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The birthplace and chldhood of Napoleon 
 
 3 1924 024 348 785 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 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/cu31924024348785 
 
Ajaccto. 
 
The Birthplace 
 and Childhood of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 BY 
 
 HOWELL-AP-HOWELL. 
 
 Illustrated by 18 photographs 
 
 taken on the spot ty G. E. Thompson, 
 
 author of " Around the 
 
 Roman Campagna" etc. 
 
 'Youth, what man's age Is like to be, doth show; 
 We may our ends by our beginnings know" 
 
 Denham. 
 
 EDWARD HOWELL, 
 CHURCH STREET, 
 LIVERPOOL. 
 MDCCCXCVI. 
 
 3 
 

 j\/pJZ3VHf 
 
 7m) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Island of Corsica ... x 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The French in Corsica 5 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 History of Corsica - 13 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAOLI .... -23 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Ajaccio - 30 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The House of the Buonapartes 36 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Napoleon ... 40 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Napoleon's Childhood ... 44 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Napoleon's Schooldays - - 49 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Ajaccio .... ... Frontispiece 
 
 Grand Hotel in Ajaccio 12 
 
 Tomb of King Theodore in Soho, London . . 31 
 
 Bust of Napoleon by Canova 29 
 
 Avenue leading from the Quay of Ajaccio 30 
 
 Cours Napoleon, Ajaccio . ... 31 
 
 Statue of Napoleon 32 
 
 Napoleon — (Bronze cast after death) .... 34 
 
 House of the Buonapartes 35 
 
 Madame Letitia's Spinet in House of the Buona- 
 partes 37 
 
 The Office of his Father (Charles Buonaparte) in 
 
 ditto 37 
 
 Sedan Chair belonging to Madame Letitia in Ditto 37 
 
 Room where Napoleon was born in ditto ... 37 
 
 Terrace on the roof of ditto 38 
 
 Ball Room in ditto 38 
 
 Bust of Madame Letitia (Napoleon's Mother) . . 41 
 
 Napoleon's Grotto, Ajaccio 52 
 
 Plaque of Napoleon (when a young man) by David of 
 
 Angers 53 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Lanfrey, in his " Vie de Napol6on " says " that the 
 childhood and youth of great men necessarily elude 
 history, for the reason that youth, with its secret trans- 
 formations and psychological mysteries, is a difficult study, 
 and one in which very few certain ideas can be formed 
 even by the most attentive observer. It is an age of 
 growth, in which the whole man is changing and un- 
 settled." This is true, yet the childhood of Napoleon was 
 marked by many traits of character which, in mature 
 development, can be traced back to early infancy, and 
 however trivial some of the incidents may seem, still the 
 trite saying of Wordsworth, that " the child is father to 
 the man," is amply exemplified. 
 
 In the following pages I have endeavoured to throw 
 more light on his early years, by gathering together from 
 various sources all that appears to be known respecting 
 him. The description of the house of the " Buonapartes " 
 in Ajaccio is taken from notes made by Mr. G. E. 
 Thompson during a tour through Corsica in 1894. The 
 
Vlll 
 
 illustrations from photographs by his camera, of the 
 interior of the house and Napoleonic relics, form the chief 
 interest of the work, for " writing a book is like building 
 a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials ; he 
 thinks he has enough to raise a large and stately edifice ; 
 but after he has arranged, compacted and polished, his 
 work turns out to be but a very small performance." 
 
 HOWELL-AP-HOWELL. 
 
 28 Church Street, 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
THE BIRTHPLACE AND CHILDHOOD 
 OF NAPOLEON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Island of Corsica. 
 
 The Island of Corsica is about twenty leagues 
 from the coast of Tuscany, forty from that of 
 Provence, and sixty from that of Spain. Its surface 
 is fifteen hundred square miles in extent,, and it con- 
 tains four maritime towns, Bastia, Calvi, Ajaccio, 
 and Bonifaccio: 
 
 A chain of lofty mountains runs through the 
 centre of the island, and: some of its highest peaks 
 are perpetually snow-clad. On the east coast, from 
 Bastia to Aleria, there is a stretch of level country 
 about sixty miles in length, and from ten to twelve 
 in breadth, extensively covered with forests; the 
 mountains are clothed with chesnut trees, and the 
 
2 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 valleys filled with olive, mulberry, orange, lemon, 
 and other fruit trees; on the tops of the hills are 
 forests of pine, fir, and evergreen oaks. Oil, wine, 
 and silk are the three staple commodities most 
 suitable for exportation. In the winter months the 
 climate is most enjoyable, but in the heat of the 
 summer it is very dry, and the scarcity of water 
 drives the inhabitants to the hills, whence they 
 descend again in the winter, either to graze their 
 flocks, or to cultivate the plains. 
 
 On the coast, cereals and Indian corn are grown 
 in abundance. The mulberry tree is cultivated 
 to great perfection in the valleys, and as the climate 
 is suited both to its growth and to the rearing 
 of silk-worms, there is a great opening for this 
 important industry. The vine also is cultivated with 
 great success, and admirable wine is made of rather 
 a full bodied character. Higher up, the chesnut tree 
 grows to a magnificent size, and produces fruit of 
 the very best quality. Entire districts, especially on 
 the eastern side of the island, are covered with 
 splendid chesnut forests. During many centuries 
 of tyranny and oppression, the Corsicans owed their 
 subsistence principally to the chesnut tree, with 
 assistance from the oil of the olive tree, the wine 
 of their vines, and the flesh and milk of their sheep. 
 
The Island of Corsica. 3 
 
 They might be hemmed in on all sides in their 
 mountain fastnesses; all egress might be stopped 
 for years, and yet they flourished. These times have 
 passed away, and from the end of the last century 
 there has been peace in Corsica ; still many of the 
 inhabitants retain their desultory habits. They live 
 in sober idleness, play at cards, talk politics all 
 day, and work as little as they possibly can. Their 
 artificial modern wants, even, are supplied by the 
 sale of their surplus crops, now rendered easy by 
 the increased facility of communication with the 
 continent. 
 
 The cultivation of the olive tree also appears 
 to engender the same apathy and disinclination 
 to work. From San Fiorenzo to Calvi, the lovely 
 fertile valleys, in their luxuriance and richness of 
 growth, enable the peasants to lead a "far niente" 
 life of easy enjoyment. 
 
 The manufactures are in a poor state, and are 
 confined to the most indispensable wants of trade 
 and the common necessities of life; the women 
 almost everywhere weave the coarse brown cloth, 
 Panno Corso, also called Pelone; the herdsmen 
 make cheese and the cheese-cake (Broccio); there 
 are saltworks, but only in the Gulf of Porto- Vecchio. 
 Sardines, tunnies, and coral are taken on many 
 
4 The Birthplace and Childhood- of Napoleon. 
 
 parts of the coast, but the fisheries are carried on 
 in> the same desultory fashion as the agriculture. 
 
 However melancholy be the general condition of 
 Corsica, she is at least preserved by her thin popula- 
 tion from the scourge of an abject and perishing 
 class, which has produced in the great centres of 
 civilisation of the continent far more terrible 
 miseries than those of banditism and vengeance 
 in Corsica. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The French in Corsica. 
 
 The French have now been more than one 
 hundred years in possession of Corsica, but they 
 have never succeeded in closing and healing the 
 great wound of the nation, nor have they, with all 
 the resources of their civilisation, achieved more 
 for the island than a few improvements. The 
 island, which has twice given France her Emperor, 
 and twice dictated laws to her, has gained nothing 
 by it but the satisfaction of her revenge. The 
 Corsican will never forget in what a shameful way 
 France possessed herself of his country. When 
 Gregorovius was travelling through the island he 
 heard Corsicans railing bitterly at Genoa, and he 
 said to them, " Let the old republic, Genoa, rest in 
 peace, you have accomplished your vendetta upon 
 her; Napoleon, a Corsican, has annihilated her. 
 France deceived you, and deprived you of your 
 nationality; you have had your vendetta upon 
 France too, for you sent her a Corsican, Napoleon, 
 
6 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 who subjugated her, and even now that great 
 country is a Corsican conquest, and your own 
 province." 
 
 The Corsicans and the French are separated by 
 a deep gulf of nationality, innermost nature, and 
 sentiments. The Corsican is a decided Italian ; his 
 language avowedly one of the purest Italian dialects, 
 and his nature, his soil, and his history, still link the 
 wandering son to his former home. Indeed, the 
 French feel themselves strangers in this island, and 
 soldiers and officials regard their period of service 
 there as a cheerless banishment to the " isle of 
 goats." The Corsican cannot even understand a 
 nature like the French, for he is serious, taciturn, 
 chaste, consistent — a man in the best sense of the 
 word, and firm as the granite of his mountains. 
 
 The entire heroic history of the Corsicans 
 springs purely and singly from the natural law of 
 the sacredness and inviolability of the family. All 
 the virtues of the Corsicans spring from this spirit, 
 and even the dread night-shades of their life, such 
 as their family feuds and banditism, belong to this 
 common root. 
 
 In many particulars the inhabitants differ largely 
 from those of the countries which surround them on 
 both sides of the Mediterranean. The very fact of 
 
The French in Corsica. 7 
 
 their isolation, together with their stormy history, 
 has tended to make them what they are at the 
 present day. 
 
 The Corsicans complain very bitterly that they 
 are neglected by France, and that the very great 
 natural resources of the island are not developed 
 as they might be. This reproach scarcely appears 
 just. The first Napoleon, it is true, did but little 
 for his native country. Perhaps he was so totally 
 absorbed by his herculean duties that he had but 
 little leisure to devote to the material welfare of 
 so small a province ; perhaps he was disinclined to 
 draw, in too marked a manner, the attention of 
 the France he governed to his Corsican origin. On 
 one occasion a decree was signed for some im- 
 portant public works at Ajaccio, but they were not 
 carried out. This he only learnt years afterwards. 
 When at St. Helena, his thoughts, however, reverted 
 constantly to the mountain island which gave him 
 birth. He often spoke of it, and of what he 
 intended to have accomplished for its welfare and 
 prosperity had he remained in power. 
 
 Subsequent governments appear to have done 
 for Corsica what they have done for other depart- 
 ments of France — perhaps even more. The French 
 centralised system of law, education, and road 
 
8 The Birthplace and .Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 making have been generally introduced, and every 
 facility given to the inhabitants to mentally improve 
 themselves, and thereby to lay down the foundation 
 of public prosperity. The roads that now connect 
 the principal coast towns, and encircle the island 
 are excellent, in fact as good, even in the most 
 wild and uninhabited regions, as the high roads in 
 England. There is also a very good road inter- 
 secting the island from Bastia to Ajaccio. It 
 passes over the two mountain chains, and through 
 Corte, the ancient patriotic capital of Corsica. 
 Various forest roads have lately been made, leading 
 into the heart of the country, even into the primeval 
 forests which occupy the high central regions. 
 
 The great impediment to the material progress 
 of Corsica, up to a very recent period, has no 
 doubt been the abnormal social condition of the 
 island. The vendetta which characterises it must 
 sap at the root of all public enterprise and pros- 
 perity. This system of blood vengeance has existed 
 for hundreds of years, and was, until recently, 
 recognised and approved by nearly the entire 
 community, including even the less enlightened 
 ministers of religion. Its origin is obscure, but 
 may be traced to the feuds and warfares that existed 
 in the island, dividing the members of families and 
 
The French in Corsica. g 
 
 of communities, ever arming one against the other, 
 to the weakening of authority, and adding to the 
 difficulty of obtaining justice. 
 
 All Corsicans carried fire-arms. If one man 
 considered himself insulted by another in any way, 
 however trivial the grounds, he shot him. From 
 that moment the family of the man killed was 
 bound in honour to pursue the murderer, or, in 
 his default, some member of his family, and to 
 retaliate blood for blood. This obligation descended 
 from one member of the family to another, until it 
 often ended in the almost entire destruction of both 
 families. Villages, entire communities, would take 
 up the quarrel of their members against other 
 villages, other communities, and thus, in the 
 absence of a public foe, they massacred each other. 
 
 It was in vain that the French government kept 
 a regiment or two of soldiers in the island, and a 
 large body of " moveable gendarmerie," accustomed 
 to the mountains and to mountain warfare. The 
 vendetta was too deeply rooted in the minds of the 
 Corsicans. The mountains were too inaccessible, 
 and the population too favourable to these " honour- 
 able bandits," for them to be exterminated from the 
 land. In the year 1854, very extreme measures 
 were adopted — measures which seem strange in our 
 
io The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 times as applied to a department of France, to the 
 birthplace of the late imperial family. 
 
 Two laws were passed. By the one, the entire 
 population was disarmed, and it was made penal to 
 carry firearms, or arms of any description, for any 
 reason whatever, even including the pursuit of 
 game. A landed proprietor could not take out a 
 gun to shoot a bird or a hare without the permission 
 of the prefect. All the better informed inhabitants 
 cheerfully acquiesced in the law for the benefit of 
 the community. This law was partially repealed in 
 1869. 
 
 By the other law, hi du recel, or law of conceal- 
 ment, all persons harbouring or assisting outlaws 
 became liable to imprisonment. This law was very 
 effectually carried out in a most singular manner. 
 If a man kills an enemy, and flies to the mountain, 
 the authorities instantly seize and imprison his 
 relatives and keep them in prison until he is 
 caught, or has surrendered. Here is an instance; 
 a bandit who had killed twenty-seven people in his 
 life, principally gendarmes, and had been out in the 
 mountains above thirty years, had been for some 
 time lost sight of, and was supposed to have gone to 
 Sardinia. He had recently reappeared, and had 
 been seen in the vicinity of Sartene. As many as 
 
The French in Corsica. n 
 
 sixty of his relations and descendants were immedi- 
 ately seized and imprisoned, and were only released 
 when it became quite evident that he had again 
 withdrawn from the island. 
 
 However arbitrary this may seem, the result was 
 most beneficial. These men of bronze, who killed 
 an enemy as they would a noxious insect, whom 
 no human or divine feeling could restrain from 
 shedding blood, are fond fathers, sons, and brothers. 
 They cannot bear to see their children, fathers and 
 mothers, brothers and sisters in prison on their 
 account, so, as a rule, give themselves up for 
 punishment. 
 
 The rigid application of the hi du recel cuts at 
 the root of one of the chief causes that tended 
 to keep up banditism. The imprisonment of his 
 relatives deprived the bandit of the all but indispen- 
 sable assistance he was receiving, and transformed 
 the members of his own family either into very luke- 
 warm sympathizers, or absolute antagonists. 
 
 The women also sometimes avenged themselves, 
 for as late as 1865, there were three women in 
 prison for killing their lovers. In one case, a hand- 
 some girl of twenty shot her lover dead in the 
 market place of Corte, because, after promising to 
 marry her, he deserted her, and positively refused to 
 
12 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 ratify his engagement. Popular opinion was so 
 strong in her favour that she suffered only three 
 months' imprisonment ! 
 
 The vigorous policy of these measures has at last 
 told thoroughly on the social condition of the entire 
 community, and security reigns where diffidence and 
 alarm formerly existed; and as the island is now 
 encircled with good roads, and regular and frequent 
 steam communication between its principal ports 
 and the French and Italian mainlands, the great 
 natural resources ought speedily to be developed. 
 Capital and enterprise alone are wanted. 
 
 In no part of Europe can a few weeks be 
 more happily spent by the tourist than in Corsica, 
 during the spring or autumn of the year. To some 
 classes of invalids, Corsica offers winter resources, 
 especially at Ajaccio, much more suitable than the 
 Genoese Riviera.* 
 
 *In Ajaccio, some of the hotels have been recently erected — 
 notably the "Grand," a noble building, facing the Cours Grandval — 
 with magnificent gardens, luxuriantly covered with indigenous 
 plants and trees ; a thick wood covers the hill behind the house. 
 Along the " Rue Grandval " there is the " Belle Vue," and in the 
 great square the "Hotel de France." English is spoken at these 
 hotels. 
 
Crand fl«tel in Ajac 
 
13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 History of Corsica. 
 
 A glance over the history of Corsica will enable 
 us to follow the various transitionary periods of an 
 island which Rousseau declared was the only 
 European land capable of movement,, of law giving, 
 and of peaceable renovation. 
 
 The first known inhabitants of Corsica were 
 Phoceans from Asia Minor. They were followed by 
 the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians. Then 
 Rome sent her troops and built the towns of 
 Mariana and Aleria. In 460 a.d., Corsica was con- 
 quered by the Vandals, and after they were driven 
 out, and until 750, it was a dependency of the Greek 
 Empire. About that time, the Saracens made 
 Corsica their home, but in the ninth century, Charle- 
 magne defeated them, and the island was granted 
 to Boniface, Count of Tuscany. He it was, who 
 founded the town of Bonifaccio. About the year 
 1000, many feudal lords arose and became powerful, 
 but the people rebelled against them, and handed 
 
14 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 the country over to the pope. In 1081, Pope 
 Urban II placed the island under the dominion of 
 the Bishop of Pisa. This action roused the ire of 
 the then powerful republic of Genoa — a people in a 
 chronic state of enmity with their neighbours, the 
 Pisans. The Genoese persuaded Pope Innocent II 
 to let them have a half share in the Bishopric, but 
 they very soon took the whole island. The Pisan 
 government had been mild and just, but the history 
 of Corsica during the four hundred years in which 
 it was governed by the Genoese is replete with 
 wars, bloodshed, tyrannical government and wrong 
 doing. 
 
 The history of Corsica is full of heroes, of heroic 
 deeds, of romantic achievements. Each successive 
 century bore patriots ever ready to sacrifice their 
 fortunes and their lives for their country, as in the 
 heroic days of early Rome. Nor were the oppor- 
 tunities for doing so, wanting: no sooner was one 
 enemy disposed of than another appeared. 
 
 Peace never lasted more than a few years, 
 seldom as long ; and each successive generation had 
 thus to renew the struggles which had tested the 
 courage, the patriotism, and the endurance of its 
 precursor. 
 
 Is it surprising that the names of these Cor- 
 
History of Corsica. 15 
 
 sicans should be household words? that Giudice 
 della Rocca, Giampolo, Sampiero, Paoli, and many 
 others should live in the affections of the Corsicans 
 to-day ? Is it surprising that the women should 
 have imbibed and shown, in times gone by, the 
 stern patriotism of the women of Sparta? Their 
 chants and national songs to the present day 
 breathe a spirit of defiance and a love of vengeance 
 unknown to the inhabitants of more peaceful 
 regions. 
 
 A population which has for so many centuries — 
 indeed until quite recently — lived in a state of 
 constant warfare against foreign tyranny and oppres- 
 sion, cannot all at once calm down to the social 
 condition of countries that have for centuries ceased 
 to fight for their existence. 
 
 The Genoese were the most persistent and 
 cruel persecutors of Corsica. War never ceased 
 from their establishment on the island in the thir- 
 teenth century until the time that the Corsicans 
 surrendered themselves to France in 1769, two 
 months only before the birth of Napoleon Buona- 
 parte. Can we wonder that a brave, strong, yet 
 small nation of mountaineers, such as the Corsicans 
 were and are, should after such a long period of 
 government by many and diverse masters, after 
 
16 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 terrible persecutions and long wars, be proud, re- 
 vengeful, and idle ? 
 
 The islanders had again and again risen in revolt 
 against their hard masters, for a succession of 
 infamous governors — men who came from Genoa 
 poor, and after two years' office returned rich — 
 most cruelly oppressed them. By their ill-gotten 
 wealth, and by their interest in the senate, they 
 were able on their return to secure themselves 
 against any inquiry into their conduct. 
 
 The Corsicans, like many other mountaineers, 
 had always been too much given to private feuds. 
 But it was charged against their Genoese masters 
 that in their dread of union among their subjects, 
 they themselves fomented dissensions. It was as- 
 serted that under the last sixteen governors no less 
 than 26,000 Corsicans had died by the hands of the 
 assassin. 
 
 In the legal proceedings that followed on these 
 deeds of bloodshed, the Genoese judges found their 
 profit. Condemnation was often followed by confis- 
 cation of the criminal's estates ; acquittal had often' 
 been preceded by a heavy bribe to the judge. Multi- 
 tudes were condemned to the galleys on frivolous 
 charges in the hope that they would purchase their 
 freedom at a high price. The law was even worse 
 
History of Corsica. 17 
 
 than the judges. A man could be condemned to 
 the galleys or to death on secret information, with- 
 out being once confronted with his accusers, without 
 undergoing any examination, without the observance 
 of any formality of any kind in the sentence passed 
 on him. The judge could either acquit the greatest 
 criminal, or condemn a man of stainless character. 
 No wonder that Horace Walpole exclaimed " I hate 
 the Genoese ; they make a commonwealth the most 
 devilish of all tyrannies ! " 
 
 In 1729, the oppressive government of the 
 Genoese caused an insurrection which ultimately 
 led to their expulsion. 
 
 A lieutenant, whilst collecting taxes, refused the 
 coin of a poor peasant, because it was a farthing 
 light. The old man went off pondering and talking 
 to himself; 'he complained to his friends, and they 
 all talked indignantly of the state Of the country. 
 The angry feeling spread from place to place. It 
 was resolved that no more taxes of any kind should 
 be paid, and soon a war broke out, which lasted 
 iorty years. Another account is, that a taxgatherer 
 demanded fivepence of a poor woman, and as she 
 could not pay, abused her, and seized some of her 
 furniture. She raised an outcry, her 'neighbours 
 flocked in, and took her part. The 'taxgatherer 
 
 c 
 
18 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 used threats, and they replied with a volley of 
 stones. Troops were sent to support him, and the 
 people flew to their weapons. The insurrection 
 spread, and soon the whole island was again in 
 arms. 
 
 In the year 1736, a ship flying the British flag 
 sailed into the port of Aleria, and in her there came 
 a fine looking man, gorgeously attired in a long 
 scarlet furred coat, attended by a retinue of two 
 officers, a secretary, a chaplain, a steward, slaves 
 and lackeys. The cargo of the ship consisted of 10 
 cannons, 7,000 muskets, 2,000 pairs of shoes, 7,000 
 sacks of corn, great quantities of ammunition, 
 provisions of all kinds, as well as several chests 
 full of gold and silver coins. 
 
 He was a German, named Theodore von 
 Neuhoff, a baron of Westphalia ; of all the adven- 
 turers of his remarkable day the most talented and 
 most successful. 
 
 He had had experience of everything, seen every- 
 thing, thought, endeavoured, enjoyed and suffered 
 everything. Following his peculiar bent, he had 
 run through all the possible forms in which happi- 
 ness can appear to man, and had concluded with the 
 idea that it must be desirable to a mind of power 
 to be a king. By his indomitable efforts, he raised 
 
History of Corsica. 19 
 
 sums of money to provide this for poor struggling 
 Corsica. He landed at a time when her need was 
 greatest, and promised further help if the people 
 would make him their ruler. The leading men of 
 Corsica received him with great marks of honour, 
 and as the poor people had, like the Jews of old in 
 their despair, longed for a king who should deliver 
 them from the Philistines, he was recognised and 
 proclaimed king under the title of Theodore the 
 First. Taking up his quarters in the Episcopal 
 house at Cervione, he conducted everything in quite 
 a royal style, so far as outward ceremonies were 
 concerned, surrounded himself with guards and all 
 princely ceremonial, and played the king as well as 
 if born to the purple. Coins were struck in gold, 
 silver and copper, on the obverse was a laurel- 
 wreathed shield, over which was a crown with the 
 letters T.D.G. ; on the reverse, " Pro bono publico 
 Corso." They were regarded with great curiosity 
 on the continent, and are now very rare. Theodore 
 worked hard in the interests of his kingdom, and for 
 a time the people clung to him with unshaken 
 fidelity, but at the end of about eight months, he 
 perceived that they cooled in their affection towards 
 him, for he had promised further help, which, how- 
 ever, never came, and he therefore wisely assembled 
 
20 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 the council and agreed to either resign his crown, or 
 go to the continent at the end of the next month, if 
 by that time, his promise was not fulfilled. In 
 November he appointed a regency and left the 
 Island to seek further aid. 
 
 Genoa, meanwhile, set a price upon his head. 
 In the following year Theodore returned, bringing 
 three ships, laden with supplies of every kind : 
 landed under Dutch colours, and found his people 
 somewhat estranged from him, and in treaty with 
 the French. Again he left for the continent. In 
 1743, when nearly forgotten, he landed a third time 
 with three English ships of war, well provided as 
 before. He was coldly received, and heavy-hearted 
 he sailed away for England never to return. When 
 in London he was arrested for debt by some 
 Genoese merchants, who put him in King's Bench 
 prison. 
 
 He regained his liberty by registering his effects 
 for the benefit of his creditors. He left them solely 
 his already vanquished kingddm of Corsica. Quit- 
 ting his prison in a sedan chair, he went to the 
 Pbrtuguese Embassy, but failing to findthe Minister, 
 and having no money, he asked the men to take him 
 to a certain tailor in Soho. There he was taken in, 
 and in a few days he died. John Wright, an oil 
 
Tomb of King Theodore in Soho, 
 
 London. 
 
History of Corsica. 21 
 
 man, saved him from a pauper's funeral by burying 
 him at his own expense. Horace Walpole wrote the 
 epitaph on his tombstone in St. Anne's Church- 
 yard,* Soho, which reads thus : 
 
 " Near this place is interred Theodore, King of Corsica, 
 who died in this parish, December nth, 1756, immediately 
 after leaving King's Bench Prison, by the benefit of the 
 Act of Insolvency, in consequence of which he registered 
 his kingdom of Corsica for the use of his creditors. 
 The Grave, great teacher, to a level brings 
 Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and Kings. 
 But Theodore this moral learn'd ere dead : 
 Fate pour'd its lesson on his living head, 
 Bestow'd a kingdom and denied him bread." 
 
 * It is most interesting to note that William Hazlitt, poet and 
 essayist, who also wrote a History of the Life of Napoleon, lies buried 
 near the same spot. 
 
22 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Paoli. 
 
 The King of Corsica was dead and buried in 
 a foreign land, but other patriots, who fiercely 
 loved their country, and as fiercely hated the 
 Genoese, had risen to fill his place, and amongst 
 these was Pasquale Paoli, probably the greatest pat- 
 riot, the greatest friend of his country, and the best 
 beloved of all Corsicans since the history of the 
 country began. He had been carefully educated in 
 Naples, where his father lived in exile. Pasquale 
 was asked by the Corsicans, through his brother 
 Clement, to become their General, and at the age of 
 29, , in the year 1755, he was made Virtual Dictator 
 of the island. His success was as remarkable as his 
 measures were wise. Elections were regulated so 
 that strong organisation was introduced into the 
 loose democratic institutions which had hitherto 
 prevented sufficient unity of action in troubled 
 times. An army was raised from the straggling 
 bands of volunteers, and brigandage was sternly 
 suppressed. 
 
Paoli. 23 
 
 Long struggles with the Genoese had made the 
 people savage, revengeful and lawless. Agriculture 
 and industries of all kinds were neglected. The 
 Vendetta — the revenge for blood — was at its height, 
 and one of the first laws made by Paoli was to 
 punish the Vendettists with the pillory and death by 
 the hangman, and for the time he cleared Corsica of 
 its family feuds. The power of the Genoese was 
 weakened day by day, agriculture had improved, 
 and manufactures were established. 
 
 In 1765 Paoli opened the Corsican University at 
 Corte. In it, theology, philosophy, mathematics, 
 law and other sciences were taught. Paoli never 
 wearied of labouring in many good causes, and he 
 was looked up to as the father of his country. The 
 Genoese saw that their reign must end, for the 
 defence of the island had also been well and syste- 
 matically looked to during these years. They 
 concluded to sell the country — which in no way 
 belonged to them — to France. The compact was 
 signed at Versailles in May, 1768, and thus, as one 
 writer observes, "a free people, with a most moral 
 and civilised political constitution, was bartered 
 away like a passive herd of cattle." 
 
 By this treaty it was agreed that the King of 
 France should take and keep possession of the 
 
24 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 island till the Republic should be in a position to re- 
 imburse him the expense of sending an army of 
 30,000 men to subdue the island, and of maintaining 
 garrisons there for several years, which it was fore- 
 seen they neither could, nor would repay. This 
 equivocal mode of procedure at once saved the 
 Genoese the reproaches of Italy for having sold Cor- 
 sica to a foreign power, and furnished the French 
 Minister with a pretext for retracting, in case the 
 English should object to the new arrangement, for 
 Louis XVI was averse to a war with England ; but 
 England at this time, uneasy at the disposition to 
 revolt which manifested itself in the American 
 colonies, had no desire to interfere on a feeling of 
 pure disinterested generosity, the example of which 
 might be turned against herself. When France 
 became Republican, then it became an object to 
 detach Corsica from her at any cost. But that was 
 a widely different question. 
 
 The Duke of Choiseul made splendid overtures 
 to Paoli to persuade the Corsicans to declare them- 
 selves a province of France, but these offers were 
 rejected with disdain. He convoked the Council 
 and laid before them the critical state of affairs. A 
 youth of twenty deputed to the Council (Charles 
 Buonaparte, the father of Napoleon), decided its 
 
Paoli. 25 
 
 resolution by a speech imbued with the noblest 
 sentiments of antiquity. There was but one cry — 
 " Liberty or Death." The conduct of the French 
 Government excited the strongest reprobation. 
 Some, indeed, gave a different turn to affairs ; they 
 said " Their ancestors had resisted the tyranny of 
 the oligarchy of Genoa ; they were now freed from it 
 for ever. If Giafferis, Hyacinth, Paoli, Gaffori, 
 Orticone, and the other lofty-minded men who had 
 fallen in defence of their rights, could now see their 
 country united to the finest monarchy in Europe, 
 they would feel satisfied, and no longer regret the 
 blood they had shed for her independence. By 
 accepting the protection of Louis they would secure 
 all the privileges of French subjects, and have the 
 commerce of the ports of Europe thrown open to 
 them." But these arguments had little effect ; the 
 people and their leaders were alike deaf to them. 
 "We are invincible in our mountains;" they said-, 
 "' there, let us remain and laugh at our enemies. 
 They talk of the advantages we should obtain by 
 submission ; we have no ambition for them. We 
 wish to remain poor, but free ; our own masters, 
 governed by our own laws and customs, and not the 
 sport of a clerk from Versailles. They talk of the 
 privileges to which we might be admitted— the privi- 
 
26 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 lege of becoming vassal to a despot. As wills the 
 King, so wills the law ; such is the maxim of the 
 French monarchy. What security then is it likely 
 to afford against the caprice and rapacity of a sub- 
 altern ? " And the cry of " Liberty or Death " rang 
 through the valleys of Corsica, and was echoed from 
 her mountain tops. The mass of people who dwelt 
 in the mountains had no notion of the power of 
 France. They thought a few straggling regiments 
 which they had seen, comprised the whole of the 
 French armies. The public in France were also 
 averse to a war with Corsica. " What had they to 
 do with Corsica ? Had it never existed till now ? 
 Why then, was it now thought of for the first time?" 
 Besides, there seemed to be something cowardly in 
 directing the power of a great nation against a 
 handful of poor but spirited mountaineers. The ex- 
 pedition under Chauvelin with 12,000 men also 
 failed ; and his troops after the defeat at Borgo, 
 were glad to retire into the fortresses. The Corsi- 
 cans believed their deliverance accomplished. Clubs 
 were formed in London that sent arms and money. 
 Even Louis XVI was somewhat friendly, and shewed 
 no haste to set this new crown on his head, until 
 it was represented to him, how glad the French 
 philosophers would be to see Grand Monarque foiled 
 
Paoli. 27 
 
 and compelled to retreat before a free people ; 
 there was no longer room for deliberation. The 
 dread of opinion is the spring that had moved the 
 politics of Europe for the last sixty years. Thirty 
 thousand men under Marshall De Vaux set sail for 
 Corsica in 1768. The Corsicans made a brave but 
 ineffectual resistance. The passage of the Golo was 
 manfully disputed step by step. Not having time to 
 cut down the bridge, which was of stone, they made 
 use of the bodies of their dead to form a rampart. 
 Paoli, driven southwards, embarked in an English 
 ship at Porto- Vecchio, landed at Leghorn, crossed 
 the continent and hastened to London. He was 
 everywhere received with tokens of admiration and 
 respect, both by the people and their princes. 
 
 It was not expected that the Corsicans would 
 resist the numbers sent against them. At one time 
 Marshal De Vaux had imprudently dispersed his 
 troops, thinking the country subdued, and had 
 Paoli fallen on the French army thus disintegrated, 
 he might have cut them to pieces, but he lacked 
 the military tact and promptitude for executing so 
 bold an enterprise. Five years afterwards (1774) 
 an insurrection was raised in Nioli, a pieve among 
 the peaks of the highest mountains. The Count 
 de Narbonne made the French name odious by the 
 
28 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 cruelties he committed on this occasion, burning 
 the dwellings, cutting down the olive and chesnut 
 trees, and pulling up the vines. In 1790 the revolu- 
 tion produced a great alteration in the disposition 
 of the people — they became reconciled to the 
 French. Paoli then left England, where he had 
 been living in exile, passed through Paris, where 
 he was most flatteringly received, and returned to 
 his own country after an absence of twenty years. 
 The whole island flocked to see him— his arrival 
 caused a general rejoicing. He was invested with 
 the chief power in the island, and became at once 
 exceedingly popular. However, a new era had 
 arrived, and he did not perceive that many who, 
 had followed him into exile were now most refrac- 
 tory. His opinion of the revolution wavered after 
 the well-known roth of August, and the death 
 of Louis XVI completed his dissatisfaction. He was 
 denounced by the popular societies of Provence, and 
 the National Convention summoned him to Paris. 
 This was an invitation, to lay his head on the scaffold. 
 He refused to go, and was declared guilty of high 
 treason. He appealed to his countrymen, and pre- 
 vailed on them to revolt against the Convention. 
 
 He determined to put Corsica under the pro- 
 tection of the English, and it was. arranged that 
 
Bust nj Napoleon by Caimva. 
 
Paoli. 29 
 
 Admiral Hood, then in command of the English 
 fleet near Toulon, should invade the island. Twelve 
 thousand men, under the orders of Horatio Nelson, 
 landed at San Fiorenzo ; Paoli, with six thousand 
 more, surrounded Bastia, which fell after a siege 
 of four months. 
 
 In the month of June, 1794, Sir Gilbert Elliott 
 was appointed Viceroy. He soon quarrelled with 
 Paoli, who declared in a pique — " This is my king- 
 dom. I carried on war against the King of France 
 for two years ; I expelled the Republicans. If you 
 violate the privileges and rights of the kingdom, I 
 can more easily expel you than I did them." He 
 had expected to be chosen governor, and was 
 extremely disappointed and chagrined to find o't'hers 
 placed in authority over him. Sir Gilbert Elliott 
 advised George III. to recall Paoli. After some 
 hesitation he returned to London, where he died 
 in 1807 at the age of eighty-two. 
 
 In less than two years another Corsican, the 
 great Napoleon, set to work to oust the English, 
 and the people, being exasperated by the recalling of 
 their "Father" Paoli, gave him all assistance, and 
 thus an island, to which we had no right, slipped 
 back into the hands of the French nation, who have 
 held it to the present time. 
 
30 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AjACCIO. 
 
 It is said that the ancient town of Ajaccio derived 
 its name from the hero Ajax ; others from Ajazzo, 
 the son of the Trojan prince, Corso, who wandered . 
 with -(Eneas to the Western Sea, carried off Sica, a 
 niece of Dido, and thus gave the island the name of 
 Corsica. 
 
 According to Ptolemy, the ancient town of 
 Urcinium, which is said to be the Adjacium. of 
 the earliest part of the Middle Ages, lay on the 
 Gulf of Ajaccio ; and this town is always coupled 
 with the oldest towns of the island, Aleria, Mariana, 
 Nebium, and Sagona ; it stood on the hill San 
 Giovanni, to the north of the modern town, and 
 where, formerly, were to be seen the ruins of the old 
 cathedral, in which the bishops of Ajaccio long con- 
 tinued to be consecrated ; now, nothing remains to 
 show that a town once existed there. Many old 
 Roman ruins were found in the vineyards, and in 
 
Avenue leading from the Quay of Ajaccio. 
 
A j actio. 31 
 
 them large vessels of terra cotta of an oval shape, 
 probably sepulchral urns, as skeletons were often 
 found in them. 
 
 The new town was founded by the Bank of 
 St. George, of Genoa, in the year 1492. It was the 
 seat of a lieutenant, or vicegerent of the Governor 
 of Bastia, and was not raised to the dignity of 
 Capital of the island till 1811, at the request of 
 Madame Letitia and Cardinal Fesch, in honour of 
 its being the birthplace of the Buonapartes. 
 
 A broad stone quay forms a frontage to modern 
 Ajaccio ; from thence an avenue of palms and plane 
 trees leads up to the town; rows of tall, plain, 
 massive buildings curve round the great bay ; there 
 is no beauty of architecture about them, yet their 
 colour, their light facades, and gray Venetian blinds, 
 blending with the foliage of orange trees, give the 
 main street, Cours Napoleon, a rich and picturesque 
 appearance. 
 
 The names of the streets and squares are essen- 
 tially Napoleonic — Cours Napoleon, Rue Napoleon, 
 Rue Fesch, Rue Cardinal, Place Letitia, and Rue 
 du Roi de Rome. The memory of Napoleon is 
 indeed the soul of the town, and one lounges from 
 street to street buried in thoughts of that wonderful 
 man and his childhood. Parallel with the Cours 
 
32 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 Napoleon runs the Rue Fesch. The former leads 
 to the broad Place du Diamant, which lies on the 
 sea coast, and commands a fine view of the gulf and 
 its southern shore. 
 
 In the Grande Place, facing the sea, there is a 
 fine equestrian statue of Napoleon, surrounded by 
 those of the four kings, his brothers : Joseph, 
 Jerome, Lucien. and Louis. These statues were 
 erected by national subscription. In the market- 
 place, which leads to the harbour, there is a large 
 cube of marble surmounted by a statue of Napoleon, 
 on an extravagantly high pedestal, on which one 
 reads the following inscription : — " To the Emperor 
 Napoleon, his native town (dedicates this statue) 
 May 5, 1850. In the second year of the Presidency 
 of Louis Napoleon." The extraordinary part df the 
 story connected with this statue is, that it was not 
 Napoleon at all, but a statue of Ganymede, sent by 
 the family of Buonaparte to Signor Ramolino, but 
 as the people saw it landed from the ship, they 
 took the eagle of Ganymede for the imperial eagle, 
 and Ganymede for Napoleon, so they collected in 
 the market-place, and demanded that the statue 
 should be set there, so that they might have the 
 great Napoleon in marble in their midst. In con- 
 verting tlhe Trojan youth, Ganymede, into their 
 
iStiltiie of .Xapiileoii. 
 
• Ajaccio. 33 
 
 countryman, Napoleon, the honest Corsicans seem 
 surely to have verified the chronicler's fable that the 
 Ajaccines are derived from a Trojan prince. 
 
 The statue is only a mediocre work of Labour- 
 eur, but its position in the face of the gulf enhances 
 its local effect. It is a consular statue, wearing the 
 Roman toga, with a laurel wreath on its head. In 
 its right hand is a rudder, which rests on the globe 
 of the world. The idea is a happy one, for in 
 sight of the gulf the rudder is a perfectly natural 
 symbol, and doubly appropriate in the hands of the 
 islanders. For memory roves from the market- 
 place to the sea, and beholds the ship which 
 brought Napoleon from Egypt to France at anchor 
 in the gulf. He sat on board there by night, and 
 hastily skimmed all the newspapers they could find 
 for him in Ajaccio ; and here it was that he formed 
 the mighty resolution of seizing that rudder by 
 which he was to govern not France alone, but an 
 empire and half the world, until it broke in his 
 hands, and the man of Corsica was wrecked on the 
 rocks of the island of St. Helena. 
 
 One side of the market-place, which looks on the 
 bay, is bounded by a solid granite quay, on the 
 other side is a row of tall, well-built houses. The 
 view of the blue bay, with its semicircle of grand 
 
 D 
 
34 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 mountains in the distance, is indescribably beautiful 
 from this point. This magnificent bay is protected 
 on its western side by a granite mole, designed by 
 Napoleon. 
 
 The late Emperor (Napoleon III), and especially 
 his cousin Louis Napoleon, had strong Corsican 
 sympathies. The latter had an estate near Calvi, 
 which he frequently visited for shooting. Under 
 their auspices, the town began to show that it really 
 is the birthplace of an imperial dynasty. A very 
 chaste and beautiful chapel has been built as the 
 mausoleum of several members of the imperial 
 family. A museum and picture gallery has also 
 been erected. In it, carefully arranged, is a large 
 gallery of paintings left to Ajaccio by Cardinal 
 Fesch, which had long been stowed away in lumber 
 rooms. Some of the pictures are good, but the 
 greater number are only second-rate. 
 
 In the town hall there is a salon, called the 
 Buonaparte Museum, here are many mementoes of 
 Napoleon, family portraits, pictures and interesting 
 busts, among the latter that of Napoleon, by Canova, 
 the beautiful bust of Madame Letitia, Cardinal 
 Fesch, and a small one of the infant king of Rome. 
 There is also a bronze cast of the head of Napoleon, 
 taken after death. The town hall boasts of a library 
 
1, I* ' 
 
 it •! 
 
 
 if 
 
 I 
 
 t v>i 
 
 
oust- of the Buonapartes. 
 
Ajaccio. 35 
 
 of over 27,000 volumes, the foundation of which was 
 laid by Lucien Buonaparte. The Pr6fecture also 
 possesses a valuable library, the shelves of which are 
 especially rich in archives and documents important 
 to Corsican history. 
 
 Ajaccio is very poor in public institutions and 
 buildings. Its most important edifice is the house 
 of the Buonapartes. 
 
36 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The House of the Buonapartes. 
 
 The great and mysterious charm about this little 
 southern town is its having been the birthplace of 
 Napoleon. It was here that he spent his childhood 
 and early youth, until, at the age of fifteen, he 
 entered the military school of Brienne. 
 
 Out of the Rue Napoleon, a narrow street (Rue 
 Charles) leads to a small square, and opposite this 
 stands an old fashioned three storied house, with a 
 gallery on its flat roof. Like most houses in Corsica 
 it is stuccoed, and totally devoid of ornament ; its 
 many windows are protected with gray Venetian- 
 blind shutters, opening on either side. On the 
 corner of this house you read the inscription : Place 
 Letitia. 
 
 No one knows when the house was built, pro- 
 bably when Genoa governed the island, and Louis 
 XIV filled the world with the glory of himself and 
 France. When the architect planned this house he 
 little thought that capricious fortune would shower 
 
i 
 
 
 
 i#:.:.*^r 
 iUUi ■'■' f 
 
 .':■"■ 
 i 
 
 HI | 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 -K , J 
 
 
 ^Bm" 
 
The Office of liis father TCluirles tiuonaparte) 
 in House of the Buonapartes. 
 
Sedan Chair belonging to Madame I.etitia in House of the Buonapartes. 
 
Room vhirt XapolcHH uos horn in House of tin Buonapartes. 
 
The House of the Buonapartes. 37 
 
 imperial and royal crowns upon its roof, and that it 
 would be the cradle of a race of princes who should 
 swallow up whole countries. In this house, on 
 February 8th, 1769, Napoleon was born. His 
 mother had gone to church (being the Festival of 
 Assumption), but finding herself taken ill, was 
 hastily brought home in her sedan chair, which she 
 reached just in time, and she was. delivered of the 
 future conqueror upon a temporary couch prepared 
 for her accommodation, covered with an ancient 
 piece of tapestry, representing the story of the 
 heroes of the Iliad, and the little bed in which the 
 infant was placed still remains in the same corner 
 of the room. 
 
 The house is now the property of the ex-Empress 
 Eugenie. No one lives in it, but it is kept in good 
 order, as a show-place and historic museum. After 
 ascending the first flight of stairs you enter the 
 parlour, with its tiled floor ; here is Madame Leti- 
 tia's spinet standing open, its yellow time-worn 
 keys tempting one to play thereon. The ancient 
 wires emit sounds " like sweet bells, jangled and out 
 of tune." Now you enter what was once the study 
 or office of the notary— the father of the family. 
 Here there is a good carved mantelpiece and some 
 fine specimens of inlaid marquetry furniture, among 
 
38 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 them the desk at which he was wont to sit and 
 write. A pretty little bust of the late Prince Im- 
 perial stands in the birth-room of Napoleon, placed 
 there by the ex-Empress Eug6nie. This is a little 
 room lined with blue tapestry, with two windows, 
 one of which looks on a balcony towards the court, 
 the other towards the street. One sees in it a cup- 
 board in the wall, behind a tapestried door, and a 
 fireplace bordered with yellow marble, and decorated 
 by a few mythological bas-reliefs. The ball-room, 
 with its polished marquetry floor, is the finest room 
 in the house. There are antique chairs, and 
 mirrors with sconces for candles adorn the walls. 
 The windows on one side open on to a garden 
 terrace, where there is trellis work beautified by a 
 wealth of creepers and flowers ; but of view there is 
 none, the windows of other houses overlook it. 
 Now let us enter Napoleon's little bedroom and his 
 working room. The two cupboards are still to be 
 seen in which his school books were kept. A trap 
 door is also pointed out, through which he is said to 
 have escaped when pursued by Paoli's troops. Ex- 
 cited fancy seeks them all in these rooms, and sees 
 them assembled round their mother — ordinary 
 children, like other men's children, schoolboys toil- 
 ing at their Plutarch or Caesar, tutored by their 
 
Ball Room in House of the Hnomi/tiirtis, 
 
The House of the Buonapartes. 39 
 
 grave father and their great-uncle, Lucien ; and the 
 three sisters growing up careless and rather wild, 
 like their neighbours in the half barbarous town 
 There is Joseph the eldest, then Napoleon, Lucien, 
 Louis, Jerome, also Caroline, Eliza, and Pauline, 
 the children of a notary of moderate income, who is 
 incessantly and vainly carrying on lawsuits with the 
 Jesuits of Ajaccio, to gain a contested estate which 
 is necessary to his numerous family. For the future 
 of his children fills him with anxiety. What will 
 they be in the world, and how shall they secure a 
 comfortable subsistence ? 
 
4 o 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Napoleon. 
 
 Now let us turn to the advent of her greatest 
 son, whose stupendous intellect was soon to humble 
 in the dust the crowned kings and emperors of 
 Europe, whose restless energy strove to conquer a 
 continent had not another mighty intellect arisen 
 whose like energy checked a career which met its 
 utter downfall on the field of Waterloo. 
 
 Napoleon Buonaparte was the fourth son of 
 Charles Buonaparte, advocate, and of Letitia 
 Ramolino, his wife, a Corsican lady of great beauty 
 and of good family. She was a typical Corsican, 
 a peasant to the last day of her long life — lowly, 
 frugal, and somewhat unscrupulous. She was of 
 heroic mould, and probably to his mother Napoleon 
 owed his extraordinary physical endurance. The 
 peasant mother was most prolific. Her eldest child, 
 born in 1765, was a son, who died in infancy; in 
 1767 a daughter, who also died ; in 1768 a son, 
 known as Joseph ; in 1769 Napoleon. Nine other 
 children were born, six of whom survived to share 
 
liust of Madame Li'titia (Xapoleon's Mother. J 
 
Napoleon. 41 
 
 their brother's greatness. Their mother lived to 
 the ripe age of eighty-six, in full enjoyment of her 
 faculties, known to the world as Madame Mere. 
 
 Gregorovius, speaking of the family of the notary 
 of Ajaccio, says, " And behold these same children, 
 one after the other take to themselves the mightiest 
 crowns of the earth. Napoleon is European Em- 
 peror ; Joseph, King of Spain ; Louis, King of 
 Holland ; Jerome, King of Westphalia ; Pauline, 
 a princess of Italy ; Eliza, a princess of Italy ; 
 Caroline, Queen of Naples. So many crowned 
 potentates were born and educated in this little 
 house by a lady unknown to fame, the daughter 
 of a citizen of a small and seldom mentioned 
 country town, Letitia Ramolino, who, at the age of 
 fifteen, married a man equally unknown. Even 
 history is a part of nature. There is in it a chain 
 of cause and effect, and what we call genius 
 in a man is always the result of definite condi- 
 tions. An almost unbroken contest of more than 
 a thousand years between Corsica and her tyrants 
 had preceded before the great conqueror Napoleon 
 was born, in whose nature this rock-bound island 
 and this energetic and battle-proof island people, 
 pressed close in a narrow space of ground, produced 
 for themselves an organ whose law was boundless- 
 
42 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 ness. This is the upward series —the Corsican bandit, 
 the Corsican soldier, Renuccio delta Rocca, Sampiero, 
 Gaffori, Pasquali Paoli, Napoleon." 
 
 The name of Buonaparte was often spelt indis- 
 criminately, with the u or without it, by the different 
 branches of the family. Sometimes it has happened 
 that of two brothers one has spelt it one way and 
 the other the other. The omission of this letter was 
 common in very early times. 
 
 The name was spelt Buonaparte during his first 
 Italian campaign, but when he returned to Paris, 
 covered with glory, he dropped the Italian ortho- 
 graphy, and, to render it more nearly French, wrote 
 it henceforth Bonaparte. 
 
 The Christian name of Napoleon has also been 
 made a subject of dispute. It -was frequent in the 
 Orsini and Lomellini families, from whom it was 
 taken by that of Buonaparte. It was always given 
 to the second son. The correct way of writing it 
 is Napoleone. Some pretend that it is derived from 
 the Greek, and signifies Lion of the Desert; others, 
 that it is derived from the Latin. This name is 
 not to be found in the Roman calendar. From 
 researches made in the Martyrologies at Rome at 
 the period of the establishment of the Concordat, 
 it appears that St. Napoleon was a Greek martyr. 
 
Napoleon. 43 
 
 Clarke, afterwards Duke of Feltre (who was proud 
 of his Irish extraction), when sent ambassador 
 to Florence, busied himself with inquiries into 
 Buonaparte's pedigree, to which the latter put a 
 stop by saying, I am the first of my family ; and to 
 the Emperor of Austria, who, at the time of his 
 marriage with his daughter, set the heralds to work 
 to trace his genealogy to the old Italian nobility, he 
 answered much in the same spirit, that " he would 
 rather be the son of a peasant than descended from any 
 of the petty tyrants of Italy." 
 
 The origin of the Buonaparte family cannot be 
 precisely ascertained. A pedigree has been con- 
 structed, beginning with Emmanuel II, the eighth 
 Greek Emperor of the house of the Commeni. 
 whose two sons are said to have emigrated under 
 the name of Buonaparte after the fall of Constanti- 
 nople, first to Corfu, then to Naples, Rome and 
 Florence. From them, fiction will have it, that 
 the Corsican Buonapartes are descended. The 
 Buonapartes played no part in Corsican history. 
 Influential in their own town, they confined them- 
 selves to a share in civic administration of the town. 
 It was not till Carlo Buonaparte, Napoleon's father, 
 that the name acquires consideration throughout 
 Corsica, and becomes to a certain extent historic. 
 
44 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Napoleon's Childhood. 
 
 Little is known of Napoleon's early childhood 
 except what he himself relates. He was not 
 christened till July, 1771, nearly two years after 
 his birth, and then he was baptised together with 
 his sister, Maria Anna, who died soon after. They 
 say he struggled violently when the priest be- 
 sprinkled him with holy water. Perhaps he wanted 
 to baptise himself, as he afterwards crowned himself, 
 taking the crown out of the hands of the Pope, who 
 was going to put it on his head. 
 
 As a boy, he displayed a violent and passionate 
 temper, and was constantly quarrelling with his 
 elder brother Joseph. Napoleon relates the follow- 
 ing of his childhood. He says he was nothing more 
 than an obstinate and inquisitive child. 
 
 "In my infancy I was extremely headstrong ; 
 nothing overawed me, nothing disconcerted me. I 
 was quarrelsome, mischievous. I was afraid of no- 
 body ; I beat one, I scratched another ; I made 
 
Napoleon's Childhood. 45 
 
 myself formidable to the whole family. My brother 
 Joseph was the one with whom I was oftenest em- 
 broiled, he was beaten, bitten, abused. I went to 
 complain before he had time to recover from his 
 confusion. I had need to be on the alert ; our 
 mother would have repressed my warlike humour, 
 she would not have put up with my caprices. Her 
 tenderness was joined with severity ; she punished, 
 rewarded all alike ; the good, the bad, nothing 
 escaped her. My father, a man of sense, but too 
 fond of pleasure to pay much attention to our 
 infancy, sometimes attempted to excuse our faults : 
 ' Let them alone,' she replied, ' It is not your 
 business, it is I who must look after them.' She 
 did, indeed, watch over us with a solicitude unex- 
 ampled. Every low sentiment, every ungenerous 
 affection was discarded, discouraged ; she suffered 
 nothing but what was grand and elevating to take 
 root in our youthful understandings. She abhorred 
 falsehoods, was provoked by disobedience; she 
 passed over none of our faults. I recollect a 
 mischance which befel me in this way, and the 
 punishment which was inflicted on me. We had 
 some fig-trees in a vineyard ; we used to climb 
 them ; we might meet with a fall, and accidents ; 
 she forbade us to go near them without her know- 
 
46 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 ledge. This prohibition gave me a good deal of 
 uneasiness ; but it had been pronounced, and I 
 attended to it. One day, however, I was idle, and 
 at a loss for something to do, I took it into my head 
 to long for some of those figs. They were ripe ; no 
 one saw me, or could know anything of the matter ; 
 I made my escape, ran to the tree, and gathered the 
 whole. My appetite being satisfied, I was providing 
 for the future by filling my pockets when an unlucky 
 vineyard keeper came in sight. I was half dead 
 with fear, and remained fixed on the branch of the 
 tree where he had surprised me. He wished to seize 
 and conduct me to my mother. Despair rendered 
 me eloquent. I represented my distress, undertook 
 to keep away from the figs in future, was prodigal of 
 assurances, and he seemed satisfied. I congratu- 
 lated myself on having come off so well, and fancied 
 that the adventure would not transpire, but the 
 traitor told all. The next day, Signora Letitia 
 wanted to go and gather some figs. I had not left 
 any, there were none to be found, the keeper came, 
 great reproaches followed, and an exposure; the cul- 
 prit had to expiate his fault." 
 
 The family seems even at an early time to have 
 regarded Napoleon as the head of the children. 
 Archdeacon Lucien on his deathbed, said to Joseph, 
 
Napoleon's Childhood. 47 
 
 " Thou art the eldest of the family, but yonder is 
 the head ; thou must not forget this." 
 
 When he was six years old he was placed in a 
 school with some little girls ; they all made much of 
 him ; but he always had his stockings down about 
 his heels, and in walking out he never let go the 
 hand of a charming girl, who was the occasion of 
 many quarrels with other boys, who, jealous of his 
 Giacominetta, connected the two circumstances to- 
 gether, and put them into song. He never appeared 
 in the street but they followed him, repeating the 
 rhymes : " Napoleone di mezza calzetta, fa l'amore 
 a Giacominetta. "* 
 
 He could not bear to be made sport of. He 
 seized sticks, stones, everything that came in his 
 way, and rushed furiously among the throng. For- 
 tunately someone was always by to put an end to 
 the affair, and bring him safe out of it ; for numbers 
 did not intimidate him, he never stopped to count 
 adversaries. 
 
 As a boy, Napoleon displayed an irresistible 
 passion for everything military, and this born sol- 
 dier liked nothing better than running along beside 
 the military in Ajaccio. He teased his father with 
 entreaties to buy him a cannon ; and long subse- 
 * Napoleon with his stockings half off, makes love to Giacominetta. 
 
48 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 quently, they showed in the Buonaparte house the 
 little metal cannon with which he used to play. 
 
 Napoleon also related the following to his fellow 
 countryman Antommarchi : " I came into the world 
 in the arms of old Mammuccia Caterina. She was 
 obstinate, captious, continually at war with all 
 around her. She was perpetually quarrelling with 
 my grandmother, of whom, notwithstanding, she 
 was very fond, and who had the same regard for 
 her. Yet she was kind, affectionate; she walked out 
 with us, took care of us, made us laugh ; she showed 
 an anxiety for us, the recollection of which is not 
 yet effaced. I still remember the tears she shed 
 when I quitted Corsica. That is now forty years 
 ago. You were not then born ; I was young and 
 did not foresee the glory that awaited me, still less 
 that we should find ourselves here together ;* but 
 destiny is unchangeable, one must obey one's star. 
 Mine was to run through the extremes of life : and I 
 set out to fulfil the task assigned me." 
 
 * At St. Helena. 
 
49 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Napoleon's Schooldays. 
 
 At the school at Brienne it has been said that his 
 poverty exposed him to mortification, to which he 
 was forced to submit in silence, but with inward in- 
 dignation, in the midst of boys more favoured by 
 fortune than himself. Reports were also spread, 
 injurious to the character of his mother and the pro- 
 fession of his father, which on more than one 
 occasion drove him beyond the bounds of patience 
 and discretion. He was alternately accused of being 
 a son of a Corsican attorney, and next of Monsieur 
 Marbceuf, the French Governor, sent over to 
 Corsica, though the latter only arrived in the island 
 in June, 1769, three months after the birth of 
 Napoleon. The spirit which Napoleon had shown 
 in vindication of the honour of his parents pro- 
 cured him many friends in the school. One day 
 one of the teachers, not attending to the character of 
 the child, had condemned him to wear a coarse 
 woollen dress, and to dine on his knees at the door 
 
 E 
 
50 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 of the refectory. This, the young Corsican's pride 
 could not brook ; it brought on a sudden vomiting 
 and a violent fit of hysterics. The superior, who 
 was passing by chance, snatched him from his 
 intended punishment ; and Father Patrault, the 
 mathematical professor, complained bitterly that 
 they should thus degrade his first mathematician. 
 He seldom joined in the sports of the other boys, 
 but shut himself up with a volume of Plutarch, 
 or some work on history; probably the want of 
 exercise and recreation stunted his growth, for his 
 body was not proportioned to his remarkably 
 fine manly head, cast in the mould of the antique. 
 The games in which he indulged at this early 
 period, it was remarked, were images of war ; he 
 saw himself surrounded with camps, fortifications, 
 armies, and already played the conqueror and hero 
 in battle. In the winter of 1783, the pupils con- 
 structed a regular fort with snow. Buonaparte took 
 a great share in this important concern ; the fort 
 was alternately attacked, taken, retaken ; and he 
 showed, both in the attack and defence, equal 
 courage, hardihood and address. 
 
 Stubborn and intractable with his equals, he was 
 docile to his superiors, and never rebelled against 
 established authority. A love of order, or sense of 
 
Napoleon's Schooldays. 51 
 
 the value of power, whether in himself or others, 
 seems to have been always a first principle in his 
 mind. Diligent, studious and grave, he became a 
 favourite with his teachers. His chief studies were 
 history and mathematics : the one taught him a 
 knowledge of mankind, as the other put instruments 
 into his hands for mastering them. Seeking neither 
 for relaxation or amusement, he applied himself 
 closely to those several branches of study which 
 rested on positive grounds and led to practical re- 
 sults. Madame De Brienne used to invite several of 
 the schoolboys, and among them Napoleon, to visit 
 her at her chateau. It is to her that he is supposed 
 to have returned the characteristic answer addressed 
 to some lady of quality who was complaining of the 
 burning of the Palatinate by the great Turenne, 
 " And why not, Madame, if it was necessary to his 
 designs ?" In the campaign of 1814, the victory 
 was bloodily contested with Blucher in the chateau 
 de Brienne, foot to foot, and chamber to chamber, 
 on the very spot where he was brought up, which 
 must have been a very mortifying reflection to him. 
 In the year 1783 he was sent to the military school 
 at Paris, being one of the best three scholars, chosen 
 annually from each of the twelve provincial schools 
 of France. His masters entertained a high opinion 
 
52 The Birthplace, and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 of his ability, so much so that Leguille, professor of 
 history at Paris,, predicted his subsequent career. 
 In fact, to the name of Buonaparte, was appended 
 the following note: — "A Cmsican by birth and char- 
 acter — he will do something great if circumstances favour 
 him" In 1785, he was examined by the celebrated 
 mathematician, La Place, and obtained the brevet 
 of a second lieutenant of artillery in the regiment 
 of La Fere ; he was then sixteen years of age. 
 
 When stationed at Valenu, he fell in love with 
 the daughter of Madame du Colombier, a girl of his 
 own age, but it came to nothing more than their 
 walking out together, planning stolen interviews, and 
 eating most harmless cherries. 
 
 Now and then he visited Ajaccio, and he was 
 fond of living and working at Milelli, a small country 
 house, near the town, belonging to his mother. In 
 its grounds there is an old oak tree,, and a spot 
 sheltered by huge rocks, now called Napoleon's 
 Grotto, where he used to sit and dream or meditate. 
 It was here he wrote his celebrated manifesto, which 
 was an insight into the nature of the growth and 
 development of the future emperor. Then came the 
 French Revolution, the assault of the Bastille, and 
 the downfall of the existing state of things. 
 
 Young Napoleon threw himself into the in- 
 
Napoleon's Schooldays. 53 
 
 tellectual movement with the whole passion of his 
 nature. We find him in Ajaccio a young ardent 
 revolutionist, making speeches in the clubs* writing 
 addresses* helping to organise the national guard — in 
 a word, playing the great politician. 
 
 Ajaccio was at that time the centre of the 
 Corsican revolutionists : the Buonaparte house soon 
 became their place of meeting, and the brothers 
 Joseph and Napoleon decided leaders of the 
 democracy. The little town became wild with 
 excitement and confusion. Napoleon and Joseph 
 assembled the democratic party in the church of 
 San Francisco, and drew up a letter of congratula- 
 tion to the constituent assembly, in which, at the 
 same time, the bitterest complaints were expressed 
 against the existing administration of Corsica, and 
 the demand was made that Corsica might be 
 declared an integral part of France. 
 
 Napoleon perceived his time had come ; re- 
 nouncing his Corsican patriotism, he became a 
 decided Frenchman, and from this time onward he 
 looked to France for his career. 
 
 The narrow horizon of his native island was no 
 longer wide enough for him, but from its bracing 
 mountain air, and from the quick blood of his race, 
 he drew a magnetic force which imparted to his 
 
54 The Birthplace and Childhood of Napoleon. 
 
 decisions a rapidity and energy that carried all 
 before them, while at the same time a power of calm 
 calculation, of industry, and of self-control enabled 
 him to employ his genius to the best advantage. 
 The force of his personality was so overwhelming 
 that, in considering his career, the regret must ever 
 be present that the only principle that remained 
 steadfast with him, and is the key to his conduct 
 throughout, should have been the care for his own 
 advancement, glory and power. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 EDWARD HOWELL, CHURCH STREET, LIVERPOOL.