Napoleon I 1769-1821

The Artillery Officer.

He himself acknowledged, modestly and loyally, his debt to his teachers. He had studied the treatises of Bourcet and of Guibert, who had evolved from modern arma ments new principles and methods of warfare. As a sub-lieutenant at Auxonne, after leaving the Ecole Militaire, he received at first hand instruction from baron du Teil, brother of the author of a remarkably advanced work on the use of modern artillery. He profited by the instruction, and always spoke of it with apprecia tion. However gifted a man may be, he still needs inspiration and counsel, and learns more from his predecessors than he himself passes on to his contemporaries and to posterity. The genius of Napoleon was not least evident in the way in which he made use of the instruction which he received. Curiously enough, Guibert in his Systeme de guerre moderne had predicted that a great man would arise to put into practice the military theories which were then taking shape. These facts, which place Napoleon in his proper intellectual environment, seem to the writer to throw more light on his mind and his character than would countless anec dotes of his childhood and schooldays, such as that at Brienne he was nicknamed Faille au nez by his companions because of the way in which he pronounced Napolione.

Between his spells of garrison duty at Valence and at Auxonne as a young artillery officer, a part of his early career of which little is known was passed in the leave which he spent on more than one occasion in Corsica, where the somewhat complicated affairs of his family demanded his presence. At Ajaccio in Sept.

1789, he found his elder brother Joseph deep in the affairs of the democratic party which had inevitably, with the progress of the Revolution, become the party of France. Paoli, who had at first thought that events in France would bring about Corsican inde pendence, had soon been disillusioned, Jacobinism being essentially a unifying and centralising force. He inclined therefore to the counter-revolution and entered the opposite camp.

Napoleon, promoted lieutenant in 1791 on the reorganization of the artillery, was stationed for another three months at Valence, where he continued his studies, and even wrote an essay on a subject set for competition by the academy of Lyons : "What are the principles and institutions most likely to bring about the greatest happiness of mankind?" He treated the subject in the style and according to the principles of Jean Jacques Rousseau. When, years afterwards, Talleyrand showed him the essay, he threw it into the fire.

He was again in Corsica from Sept. 1791 to May 1792. Feeling ran high in the island, as a result of the disestablishment of the Catholic Church. He plunged into political intrigue, outstayed his

leave, and became liable to the penalties in force against deserters and émigrés. On April 20, 1792, however, the legislative assembly had declared war on Austria. Officers were needed. Instead of undergoing any penalty, Bonaparte, whose zeal for the Revolution was well known, was made a captain. In this capacity he remained in Paris for several months, and witnessed the great events of the Revolution. After the September massacres, he went to Ajaccio to take home his sister Elisa from the convent of Saint Cyr which had just been closed. This was his last visit to his native country.

The break with Paoli was now complete. Bonaparte was on the side of the "patriotes," while the old champion of independence was appealing to the English against the Republic, One and Indi visible. Paoli was victorious. Bonaparte and his family, now entirely ruined, had to fly from the island and take refuge in France. This was the termination of what we may call his "in sular" period. As he himself said afterwards, once he had left Ajaccio, more important affairs left him little time to think of Corsica and Paoli.

Early Military Opportunities.—In Sept. 1793, Napoleon Bonaparte was still unknown to the world which was to ring with his name. Amazed himself at his extraordinary career, and the incredible swiftness of his rise to power, he said in Saint Helena to Las Cases, "Centuries will pass before the unique combination of events which led to my career recur in the case of another." Favourable circumstances were also required to bring the young artillery officer to the front, and these were not lacking. The republic, which had challenged half Europe, had to face foreign and civil war, under conditions of anarchy. Bonaparte was a Jacobin, with a great reputation as an artillery officer. At Beau caire, on his way to Paris, he had written a pamphlet, the Souper de Beaucaire, in which he had refuted the arguments of three Southern federalists or counter-revolutionaries. It is probable that it reflects a conversation which actually took place in an inn of the little town beside the Rhone. Its publication attested the patriotism of its author. The good word of Robespierre's brother and of Napoleon's compatriot, the deputy Salicetti, were also of assistance. At this juncture it was necessary to recapture Tou lon, the inhabitants of which had rebelled against the Convention and called in the assistance of an English squadron. An able officer of artillery was required to direct the siege operations. Bonaparte was chosen.