NAPOLEON I 



4063 



NAPOLEON I 



On joining the artillery he was made to fulfil 

 all the duties of a private soldier, a corporal 

 and a sergeant before he assumed the rank 



:i him by his commission. Setting himself 

 to the task of thoroughly mastering the theo- 

 retical and practical details of his profession 

 he devoted much of his time to study; his 

 guiding motive at first appears to have been tho 

 otic desire of freeing Corsica from the 

 yoke of France. Spending many months on 



e of absence in Corsica, he took part in the 



;otic movement of Paoli, with whom, how- 



be was never in full accord. 

 In 1792 he was again in Paris when the mob 

 attacked the Tuileries, and he received the 

 rank of captain. A quarrel with Paoli in Cor- 

 sica in 1793 decided him to throw in his lot 

 completely with the French revolutionary party 

 in tho island and he was forced to take refuge 

 in France. Rejoining the army, he took part 

 in the occupation of Marseilles by the revolu- 

 tionary forces and marched against Toulon, 

 which, strongly supported by English and Span- 

 ish troops, was a great menace to the revolu- 

 tionary cause. Being practically in command 

 of the artillery at the siege of Toulon, he won 

 pilden opinions and promotion to the rank of 



ral of brigade. The fall of Toulon was due 

 t> the strategy, power of organization and con- 

 centration of Napoleon, and General du Teil 

 called upon the ministers to "consecrate him 



e glory of the republic." 

 Napoleon's military career practically began 

 at Toulon, after which, in acknowledgment of 

 tin ability he displayed, he received the com- 

 mand of the army about to invade Italy. It 

 was about the time of the siege of Toulon that 

 he conceived the prevalent idea of all his future 

 campaign.-, that of concentration against one 

 particular point of the enemy's line. With one 

 point broken or weakened the army becomes a 



n dependent on its weakest link. His cam- 

 paigns at the head of the army in Italy were 

 by many rebuffs, which he met 

 with fortitude*. Placed under arrest, charged 

 with disclosing the plans of campaign, his situa- 

 was almost desperate. It was a time when 

 sent to death on mere suspicion and 

 no man's life was safe. The commissioners sent 

 by the ( -i, suspicious and jealous, yet 



with not a shred of evidence against him, set 

 him ii" in kiflM to win a victory against the 

 Austrians at Dego, in 1794; but Napoleon's 

 campaign was :in d Scherer was placed 



; ic command. Even thru ).. | M ,i f :u th 

 in his destiny. 



Fame at the Age of Twenty-Six. Again in 

 Paris, poorly clad and ill fed, Napoleon waited 

 for better fortune. The Convention was near- 

 ing its close, royalist reaction was making head- 

 way, and 30,000 National Guards were massed 

 against the Convention, which was protected 

 by Barras. Having seen him at Toulon, Barras 

 nominated Napoleon as his second in command. 

 Napoleon's great chance was at hand. He had 

 one night in which to make preparations to 

 defeat the mob which threatened the Conven- 

 tion. His activity was amazing, his resource- 

 fulness superb. With a "whiff of grapeshot" he 

 cleared the streets of Paris and paved his own 

 road to power. Royalism was defeated, the 

 Convention dying, and democracy, in the form 

 of the Directory, rose in a night and brought 

 into power the man who was in time to crush 

 democracy and monarchy alike and centralize 

 a world-power in one individual. Napoleon's 

 "whiff of grapeshot" made October 5, 1795, a 

 red-letter day in the history of Europe. 



Marriage to Josephine. Becoming a member 

 of the Din (ton. Barras interested himself in 

 the hero of the hour, and it was at his house 

 that Napoleon first met Josephine de Beauhar- 

 nais, who at once inspired in him a romantic 

 passion. Though penniless, Bonaparte pressed 

 his suit, was strongly supported by Barras, and 

 the marriage was arranged. Josephine seemed 

 afraid of her impetuous wooer, yet carried be- 

 yond herself by his enthusiastic domination. 

 Two days after tho marriage Napoleon set out 

 to take command of the army in Italy. Having 

 previously drawn up a plan of campaign he 

 submitted it to the Directory, who instructed 

 Scherer, then in command in Italy, to carry it 

 out. Scherer replied that, if the Directory 

 wanted that plan of campaign carried out they 

 should send the man who drew it up to do so. 

 His suggestion was taken. Napoleon arrived 

 in Nice in March, 1796. Naples, Parma and 

 Modena were forced, by operations culminating 

 at Lodi, to sue for peace. Army after army 

 sent by Austria was crushed; Napoleon carried 

 the war into the enemy's country, and Au> 

 shorn of the Netherlands and Lombardy, ac- 

 cepted terms of peace at Campo Formio in 

 1797. Napoleon returned to Paris, a hero, in 

 great favor with tho people. 



Becomes First Power in France. In days 

 when men eyed their neighbors askance and a 

 leader of the people was to be dreaded, the rise 

 of Napoleon was viewed with di.-favor by the 

 ,-tory. Tl, ti \\ho promoted him 



now feared the power they had created. An 



