led to nothing beyond a few promenades, and the eating of cherries together in the early morning. According to the local tradition, however, he proposed and was rejected. Her parents were local aristocrats, and had so little confidence in the future of the little officer that they married their girl by preference to a M. de Bressieux — a good, -safe, commonplace gentleman of the province. In after years the' lady reminded Na- poleon of their early friendship, and he at once made generous provision for both herself and husband. If possible. Napoleon studied more diligently at Valence than at Brienne. Plutarch's Lives and Csesar's Commen- taries he had already mastered while a child ; Rousseau had opened a new world of ideas to him in Paris : he now continued his historical studies by reading Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus. Anything relating to India, China, Arabia, had a peculiar charm for him. Next he learned all he could of Germany and England. French history he studied minutely, striving to exhaust information on the subject. In his researches he was not content merely with ordinary historical data : he sought tb understand the secret meaning of events, and the origin of institutions. He studied legislation, statistics, the history of the Church, especially the relation of the Church to the State. Like- HI LIEUTENANT 39 wise he read the masterpieces of French literature and the critical judgments which had been passed upon them. Novels he did not disdain, and for poetry of the heroic cast he had a great fondness. He read also the works of Voltaire, Necker, Filangieri, and Adam Smith. With Napoleon to read was to study. He made copious notes, and these notes prove that he bent every faculty of his mind to the book in hand. He ana- lyzed, commented, weighed statements in the balance of his own judgment — in short, doing everything necessary to the complete mastery of the subject. A paper on which he jotted down at that time his ideas of the relations between Church and State appear to show that he had reached at that time the conclusions he afterward embodied in the Concordat. Rousseau he studied again, but the book which seems to have taken his fancy more than any other was the Abbe Raynal's famous Hutory of the Institu- tions and Commerce of the Europeans in the Two Indies. This book was a miscellany of essays and extracts treating of superstition, tyranny, etc., and predicting that a revo- lution was at hand in France if abuses were not reformed. How was it that Napoleon, with his meagre salary, could command so many costly books ? A recent biogra- pher patly states that he "subscribed to a public library." This may be true, but Napoleon himself explained to an audience of kings and princes at Erfurth, in 1808, that he was indebted to the kindness of one Marcus Aurelius, a rich bookseller, " a most obliging man who placed his books at my service." The personal appearance of the 3^oung lieutenant wasi not imposing. He was short, painfully thin, and awkward.. His legs were so much too small for his boots that he 40 NAPOLEON chap. looked ridiculous — at least to one young lady, who nick- named him "Puss in Boots." He wore immense "dog's ears," which fell to his shoulders, and this style of wearing the hair gave his dark Italian face a rather sinister look, impressing a lady acquaintance with the thought that he would not be the kind of man one would like to meet near a wood at night. Generally he was silent, wrapped in his own thoughts ; but when he spoke, his ideas were striking and his expressions energetic. He rather affected the laconic, oracular style, and his attitude was somewhat that of a man posing for effect. In famil- iar social intercourse he was different. His smile became winning, his voice soft and' tender, and his magnetism irresistible. He loved to joke others and play little pranks with them ; but he could not relish a joke at his own ex- pense, nor did he encourage familiarity. He had none of the brag, bluster, or roughness of the soldier about him, but in a quiet way he was imperious, self-confident, self- sufficient. So little did his appearance then, or at any other time, conform to the popular ideal of the soldier, that one old grenadier of the Bourbon armies, on having Napoleon pointed out to him, after the Italian campaign, could not believe such a man could possibly be a great warrior. " That a general ! " said the veteran with con- tempt ; " why, when he walks he does not even step out with the right foot first ! " Extremely egotistic he was, and so remained to his last hour. He had no reverence, looked for fact in all direc- tions, had almost unerring judgment, and believed himself superior to his fellow-students, to his teachers, and to his brother officers. At the age of fifteen he was giving ad- vice to his father — very sound advice, too. At that early in LIEUTENANT 41 age he had taken family responsibilities upon his shoul- ders, and was gravely disposing of Joseph and Lucien. In a remarkable letter he elaborately analyzed Joseph's character, and reached the conclusion that he was an ami- able nonentity, fit only for society. It had been well for Napoleon if he had always remembered this, and acted upon it. In August, 1786, Napoleon spent a short time in Lyons. After this he was perhaps sent to Douay in Flanders, though he himself has written that on September 1, 1786, he obtained leave of absence and set out for Corsica, which he reached on the fifteenth of the same month. Napoleon found the condition of the family greatly changed. Charles Bonaparte had died in France in February, 1785. General Marbeuf, also, was, dead. The French officials were not now so friendly to the Bona- partes. Madame Letitia had been growing mulberry trees in order to obtain the governmental bounty — the govern- ment being intent upon building up the silk industry. Madame Bonaparte had apparently been giving mpre thought to the bounty than to the trees, and the result was that the officials had refused payment. Hence the supply of cash in the household was cut down to Napoleon's sal- ary (about 1225), and such sums as could, be teased out of the rich uncle — the miserly archdeacon. Desperately worried as he must have been by the condition of the family finances. Napoleon put a bold face upon it, strut- ting about town so complacently that he gave much offence to the local magnates — the town oracles whose kind words are not easily won by the neighborhood boys who have 42 NAPOLEON chaf. gone to distant colleges for an education and have returned for inspection and approval. To the sidewalk critics, who only nine years ago had jeered at the slovenly lad and his girl sweetheart, Napoleon's style of walk and talk may have seemed that of inflated self-conceit. Like a good son. Napoleon exerted himself to the utmost in behalf of his mother, making every effort to have the mulberry bounty paid, and to wring revenue out of the family property. He met with no success in either direc- tion, though it appears that he prevailed upon the local authorities to grant some slight favor to the family. At one time Madame Letitia was reduced to the necessity of doing all her housework with her own hands. At Elba, the Emperor related a story which belongs to this period of his life. He said that one day his mother's mother was hobbling along the street in Ajaccio, and that he and Pauline followed the old lady, and mimicked her. Their grandmother, happening to turn, caught them in the act. She complained to Madame Letitia. Pauline was at once " spanked " and disposed of ; Napoleon, who was rigged out in regimentals, could not be handled. His mother bided her time. Next day, when her son was off his guard, she cried, " Quick, Napoleon ! You are invited to dine with the governor ! " He ran up to his room to change clothing — she quietly followed. When she judged that the proper time had come, she rushed into the room, seized her undressed hero before he guessed her purpose, laid him across the maternal knees, and belabored him earnestly with the flat of her hand. In October, 1787, Napoleon was again in Paris, petition- ing the government in behalf of his mother, and seekincp to have his furlough extended. Failing as to his mother, Ill LIEUTENANT 43 succeeding as to himself, he was back home in January, 1788, and remained there until June of the same year. While in Corsica, Napoleon frequently dined with brother officers in the French army. Between him. and them, however, there was little congeniality. He was hotly Paolist, and his talk was either of Corsican inde- pendence or of topics historical and governmental. His brother officers did not enjoy these conversations. His patriotism offended ; his learning bored them. What did the average French officer of that day know or care about history and the science of government ? The upshot of such a dinner-party usually was that Napoleon got into a wrangle with that one of the officers who imagined he knew something of the subject, while the others, who honestly realized that they did not, would walk off in dis- gust. " My coriirades, like myself," says M. de Renain, one of the officers in question, " lost patience with what we considered ridiculous stuff and pedantry." So far did Napoleon carry his patriotic sentiments that he rather plainly threatened to take sides with the Corsi- cans if any collision should occur between the French and his countrymen. Upon this, one of the officers who dis- liked him asked sharply, "Would you draw your sword against the soldiers of the King ? " Napoleon, dressed in the King's uniform, had the good sense to remain silent. The officers were offended at his tone, and, says Renain, " This is the last time he did me the honor of dining with me." Not for a day had Napoleon neglected his books. To escape the household noises, he went to the attic, and there pursued his studies. Far- and wide ranged his rest- less? mind, from the exact sciences, dry and heavy, to Plato U NAPOLEON CHAr. and Ossian, rich in suggestions to the most opulent imag- ination nature ever gave a practical man. To the very last, Napoleon remained half mystic ; and when he stood in the storm the night before Waterloo, and cast into the darkness the words, " We are agreed " ; or when he remained silent for hours at St. Helena watching the vast wings of the mist whirl, and turn, and soar around the summit of the bleak, barren mountain of rock, we feel that if pens were there to trace his thought, Ossian would seem to live again. From his youth up the most striking characteristic of his mind was its enormous range ; its wide sweep from the pettiest, prosiest details of fact to the sublimest dreams and the most chimerical fancies. Not wholly satisfied with reading and commentary, he strove to compose. Under the Bourbons, his outlook in the army was' not promising. He might hope, after many tedious years of garrison service, to become a captain : after that it would be a miracle if he rose higher. Hence his lack of interest in the routine work of a soldier, and hence his ambition to become an author. He wrote a story called The Count of jEssex, also a novel founded on Corsican life, and pulsing with hatred of France. Another story which he called The, Masked Prophet, is the same which Moore afterward used in The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. His greatest exertions, however, were spent upon the History of Corsica. To this work he clung with a tenacity of purpose that is touching. All the long, tragic story of Corsica seems to have run like fire in the boy's veins, and the heroes of his country — Paoli, Sampiero, Delia Rocca — seemed to him to be as great as the men of antiquity, as perhaps they were. There- in LIEUTENANT 45 fore, the young man wrote and rewrote, trying to get the book properly written, his thoughts properly ex- pressed. He had turned to Raynal, as we have seen, and the abbe had kindly said, " Search further, and write it over." And Napoleon had done so. At least three times he had recast the entire book. He sought the approval of a former teacher, Dupuy ; he sent " copy " to Paoli. Dupuy had a poor opinion of the performance ; and Paoli told him flatly he was too young to write his- tory. But Napoleon persevered, finished the work, and eagerly sought publishers. Alas ! the publishers shook their heads. Finally, at Paris was found a bold adventurer in the realm of book-making, who was willing to under- take half the cost if the author would furnish the other half. But for one reason or another the book was never published. The passionate earnestness with which Napoleon toiled at his book on Corsican history, the intense- sympathy with which he studied the lives of Corsican heroes, the fiery wrath he nursed against those who had stricken down Corsican liberties, were but so many evidences of the set purpose of his youth — to free his country, to give it independence. There is no doubt that the one consuming ambition of these early years was as pure as it was great: he would do what Sampiero and Paoli had failed to do — -he would achieve the independence of Corsica ! Napoleon rejoined his regiment at Auxonne at the end of May, 1788. That he did so with reluctance is appar- ent from the manner in which he had distorted facts to obtain extension of his furlough. Garrison duty had no charms for him ; the dull drudgery of daily routine 46 NAPOLEON chap, hi became almost insupportable. It appears that he was put under arrest for the unsatisfactory manner in which he had superintended some work on the fortifications. .When off duty he gave his time to his books. He became ill, and wrote to his mother, " I have no resource but work. I dress but once in eight days. I sleep but little, and take but one meal a day." Under this regimen of no exercise, hard work, and little sleep he came near dying. In September, 1789, came another furlough, and the wan-looking lieutenant turned his face homeward. In passing through Marseilles he paid his respects to the Abbe Raynal. CHAPTER IV rpHE French Revolution was now ^(1789-90) getting under full headway. The States-General had met on May 5, 1789; the Third Estate had asserted and made good its supremacy. The King having ordered up troops and dismissed Necker, riots followed; the Bastille was taken and demolished. The nobles who had persuaded Louis XVI. to adopt the measures which provoked the riots, fled to foreign lands. Louis was brought from Versailles to Paris, Bailly was made mayor of the city, Lafayette commander of the National Guard, and on the night session of August 4, feudalism, losing hope, offered itself up as a sacrifice to the Revolution. Liberty, fraternity, equality, freedom of conscience, liberty of the press, were proclaimed; and the mighty movement which was shaking down the Old Order was felt at Auxonne as in Paris. The officers, as a rule, were for the King ; the soldiers for the nation. Society ladies and governmental officials were royalists, generally; so, also, the higher clericals. The cures and the masses of the people were for the Revolution. Instinctively, and without the slightest hesitation. Na- poleon took sides with the nation. He needed no coer- cion, no change of heart ; he was already an enemy of the Ancien Regime, and had been so from his first years in France. 47 18 • NAPOLEON chai-. " How does it happen that you, Napoleon, favor democ- racy ? You are a noble, educated at a school where none but nobles can enter ; you are an officer, a position none but nobles may hold ; you wear the King's livery ; you are fed on his bounty : where di;?. you get your republican principles ? " Supposing such a question to have been put, we can imagine the answer to have been something like this : — " I go with the reformers partly because I hate the Old Order, partly because I see in the coming changes a chance for me to rise, and partly because I believe the reformers are right. I have read books which gave me new ideas ; I have thought for myself, and reached conclusions of my own. The stupid monk who threw my schoolboy essay into the fire at Brienne because it criticised royalty, only stimulated my defiance and my independence. I have seen what your system of education is, and condemn it ; have learnt what your nobles are, and detest them. I have seen the Church, which preaches the beauties of poverty, rob my famjly of a rich inheritance, and I loathe the hypocrisy. I have read Rousseau, and believe in his gospel ; have studied Raynal, and agijiee that abuses must be reformed. I have looked into the conduct of kings, and believe that there are few who do not deserve to be dethroned. The privileged have combined, have closed the avenues of progress to the lower classes, have taken for a few what is the common heritage of all. The peo- ple are the source of power — those below not those above. I am poor, I hate those above me, I long to be rich, powerful, admired. If things remain as they are, I shall never be heard of : revolution will change all. New men will rise to make the most of new opportunities. IV KEVOLTJTION 49 Hence I am a Jacobin, a democrat, a republican — call it what you will. I am for putting the premium on man- hood. The tools to him who can use them ! As to the King's uniform and bounty — bah ! — you must take me for a child. The King gives nothing, is nothing; the nation gives all, and is everything. I go with the nation ! " With such thoughts fermenting in his head. Napoleon reached home, and at once began to agitate the politics of the island. Corsica was far out of the track of the Revo- lution, and the people had not been maddened by the abuses which prevailed in France. The one great national grievance in Corsica was French domination. Therefore to arouse the island and put it in line with revolutionary France, was a huge task. Nevertheless Napoleon and other young men set about it. Copying the approved French method, he formed a revolutionary committee, and began to organize a national guard. He became a violent speaker in the Jacobin club, and a most active agitator in the town. Soon the little city of Ajaccio was in commotion. Paoli's agents bestirred themselves throughout the island. In some towns the patript party rose against the French authorities. In Ajaccio the royalist party proved the stronger. The French commandant, De Barrin, closed the democratic club and proclaimed martial law. The patriots met in one of the churches, on the night of Octo- ber 31, 1789, and signed a vigorous protest and appeal to the National Assembly of France. This paper was writ- ten by Napoleon, and he was one of those who signed. Baulked in Ajaccio, Napoleon turned to Bastia, the capi- tal. Agitating there and distributing tricolor ed cockades 60 NAPOLEON chap. which he had ordered from Leghorn, he soon got matters so well advanced that he headed a deputation which waited upon the royal commandant and demanded that he, too, should adopt the national cockade. De Barrin, the com- mandant, refused. A riot broke out, and he consented. Napoleon agitated for a national guard. Deputations sought the governor and requested his sanction. He re- fused. One morning the streets were thronged with patriots, armed, marching to one of the churches to be enrolled. De Barrin called out his troops, trained cannon on the church, and set his columns in motion to attack. Shots were exchanged, two French soldiers killed, two wounded, and an officer got a bullet in the groin. Several Bastians, including two children, were wounded. De Barrin lost his head, yielded at all points, and ordered six hundred guns delivered to the insurgents. Prompt obe- dience not having been given to his order, the Bastians broke into the citadel, armed themselves, and insisted that they, jointly with the French, should garrison the fortress. When quiet was restored, the governor ordered Napoleon to leave, and he did so. This episode in Napoleon's career is related by an enemy of Napoleon, and' it is to be received with caution. Yet as it is a companion piece to what he had attempted at Ajaccio, there is nothing violently incredible about it. It is cer- tain he was very active at that time, and that he was often at Bastia. What was his purpose, if not to foment revo- lutionary movements ? On November 30, 1789, the National Assembly of France decreed the incorporation of Corsica with France, and amnesty for all political offenders, including Paoli. Bon- fires in Corsica and general joy greeted the news. The IT REVOLUTION Si triumph of the patriots was complete. A democratic town government for Ajaccio was organized, a friend of Napo- leon was chosen mayor, and Joseph was put in place as secretary to the mayor. A local guard was raised, and Napoleon served as private member of it. At the club and on the streets he was one of the loudest agitators. Paoli, now a hero in France as well as in Corsica, was called home by these events, received a magnificent ova- tion from the French, and reached Corsica, July, 1790. When he landed, after an exile of twenty-one years, the old man knelt to the ground and kissed it. Supported by the town government, Napoleon renewed his activity, the immediate object aimed at being the cap- ture of the citadel. He made himself intensely disagree- able to the royalists. Upon one occasion, during a religious procession, he was attacked by the Catholics, as an eneniy of the Church. His efforts to seize the citadel came to nothing. There was an uprising of the revolu- tionists iri the town, but the French officials fled into the citadel and prepared to defend it. Napoleon advised an attack, but the town authorities lost heart. They decided not to fight, but to protest ; and Napoleon drew up the paper. The people of Corsica met in local district meetings and chose delegates to an assembly which was to elect depart- mental and district councils to govern the island. This general assembly met at Orezzo, September 9, 1790, and remained in session a mouth. Among the delegates were Joseph Bonaparte and Uncle Fesch. Napoleon attended and took an active part in the various meetings which were held in connection with the work of the assembly. He was a frequent speaker at these meetings, and, while 52 NAPOLEON chap, timid and awkward at first, soon became one of the most popular orators. It was while he was on his way to Orezzo, that Napo- leon first met Paoli. The old hero gave the young man a distinguished reception. Attended by a large cavalcade, the two rode over the fatal field of Ponte Nuovo. Paoli pointed out the various positions the troops had occupied, and related the incidents of that lamentable day. Napo- leon's comments, his peculiar and original thought and speech, struck Paoli forcibly ; and he is said to have remarked that Napoleon was not modern, but reminded him of Plutarch's heroes. Napoleon himself, when at St. Helena, represents Paoli as often patting him on the head and making the remark above mentioned. The assembly at Orezzo voted that Corsica should constitute one department, and that Paoli should be its president. He was also made commander-in-chief of the National Guard. The conduct of Buttafuoco and Peretti who had been representing. Corsica in France, was con- demned. Pozzo di Borgo and Gentili were chosen to declare to the National Assembly the loyalty of Corsica to the principles of the French Revolution. Napoleon had endeavored to secure the election of Joseph Bonaparte to the general directory of the depart- ment. In this he failed, but Joseph was chosen as one of the district directory for Ajaccio. During the sitting of the convention Napoleon wiled away many an hour in familiar intercourse with the peas- antry. He visited them at their huts, made himself at home by their firesides, and interested himself in their affairs. " He revived some of the old Corsican festivals, and the target practice which had long been forbidden. IV REVOLUTION 53 Out of his own purse he offered prizes for the best marks- men. In this manner he won the hearts of the mountain- eers — a popularity which was of value to him soon afterward. Returned to Ajaccio, Napoleon continued to take promi- nent part in the debates of the club, and he also continued his efforts at authorship. He threw off an impassioned " open letter " to Buttafuoco. This was his first success- ful writing. With imperial pride, it is dated "from my summer house of Milleli." Stimulated perhaps by the applause with which young Corsican patriots hailed his bitter and powerful arraignment of a traitor, Napoleon ventured to compete for the prize which Raynal, through the Academy of Lyons, had offered for the best essay on the subject " What truths and ideas should be inculcated in order best to promote the happiness of mankind." His essay was severely criticised by the learned professors, and its author, of course, failed of the prize. It was on the plea that his health was shattered, and that the waters of Orezzo were good for his complaint, that Napoleon had been enabled to prolong his stay in Corsica. In February, 1791, he rejoined his regiment at Auxonne. His leave had expired long since, but his colonel kindly antedated his return. Napoleon had procured false certifi- cates, to the effect that he had been kept in Corsica by storms. To ease his mother's burden, he brought with him his little brother Louis, now twelve years old, whose sup- port and schooling Napoleon proposed to take upon him- self. To maintain the two upon his slender pay of lieutenant required the most rigorous economy. He avoided society, ate often nothing but bread, carried on his own studies, and taught Louis. The affectionate. 54 NAPOLEON chap. fatherly, self-denying interest he took in the boy beauti- fully illustrates the better side of his complex character. During the Empire an officer, whose pay was |200 per month, complained to Napoleon that it was not enough. The Emperor did not express the contempt he felt, but spoke of the pittance upon which he had been made to live. " When I was lieutenant, I ate dry bread ; but I shut the door on my poverty." It was at Dole, near Auxonne, that the letter to Butta- fuoco was printed. Napoleon used to rise early, walk to Dole, correct the proofs, and walk back to Auxonne, a dis- tance of some twenty miles, before dinner. In June, 1791, Napoleon became first lieutenant, with a yearly salary of about f260, and was transferred to the Fourth Regiment, stationed at Valence. Glad of the pro- motion and the slight increase in salary, he did not relish the transfer, and he applied for leave to remain at Auxonne. Permission was refused, and he quitted the place, owing (for a new uniform, a sword, and some wood) about f 23. Several years passed before he was able to pay off these debts. Back in Valence, he again lodged with old Mademoiselle Bou, he and Louis. He continued his studies, and con- tinued to teach Louis. His former friends were dead, or had moved away, and he did not go into society as he had done before ; his position was too dismal, his poverty too real. He lived much in his room, reading, studying, com- posing. Travels, histories, works which treated of poli- tics, of ecclesiastical affairs and institutions, attracted him specially. No longer seen in elegant drawing-rooms, he was the life of the political club. He became, successively, librarian, secretary, and president. IV KEVQLUTION 55 All this while the Revolution had been rolling on. The wealth of the Church was confiscated. Paper money was issued. The Festival of the Federation was solemnized. Necker lost his grip on the situation, and fled. Mirabeau became the hope of the moderates. Danton, Robespierre, Marat, became influential radicals. The Jacobin club rose to power. There developed the great feud between the Church aud the Revolution, and factions began to shed blood in many parts of France. The old-maid aunts of the King fled the realm, causing immense excitement. In April, 1791, Mirabeau died. His alliance with the court not being then known, his death called forth universal sorrow and memorial services. At Valence the republican club held such a service, and Napoleon is said to have delivered an address. Then came the flight of the King to Varennes. Upon this event also the club at Valence passed judgment, amid excitement and violent harangues. In July, 1791, the national oath of allegiance to the new order of things was taken at Valence with imposing cere- mony, as it was throughout the country. The constitution had not been finished ; but the French of that day had the faith which works wonders, and they took the oath with boundless enthusiasm. There was a monster meeting near Valence : a huge altar,, a grand coming together, on common ground, of dignitaries, high and low, officials of Church and State, citizens of all. degrees. Patriotism for one brief moment made them all members of one fond family. "We swear to be faithful to the Nation, the law, and the King ; to maintain the-, constitution ; and to remain united to all Frenchmen by the bonds of brotherhood." They all swore it, amid patri- otic shouts, songs, cannon thunder, band music, and uni- 56 NAPOLEON chap. versal ecstasy. Mass had begun the ceremony, a Te Deum ended it. At night there was a grand banquet, and one of those who proposed a toast was Napoleon. Of course he was one of those who had taken the oath. " Previous to this time," said he, later, " had I been ordered to fire upon the people, habit, prejudice, education, and the King's name would have induced me to obey. With the taking of the national oath it was otherwise ; my instinct and my duty were henceforth in harmony." Kings and aristocrats throughout the world were turn- ing black looks upon France, and an invasion was threat- ened. The Revolution must be put down. It was a fire v/hich might spread. This threat of foreign intervention had an electrical effect upon the French, rousing them to resistance. Paris was the storm centre, Napoleon was highly ex- cited, and to Paris he was most eager to go. Urgently he wrote to his great-uncle, the archdeacon, to send him three hundred francs to pay his way to Paris. " There one can push to the forefront. I feel assured of success. Will you bar my road for the lack of a hundred crowns?" The archdeacon did not send the money. Napoleon also wrote for six crowns his mother owed him. The six crowns seem not to have been sent. This anecdote of Napoleon's sojourn at Valence is pre- served by the local gossips: Early one morning the surgeon of the regiment went to Napoleon's 'toom to speak to Louis. Napoleon had long since risen, and was reading. Louis was yet asleep. To arouse the lad, Na- poleon took his sabre and knocked with the scabbard on the ceiling above. Louis soon came down, rubbing his 1, KEVOLUTION 57 eyes and complaining of having been waked in the midst of a beautiful dream — a dream in which Louis had fig- ured as a king. " You a king ! " said Napoleon ; " I suppose I was an emperor then." The keenest pang Napoleon ever suffered from the ingratitude of those he had favored, was given him by this same Louis, for whom he had acted the devoted, self-denying father. Not only was Louis basely ungrate- ful in the days of the Napoleonic prosperity, but he pursued his brother with vindictive meanness when that brother lay dying at St. Helena, publishing a libel on him so late as 1820. A traveller in Corsica (Gregorovius, 1852) writes : "We sat around a large table and regaled ourselves with an excellent supper. ... A dim olive-oil lamp lit the Homeric wanderers' meal. Many a bumper was drunk to the heroes of Corsica. We were of four na- tions, — Corsicans, French, Germans, and Lombards. I once mentioned the name of Louis Bonaparte, and asked a question. The company suddenly became silent, and the gay Frenchman looked ashamed." In August, 1791, Napoleon obtained another furlough, and with about ISO, which he had borrowed from the paymaster of his regiment, he and Louis set out for home. Again he left debts behind him, one of them being his board bill. CHAPTER V OOON after Napoleon reached home, the rich uncle, the archdeacon, died, and the Bonapartes got his money. The bulk of it was invested in the confiscated lands of the Church. Some of it was probably spent in Napoleon's political enterprises. Officers of the Corsican National Guard were soon to be elected, and Napoleon formed his plans to secure for him- self a lieutenant colon elship. The leaders of the opposing faction were Peraldi and Pozzo di Borgo. Three commissioners, appointed by the Directory of the Island, had the supervision of the election, and the influ- ence of these officers would have great weight in deciding the contest. Napoleon had recently been over the island in company with Volney, inspector of agriculture and manufactures, and had personally canvassed for votes among the country people. He had made many friends ; and, in spite of powerful opposition in the towns, it appeared probable that he would win. It is said that he resorted to the usual electioneering methods, including bribes, threats, promises, and hospitality. Napoleon made a good combination with Peretti and Quenza, yielding to that interest the first lieutenant coldnelship. The second was to his own. But one of the commissioners, Murati, took up lodgings with Bonaparte's rival candidate, Pe- 58 CHAP. V RETURNS HOME 59-. raldi. This was an ominous sign for Napoleon. On the. niglit before the election, he got together some of his more violent partisans, sent them against the house of Peraldi,. and had Murati seized and brought to the house of the- Bonapartes. "You were not free at Peraldi' s," said Napo-^ leon to the amazed commissioner ; "here you enjoy liberty." Murati enjoyed it so much that he was afraid to stir out of the house till the election was over. Next morning Pozzo di Borgo commenced a public and violent harangue, denouncing the seizure of the commis- sioner. He was not allowed to finish. The Bonapartfr faction rushed upon the speaker, knocked him down, kicked him, and would have killed him had not Napoleon interfered. In this episode is said to have originated the^ deadly hatred with which Pozzo ever afterward pursued Napoleon, who triumphed over him in the election. Ajaccio was torn by revolutionary passion and faction. Resisting the decrees of the National Assembly of France,, the Capuchin friars refused to vacate their quarters. Riotous disputes between the revolutionists and the parti- sans of the Old Order ensued. The public peace was dis- turbed. The military ousted the friars, and took possession of the cloister. This added fuel to the flames, and on Easter day there was a collision between the factions. One of the officers of the militia was killed. Next morn- ing, reenforcements from outside the town poured in to- the military. Between the volunteer guards on the one hand, the citadel garrison and the clerical faction on the other, a pitched battle seemed inevitable. Commissioners,, sent by Paoli, arrived, dismissed the militia, and restored quiet by thus virtually deciding in favor of the Capuchins. Napoleon was believed by the victorious faction to have- 60 NAPOLEON ■ chap. been the instigator of all the trouble. The commander of the garrison bitterly denounced him to the war office in Paris. Napoleon, on the contrary, published a mani- festo in his own defence, hotly declaring that the whole town government of Ajaccio was rotten, and should have been overthrown. Unless Ajaccio differed radically from most towns, then and now, the indictment was well founded. At all events, his career in Corsica was at an end, for the time. He had strained his relations with the French war office, had ignored positive orders to rejoin his com- mand, had been stricken off the list for his disobedience, had exhausted every resource on his Corsican schemes, and was now at the end of his rope. And what had he gained ? He had squandered much money, wasted much precious time, established a character for trickiness, vio- lence, and unscrupulous self-seeking ; and had aroused implacable enmities, one of which (that of Pozzo) had no trifling share in giving him the death- wound in his final struggles in 1814-15. What, after it all, must he now do ? He must get up a lot of certificates to his good con- duct during the long time he had been absent from France ; he must go to Paris and petition the central authority to be taken back to the French army. There was no trouble in getting the certificates. Paoli and his party, the priests and the wealthy towns-people, were so eager to get rid of this dangerous young man that they were ready to sign any sort of paper, if only he would go away. Armed with documentary evidence of his good behavior. Napoleon left Corsica in May, 1792, and reached Paris on the 28th of that month. Things were in a whirl in France. War had been V RETURNS HOME 61 declared against Austria. Officers of royalist principles were resigning and fleeing the country. Excitement, sus- picion, alarm, uncertainty, were everywhere. No atten- tion could be given to Napoleon and his petition just then. He saw that he would have to wait, be patient and persistent, if ever he won reinstatement. Meanwhile he lived in great distress. With no money, no work, no powerful friends, Paris was a cold place for the suppliant. He sauntered about with Bourrienne, ate at the cheapest restaurants, discussed many plans for putting money in his purse — none of which put any there. He pawned his watch to get the bare necessaries of life. Bearing in mind that Napoleon had been so active in the republican clubs at Valence and Ajaccio, and recalling the urgent appeal for three hundred francs which he had made to his great-uncle in order that he might go to Paris and push himself to the front, his attitude now that he was in Paris is a puzzle. According to his own account and that of Bourrienne, he was a mere spectator. A royal officer, he felt no inclination to defend the King. A violent democratic agitator, he took no part in the revolutionary movements. Seeing the mob marching to the Tuileries in June, his only thought was to get a good view of what was going on ; therefore he ran to the ter- race on the bank of the river and climbed an iron fence. He saw the rabble burst into the palace, saw the King appear at the window with the red cap on his head. " The poor driveller ! " cried Napoleon. And according to Bourrienne he said that four or five hundred of the mob should have been swept away with cannon, and that the others would have taken to their heels. During the exciting month of July,, Napoleon was still 62 NAPOLEON chap. in Paris. He was promenading the streets daily, mingling "with the people ; he was idle, discontented, ambitious ; he was a violent revolutionist, and was not in the habit of concealing his views : therefore the conclusion is well-nigh irresistible that he kept in touch with events, and knew what was in preparation. Where was Napoleon when the battalion from Marseilles arrived ? What was his attitude -during Danton's preparation for the great day on which the throne was to be overturned ? Was an ardent, in- tensely active man like Napoleon listless and unconcerned, while the tramp of the gathering thousands shook the city? He had long since written "Most kings deserve to be dethroned " : did he by any chance hear what Danton said at the Cordeliers, — said with flaming eyes, thunder- ing voice, and wild gesticulation, — " Let the tocsin sound the last hour of kings. Let it peal forth the first hour of vengeance, and of the liberty of the people ! To arms ! and it will go ! " ■ However much we may wish for light on this epoch of Napoleon's career, we have no record of his movements. We only know that on the 10th of August he went to see the spectacle, and' saw it. From a window in a neigh- boring house, he looked down upon the Westermann attack and the Swiss defence. He saw the devoted guards of the palace drive the assailants out, doubtless heard Wes- termann and the brave courtesan, Theroigne de Mericourt, rally their forces and renew the assault; was amazed perhaps, Avhen the Swiss ceased firing; and looked on while the triumphant Marseillaise broke into the palace. After the massacre, he walked through the Tuileries, piled with the Swiss dead, and was more impressed by the sight than he ever was by the dead on his own fields -»• RETURNS HOME 63 of battle. He sauntered through the crowds and the neighboring cafes, and was so cool and indifferent that he aroused suspicion. He met a gang of patriots bear- ing a head on a pike. His manner did not, to this gang, indicate sufficient enthusiasm. " Shout, ' Live the nation,' " demanded the gang ; and Napoleon shouted, '" Live the nation ! " He saw a man of Marseilles about to murder a wounded Swiss. He said, " Southron, let us spare the unfortunate." — "Art thou from the South?" — "Yes." — "Then we will spare him." According to Napoleon, if the King had appeared on horseback, — that is, dared to come forth and lead the defence, — he would have won the day. Other days of wrath Napoleon spent in Paris — the days of the September massacres. What he saw, heard, and felt is not known. Only in a general way is it known that during the idle summer in Paris, Napoleon lost many of his republican illusions. He conceived a horror of mob violence and popular license, which exerted a tremendous influence over him throughout his career. He lost faith in the purity and patriotism of the revolutionary leaders. He reached the conclusion that each man was for himself, that each one sought only his own advantage. For the people themselves, seeing them so easily led by lies, preju- dices, and passions, he expressed contempt. The Jacobins were, he thought, a "parcel of fools"; the leaders of the Revolution "a sorry lot." This sweepingly severe judgment was most unfortu- nate ; it bore bitter fruit for Napoleon and for France. He never ceased to believe that each man was governed by his interest — an opinion which is near the truth, but di NAPOLEON CHAP. is not the truth. If the truth at all, it is certainly not the whole truth. Napoleon, with the independence of his native land ever in mind, wrote to his brother Joseph to cling to Paoli ; that events were tending to make him the all- powerful man, and might also evolve the independence of Corsica. During this weary period of waiting. Napoleon was often at the home of the Permons. On the 7th or 8th of August an emissary of the revolutionary government made his way into the Permon house without a warrant, and, because M. Permon refused to recognize his authority and threatened to take a stick to him, left in a rage to report against Permon. Napoleon, happening to call at this time, learned the fact, and hurried off to the section where he boldly denounced the illegal conduct of the officer. Permon was not molested further. The King became a prisoner of the revolutionists, the moderates fell from power, the radicals took the lead. Napoleon's case had already received attention, he had already been pronounced blameless, and he was now, August 30, 1792, restored to his place in the army, and promoted. He was not only made captain, but his com- mission and pay were made to date from February 6, 1792, at which time he would have been entitled to his promotion had he not fallen under official displeasure. Such prompt and flattering treatment of the needy officer by the radi- cals who had just upset the monarchy, gives one additional cause to suspect that Napoleon's relation to current events and Jacobin leaders was closer than the record shows. V RETURNS HOME 65 It became good policy for him in after years to suppress the evidence of his revolutionary period. Thus he burnt the Lyons essay, and bought up, as he supposed, all copies of The Supper of Beaucaire. The conclusion is irresist- ible that the eiforts to suppress have been more success- ful as to the summer of 1792 than in the other instances. It is impossible to believe that Napoleon, who had been so hot in the garrison towns where he was stationed in France, and who had turned all Corsica topsy- turvy with democratic harangues and revolutionary plots, should have become a passionless gazer at the show in Paris. . Whatever share he took, or did not take, in the events of the summer, he now turned homeward. The Assembly having abolished the St. Cyr school, where his sister Elisa was. Napoleon asked and was given leave to escort her back to Corsica. Travelling expenses were liberally provided bj^ the State. Stopping at Valence, where he was warmly greeted by local friends, including Made- moiselle Bou to whom he owed a board bill. Napoleon and Elisa journeyed down the Rhone to Marseilles, and sailed for Corsica, which they reached on the 17th of Septem- ber, 1792. The situation of the Bonaparte family was much improved. The estate was larger, the revenues more satisfactory. Joseph was in office. Lucien was a lead- ing agitator in the Jacobin club. The estate of- the rich uncle had helped things wonderfiill}'. It must have been from this source that Napoleon derived the fine vine- yard of which he spoke to Las Cases, at St. Helena, as supplying him with funds — which vineyard he afterward gave to his old nurse. The position which his promo- 66 NAPOLEON chap. tion in the army gave him ended the persecution which had virtually driven him from home ; and a reconciliation was patched up between him and Paoli. Napoleon insisted upon holding both his offices, ■ — the captaincy in the regular army and the lieutenant colonelship in the Corsican National Guard. Paoli strongly objected ; but the younger man, partly by threats, carried his point. It may have been at this period that Paoli slightly modi- fied'the Plutarch opinion ; he is said to have remarked : "You see that little fellow? Well, he has in him the making of two or three men like Marius and one like Sulla ! " During his sojourn in Corsica, Napoleon took part in the luckless expedition which the French government sent against the island of Sardinia. The Corsican forces were put under the command of Paoli's nephew, Colonna-Caesari, whose orders, issued to him by Paoli, who strongly op- posed the enterprise, were, "See thatthis expedition ends in smoke." The nephew obeyed the uncle to the letter. In spite of Napoleon's good plan, in spite of his successful attack on the hostile forts, Colonna declared that his troops were about to mutiny, and he sailed back home. Loudly denouncing Colonna as a traitor. Napoleon bade adieu to his volunteers, and returned to Ajaccio. There was great indignation felt by the Jacobins against Paoli. He was blamed for the failure of the Sardinian eipedition, for his luke-warmness toward the French Rev- olution, and for his alleged leaning to England. The September massacres, and the beheading of the King, had been openly denounced by the old hero, and he had exerted his influence in favor of conservatism in Corsica. The Bonaparte faction was much too rabid, and the Bonaparte V RETURNS HOME 6^ brothers altogether too feverishly eager to push themselves forward. The friendship and mutual admiration which Napoleon and Paoli had felt for each other had cooled. Paoli had thrown ice water on the History of Corsica, and had refused to supply the author with certain docu- ments needed in the preparation of that work. Neither had he approved the publication of the Letter to Butta- fuoco ; it was too bitter and violent. Again, his influ- ence seems to have been thrown against the Bonapartes at the Orezzo assembly. All these things had doubtless had their effect; but the radical difference between the two men, Napoleon and Paoli, was one of Corsiean policy. Napoleon wished to revolutionize the island, and Paoli did not. If Corsiean independence could not be won. Napo- leon favored the French connection. Paoli, dismayed by the violence of the Revolution in France, favored connec- tion with England. It is said that Lucien Bonaparte, in the club at Ajaccio, denounced Paoli as a traitor. The club selected a delega- tion to go to Marseilles and denounce the old hero to the Jacobin clubs there. Lucien was a member of the dele- gation ; but after delivering himself a wild tirade against Paoli in Marseilles, he returned to Corsica. The delega- tion went on to Paris. In April, 1793, Paoli was formally denounced in the National Convention, and summoned to its bar for trial. At first Napoleon warmly defended Paoli, and drew up an iinpassioned address to the Convention in his favor. In this paper he expressly defends his old chief from the accusation of wishing to put Corsica into the hands of the English. Within two weeks after writing the defence of Paoli» 68 NAPOLEON chap. Napoleon joined his enemies. What brought about this sudden change is not certain. His own excuse was that Paoli was seeking to throw the island to England. As a matter of fact, however, Napoleon's course at this period seems full of double dealing. For a time he did not have the confidence of either faction. Semonville, one of the French commissioners then in Corsica, related to Chancellor Pasquier, many years later, how Napoleon had come and roused him, in the middle of the night, to say : " Mr. Commissioner, I have come to say that I and mine will defend the cause of the union between Corsica and France. People here are on the point of committing follies ; the Convention has doubt- less committed a great crime " — in guillotining the King — " which I deplore more than any one ; but whatever may happen, Corsica must always remain a part of France." As soon as this decision of the Bonapartes became known, the Paolists turned upon them savagely, and their position became difficult. The French commis- sioners, of whom the leader was Salicetti, appointed Napoleon inspector general of artillery for Corsica. He immediately set about the capture of the citadel of Ajaccio, the object of so much of his toil. Force failed, stratagem availed not, attempted bribery did not succeed ; the citadel remained untaken. Ajaccians bitterly resented his desertion of Paoli, and his life being in danger, Napoleon in disguise fled to Bastia. Indomitable in his purpose, he proposed to Salicetti's commission another plan for the seizure of the coveted citadel. Some French war vessels then at St. Florent were to surprise Ajaccio, land men and guns, and with the help of some Swiss r RETURNS HOME 69 troops, and of such Corsicans as felt disposed to help, the citadel was to be taken. Paoli was warned, and he prepared for the struggle. The French war vessels sailed from St. Elorent, Napoleon on board, and reached Ajaccio on May 29. It was too late. The Paolists, fully prepared, received the assailants with musketry. Napoleon captured an outpost, and held it for two days ; but the vessels could not cooperate effi- ciently, and the assailants abandoned the attempt. Na- poleon joined his family at Calvi. They had fled from Ajaccio as Napoleon sailed to the attack, and the Paolists were so furiously enraged against them that their estates were pillaged and their home sacked. Paoli had made a last effort to conquer the resolution of Madame Letitia, but she was immovable. On June 11 the fugitives left Corsica for France, escaping from their enemies by hiding near the seashore till a boat could approach in the dark- ness of night and take them away. Jerome and Caroline were left behind, concealed by the Ramolinos. Napoleon himself narrowly escaped with his life. He was saved from a trap the Peraldis had set by the faith- fulness of the Bonaparte tenants. He was forced to dis- guise himself, and lay concealed till arrangements could be made for his flight. Far-seeing was the judgment and inflexible the courage which must have sustained him in cutting loose entirely from his first love, Corsica, and casting himself upon revolutionary France. For it would have been an easy matter for him to have gone with the crowd and been a great man in Corsica. In his will Napoleon left 100,000 francs to Costa, the loyal friend to whom he owed life at the time the Paolists were hounding him down as a traitor. CHAPTER VI rriHE French revolutionists had overturned the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons, but they themselves had split into factions. The Moderates vs^ho favored consti- tutional monarchy had been trodden under foot by the Girondins who favored a federated republic ; and the Girondins, in their turn, had been crushed by the Jaco- bins vsfho favored an undivided republic based upon the absolute political equality of all Frenchmen. To this doc- trine they welded State-socialism with a boldness which shocked the world at the time, and converted it a few years later. The Girondins did not yield without a strug- gle, drawing to themselves all disaffected elements, in- cluding the royalists ; and the revolt which followed was supported by the English. Threatened thus from within and without, the Revolution seemed doomed to perish. It was in the midst of this turmoil that the Bonapartes landed at Toulon in June, 1793. In a short while they removed to Marseilles. Warmly greeted by the Jacobins, who regarded them as martyrs to the good cause, the im- mediate necessities of the family were relieved by a small pension which the government had provided for such cases. Still, as they had fled in such haste from their house in Ajaccio that Madame Letitia had to snatch up the little Jerome and bear him in her arms, their condition upon reaching France was one of destitution. 70 Fruiii an ensraving by Tomkins of a drawing from life during the cam- paign in Italy, lu the collection of Mr. W. C. Crane CHAP. VI FIRST SERVICE 71 " One of the liveliest recollections of my youth," said Prince Napoleon, son of Jerome Bonaparte, " is the account my father gave of the arrival of our family in a miserable house situated in the lanes of Meilhan," a poor district of Marseilles. " They found themselves in the greatest poverty." Having arranged for the family as well as he could. Napoleon rejoined his regiment at Nice. To shield him- self from censure, on account of his prolonged absence, he produced Salicetti's certificate to the effect that the Com- missioner had kept him in Corsica. The statement was false, but served its purpose. So many officers had fled their posts, and affairs were so unsettled, that it was no time to reject offers of service; nor was it a good time to ride rough-shod over the certificate of so influential a Jacobin as Salicetti. Napoleon's first service in France was against the Giron- din revolt. At Avignon, which the insurgents held, and which the Convention forces had invested. Napoleon, who had been sent from Nice to secure necessary stores, was appointed to the command of a battery. Mr. Lanfrey says, " It is certain that with his own hands he pointed the cannons with which Carteaux cleared Avignon of the Marseilles federates." About this time it was that Napoleon came in contact with Augustin Robespierre, brother of the great man in Paris. Tlie Convention had adopted the policy of sending comaiissidners to the armies to stimulate, direct, and report. Robespierre was at the head of one of these formidable delegations, and was now at Avignon in his official capacity. With him, but on a . separate commission, were Salicetti and Gasparin. 72 NAPOLEON chap. To these gentlemen Napoleon read a political pamphlet he had just finished, and which he called The Supper of Beaucaire. The pamphlet was a discussion of the politi- cal situation. The author threw it into the attractive and unusual form of a dialogue between several guests whom he supposed to have met at an inn in the town of Beau- caire. An actual occurrence of the sort Avas doubtless the basis of the pamphlet. A citizen of Nismes, two merchants of Marseilles, a manufacturer of Montpellier, and a soldier (supposed to be Napoleon), finding themselves at supper together, fell naturally into conversation and debate, the subject being the recent convulsions. The purpose of the pamphlet was to demonstrate the weakness of the insurgent cause, and the necessity of submission to the established authori- ties at Paris. The Commissioners were so well pleased with Napoleon's production that they ordered the work published at the expense of the government. Exerting himself in behalf of his family. Napoleon secured positions in the public service for Lucien, Joseph, and Uncle Fesch. Into the great seaport town of Toulon, thousands of the 'Girondin insurgents had thrown themselves. The royal- ists and the Moderates of the city made common cause with the revolting republicans, and England was ready to help hold the place against the Convention. The royalists, confident the counter-revolution had come, began to massacre the Jacobins in the town. The white flag of the Bourbons was run up, displacing the red, white, and blue. The little boy, son of Louis XVI., Ti FIRST SERVICE 73 who was lying in' prison at Paris, was proclaimed king under the name of Louis XVII. Sir Samuel Hood, com- manding the British fleet, sailed into the harbor and took possession of about twenty -five French ships, " in trust " for the Bourbons ; General O'Hara hurried from Gibraltar with troops to aid in holding this "trust"; and to the support of the English flocked Spaniards, Sardinians, and Neapolitans. Even the Pope could not withhold his help- ing hand ; he sent some priests to lend their prayers and exhortations. When it became known throughout France that Tou- lon had revolted, had begun to exterminate patriots, had proclaimed a Bourbon king, had surrendered to the Brit- ish the arsenal, the harbor, the immense magazines, and the French fleet, a tide of furious resentment rose against the town. There was but one thought: Toulon must be taken, Toulon must be punished. The hunger for revenge said it ; the promptings of self-preservation said it ; the issue was one of life or death to the Revo- lution. The Convention realized the crisis ; the Great Commit- tee realized it ; and the measures taken were prompt. Commissioners hurried to the scene, and troops poured in. Barras, a really effective man in sudden emergencies, Freron, Salicetti, Gasparin, Ricord, Albitte, and Robes- pierre the Younger were all on hand to inspirit the army and direct events. Some twenty odd thousand soldiers soon beleagured the town. They were full of courage, fire, and enthusiasm ; but their commander was a painter, Carteaux, whose ideas of war were very primitive. To find whefe the enemy was, and then cannonade him vigor- ously, and then fall on him with muskets, was about the 74 NAPOLEON chap. substance of Carteau"x' military plans. At Toulon, owing to peculiarities of the position, such a plan was not as excellent as it might have been at some other places. Besides, he had no just conception of the means needed for such a work as he had undertaken. Toulon, with its double harbor, . the inner and the outer, its defences by land and by sea, to say nothing of the fortresses which Lord Mulgrave had constructed on the strip of land which separated and commanded the two harbors, pre- sented difficulties which demanded a soldier. Carteaux was brave and energetic, but no soldier ; and week after week wasted away without any material progress having been made in the siege. Near the middle of September, 1793, Napoleon appeared at Toulon, — at just the right moment, — for the artillery service had well-nigh broken down. General Duteuil, who was to have directed it, had not arrived ; and Dom- martin had been disabled by a wound. How did Napo- leon, of the army of Italy, happen to be at Toulon at this crisis ? The question is one of lasting interest, because his entire career pivots on Toulon. Mr. Lanfrey states that, on his way from Avignon to Nice, Napoleon stopped at Toulon, was invited by the Commissioners to inspect the works, and so won upon them by his intelli- gent comments, criticisms, and suggestions, that they appointed him at once to a command. Napoleon's own account of the matter was that the Minister of War sent him to Toulon to take charge of the artillery, and that it was with written authority that he confronted Carteaux, who was not at all pleased to see him. " This was not necessary ! " exclaimed Carteaux. " Nevertheless, you are welcome. You will share the VI FIRST SERVICE 76 glory of taking the town without having borne any of the toil ! " But the biographers are almost unanimous in refusing to credit.this account. Why Napoleon should have falsified it, is not apparent. Mr. Lanfrey says that Napoleon's reason for not wishing to admit that the Commissioners appointed him was that he was unwilling to own that he had been under obligations to Salicetti. But Salicetti was only one of the Commissioners ; he alone could not appoint. So far was Napoleon from being ashamed to acknowledge debts of gratitude that he never wearied of adding to the list. In his will he admits what he owed to the protec- tion of Gasparin at this very period, and left a legacy of $20,000 to that Commissioner's son. Hence Mr. Lan- frey's reasoning is not convincing. Napoleon surely ought to have known how he came to be at Toulon, and his nar- rative is natural, is seemingly truthful, and is most positive. But these recent biographers who dig and delve, and turn things over, and find out more about them a century after the occurrences than the men who took part in them ever knew, assert most emphatically that both Mr. Lanfrey and Napoleon are wrong. They insist that the way it all happened was this : After Dommartin was wounded. Adjutant General Cervoni, a Corsican, was sent to Marseilles to hunt around and find a capable artillery ofiicer. Apparently it was taken for granted by whoever sent Cervoni, that capable artillery officers were straggling about at random, and could be found by diligent searchers in the lanes and by-ways of towns and cities. We are told that Cervoni, arrived in Marseilles, was strolling the streets, his eyes ready for the capable artillery officer, — • when, who should he see coming down the road, dusty 76 NAPOLEON chap. and worn, but his fellow-Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte ! Here, indeed, was a capable artillery officer, one who had just been to Avignon, and was on his way back to Nice. That Cervoni should at once invite the dusty Napoleon into a cafe, to take a drink of punch Avas quite as natural as any other part of this supernatural yarn. While drink- ing punch, Cervoni tells Napoleon his business, and urges him to go to Toulon and take charge of the artillery. And tliis ardently ambitious young man, who is yearning for an opening, is represented as at first declining the brilliant opportunity Cervoni thrusts upon him ! But at length punch, persuasion, and sober second thought soften Napoleon, and he consents to go. ' All this you may read in some of the most recent works of the diggers and delvers ; and you may believe it, if you are very, very credulous. The arrival on the scene of an educated artillery officer like Napoleon, one whose handling of his guns at Avignon had achieved notable success, was a welcome event. His friends, the Commissioners, took him over the field of operations to show him the placing and serving of the batteries. He was astonished at the crude manner in which all the arrangements had been made, and pointed out the errors to the Commissioners. First of all, the batteries were not in range of the enemy ; the balls fell into the sea, far short of the mark. " Let us try a proof- shot," said Napoleon ; and luckily he used a technical term, coup d'Spreuve. Favorably impressed with this scientific method of expression, the Commissioners and Carteaux consented. The proof-shot was fired, and the ball fell VI FIRST SERVICE 77 harmlessly into the sea, less than halfway to its mark. " Damn the aristocrats ! " said Carteaux ; " they have spoilt our powder." But the Commissioners had lost faith in Carteaux' man- agement of the artillery ; they determined to put Napo leon in charge of it. On the 29th of September, Gasparin and Salicetti recom- mended his promotion to the rank of major, and on the next day they reported that Bonaparte was "the only artillery captain able to grasp the operations." From the first Napoleon threw his whole heart into his work. He never seemed to sleep or to rest. He never left his batteries. If exhausted, he wrapped himself in his cloak, and lay down on the ground beside the guns. From LyonS) Grenoble, Briangon, he requisitioned addi- tional material. From the army of Italy he got more can- non. From Marseilles he took horses and workmen, to make gabions, hurdles, and fascines. Eight bronze guns he took from Martigues ; timbers from La Seyne ; horses from Nice, Valence, and Montpellier. At the ravine called OUioules he established an arsenal with forty workmen, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, all busy making those things the army needed ; also a gunsmith's shop for the repair of muskets ; and he took steps to reestablish the Dardennes gun foundry- Thus he based his hopes of success upon work, intense, well-directed, comprehensive work. All possible precau- tions were taken, all possible preparations made, every energy bent to bring to bear those means necessary to the end. Nothing was left to chance, good luck, providence, or inspiration. Cold calculation governed all, tireless labor provided all, colossal driving force moved it all. In 78 NAPOLEON chap. ever so short a time, Napoleon was felt to be " the soul of the siege." In November he was made acting commander of the artillery. Carteaux had been dismissed, and to the painter succeeded a doctor named Doppet. The physician had sense enough to soon see that an easier task than the taking of Toulon would be an agreeable change, and he asked to be sent elsewhere. To him succeeded Dugom- mier, an excellent soldier of the old school. Dutiel, offi- cial commander of the artillery, at length arrived, and he was so well pleased with Napoleon's work that he did not interfere. The Committee of Public Safety, sitting in Paris, had sent a plan of operations, the main idea of which was a complete investment of the town. This would have re- quired sixty thousand troops, whereas Dugommier had but twenty-five thousand. But he dared not disobey the terrible Committee. Between the loss of Toulon and his own head he wavered painfully. A council of war met. The Commissioners of the Convention were present, among them Barras, Ricord, and Freron. Officers of the army thought the committee plan bad, but hesitated to say so in plain words. One, and the youngest, spoke out; it was Napoleon. He pointed to the map lying unrolled on the table, explained that Toulon's defence depended on the British fleet, that the fleet could not stay if a land battery commanded the harbor, and that by seizing a certain point, the French would have complete mastery of the situation. On that point on the map he put his finger, saying, "There is Toulon." He put his plan in writing, and it was sent to the war office in Paris. A second council of war adopted his views, and ordered him to put them into execution. Ti FIRST SERVICE 79 The English had realized the importance of the strategic point named by Napoleon, and they had already fortified it. The redoubt was known as Fort Mulgrave ; also as Little Gibraltar. On the 30th of November the English made a desperate attempt to storm Napoleon's works. They were repulsed, and their leader, General O'Hara, was taken prisoner. At St. Helena Na,poleon said that he himself had seized the wounded Englishman and drawn him within the French lines. This statement appears to have been one of his fancy sketches. Others say that General O'Hara was taken by .four obscure privates of Suchet's battalion. A cannoneer having been killed by his side, Napoleon seized the rammer and repeatedly charged the gun. The dead man had had the itch ; Napoleon caught it, and was tiot cured until he became consul. Constantly in the thick of the fighting, he got a bayonet thrust in the thigh. He fell into the arms of Colonel Muiron, who bore him to a place of safety. Napoleon showed the scar to O'Meara at St. Helena. It was at Toulon that fame first took up that young dare-devil, Junot, whom Napoleon afterward spoiled by lifting him too high. Supping with some brother officers near the batteries, a .shell from the enemy fell into the tent, and was about to burst, when Junot rose, glass in hand, and exclaimed, " I drink to those who are about to die ! " The shell burst, one poor fellow was killed, and Junot drank, " To the memory of a hero ! " Some days after this incident Junot volunteered to make for Napoleon a very dangerous reconnoissance. " Go in civilian's dress ; your uniform will expose you to too much 80 NAPOLEON chap. risk." — "No," replied Junot, "I will not shrink from the chance of being shot like a soldier; but I will not risk being hanged like a spy." The reconnoissance made, Junot came to Napoleon to report. " Put it in writing," said Napoleon ; and Junot, using the parapet of the battery as a desk, began to write. As he finished the first page, a shot meant for him struck the parapet, covering him and the paper with earth. " Polite of these English," he cried, laughing, " to send me some sand just when I wanted it." Before very long Napoleon was a general, and Junot was his aide-de-camp. On December 17 everything was ready for the grand assault on the English works. Between midnight and day, and while a rainstorm was raging, the forts, which for twenty-four hours had been bombarded by five batter- ■ ies, were attacked by the French. Repulsed at the first onset, Dugoinmier's nerve failed him, and he cried, " I am a lost man," thinking of that terrible committee in Paris which would cut off his head. Fresh troops were hurried up, the attack renewed, and Little Gibraltar taken. Thus Napoleon's first great military success was won in a fair square fight with the English, Assaults on other points in the line of defence had also been made, and had succeeded ; and Toulon was at the mercy of Napoleon's batteries. The night that followed was one of the most frightful in the annals of war. The English fleet was no longer safe in the harbor, and was preparing to sail away. Toulon was frantic with terror. The royalists, the Girondins, the refugees from Lyons and Marseilles, rushed from their home's, crowded the quays, making every effort to reach the English ships. The Jacobins of the town, now that their turn had come, made i 4 ■o ~5> I