Part 17 (1/2)

He even tried a novel, but boys of seventeen are not very well fitted for real literary work, and his first attempts were but poor affairs.

His reading in history and geography drew his attention to Asia; and he always had a boyish dream of what he should like to attempt and achieve in the half-fabled land of India, where he believed great success and vast riches were to be secured by an ambitious young man, who had knowledge of military affairs, and the taste for leaders.h.i.+p. At last he was ordered away on active service; first to suppress what was known as the ”Two-cent Rebellion” in Lyons, and after that to the town of Douay in Belgium.

If was while there that bad news came to him from Corsica. His family was again in trouble. His mother had tried silkworm raising, and failed; his uncle the canon was very sick; his good friend and the patron of the family, General Marbeuf, was dead; his brothers were unsuccessful in getting positions or employment; and something must be done to help matters in the big bare house in Ajaccio.

Worried over the news, Napoleon tried to get leave of absence, so as to go to Corsica and see what he could do. But this favor was not granted him. His anxiety made him low-spirited; this brought on an attack of fever. The leave of absence was granted him because he was sick; and early in 1787 he went home to Corsica.

He had been absent from home for eight years. At once he tried to set matters on a better footing. He fixed up the little house at Melilli, which had belonged to his mother's father; tried to help his mother in her attempts at mulberry-growing for the silkworms; saw that his brother Joseph was enabled to go into the oil-trade; brightened up his uncle the canon with his political discussions and a correspondence with a famous French physician as to the cure for his uncle's gout; and finally, being recalled to his regiment, went back to Paris, and joined his regiment at Auxonne.

While in garrison at this place, he lodged with Professor Lombard, a teacher of mathematics, whom he sometimes a.s.sisted in his cla.s.ses. He worked hard, kept out of debt, ate little, and was ”poor, but proud.” He gained the esteem of his superiors; for in a letter to Joey Fesch, who was now a priest, he wrote:

”The general here thinks very well of me; so much so, that he has ordered me to construct a polygon,--works for which great calculations are necessary,--and I am hard at work at the head of two hundred men.

This unheard-of mark of favor has somewhat irritated the captains against me; they declare it is insulting to them that a lieutenant should be intrusted with so important a work, and that, when more than thirty men are employed, one of them should not have been sent out also. My comrades also have shown some jealousy, but it will pa.s.s.

What troubles me is my health, which does not seem to me very good.”

Indeed, it was not very good. He was just at the age when a young fellow needs all the good food, healthful exercise, and restful sleep that are possible; and these Napoleon did not permit himself. The doctor of his regiment told him he must take better care of himself; but that he did not, we know from this sc.r.a.p from a letter to his mother:--

”I have no resources but work. I dress but once in eight days, for the Sunday parade. I sleep but little since my illness; it is incredible. I go to bed at ten o'clock, and get up at four in the morning. I take but one meal a day, at three o'clock. But that is good for my health.”

The boy probably added that last line to keep his mother from feeling anxious. But it was not true. Such a life for a growing boy is very bad for his health. Again Napoleon fell ill, obtained six months' sick leave, and went again to Corsica. This visit was a much longer one than the first. In fact, he overstayed his leave; got into trouble with the authorities because of this; smoothed it over; regained his health; wrote and worked; mixed himself up in Corsican politics; became a fiery young advocate of liberty; and at last, after a year's absence from France, returned to join his regiment at Auxonne, taking with him his young brother, Louis, whom he had agreed to support and educate.

It was quite a burden for this young man of twenty to a.s.sume. But Napoleon undertook it cheerfully, he was glad to be able to do anything that should lighten his mother's burdens.

The brothers did not have a particularly pleasant home at Auxonne. They lived in a bare room in the regimental barracks, ”Number 16,” up one flight of stairs. It was wretchedly furnished. It contained an uncurtained bed, a table, two chairs, and an old wooden box, which the boys used, both as bureau and bookcase. Louis slept on a little cot-bed near his brother; and how they lived on sixty cents a day--paying out of that for food, lodging, clothes, and books--is one of the mysteries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”_'I dreamed that I was a king,' said Louis_”]

In fact, they nearly starved themselves. Napoleon made the broth; brushed and mended their clothes; sometimes had only dry bread for a meal; and, as Napoleon said later, ”bolted the door on his poverty.”

That is to say, they went nowhere, and saw no one.

It was hard on the young lieutenant; it was perhaps even harder on the little brother.

One morning, after Napoleon had dressed himself and was preparing their poor breakfast, he knocked on the floor with his cane to arouse his brother and call him to breakfast and studies.

Little Louis awoke so slowly that Napoleon was obliged to arouse him a second time.

”Come, come, my Louis,” he cried; ”what is the matter this morning? It seems to me that you are very lazy.”

”Oh, brother!” answered the half-awaked child, ”I was having such a beautiful dream!”

”And what did you dream?” asked Napoleon.

The little Louis sat upright on the edge of his cot. ”I dreamed that I was a king,” he replied.

”A king! Well, well!” exclaimed his brother, laughing. Then he glanced around at the bare and poverty-stricken room. ”And what, then, your Majesty, was I, your brother,--an emperor perhaps?” Then he shrugged his shoulders, and pinched his brother's ear.

”Well, kings and emperors must eat and work,” he said, ”the same as lieutenants and schoolboys. Come, then, King Louis; some broth, and then to your duty.”

This was Napoleon at twenty,--a poverty-pinched, self-sacrificing, hard-working boy, a man before his time; knowing very little of fun and comfort, and very much of toil and trouble.