£797-] 
accordingly find him, while yet a bov, 
Griginal Anecdotes.—Buonaparie. 
375 
Notwithftanding this, he was determined 
prefenting himfelf as a candidate for a to remain faithtul to his engagements, 
‘commiffion in the artillery ; and his fuc- 
céfs equalled the expectations of his 
friends, for he was the twelfth on the 
lift, out of the thirty-fix, who proved 
viétorious in the ~conteft. In confe- 
quence of this event, he became a len- 
‘tenant in the French army, and ferved 
as’ fuch during two or three years, in 
the regiment of La Fere. 
In 1790, General PaoLr repaired to 
¥rance, where he was honoured with a 
civic crown, and there embraced the 
fon of his old friend, who had ferved 
under him at ‘St. Fiorenze, in 1768. 
‘They met again, foon after, in Cortfica, 
avhere BUONAPARTE, now a captain, 
was eleéted lieutenant-colonel of a corps 
of Corfican national guards i” adfivity. 
On the fecond expedition fitted out 
againft Sardinia, he embaiked with his 
countrymen, and jended in the little 
ifland of Maddalena, which he took pof- 
feffion of, in the name of the French re- 
publics but finding the troops tha: had 
been got together for this expedition, 
meither poffefied organization, nor dif- 
eipline, he returned to the port of 
Ajaccio, whence he had fet out. 
In the mean time, a fcheme was form- 
ing for the annexation of Corfica to the 
crown of England; and the cabinet, in 
an evil how, acceded to a propofition 
which, while it diminifhed the wealth, 
has contributed but little either to the 
honour or advantage, of this * country. 
BuoNAPAR’E had a difficult part to 
act on this occafion; he was perfunally 
attached to Pafquale Paoli; he refented 
the treatment he experienced during 
the reign of the Terrorfjis, and shad 
actually drawn up, with his own hand, 
the remonftrance ‘tranfmitted by the 
Municipality of Ajaccio againft the de- 
“cree declaring the general an enemy io 
the commonwealth. Indeed, he was 
duppofed to be fo intimately conneéted 
with him, that a warrant was actually 
iffued by Lacombe de St. Michel, and 
the two other commiifioners of the con- 
vention, to arreft young BUONAPARTE ! 

%* 6M. de Lomellini obferved one dav, to 
Dumourier, during his refidence in Genoa, that 
it would be a very happy thing were it poffible 
to bore a large hole in the centre of Corfica, in 
order to bury it under the ocean. He meant 
to exprefs by this figure, that it would always 
Occafion great trouble to whoever might be in 
pofieition of it, and become the caufe of frequent 
wars,”--eLife of Gen. Dumourier, vol.i. p, 182. 
and learning that the Englifh fleet, in 
the Mediterranean, had failed for the 
purpofe of fe:zing his narive ifland, he 
embarked, alone with his iamily, for the 
continent, and iettied within eighteen 
leagues uf Toulon. fs 
That town, the fecond féa-port in 
France, was at this moment in the pof- 
feifion of the Englifh, having becn jeft 
feized upon by Admiral Lonp Hoop, 
who had fubfituted the Britith crofs in 
the place of the, three-coloured flag, 
The military talents of the young Cor- 
fican were well knownto SaLicerr, 
who introduced him to BARR As, now 
one of the Direétory, to whom he af- 
forded indubitable proof of the fincerity 
of his profefiions, at a period when ‘uf. 
picion was juftified by the moft ferious 
and frequent defections. He was accord- 
ingly advanced from the rank of chef de 
brigade, to that of General of Artilery, 
and direéted,! under Gencral Ducom- 
MiER, the attacks of the various redcubts 
that furrounded and itrengthened this 
important port. in which CoLrogr 
bD Heros foon after declared, -* that 
he had’ found the gallev-flaves alone, 
faithful to the républic* 1? Tt is almott 
necdlefs to add, that the energy of the 
French troops, added to the {cientific 
arrangements of the engineers, overcame 
the zeal and refifiance of the motly gar~ 
rifoh, and ieftored the key of the Medi- 
terrancan to France. ‘ 
It may be neceffary, however, to re-* 
mark, that BUONAPARTE, in 1793, took 
an active part againft General Paoti and 
the Enelith ; for, in the courfe of that 
year, he appeared with a fma!l armament 
before Ajaccio, the town and citacel of 
which he fummoned, in the name of the 
Republic; but he met with a formidable 
enemy in, his own *coufin, the brave 
Captain Masserra, who commanded a 
corps of Corficans, during the fiege of 
sibraltar. and had learned the manage- 

SE COA Re 
* The voluntary exile o! the inhabitants 
prevented Collot. d’Herbois from pafling a 
fentence on Toulon, fimilar to that inflicted on 
Lyons 
<< Que cette vifle foit détruite ; que le farg de 
fes haritarts groffiffe les eaux du Rhone” 
« Let this cit be deftroyed, and the blood of 
its inhabitants’ increafe the waters of the 
Rhone” Neither the advocates of a ittocracy, 
or democracy, feem to be fufficientl, aware how 
much they hurt the caufe of either, by cruelty. 
3 Cia men! 
