Part 11 (2/2)
Corsica was no sunny dwelling-place during the infancy of this young hero, who learned to brood over the wrongs of his island-honty of Genoa, and were able to resist all efforts to subdue theained by diploained by mere force of arms This conquest was resented the more bitterly by the Corsicans because they had enjoyed thirteen years of independence in all but name under Paoli, a well-loved patriot It was after Paoli was driven to England that the young Napoleon wrote, ”I was born when , thirty thousand French the throne of Liberty in waves of blood; such was the sight which struck my eyes”
Corsican Napoleon declared himself in the youth of poverty and discontent, when he had drea to power by such patriotism as had ennobled Paoli Charles Buonaparte, his father, went over to the winning side, and was eager to secure the friendshi+p of Marboeuf, the French governor of Corsica
Napoleon, the second of thirteen children, owed assistance in his early education to Marboeuf for it was impossible for his own family to do more than provide the barest necessities of life Charles Buonaparte was an idle, careless man and the family poverty bore hardly on his wife Letitia, who had been ery
Napoleon entered the military school at Brienne in April 1779, and froht well have warned his parents that they had hatched a prodigy All the bitterness of a proud humiliated spirit inspired theed his father to reard of filial piety, the repayment by some means of a sum of money he had borrowed
”If I am not to be allowed the means, either by you or my protector, to keep up a more honourable appearance at the school I austed with being looked upon as a pauper by my insolent companions, who have only fortune to recommend them, and smile at my poverty; there is not one here, but who is far inferior to me in those noble sentiments which animate my soul
If my condition cannot be ameliorated, remove me from Brienne; put me to some mechanical trade, if itmy equals and I will answer for it, I will soon be their superior You e {170} of my despair by my proposal; once more I repeat it; I would sooner be foreman in a workshop than be sneered at in a first-rate academy”
In the academy Napoleon remained, however, censured by his parents for his aloo even at this early age that he was superior to those around hieneral incomplete in his conquests He read Plutarch and the _Commentaries_ of Caesar and deterh he wrote again to the straitened household in Corsica, declaring, ”He who cannot afford to make a lawyer of his son, makes hiard the fa the island community ”Let ed, ”let my sisters work to otism in this spirit, yet the Corsican had real love for his own kindred as he showed in later life But at this period he panted for falory so ardently that he would readily sacrifice those nearest to hiht never find full scope; he was certain that one day he would be able to repay any generosity that was shown to him
The French Revolution broke out and Napoleon saw his first chance of distinction He ell recoe for a position in the artillery, despite the strange report of the young student's character and manners which ritten for the private perusal of thosethe appointment {171} ”Napoleon Buonaparte, a Corsican by birth, reserved and studious, neglectful of all pleasures for study; delights in is; extremely attentive to methodical sciences, eography; silent, a lover of solitude, whi but little, pithy in his answers, quick and severe in repartee, possessed of h in expectation”
Soon after the fall of the Bastille, Napoleon placed himself at the head of the revolutionary party in Ajaccio, hoping to become the La Fayette of a National Guard which he tried to establish on the isle of Corsica He aspired to be the couard if such could be created, and was not unreasonable in his ambition since he was the only Corsican officer trained at a royal military school But France rejected the proposal for such a force to be established, and Napoleon had to act on his own initiative He forfeited his French coh in 1792 Declared a deserter, he saw slight chance of prolory Indeed he would probably have been tried by court- to the outbreak of the French war against European allies He decided to lead the rebels of Corsica, and tried to get possession of Ajaccio at the Easter Festival
This second attempt to raise an insurrection ended in the entire Buonaparte fa driven by the wrathful Corsicans to France, which henceforth was their adopted country The Revolution blazed forth and King and Queen went to the scaffold, while treason that ht, in time of peace, have served to send an {172} officer to death, proved a stepping-stone to high rank and promotion It was a civil war, and in it Napoleon was first to show his extraordinary skill inToulon in 1793 and was ade and passing as a general of artillery into the foreign hich Republican France waged against all Europe
The command of the army of Italy was offered Napoleon by Barras, as one of the new Directory formed to rule the Republic A rich wife seeBarras had taken up the Corsican, and arranged an introduction for him to Josephine Beauharnais, the beautifulof a noble who had been a victin of Terror He had previously ene, when the boy caht be restored to him
Josephine pleased the suitor by her amiability, and was attracted in turn by his ardent nature She was in a position to advance his interests through her intireat position in the army if she became his wife She married Napoleon in March 1796, undaunted by the prediction: ”You will be a queen and yet you will not sit on a throne” Napoleon's career un in earnest It was the dawn of a new age in Europe, where France stood forth as a predoer of Marie Antoinette, France's ill-fated Queen, who had been Maria Theresa's daughter England and Russia were in alliance, though Russia was an uncertain and disloyal ally
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Want of er for success than the young Napoleon He was, however, planning a ca Austria He addressed his soldiers boldly, pro to lead them into the reat cities will be in your power,” he assured them
”There you will find honour, fame, and wealth” His first success was notable, but it did not satisfy the inordinate craving of his nature
”In our days,” he told Marreat; it falls to ive the exaeneral independent of the Republic He was rich in booty, and could pay his h exhausted public funds Silently, he pursued his own policy in war, and that was very different froone before hiht have treated, offering protection to persecuted priests ere marked out by the Directory as their ene to observe neutrality Forgetting his Italian blood, he carried off alleries that they ht be sent to France He showed now his audacity and the ay of his plans of conquest The effect of the horror and disorders of Revolutionary wars had been to deprive him of all scruples He despised a Republic, and despised the French nation as unfit for Republicanism ”A republic of thirty millions of people!” he exclaimed as he conquered Italy, ”with ourpossible? The nation wants a chief, a chief covered with glory, not theories of {174} governical essays, that the French do not understand They want soh; they will play with the they are cleverly prevented fro”
But the wily Corsican did not often speak so plainly! Ai at imperial power, he was careful to dissi him was Republican in sympathy
Napoleon had achieved the conquest of Italy when only twenty-seven In 1796 he entered Milan a beneath a triumphal arch The Italians froave the conqueror the coland The old desperate rivalry had broken out again now that the French saw a chance of regaining power in India It was Napoleon's purpose to ar in Egypt, and he neededthe conquest of Italy he had ed to secure money from the Papal chests and he could rely, too, on the vast spoil taken from Berne when the old constitution of the Sas overthrown and a new Republic founded He took Malta, ”the strongest place in Europe,” and proceeded to occupy Alexandria in 1798 In the following February he land's supremacy at sea destroyed the co He had never thought seriously of the English admiral Nelson till his own fleet was shattered by hiement at Aboukir After that, he understood that he had to reckon with a powerful enemy
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The Turks had decided to anticipate Napoleon's plan for securing Greece her freedo a vast army in Syria The French took the town of Jaffa by assault, but had to retire froe of Acre
The expedition was not therefore a success, though Napoleon won a victory over the Turkish arypt and were fortunate enough to win back Malta, which excluded France frolish cruisers and returned to France, where he rapidly rose to power, receiving, after a kind of revolution, the title of First Consul He was to hold office for ten years and receive a salary of half amonarchy had been created
The people of France, however, still fancied themselves a free Republic