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BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



766 



of the superiors of the Paris school, who hastened the epoch of his 

 examination, as if anxious to get rid of a troublesome guest. He 

 was likewise remarked for the wild energy and strange amplifications 

 in hia style of expressing himself when excited, a peculiarity which 

 distinguished many of his subsequent speeches and proclamations. 

 In September 1785, he left the school, and received hia commission 

 u sub-lieutenant in the regiment of artillery de la Fere, and was soon 

 after promoted to a first lieutenancy in the artillery regiment of 

 Grenoble, stationed at Valence. His father had just died at Mont- 

 pellier of a scirrhus in the stomach. An old great uncle, the Arch- 

 deacon Lucien of Ajaccio, now acted as father to the family ; he was 

 rich, and Charles had left his children poor. Napoleon's elder brother 

 Joseph, after receiving his education at the College of Autun in 

 Burgundy, returned to Corsica, where his mother, sisters, and younger 

 brothers resided as well as a half-brother of his mother, of the name 

 of Peach, whose father had been an officer in a Swiss regiment in the 

 Genoese service, formerly stationed in Corsica. Napoleon, while at 

 Valence with his regiment, waa allowed 1200 francs yearly from his 

 family, probably from the archdeacon, which, added to his pay, 

 enabled him to live comfortably and to go into company. He appears 

 to hare entered cheerfully into the sport* and amusements of his 

 brother officers, while at the same time he did not neglect improving 

 himself in the studies connected with his profession. While at 

 Val-nce he wrote a dissertation in answer to Raynal'a question, 

 ' What are the principles and institutions by which mankind can obtain 

 the greatest possible happiness?' He sent his manuscript anonymously 

 to the Academy of Lyon, which adjudged to him the prize attached 

 to the best essay on the subject. Many years after, when at the 

 height of hia power, he happened to mention the circumstance, and 

 Talleyrand having sought the forgotten manuscript among the archives 

 of the Academy, presented it to him one morning. Napoleon, after 

 reading a few pages of it, threw it into the fire, and no copy having 

 been taken of it, we do not know what his early ideaa might have 

 been about the happiness of mankind. (Laa Cases' ' Journal,' vol. i.) 

 Napoleon had become acquainted with Raynal while at Paris. Having 

 made an excursion from Valence to Mont Cdnis, he designed writing a 

 ' sentimental journey,' in imitation of Sterne's work, translations of 

 which were much read in France at the time, but he ultimately 

 resisted the temptation. 



The first outbreaking of the revolution found Napoleon at Valence 

 with his regiment. He took a lively interest in the proceedings of 

 the first National Assembly. The officers of hia regiment, like thoae 

 of the army in general, were divided into royalists and democrats. 

 Several of the former emigrated to join the Prince of Condd. Napoleon 

 however refused to follow the same course ; he took the popular side, 

 and his example and his argument* influenced many of his brother 

 officers in the regiment. In 1792 Napoleon became a captain in the 

 regiment of Grenoble artillery (Laa Caaea, voL i.), his promotion being 

 favoured probably by the emigration of so many officers. Napoleon 

 and Bourienne happened to be, on the 20th of June 1792, at a coffee- 

 house in the street St. HononS, when the mob from the fauxbourgs 

 (a motley crowd armed with pikes, sticks, axes, &c.) were proceeding 

 to the Tuileries. " Let us follow this canaille," whispered Napoleon 

 to hia friend. They went accordingly, and saw the mob break into 

 the palace without any opposition, and the king afterwards appear at 

 one of the windows with a red cap on hia head. " It is all over hence- 

 forth with that man ! " exclaimed Napoleon ; and returning with his 

 friend to the coffee-house to dinner, he explained to Bourienne all 

 the consequences he foresaw from the degradation of the monarchy 

 on that fatal day, now and then exclaiming indignantly, " How could 

 they allow those despicable wretches to enter the palace ! why, a few 

 discharges of grape-shot amongst them would have made them all 

 take to their heels ; they would be running yet at this moment ! " He 

 waa collected and extremely grave all the remainder of that day ; the 

 sight had made a deep impression upon him. Ho witnessed also the 

 scenes of the 1 Oth of August, after which he left Paris to return to 

 bin family in Corsica. General de Paoli then held the chief authority 

 in that island from the king and the French National Assembly, and 

 Napoleon waa appointed by him to the temporary command of a 

 battalion of national guards. Paoli had approved of the constitutional 

 monarchy in France, but not of the excesses of the Jacobins, nor of 

 the attempts to establish a republic. Factions had broken out in 

 Corsica also, which Paoli endeavoured to repress. In January 1793, 

 a French flee.t, under Admiral Trnguet, sailed from Toulon, for the 

 purpose of attacking the island of Sardinia. Napoleon, with his 

 battalion, was ordered to make a diversion by taking possession of the 

 (mail inland* which lie on the northern coast of Sardinia, which he 

 effected ; but Truguet'a fleet having been repulsed in the attack upon 

 Cagliari, Napoleon returned to Corsica with his men. Paoli had now 

 openly renounced all obedience to the French Convention, and called 

 upon hia countrymen to shake off its yoke. Napoleon, on the con- 

 trary, rallied with the French troopa under Lacombe St. Michel and 

 Salictti, and he was gent with a body of men to attack his native 

 town Ajaccio, which waa in possession of Paoli's party. He however 

 did not succeed, and was obliged to return to Bastia. The English 

 fleet soon after appeared on the coast, landed troopa, and assisted 

 Paoli, and the French were obliged to quit the island. Napoleon also 

 left it about May 1793, and hia mother and Bisters with him. After 



seeing them safe to Marseille, he went to join the 4th regiment of 

 artillery, which was stationed at Nice with the army intended to act 

 against Italy. So at least his brother Louis says, but from Las Cases' 

 account it would appear that he repaired to Paris to ask for active 

 employment. It was during his short residence at Marseille and in 

 the neighbourhood, that he wrote a political pamphlet, called ' Le 

 Souper de Beaucaire,' a supposed conversation between men of different 

 parties : a Marseillese, a man of Nimes, a military man, and a manu- 

 facturer of Montpellier. Bonaparte apeaks his own sentiments as the 

 military man, and recommends union and obedience to the Convention, 

 against which the Marseillese were then in a state of revolt. This 

 curious pamphlet became very rare afterwards. Napoleon was said to 

 have suppressed it. Bourienne prints a copy of it from a manuscript 

 given to him by Bonaparte in 1795. His language was then strongly 

 republican. 



Bonaparte was at Paris in September 1793. Being known as a good 

 artillery officer, he was sent to join the besieging army before Toulon, 

 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel of artillery, and with a letter for 

 Cartaux, the republican general, a vain, vulgar, and extremely ignorant 

 man. Napoleon himself has given, in Las Cases' 'Journal,' a most 

 amusing account of his first interview with Cartaux, of the wretched 

 state in which he found the artillery, of the total want of common 

 sense in the dispositions that had been made for the attack, of his own 

 remonstrances, of his difficulty in making Cartaux understand the 

 simplest notions concerning a battery, &c. At last, luckily for him, 

 Gasparin, a commissioner from the Convention, arrived at the camp. 

 He had seen a little service, and understood Bonaparte's plain state- 

 ments. A council of war was assembled, and although the orders of 

 the Convention were to attack Toulon and carry the town, Napoleon 

 succeeded in persuading them to attack first the outer works that 

 commanded the harbour, the taking of which would insure the sur- 

 render of the place. It waa decided that Bonaparte's plan should be 

 adopted, even at the serious risk of incurring the displeasure of the 

 Convention. Soon after, Cartaux was recalled, and another mock 

 general, a physician, was sent in his place ; but he was soon frightened 

 away by the whistling of the shots. Dugonimier, a brave veteran, then 

 came to command the besieging army, and he and Bonaparte agreed 

 perfectly. Napoleon constructed his batteries with great skill, and 

 having opened his fire with effect, the works which commanded the 

 harbour were carried by the French after a sharp resistance from the 

 English, in which the British commander, General O'Hara, was taken 

 prisoner, and Bonaparte received a bayonet wound. Upon this the 

 evacuation of the place was resolved upon by the allies, as Bonaparte 

 had foreseen. A scene of confusion, destruction, and conflagration took 

 place which it is not within our province to dwell upon : the English, 

 Spanish, and Neapolitan fleets sailed out of the harbour, carrying along 

 with them about 14,000 of the inhabitants, whose only safety was in 

 flight. The deputies of the Convention, Barras, Frdron, Fouchd, and 

 the younger Robespierre, entered Toulon, and exercised their vengeance 

 upon the few that remained, 400 of whom were assembled in the square 

 and exterminated by grape-shot. Bonaparte says that neither he nor 

 the regular troopa had anything to do with this butchery, which was 

 executed by what waa called 'the revolutionary army,' a set of 

 wretches, the real sans-culottes of Paris and other towns, who followed 

 the army as volunteers. 



In consequence of his services at the taking of Toulon, Bonaparte was 

 recommended by General Dugommier for promotion, and waa accord- 

 ingly raised to the rank of brigadier-general of artillery in February 

 1794, with the chief command of that department of the army in the 

 south. In this capacity he inspected the coasts, ordered the weak 

 points to be fortified, strengthened the fortifications already existing, 

 and displayed his abilities in these matters. He then joined the army 

 under General Dumorbion, which was stationed at the foot of the 

 Maritime Alps, and with which he made the campaign of 1794 against 

 the Piedmontese troops. In that campaign the French, disregarding 

 the neutrality of Genoa, and advancing by Ventimiglia and San Remo, 

 turned the Piedmontese position at Saorgio, obtained possession of the 

 Col-de-Tende, and penetrated into the valleys on the Piedmontese side 

 of the Alps. A battle was fought at Cairo, in the valley of the Bormida, 

 21st of September, in which the French had the advantage ; but the 

 rainy season coming on, terminated the campaign, in which Bonaparte 

 had taken an important part, together with Massena. 



Previous however to the battle of Cairo, Bonaparte had run con- 

 siderable risk from the factions that divided France. On the 13th of 

 July 1794 the Deputies of the Convention who were superintending 

 the operations of the army gave him a commission to proceed to Genoa, 

 with secret instructions to examine the state of the fortifications as 

 well as the nature of the country, and also to observe the conduct of 

 the Genoese government towards the English and other belligerent 

 powers. These instructions were dated Loano, and signed Ricord. 

 Ricord and the younger Robespierre were then commissioners. Bona- 

 parte went to Genoa and fulfilled his commission. Meantime the 

 revolution of the 9th and 10th Thermidor (27th and 28th of July) took 

 place, Robespierre fell, and his party were proscribed. Albitte, Saliceti, 

 and Laporte, were the new commissioners appointed to the army of 

 Italy. On Bonaparte's return from Genoa to head-quartera he was 

 placed under arrest, his papers were seized, and an order was issued 

 by the commissioners, stating that he had lost their confidence by his 



