M 
 
 Book /y^^ 
 
 Copyright )J". 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
LITTLE LIVES OF GREAT MEN 
 
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE AS EMPEROR 
 
 From the painting made in 1837, by Paul Hippolyte Delaroche, 
 collection of the Countess of Sandwich, showing Napoleon 
 in his sttidy. 
 
 the 
 
Little Lives of Great Men 
 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 THE LITTLE CORSICAN 
 
 By 
 
 ESSE V. HATHAWAY 
 
 Instructor in English in the Marshall- 
 town {Iowa) High School 
 
 WITH 
 3, FULL-PAGE PORTRAITS, 
 
 FROM paintings; and 45 
 
 TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 LOUIS BRAUNHOLD 
 
 Chicago New York London 
 
 RAND, McNALLY& CO. 
 
Copyright, igo6 
 By Rand-McNally & Co. 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGF?ESS 
 
 Tv/o Copies Received " 
 0C7 ?0 !906 
 
 Copyrig-iit Entry 
 
 CLASS CL XXc, No. 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 
 The Rand-McNally Press 
 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 
 
T)ttiitattn 
 
 to the memory of 
 m.y m^other 
 
 Frances Beach Hathaway 
 
THE TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Preface V// 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 /. A Boy's Trials i 
 
 IL Lonely Days at School ... /j 
 ///. The Little Corsican Finds 
 
 Friends zg 
 
 IV. At the Military School in 
 
 Paris ^2 
 
 V. The Boy Lieutenant .... 50 
 VI. The Young General .... 6g 
 ■. VII. Napoleon's First Great Cam- 
 paign yg 
 
 \VIII. Napoleon, First Consul of 
 
 France gj 
 
 j/X. Napoleon I., Emperor of France 
 
 AND King of Italy .... /05 
 
 X. The Tide Begins to Turn . . 116 
 
 XI. ^Failure and Exile ..... 128 
 
 XII. A Hopeless Restoration . . . ij8 
 
 XIII. The Famous Prisoner of vSt. 
 
 Helena 750 
 
 XIV Conclusion i^g 
 
 A Chronology of the Life of Napoleon 
 
 Bonaparte XI 
 
 A Reading List XYl 
 
 VI 
 
The Preface 
 
 THE necessity for the study of biog- 
 raphy is acknowledged by educators. 
 We all have something in common 
 with great men, and the earlier this fact 
 can be brought home to a child, the 
 earlier will his mind be filled with the 
 possibilities which his own life holds. 
 With this sympathy aroused, the history 
 w^hich every great man's life carries with 
 it is changed from pages of dry facts to a 
 story full of reality and living interests.' 
 
 In writing "Napoleon" for this series, the 
 attempt has been made to bring Napoleon's 
 boyhood life in touch with that of the 
 young people for whose reading it is 
 intended ; to make them feel that he liked 
 and disliked many of the same things that 
 they do, and that he was actuated by many 
 of the same boyish resolves that they are. 
 
 If this attempt has been successfully 
 carried out, it will follow that Napoleon, 
 in his later life, is not only the maker of 
 kingdoms and the brilliant general of 
 history, but also a man who lived, enjoyed, 
 and suffered as do other men. The wealth 
 of history centered in his life will have con 
 VII 
 
VIII Napoleon 
 
 sequently a warmth of human interest 
 which the ordinary statement of historical 
 facts lacks, but which is necessary to make 
 them stand out definitely in the student's 
 mind. 
 
 But the primary object in creating this 
 bond of sympathy with Napoleon is to 
 arouse an enthusiasm for his energy, per- 
 severance, and unconquerable will, without 
 which the genius of the great general 
 would have been useless. These traits 
 have been emphasized partly through 
 intention and partly because the meteoric 
 swiftness of his public life leaves no doubt 
 that these characteristics predominated in 
 him. 
 
 The Little Corsican's life story told 
 slowly and in several volumes is full 
 of exciting interest; brought within the 
 bounds of this small book it was necessary 
 to crowd one wonderful achievement close 
 upon another, with a rapidity which may 
 be mistaken for an attempt to dazzle 
 and mislead a child with Napoleon's great- 
 ness. But biography, to hold a child's 
 interest, must be short, without discussion 
 of motives or morals. In consequence 
 many good as well as bad traits in Napo- 
 leon's Hfe are here left unremarked. His 
 
The Little Corsican IX 
 
 chief fault — his towering ambition — was 
 displayed in matters which were too intri- 
 cate for a child's understanding. If the 
 simple telling of this story, fact upon fact, 
 should thrill the small readers with enthusi- 
 asm for the great man, and strengthen or 
 arouse in them the desire to use their time 
 and strength with his energy and perse- 
 verance, this book will have accompHshed 
 what I most desire. 
 
 Esse V. Hathaway. 
 Ottawa, Ohio, September, 1904. 
 
N 
 
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, LIEUTENANT OF ARTILLERY 
 
 From a painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, in the collection of M.C, Marquis 
 
 de las Cases, painted for Madame du Colombier in 17 91 by 
 
 Grease at Valence, when Napoleon was 22 years of age. 
 
NAPOLEON 
 
 THE LITTLE CORSICAN 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 A Boy's Trials 
 
 THE sun was shining brilliantly. The 
 cool sea breeze, sweeping in from 
 the Mediterranean, caught up the 
 fragrance of 
 many flowers 
 and the glad 
 song of birds •,' 
 to bear them 
 through the 
 avenues, shad- 
 ed with great 
 chestnut trees, 
 to the rugged 
 snow-capped 
 
 The house xn Ajaccto, Corsica, m jvhtch Napoleon 
 was born. 
 
2 Napoleon 
 
 mountains in the distance. It was the 
 fifteenth of August, 1769, a fete day in 
 the village of Ajaccio, and, as the good 
 people worshiped in the dark old cathedral, 
 and the sun stood nearly overhead, a tiny 
 boy awakened to life in a bare, yellowish- 
 gray house which stood opposite a small 
 park in the little Corsican town. 
 
 His baby eyes opened upon a time of 
 trouble in his island home. The Corsicans, 
 who had long been noted for their fierce 
 patriotism, were at last crushed by the 
 French. Their beloved island, drenched 
 with the blood of its brave defenders, was 
 about to pass into the hands of the enemy. 
 Within the home of the little stranger all 
 was dark and foreboding. His father, a 
 patriot leader and friend of PaoH, the 
 great Corsican general, was looked upon 
 with suspicion by the French ; his mother, 
 who had followed the army wherever it 
 went, sharing all its misfortunes and dis- 
 comforts, was full of grief and misgivings. 
 The future did not look promising for the 
 little Corsican. 
 
The Little Corsican j 
 
 A carelessly dressed, curious looking 
 little figure came walking slowly down the 
 shore from Ajaccio. The head, with its 
 straggling locks, was too large for the small 
 body and spindling legs, and the deep-set 
 eyes looked steadily ahead with a fearless, 
 commanding expression in their gray-blue 
 depths. It was our Corsican baby. Seven 
 years had passed since that summer day 
 when he first blinked his eyes at sunny 
 Ajaccio, and some of the warlike, gloomy 
 period of his country's history must have 
 deft its stamp on his character, for he had 
 never been so light-hearted and happy as 
 the other Ajaccio boys and girls. 
 
 Two years after his birth he had been 
 taken, with his baby sister Eliza, to the old 
 Cathedral and was there christened Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte. All through the years of 
 his babyhood the dark-faced little Napo- 
 leon made life miserable for his nurses with 
 his fierce temper and stubborn will. At six 
 he was sent to a dame's school, and there 
 the other children laughed at him because 
 his stockings were always hanging down 
 
4 Napoleon 
 
 over his shoe-tops, and because he spent 
 his playtime with the Httle girls of the 
 school. 
 
 To-day he walked along by the sea, under 
 the dazzling sky, to a little grotto which 
 he had discovered some months before and 
 which his uncle, Joey Fesch, a boy only a 
 few years older than Napoleon, had cleared 
 of rubbish and arranged for his little 
 nephew. With his visits to this cave 
 Napoleon began the practice, which he 
 continued when he grew older, of seeking 
 some place where he could be entirely alone 
 and where none dared intrude. . Even now 
 his right to this grotto was respected, and 
 that respect had been made sure by several 
 rousing fights with his brother Joseph, who 
 was older than Napoleon, but always his 
 inferior in will and action. 
 
 When the grotto was reached the boy 
 stood in the entrance, looking across the 
 sea, his hands clasped behind him and his 
 eyes wide open, as if seeing the far-away 
 Italian country from which his father's" 
 people had come long years before, carry- 
 
The Little Corsican 5 
 
 ing with them to their new home little else 
 but a great pride in an old and noble name. 
 
 There was a story of a great estate to 
 which Napoleon knew they had some right, 
 for his father was always trying to reclaim 
 it, but, beyond furnishing foundations for 
 num.erous air castles, the claim never 
 amounted to anything. It must have been 
 some such great daydream that now held 
 the quaint little figure so quiet, while the 
 cool wind sent the saucy little whitecaps 
 dancing over the tops of the waves at his 
 feet, for so gravely dignified and motion- 
 less did he stand that he easily might have 
 been taken for a wise old elf who had 
 dropped from his craggy mountain home 
 behind. 
 
 All at once there was a great shout, and 
 Eliza and her little playmate, Panoria, 
 rushed from the rocks toward Napoleon. 
 If they had expected to frighten or to 
 startle him they were disappointed, for he 
 turned upon them quietly, though with an 
 angry flash in his eyes. Before he could 
 say anything, however, some one called. 
 
6 ' Napoleon 
 
 ''Eliza!" and their nurse came down the 
 path with a basket of pears in her hand. 
 
 "Come, EKza," she said, "take this fruit 
 home. It is for your uncle, the Canon." 
 
 Panoria gave an exclamation of delight, 
 and reached for some of the fruit as the 
 nurse came near, but Eliza grasped her 
 hand and stopped her. 
 
 "You must not touch that!" she ex- 
 claimed. "It is my uncle's." 
 
 "Well, what if it is?" said Panoria. 
 " Your uncle can't eat all that, and he must 
 be a funny man not to let you touch his 
 old fruit. I dare you to take some!" 
 
 "No, no, Panoria," broke in the nurse; 
 "she must not touch it. Take it home, 
 Eliza." And the nurse passed on, while 
 the two little girls went, half quarreling, 
 half laughing, down the path toward the 
 town. 
 
 Napoleon followed them more slowly, 
 and entered the house just in time to see a 
 flutter of dress skirts through the open 
 window of the dining room, and to hear a 
 smothered, frightened giggle. The basket 
 
The Little Corsican 7 
 
 of fruit was standing on the sideboard, 
 and as Napoleon ran after the girls he saw 
 it and stopped short. Part of the fruit 
 was gone. The little girls had taken it, just 
 in fun of course, but what would Uncle 
 Lucien say? This uncle was the benefac- 
 tor of the Bonaparte family, and the chil- 
 dren had been taught to look upon him as 
 a great man who was to be treated with 
 the utmost respect. And now, just as luck 
 would have it, while Napoleon stood star- 
 ing at the fruit, the door opened and Uncle 
 Lucien himself came in. He looked at the 
 boy's confused face and then at the pears. 
 
 " Napoleon," he exclaimed sternly, as he 
 placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, *' can 
 it be possible that you have taken my 
 fruit?" 
 
 " No, uncle," answered Napoleon quickly. 
 ' ' I did not touch it. It was ' ' — he stopped 
 short. If he told, Eliza would be punished. 
 Tell on a girl ? No, not he, and he straight- 
 ened his slender little figure, while his dark 
 face took on that stubborn look which his 
 friends had learned to know and dread. 
 
8 Napoleon 
 
 His uncle saw the child's mouth shut 
 tightly, and knowing that it was useless to 
 try to force him to tell, the good Canon 
 said gently : 
 
 "Napoleon, I do not care for your hav- 
 ing the fruit, but why did you take it with- 
 out asking me for it?" 
 
 ''But I did not take it," the boy an- 
 swered. "It was gone when I came into 
 the room." 
 
 His uncle looked at him in surprise. 
 
 "Is it possible, Napoleon, that you 
 would tell me a falsehood? There is no 
 one else here and the fruit must have 
 been taken by you. You know it is not 
 the fruit that I care for, child; it is your 
 deception. Come, confess, and we will drop 
 the matter." 
 
 Napoleon's only answer was to shut his 
 lips more closely, as he shook his head and 
 looked fearlessly at the Canon. The latter 
 growing angry at the boy's apparent deceit 
 and stubbornness, decided to tell the story 
 of the stolen pears to Napoleon's father. 
 
 Later on, when the family were all gath- 
 
The Little Corsican g 
 
 ered for the evening meal, Napoleon was 
 called before his father and questioned 
 again. The boy, angry, and with a big 
 ache in his little heart because they would 
 not believe him, refused to say anything 
 except that he did not take the fruit. 
 Each of his brothers and sisters were then 
 questioned, but all declared they knew 
 nothing about the matter. Napoleon 
 looked hopefully toward Eliza, but the 
 little girl, frightened at all the trouble 
 she had caused by her mischievousness, 
 dropped her eyes and with a flushed face 
 said she knew nothing. Threats and per- 
 suasions failing to produce any effect on the 
 boy, he was ordered to stand at the end of 
 the dining room while the family finished 
 their dinner, and, if he had not confessed 
 by that time, he was to be whipped. 
 
 After the meal was finished, the Canon 
 and Napoleon's father turned to the boy 
 standing with his hands back of him, and 
 his eyes looking defiance at them. Uncle 
 Lucien tried again to coax the truth from 
 him, for he was fond of the queer little 
 
10 Napoleon 
 
 Napoleon and did not want him to be pun- 
 ished if it could be helped in any way. 
 
 At last, however, with patience ex- 
 hausted, and angry at the boy's stubborn- 
 ness, Charles Bonaparte whipped his son 
 severely. Napoleon made no cry, but he 
 clinched his little fists and his eyes turned 
 almost black with their sullen look of anger. 
 The Canon sighed as he looked at the 
 defiant face. He knew that it was useless 
 now to expect a different answer, but the 
 boy must be taught a lesson ; that stubborn 
 will must learn to obey. And so it was 
 decided that Napoleon should be kept on 
 bread and water and cheese until he con- 
 fessed. 
 
 If Napoleon's mother had been at home 
 she might have found some way out of the 
 difficulty; for the boy had received his 
 unconquerable will from his mother, and 
 she understood him better than any one 
 else. In truth she was the one in the 
 Bonaparte house who, by her unceasing 
 energy and common sense, kept the wheels 
 moving for that rather shiftless family. 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 II 
 
 She had been only fifteen when Charles 
 Bonaparte married her, a beautiful, tall, 
 commanding Corsican girl, with the musi- 
 cal name of Laetitia Ramolino. Unfor- 
 timately for Napoleon she was visiting 
 some relatives at the time of his trouble, 
 and did not return until the third day of his 
 punishment. During those three days 
 Napoleon spent his time wandering over 
 the mountains, 
 trying to trade 
 his bread and 
 cheese for that 
 of the shepherd 
 boys, which he 
 thought better 
 than his. 
 
 As soon as 
 Madame Bona- 
 parte returned, 
 she determined 
 to get to the 
 bottom of Napoleon's disgrace. Under- 
 standing the proud, fearless nature of the 
 boy, she was absolutely certain that he 
 
 Napoleon trying to trade his bread and cheese 
 for that of the shepherd boys." 
 
12 Napoleon 
 
 had not taken the Canon's fruit, but 
 she was also certain that he knew who 
 had. She called Napoleon to her, but 
 just as she began talking to him, little 
 Panoria came rushing breathlessly into the 
 house. 
 
 *'0h, oh, Napoleon! I'm so sorry!" she 
 cried excitedly. "He did not take the 
 pears," turning to Madame Bonaparte ; " it 
 was Eliza and I. I dared Eliza to do it, 
 and then I went away and never knew that 
 Napoleon had been whipped, and had 
 nothing to eat. Oh, Eliza, you ought to 
 be ashamed ! Uncle Joey just told me and 
 I ran all the way here." And the little 
 girl broke out sobbing, as the children and 
 Madame Bonaparte looked at her in aston- 
 ishment. 
 
 Napoleon accepted his justification as 
 quietly as he had his punishment. In his 
 heart he did not feel that matters were 
 very much better for him. He ought to 
 have been believed in the first place, he 
 told himself proudly in his grotto, and, in 
 the days that followed, he carried himself 
 
The Little Corsican ij 
 
 very gravely through all the petting and 
 rejoicing of his family over his bravery. 
 
 There was much of interest in the little 
 coast town of Ajaccio, for the gulf on which 
 the town was situated formed a safe harbor 
 for many ships, and Napoleon soon forgot 
 his trouble in listening to the wild stories of 
 sea life told him by the sailors. And then, 
 there were the shepherd boys. There had 
 been a rivalry of long standing between 
 them and the boys of Ajaccio. Fights 
 were numerous, and so far the mountain 
 lads had been victorious. Napoleon shared 
 the general feeling, and added to that was 
 a private grudge which had originated in 
 his long walks, when the shepherd boys tor- 
 mented him, and in his bread and cheese 
 trade when they treated his offered friend- 
 ship with disdain. 
 
 At last Napoleon resolved to pay off all 
 old scores. He organized the town boys 
 into regular companies, drilled them, sent 
 the shepherd lads a challenge, and charged 
 up the hill, armed with stones and sticks. 
 The first attack ended in disaster for the 
 
14 Napoleon 
 
 town boys, who were sent howling down 
 the hillside. But Napoleon rallied his 
 forces and shamed them into another 
 attack. This time the tables were turned 
 and the mountain boys Avere taught so 
 severe a lesson that ever after they re- 
 spected the rights of the little Napoleon 
 and his followers. 
 
Chapter II 
 Lonely Days at School 
 
 '"T^IME was moving on rapidly while all 
 j[ these things were happening, and 
 Charles Bonaparte began to think 
 about the education of his two eldest sons, 
 Joseph and Napoleon. Money was very 
 scarce in the Bonaparte family, but there 
 was old and noble blood in their veins, and 
 the children must be sent to a school that 
 was suited to their station in life. 
 
 Corsica was now entirely under French 
 control, and Charles Bonaparte resolved to 
 make, application for the admittance of 
 Joseph, Napoleon, and Joey Fesch into 
 some of the numerous schools in France, 
 which were supported by the king and 
 where the tuition was free. He finally met 
 with success, probably through the efforts 
 of the family friend. General de Marboeuf, 
 who was governor of Corsica and a man of 
 some influence among the French people. 
 
1 6 Napoleon 
 
 So it was decided that Napoleon was to be 
 sent to a military school at Brienne, while 
 Joseph and Joey were to be educated for 
 the priesthood. 
 
 In 1778 Napoleon's father was chosen to 
 represent the nobility in a meeting which 
 was to be held in Versailles, and that gave 
 him the opportunity of taking the boys to 
 France. They left Corsica December 15, 
 1778, the three boys, Joey fifteen, Joseph 
 eleven, and Napoleon only nine, starting 
 from home for the first time to go to a land 
 where the habits and language of the peo- 
 ple differed very much from those of their 
 little island. 
 
 Uncle Lucien had already recognized an 
 unusual ability in Napoleon, a something 
 not to be learned in books, which gave the 
 little Corsican lad a decided power over his 
 playmates and which compelled his older 
 friends to treat him with more respect than 
 a child of his years was wont to receive. 
 When the little party left Ajaccio that day, 
 the Canon, after saying his farewells to the 
 others, turned with a sad half smile to 
 
The Little Corsican ly 
 
 Napoleon, and, placing his hand on the 
 boy's head, spoke to him seriously about 
 what he expected of him in the future. 
 Afterward, when the boys were well 
 started in their school life, the Canon said 
 to their father, that, although Joseph was 
 the oldest of the family, Napoleon was the 
 real head. 
 
 If the boys had any feeling of sorrow at 
 leaving home, it must have been soon 
 swallowed up in interest and curiosity in 
 the new scenes through which they passed. 
 They had run wild over the shore and 
 mountains around Ajaccio all their lives. 
 Now, for nearly three weeks they traveled 
 through a strange country, stopping at 
 cities that overawed them with their great 
 buildings and long streets crowded with 
 people talking an unknown language. It 
 soon became apparent to his father that 
 Napoleon must have some knowledge of 
 French before entering Brienne, and it was 
 decided that he should be left with Joseph 
 for a time at Autun, wher^ there was a pre- 
 paratory school. 
 
t8 Napoleon 
 
 It was New Year's Day, 1779, when they 
 reached the picturesque old town where 
 centuries before the Druids and Romans 
 had estabhshed schools. The whole place, 
 with its crooked streets winding down to 
 the riVer, its dim Cathedral nine hundred 
 years old, its walls, gateways, and ruins, 
 was full of an old-time mystery and 
 grandeur. 
 
 The Bishop of Autun was a friend of 
 Charles Bonaparte and he promised to look 
 after the boys; but he probably had for- 
 gotten his own school da3^s, and what it 
 meant to be away from home and alone in 
 a strange land, for the boys had a pretty 
 lonely time of it. Everything was especi- 
 ally hard for Napoleon, who was a queer- 
 looking little fellow with his dark Italian 
 face and small figure. He pronounced his 
 name with a very decided Italian accent, 
 and it sounded to the French boys as if 
 he said Na-paille-au-nez, which to them 
 meant straw in the nose. That was enough 
 for the schoolboys, and they nick-named 
 the little stranger Straw-nose, a name 
 
The Little Corsican ig 
 
 which clung to him throughout his three 
 months at Autun, and afterward followed 
 him to Brienne. 
 
 His proud, sullen manner brought him 
 no friends and the boys soon discovered 
 that he had a fiery temper which was 
 quickly roused by their taunts concerning 
 his Corsican country and its conquest by 
 the French. He was not slow in express- 
 ing his hatred of the conquerors, although 
 surrounded on all sides by them. One day 
 after an unusual outbreak against them, 
 one of the boys said : 
 
 " Oh, yes, but they were men enough to 
 whip you Corsicans." 
 
 "Yes," replied Napoleon, "because they 
 were ten to one. If they had numbered 
 only four to one they couldn't have done 
 it." 
 
 " But you had your great and wonderful 
 Paoli," returned the little Frenchman 
 taimtingly, for the worship which Napo- 
 leon felt for the famous Paoli was another 
 source of fun to the boys, who knew they 
 could anger the little patriot in a second 
 
20 Napoleon 
 
 by any disrespectful word concerning the 
 Corsican general, his ideal of a soldier. 
 
 "Ah, yes," sighed Napoleon, '*I wish I 
 were like him." 
 
 Napoleon worked very hard at Autun 
 and at the end of three months he knew the 
 foundations of the French language, could 
 use common phrases and write easy exer- 
 cises; but the language was hard for him 
 and he spoke it with an Italian accent 
 which clung to him always, and made his 
 French very hard to understand. This 
 was a great drawback to him when he went 
 to Brienne and caused him to take his 
 walks alone more often, and to make his 
 life all the more lonely, especially as his 
 easy-going, happy brother Joseph remained 
 at Autun. 
 
 The school at Brienne was made up of a 
 bare, ugly set of buildings standing in the 
 midst of trees and gardens which over- 
 looked a little river, while near by was a 
 century-old chateau. There were one hun- 
 dred and fifty boys in the school, sons of 
 noblemen for the greater part, among 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 21 
 
 whom it was necessary to have money or 
 easy, happy manners to be a favorite. 
 Napoleon had no money, and his manner 
 was rude for feehng his poverty most 
 keenly, he met all advances from the boys, 
 both good-natured and ill-natured, with 
 proud silence or a flash of anger. Here, 
 as at Autun, they taunted him with the fall 
 
 The military school at Brienne where the young Corsican learned 
 the art of war. 
 
 of his country, and the little Frenchmen 
 thought it a great joke when the little 
 Corsican announced proudly, "I hope one 
 day to give Corsica her liberty." 
 
 Nor was Napoleon's trouble with his 
 
22 Napoleon 
 
 schoolmates only. The school was in 
 charge of monks who were ignorant, and 
 who, seeing that the little stranger was 
 without friends, allowed him to be mis- 
 treated, while some of them, angered by 
 his proud bravery, took a great dislike to 
 him. 
 
 One day, not long after entering the 
 school, he had been teased until he could 
 endure it no longer, and, turning to escape 
 from his tormentors, he ran into a room 
 where there was a picture of Choiseul, a 
 Frenchman who had planned the capture 
 of Corsica. The sight was too much for 
 the lonely and homesick boy, and, stopping 
 before it with hot, angry face, he clinched 
 his little fist, and bitterly denounced the 
 man and the country that had taken away 
 Corsican freedom. One of the instructors 
 entering the room, overheard him and had 
 him punished severely for the outbreak. 
 This but increased his troubles. There 
 were many fights when every hand was 
 against the little Napoleon, and no one 
 dreamed that back of the proud bearing 
 
The Little Corsican 2j 
 
 there was a small, sensitive heart longing 
 for the sight of a home face, or for a friend 
 who would understand and not laugh at 
 him. 
 
 The one thing which relieved the loneli- 
 ness of his first months at Brienne was a 
 garden which w-as given Napoleon shortly 
 after entering the school. Each boy was 
 assigned a plot of ground, all for his own, to 
 use as he saw fit. As the boys who owned 
 the plots next to that given to Napoleon 
 neglected and rarely visited them. Napo- 
 leon took possession of them also. He 
 cleared them of weeds, swept his walks, 
 built a little summer house, and before 
 long had the most attractive garden in 
 the school. 
 
 As soon as the boys to whom the annexed 
 plots belonged saw that their gardens were 
 so desirable, they immediately rushed 
 upon Napoleon to take them from him. 
 The little Corsican, bitter and savage from 
 being misunderstood, was not in a humor 
 to stand any foolishness. Armed with 
 stones, he flew at the intruders in such a 
 
24 Napoleon 
 
 fierce manner that they were glad enough 
 to withdraw and leave the boy and his 
 garden alone. Here Napoleon spent the 
 happiest hours of his first years at Brienne, 
 alone with his books or dreaming of far- 
 away sunny Ajaccio. 
 
 It was not long before he showed an 
 unusual brilliancy in mathematics, and 
 held the first place in his class. He was 
 also very fond of history, particularly the 
 stories of ancient countries and peoples. 
 The struggles of the Greeks and Romans 
 were to him as the struggle of his own 
 little country, and he followed their wars 
 for freedom with breathless interest. He 
 never cared for languages, and was especi- 
 ally poor in Latin. This weakness, to- 
 gether with his miserable writing, caused 
 him much trouble with the monks. A 
 characteristic of his mind was the quick- 
 ness with which he grasped a new lesson 
 or subject. One of his instructors once 
 said of him : 
 
 ' ' When I gave him a lesson he fixed his 
 eyes upon me with parted lips; but if I 
 
Tlie Little Corsican 2^ 
 
 repeated anything I had said, his interest 
 was gone, as he plainly showed by his man- 
 ner. When reproved for this, he would 
 answer coldly, I might almost say imperi- 
 ously, ' I know it already, sir.' " 
 
 But, with all this, Napoleon was nothing 
 but a boy, and a very active, human little 
 fellow at that. His pride would not allow 
 him to play with the boys who made fun of 
 him ; he treated all their games with indif- 
 ference, and as the time passed he grew 
 more lonely and bitter. At last one warm 
 day, as he lay stretched out on a bench in 
 his garden, he resolved to run away. But 
 where could he go? He had no money or 
 friends ; he was small for his age, and spoke 
 French so poorly that he would have hard 
 work making his way. Still it is probable 
 that all this would not have kept him from 
 making the attempt had he not thought of 
 his home, of the poverty there, of the 
 struggle his father had had to place him in 
 this school, and, last of all, of his Uncle 
 Lucien's confidence in him. The longer 
 he thought, however, the more discon- 
 
26 Napoleon 
 
 tented and homesick he grew, until finally, 
 rolling over, he reached for his volume of 
 Plutarch, and using it for a desk, wrote the 
 following letter : 
 
 *'My Father: If you or my pro- 
 tectors cannot give me the means of 
 sustaining myself more honorably in 
 the house where I am, please summon 
 me home, and as soon as possible. I 
 am tired of poverty and of the sneers 
 of the insolent scholars, who are super- 
 ior to me only in their fortune; for 
 there is not one among them who feels 
 one hundredth part of the noble senti- 
 ments by which I am animated. Must 
 your son, sir, continually be the butt 
 of these boobies, who, vain of the lux- 
 uries which they enjoy, insult me with 
 their laughter at the privations I am 
 forced to endure? No, father, take 
 me home from Brienne, and make me, 
 if you will, a mechanic. From these 
 words you may judge of my despair. 
 This letter, sir, please believe me; is 
 not dictated by a vain desire to enjoy 
 expensive amusements. I have no 
 such wish. I feel simply that it is 
 necessary to show my companions that 
 
The Little Corstcan 27 
 
 I can procure them as well as they if I 
 wish to do so. 
 
 ''Your respectful and affectionate son, 
 "Bonaparte." 
 
 The poverty in the Bonaparte famil}/ 
 had not lessened, however, since Napoleon 
 left, and the other children were growing 
 rapidly. The father was busy planning 
 for their education and trying to meet the 
 pressing needs of everyday life, so that he 
 could not have granted Napoleon's request, 
 even if he had wished to do so, which he 
 probably did not. 
 
 It may have been because his letter was 
 not answered as he wished, or, perhaps, 
 because the long, lonely days were growing 
 unbearable, that Napoleon became more 
 irritable, and his troubles became more 
 serious. One day, as he was planning a 
 battle with pebbles on his garden walk, a 
 schoolmate climbed up to peer at him over 
 the hedge. The slender little student with 
 the big head, deeply engrossed in work, did 
 not see anything but rows of stone pha- 
 lanxes until the intruder gave a taunting 
 
28 Napoleon 
 
 laugh. Quick as a flash Napoleon grabbed 
 a stone and threw it with all his force at 
 the boy. It struck him fairly between the 
 eyes, and he fell back howling from his 
 perch. Napoleon was arrested for this 
 and locked up in the school prison, where 
 he was kept for several days. 
 
 It can be imagined what a storm of 
 wrath was aroused in the heart of the proud 
 littb Corsican by this disgrace. 
 
Chapter Hi 
 The Little Corsican Finds Friends 
 
 IT was during this imprisonment that 
 Napoleon made one of his few school 
 friends. An English boy named Law- 
 ley was placed as guard over the prisoner, 
 and feeling a secret sympathy for the fierce 
 little foreigner, talked to him and offered 
 him some advice. Perhaps it was because 
 he was not one of the hated French boys, 
 that Napoleon trusted him and the two 
 became good friends. At any rate, Napo- 
 leon had sufficient confidence in Lawley to 
 trust him with a letter he had written to 
 the British ambassador, asking for per- 
 mission to join the English navy. Nothing 
 came of the letter, but Lawley' s respect for 
 the small Corsican 's plans, and the kind- 
 ness and sympathy he showed the lonely 
 lad, caused Napoleon to bind himself 
 closely and loyally to his British friend. 
 Napoleon always remembered a kind- 
 
JO Napoleon 
 
 ness and repaid it tenfold, as was shown 
 soon after when the new friend was the 
 cause of another trouble which followed 
 closely on the heels of the first. Lawley 
 was doing sentinel duty in the garden one 
 day while Napoleon was stretched out on 
 the grass near him reading and studying. 
 The English boy watched him until, grow- 
 ing tired of his duty and of the other's 
 silence, he called: 
 
 '' I don't see how you can bear to grind 
 away at those old problems. I can't make 
 anything out of them ; they're dreadfully 
 stupid, I think." 
 
 ''They are not so bad, if you just get 
 started right," answered Napoleon, as he 
 turned to his friend with one of his rare 
 smiles, which lighted up the dark face won- 
 derfully and softened the gray eyes, giving 
 the boy that irresistible attractiveness for 
 which he was noted in after life. "I'll 
 show you about the ones for to-morrow, if 
 you want me to." 
 
 The offer was quickly accepted and the 
 boys became so interested that the senti- 
 
The Little Cor sic an ji 
 
 nel post was forgotten until an instructor 
 came around to relieve Lawley. He came 
 up so quietly that the boys did not see him 
 until he was almost upon them ; but, before 
 he could see what they were doing, Napo- 
 leon had time to throw the problems to one 
 side and open his copy-book. 
 
 "What are you doing away from your 
 post, Lawley?" asked the teacher sternly. 
 
 Before the English boy could answer, 
 Napoleon spoke quickly : 
 
 " It was all my fault, sir ; I called him to 
 show him my possessions." 
 
 ''Your possessions!" said the teacher in 
 a sarcastic voice, at the same time taking 
 Napoleon's copy-book away from him and 
 glancing down the list of estates, the names 
 of which the little Corsican had written, 
 and which made up either the real or 
 imaginary wealth of the Bonaparte family 
 By a strange chance, so at least the story 
 is told, the last name on the list was "St. 
 Helena, a small island in the Atlantic," 
 written in a cramped, boyish scrawl. 
 
 The book was badly blotted and 
 
J2 Napoleon 
 
 scratched, and the teacher, angered at the 
 sight of the careless writing as much as 
 at Napoleon's confessed fault, hurried the 
 unfortunate boy off to prison again. 
 Lawley, amazed at the quickness with 
 which his little friend had come to his 
 rescue, hardly -grasped what was being 
 done until Napoleon was locked up. 
 Schoolboys are not all as brave as they 
 might be under such circumstances, and 
 Lawley did not come to the rescue of 
 Napoleon as he should have done ; but he 
 did tell his schoolmates how loyally the 
 Corsican boy had stood by him, so that 
 when the little prisoner was released he 
 found a hearty welcome awaiting him. 
 
 That was the beginning of happier days 
 for Napoleon, for boys are the same 
 the world over in their admiration of a 
 brave, unselfish act, and these little French 
 lads now gave their friendship and protec- 
 tion willingly and enthusiastically to the 
 queer little foreigner who had stood by his 
 friend so loyally. Shortly after this Napo- 
 leon won a prize in mathematics, and his 
 
The Little Cor sic an jj 
 
 pride being somewhat satisfied by this 
 honor, he was more ready to receive the 
 bo3^s' advances than he had been before. 
 
 Fortunately for his popularity, winter 
 soon came on and it was too cold for him 
 to seclude himself in his garden. Then 
 came a great snowstorm, and the boys 
 were forced to walk the halls for exercise, 
 fuming and fussing on account of their con- 
 finement. Napoleon, as restless as his 
 companions, was standing at the window 
 gazing moodily out at the gardens in their 
 smooth white mantle and at the tall trees 
 standing straight and black in the midst 
 of great drifts. As he looked the heavy 
 clouds began to break, and lifting his head 
 he turned quickly to a group of boys, 
 exclaiming : 
 
 "Boys, stop your growling and let's go 
 outdoors. We'll make a fort of the snow, 
 and then we'll divide and have a battle." 
 
 Catching his enthusiasm, the boys were 
 soon tumbling after him through the great 
 drifts, as he called out his commands and 
 explained the plans for that famous snow- 
 
34 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 ball fight of the winter of 1783. For ten 
 days the campus of the old school was the 
 scene of the merriest, wildest fun in all its 
 history. Napoleon was always at his very 
 best as a leader, and the care with which 
 he planned his forts and outlined his 
 battles was the wonder and admiration 
 of all. 
 
 All the famous battles of ancient history 
 
 were fought 
 over. Greeks 
 and Persians 
 were drawn up 
 in battle array 
 one day, only 
 xo be replaced 
 by Romans 
 and the savage 
 Gauls on the 
 next. Part of 
 the time the 
 little Corsican 
 was the com- 
 mander of both 
 sides, dashing 
 
 'The little Corsican dashing from one front 
 to the other." 
 
The Little Corsican 75 
 
 from one front to the other with his deep- 
 set eyes glancing along every line, his 
 straggling locks flying back in the winter 
 wind, and his clear voice shouting the 
 commands in queer Italian French. 
 
 The fight lasted ten days before the snow 
 began to melt, and then in spite of Napo- 
 leon's commands, the boys packed their 
 balls with gravel. Realizing the danger 
 in this, Napoleon tried his best to prevent 
 it, but Bouquet, the bo}^ whom he had hit 
 with a stone, disregarded his commands, 
 and Napoleon arrived one day in the field 
 just in time to see him pack a ball hard with 
 pebbles and make ready to throw it. 
 
 '' Bouquet," Napoleon called angrily, his 
 eyes flashing, " drop that ball and go to the 
 rear." 
 
 "And who are you, but a little Corsican 
 beggar? I'll throw the ball if I want to," 
 and quick as a flash it flew from his hands 
 into the lines of the enemy. 
 
 " Coward!" shouted Napoleon, trembling 
 with rage ; " don't you know the first rule of 
 a soldier? Lawley, take him to the rear!" 
 
j6 Napoleon 
 
 And Bouquet was seized and dragged back 
 swearing vengeance on the little Corsican, 
 who, after seeing that his command had 
 been obeyed, had turned indifferently to go 
 on with his orders. 
 
 Bouquet did not forget the disgrace, 
 however, nor the laughter of the boys who 
 had seen him carried so disgracefully to 
 the rear. Shortly afterward he met Na- 
 poleon and began taunting him with his 
 poverty and his ancestry. Napoleon kept 
 his temper fairly well until Bouquet said : 
 
 " Your father is nothing but a beggar in 
 livery, a miserable servant." 
 
 Almost before the last word had left his 
 mouth, Napoleon made a leap at the 
 coward, but his friends caught him and 
 held him back, telling him that he would 
 only get into trouble and be imprisoned 
 again. They finally persuaded the boys 
 to go to their rooms, but Napoleon could 
 not rest until he had done something to 
 avenge his father's honor. Bourrienne, 
 one of his closest friends, followed him to 
 his room, to find the big head bent over a 
 
The Little Corsican 57 
 
 desk and the little thin hand cramped over 
 a pen that was writing a challenge. 
 
 Corsican gentlemen always avenged their 
 wrongs in a duel, and Napoleon thought 
 that there was no other way to prove to 
 Bouquet that the Bonapartes were an old 
 and noble family. He was glad the boys 
 had kept him from soiling his hands in a 
 fight with the coward ; now he would show 
 him how a Corsican gentleman met an 
 enemy. There was to be no foolishness 
 about it just because he was only fourteen 
 years old. An insult was an insult, and the 
 duel should be just as real, a fight to the 
 death — and the small body stood erect 
 and commanding, as Napoleon handed the 
 note to Bourrienne to carry to Bouquet. 
 
 Of course Bouquet was a miserable little 
 coward, or he never would have tried to 
 bully a boy smaller than himself, and as 
 soon as he received the challenge he 
 sneaked off with it to one of the monks, 
 crying that Napoleon was going to kill 
 him. Napoleon's swift savageness in re- 
 senting an injury was well known, and as 
 
j8 . Napoleon 
 
 this instructor did not like the little Corsi- 
 can anyway, he did not stop to consider 
 that in nearly every case the lonely little 
 stranger had been tormented beyond en- 
 durance. 
 
 Angry at him for the continual disturb- 
 ance his presence had kept up, and without 
 inquiring into the other side of the quarrel, 
 the instructor ordered Napoleon locked up 
 for the day. In the evening he was re- 
 leased, but was told that his punishment 
 was to be completed by kneeling, dressed 
 in the penitential robe, at the dining room 
 door all through the dinner hour, and after 
 that he must apologize to Bouquet before 
 the other boys. 
 
 The utter misery and hot wrath this 
 command caused the proud boy can hardly 
 be grasped. He was sent to his room to 
 array himself in the despised gown, but 
 instead of doing so he threw himself on the 
 bed, sobbing and tossing in his helplessness. 
 He would not put on the robe ; they could 
 kill him first, he thought fiercely, and then 
 he sobbed all the louder. 
 
The Little Corsican jp 
 
 What would have happened if the punish- 
 ment had been carried out it is hard to say, 
 but one of the monks, higher in authority 
 and with a kinder heart than the one who 
 had ordered the punishment, passed by 
 Napoleon's door, and hearing his loud sobs 
 turned and entered the room. Napoleon's 
 despair was so great that he was glad to 
 pour out the story of his wrongs, and the 
 good father, seeing how the strange boy had 
 been misunderstood, and how great an 
 insult Bouquet had really offered the little 
 Corsican, who was so fiercely proud of his 
 noble blood, not only released him from 
 further pimishment, but reproved the 
 monk who had ordered it. 
 
 Just a short time after ohis Napoleon 
 was overjoyed by an unexpected visit from 
 General Marboeuf , and being thrown from 
 his usual reserve by the surprise, he told 
 his old friend of his unhappiness, only con- 
 cealing the taunts about his poverty. The 
 general shrewdly guessed, however, that 
 the lack of money was the cause of much 
 of Napoleon's trouble, and before he left 
 
^0 Napoleon 
 
 saw that the boy had a small allowance. 
 He also introduced Napoleon to the Lady 
 of Brienne, who lived in the old chateau. 
 She was a noble woman and one of much 
 influence in the country around Brienne. 
 She took a great fancy to the little Cor- 
 sican and was very kind to him during the 
 remainder of his life at Brienne, keeping 
 him with her during the vacations, and by 
 her protection saving him from many a 
 punishment. 
 
 The brightness which had begun for 
 Napoleon with the change in the boys' 
 feelings toward him, was now increased by 
 his friendship with the Lady of Brienne, 
 and by his pocket money, until he really 
 felt that he could hold his own with the 
 other boys. He lost some of his sensitive 
 shyness, and, as he talked more, his teachers 
 understood him better, and he developed 
 rapidly. 
 
 When his own cares became lighter, he 
 began to think more of the poverty in his 
 home, and as he was always older than his 
 years, he was able to grasp that trouble 
 
The Little Corsican 41 
 
 much better than most boys. At this 
 time Joseph was discontented in his school 
 and wanted to leave it for a military school. 
 Napoleon's clear head and shrewdness are 
 shown in a letter which he wrote to his 
 brother, telling him that if he would remain 
 where he was his future life as a priest 
 would bring him ease and a good standing 
 in the world. 
 
Chapter IV 
 At the Military School in Paris 
 
 BUT Napoleon soon had new plans of 
 his own to think of. The year 1783, 
 which had already proved an event- 
 ful one for him, was to be more so, for it 
 brought with it Chevalier de Revalin, an 
 inspector of the mihtary schools of France, 
 who came to Brienne to visit the school. 
 He took a great liking to Napoleon and 
 seemed to be the first to really grasp the 
 greatness of the boy's mind. To the sur- 
 prise of all, he selected the Corsican boy to 
 go the following year to the military school 
 at Paris. This was a great honor, for only 
 three boys, and those three the brightest, 
 were selected each year from Brienne for 
 the higher school at Paris. The monks 
 remonstrated with the Chevalier, but he 
 answered : 
 
 " I know what I am about ; and if I am 
 transgressing the rules, it is not on account 
 
The Little Corstcan 4j 
 
 of family influence. I know nothing of the 
 friends of this youth. I am actuated only 
 by my opinion of his merit. I perceive in 
 him a spark of genius, which cannot be too 
 early fostered." 
 
 Napoleon left Brienne for the military 
 school at Paris the next year, 1784. He 
 had spent five years at Brienne, and, in 
 spite of the loneliness he had suffered there, 
 he always referred to those years as among 
 the happiest of his life. Probably he chose 
 to forget the dark days and remember 
 only the sunnier ones. At any rate the 
 friends he made there had good reason to 
 be thankful that they had befriended the 
 little Corsican, for he never forgot them, 
 and when his days of prosperity and fame 
 came he favored them whenever oppor- 
 tunity offered. 
 
 All were remembered, from the great 
 lady who gave him his wreath for winning 
 the prize in mathematics, to the old porter 
 who had growled at him for tramping with 
 the boys through the snowy fields and then 
 back over his clean halls. Even Bouquet, 
 
44 Napoleon 
 
 his enemy, was treated witn kindness 
 because of the old associations. At one 
 time when, following his early tendency, 
 this school boy foe had fallen into disgrace 
 in the army, and by some chance escaped 
 punishment, Napoleon said: 
 
 "I am glad. I should have disliked to 
 punish Bouquet. You know he was one 
 of the boys at Brienne. I remember once 
 when he interfered with one of my pebble 
 battles that I threw a general at him." 
 
 Napoleon was fifteen years old when he 
 went to Paris. So far his life had been 
 spent in the secluded little island town of 
 Ajaccio, and under the strict discipline of 
 the military life at Brienne. The contrast 
 between that life and the one in the gay 
 city of Paris was startling. Bourrienne 
 went with his friend part of the way, and 
 an old Corsican friend met the stranger 
 just as he left the coach at Paris. This 
 friend, in telling of the meeting, laughed 
 and said: 
 
 He had the appearance of a fresh 
 mportation. I met him in the Palais 
 
The Little Corsican 45 
 
 Royal, where he was gaping and staring at 
 everything he saw. He would have been 
 an excellent subject for sharpers, if, indeed, 
 he had had anything worth taking." 
 
 The life in the new school was much 
 freer than it had been at Brienne. Every- 
 thing was so gay and bright, and the boys 
 so full of life, that, for a short time. Napo- 
 leon lost his quiet ways and plunged into 
 all the gaiety with great enjoyment ; but he 
 soon found that money was as necessary 
 here as in the old school. One of the rules 
 which he had already made for himself was 
 to keep out of debt, and now, if he did as 
 the others, he must break that rule. His 
 friends, with true schoolboy generosity, 
 would gladly have shared their pleasures 
 with him, but Napoleon's pride would 
 never have consented to that, even if he 
 had considered it honorable to contract 
 debts which he had no prospect of paying. 
 Cut off from the gay life around him, he 
 returned to his old lonely habits, and 
 became the same reserved, sullen boy he 
 had been in the dark days at Brienne. 
 
46 Napoleon 
 
 Even now Napoleon had very clear ideas 
 as to what training a soldier should have, 
 and the looseness of discipline and extrava- 
 gant habits of the new school filled him 
 with contempt. Standing outside of it all, 
 he saw that the military training was the 
 last thing thought of. He determined to 
 change the order if possible. There was 
 but one way to do so, and that was to apply 
 directly to some one in authority. 
 
 At last he wrote a letter to the Minister 
 of War, describing the faults of the school, 
 and offering his ideas of reform. Luckily 
 for the boy, he sent his letter to an old 
 instructor at Brienne for inspection, and 
 that friend saw that it did not reach its 
 destination. It is still in existence, how- 
 ever, a curious, bitter letter for a boy of 
 fifteen, but containing many of the prin- 
 ciples which he afterward enforced in his 
 own grand army of France. 
 
 But, with all his discontent and brooding 
 over privations, there were many bright 
 days at Paris, for Eliza was in school at St. 
 Cyr, and the Permons, old friends of the 
 
The Little Corsican 47 
 
 Bonapartes, were very kind to the brother 
 and sister. It was very fortunate for the 
 strange boy that these good friends were 
 with him, for the first great grief of his Hfe 
 came to him in February, 1785, when 
 Charles Bonaparte, the way-worn, dis- 
 heartened father, died, leaving his family 
 in debt and almost penniless. Napoleon, 
 overwhelmed with grief, wrote to his Uncle 
 Lucien : 
 
 "We have lost a father and God alone 
 knows what a father, and what were his- 
 attachment and devotion to us. iVlas! 
 everything taught us to look to him as the 
 support of our youth. But the will of God 
 is imalterable; He alone can comfort us." 
 
 Homesick and broken-hearted with his 
 sorrow. Napoleon was also greatly worried 
 by the actual want in his home. Lucien, 
 now nearly eleven, was at Brienne, and 
 added to the general anxiety by objecting 
 to his life at this school, and by turning his 
 attention to literature. The four children 
 at home — Louis, nine ; Pauline, seven ; Car- 
 oline, five; and Jerome, three — all had to 
 
48 Napoleon 
 
 be clothed, fed, and educated. Joseph, 
 discontented, as always, with his studies, 
 went home to help support the family, but, 
 unfortunate and easy-going, he only in- 
 creased the burden. 
 
 It was now that the remarkable strength 
 of character of Madame Bonaparte showed 
 itself. Putting aside her grief she went to 
 work, and with tireless energy and careful 
 management reduced, expenses and pro- 
 vided for her household. Napoleon, quiet 
 and thoughtful, thoroughly appreciated his 
 mother's efforts, as is shown by the follow- 
 ing letter which he wrote shortly after his 
 father's death : 
 
 ''My Dear Mother: Now that 
 time has begun to soften the first 
 transports of my sorrow, I hasten to 
 express to you the gratitude I feel for 
 all the kindness you have always dis- 
 played toward us. Console yourself, 
 dear mother; circumstances require 
 that you should. We will redouble 
 our care and our gratitude, happy, if 
 by our obedience we can make up to 
 you in the smallest degree for the in- 
 
The Little Corsican 4P 
 
 estimable loss of a cherished husband. 
 I finish, dear mother, my grief compels 
 it, by praying you to calm yourself. 
 My health is perfect, and my daily 
 prayer is that Heaven may grant you 
 the same. 
 
 ''Your humble and affectionate son, 
 "Napoleon." 
 
 During the lonely months that followed 
 the death of his father. Napoleon, in his 
 grief and poverty, drew more and more 
 within himself. One friend, however, 
 Alexander des Mazes, would not allow the 
 cold, proud manner of the Corsican boy to 
 overcome his sympathy, and the two boys 
 came very near to each other through the 
 spring and summer. In the following 
 autumn, 1785, they took the examination 
 which entitled them to promotion. Napo- 
 leon was assigned to the artillery and 
 received his appointment as second lieu- 
 tenant in September. 
 
Chapter V 
 The Boy Lieutenant 
 
 THE military education of the two 
 boys was now finished, and, at their 
 request, they were given a command 
 in the same town. Napoleon had no 
 money for traveling expenses, and Des 
 Mazes had barely enough to take them 
 as far as Lyons, where they arrived one 
 morning without a cent in their pockets- 
 Luckily, an old friend of the Bonaparte 
 family lived there, and he gave the boys 
 sufficient money to finish their 
 journey. But Lyons was a 
 new city to the boys, and they 
 found so much of interest 
 that they spent the rest of 
 the day and the greater part 
 of their money having 
 m'..^^ a TOod time; conse- 
 ^f;;u^JU9d. ,/ss quently their pockets 
 
 NafoUonat,hea,eofT6. This, the "^^"^^ empty again 
 
 iirst portrait of the little Corsican, is 
 from a sketch made by a comrade at 
 Brienne, and now in the Louvre. 
 Under the portrait appears "Mio caro 
 amico Buonaparte. Pontormini del 
 Tournone, 17 H 5." 
 
The Little Corsican ji 
 
 before they reached their post. This time 
 there was no friend to refill them, so they 
 had to travel the last day on foot, arriving 
 in camp footsore and dirty. 
 
 Discipline amounted to next to nothing 
 in French military affairs at this period, 
 and the soldiers led a wild, free life. 
 Napoleon had learned at Paris that he had 
 the power to please if he saw fit to do so, 
 and for a time he chose to lay aside his 
 reserved manner and take part in the gay 
 camp life. The slender, dark, sixteen-year- 
 old lieutenant, with his rare attractive 
 smile, became a favorite. His friends 
 learned that he could talk well, even 
 brilliantly, when interested, and that, 
 although his clothes were shabby and 
 his great boots sizes too large for him, 
 he was never without a quiet dignity and 
 charm that commanded their respect. 
 
 But the expense of such a life was great 
 and Napoleon's salary was very small; so 
 small, in fact, that after his living expenses 
 were met he had less than seven dollars a 
 month for clothes and pocket money. It 
 
52 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 was the same thing he had faced at Paris. 
 He soon reaHzed that he could not con- 
 tinue his gay Hfe and keep out of debt. 
 There was but one thing left for him to do 
 if he vv^ould retain his self-respect. His 
 young friends must be given up. 
 
 All through the days that followed, the 
 proud, ambitious boy kept his back turned 
 on the pleasures of those around him. He 
 spent his leisure hours poring over 
 histories and geographies, thereby gaining 
 that vast knowledge of the resources and 
 wealth of countries which, in after years, 
 people were apt to look upon with awe, 
 
 and to declare 
 was the result 
 of genius. It 
 was, however, 
 the result of 
 downright 
 hard work, en- 
 ,>y^ergy, self-sacri- 
 ^^\ fice, and a 
 strong will with 
 an unyielding 
 determination 
 
 'Napoleon spent his hours poring o>uer histories 
 and geographies." 
 
The Little Corsican 5J 
 
 to trample under foot surrounding diffi- 
 culties and to rise to the best within him. 
 
 Nothing happened to break the monot- 
 ony of garrison life until a little rebellion 
 known as the Two Cent Revolt broke out 
 in Lyons, and Napoleon's company was 
 ordered there. The trouble was all over 
 when they arrived, but Napoleon staid in 
 the city for a time, not rejoining his regi- 
 ment until the middle of October, when 
 his command was stationed in Flan- 
 ders. Here Napoleon's troubles reached 
 a climax. Joseph was without a position ; 
 Uncle Lucien was ill; General Marboeuf, 
 the friend of the family, was dead; and 
 Madame Bonaparte, who received a yearly 
 allowance for planting mulberry trees, had 
 failed to receive her annual payment. 
 
 A letter filled with these difficulties came 
 to Napoleon and put an end to all his 
 studies. Anxious to get home, to see for 
 himself the state of affairs there, he asked 
 for a leave of absence. It was refused him. 
 Brooding over his troubles he at last 
 worried himself into a malarial fever, and 
 
54 Napoleon 
 
 sick, weak, and lonely he lost courage and 
 even hinted at suicide. Fortunately for 
 his health and peace of mind, leave was 
 finally granted him, and he started for 
 home the first of February, 1787. 
 
 It was the first time the Corsican boy 
 had seen his home since he left it eight 
 years before, and he found affairs in about 
 as bad a state as they could be. With 
 the energy which even now marked 
 him when difficulties were highest, he 
 attempted to straighten the tangle of home 
 troubles. The next year and a half were 
 spent for the greater part at home, looking 
 after the business interests of the family, 
 and trying to arrange for the education of 
 Louis and Lucien. A short time before 
 he had begun a history of Corsica, which 
 he now took up again with other writings, 
 but disappointed in getting them published 
 he grew discouraged and more gloomy than 
 ever. 
 
 Napoleon returned to his regiment in 
 1788, and there began again to study, 
 write, and work, making long extracts 
 
The Little Corsican 55 
 
 from the books he read, and keeping a 
 journal which is full of curious thoughts 
 on society, love, and nature. It was from 
 here that he wrote his mother : 
 
 ** I have no other resource but work. I 
 dress but once in eight days. I sleep but 
 little since my illness. I retire at ten and 
 rise at four in the morning. I take but one 
 meal a day, at three ; that is good for my 
 health." 
 
 But there was a limit to the brave young 
 soldier's endurance. In spite of his efforts 
 to relieve the need at home, letters full of 
 anxiety came from his mother, and, weak- 
 ened by hard study and lack of food, 
 Napoleon was again taken ill. The burden 
 which he had taken up soon after his other 
 illness had proved too heavy for even his 
 wiry body, and for a long time his life hung 
 in the balance. As soon as he was able to 
 travel he was granted another leave of 
 absence, and again returned to Corsica. 
 
 A few months after the young officer's 
 return, the whole island was gladdened and 
 sent into a state of the wildest rejoicing 
 
§6 Napoleon 
 
 over the return of their hero, Paoli, who 
 had been in exile for years. Na'poleon, 
 who had always adored the old general, 
 was chosen to give the address of welcome, 
 and Paoli took a great liking to the enthu- 
 siastic young officer. Soon after Paoli 's 
 return, an enemy published a malicious 
 attack on his character. Napoleon loyally 
 came to the defense of his old friend, in a 
 letter which was greatly admired for its 
 patriotic expression and clever, concise 
 reasoning. In the same year, 1791, a 
 prize was offered by the Academy of 
 Lyons for the best composition written 
 by a young man. Napoleon entered the 
 contest, but his paper was so miserably 
 done, so full of faults in every way, that 
 it was given no attention whatever. 
 
 In February, 1791, Napoleon again left 
 home to join his regiment at Valence. 
 The poverty at home was just as great as 
 ever, and Napoleon resolved to take Louis 
 with him, hoping that some opportunity 
 would present itself for placing the boy in 
 school. The two lived in a bare room, 
 
The Little Corsican 57 
 
 furnished with a couch and two chairs. 
 
 Louis studied under his brother's direction. 
 
 preparing himself for the army. Napoleon, 
 
 bravely and without a complaint, stretched 
 
 out his sixty cents a day to pay for their 
 
 board, room rent, and clothing. Often 
 
 their only meal was dry bread, and the 
 
 only luxury the older brother 
 
 allowed himself was, now and 
 
 then, to bu}^ some long desired 
 
 book. After Louis had gone to 
 
 sleep on the little pallet drawn 
 
 up near the couch. Napoleon 
 
 would sit for hours, studying 
 
 and writing and planning how 
 
 to make his slender salary cover 
 
 the wants of Louis and himself, 
 
 while all the time thinking of 
 
 some way to help at home. ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ 
 
 There was not much change in ^'^^■ 
 
 the looks of the young man of twenty, 
 as he bent over his books in the dimly 
 lighted room, and the little dark Corsican 
 at Brienne. His head was more shapely, 
 but yet too large for his small, deep- 
 
j8 Napoleon 
 
 chested body, and his lank hair fell in flat 
 locks on either side of a sallow face, lighted 
 up by the same piercing gray-blue eyes that 
 had so often flashed contempt and scorn at 
 his tormentors in the old school days. He 
 carried himself with a proud reserve, but 
 the charm which he had learned was his 
 in the days at Paris had increased, and it 
 was no trouble for him to win friends now 
 if he cared to do so. He was fond of study- 
 ing people, and in his long visits at Ajac- 
 cio he had spent weeks in the country 
 among the Corsican peasants, making him- 
 self one of them, and putting himself in 
 touch with their thoughts and feelings. 
 
 All of this had taught him how to 
 reach people, and was the foundation of 
 the great power he afterward had over 
 his soldiers and the common people of 
 France. His other characteristics were 
 unchanged. His ungovernable will, his 
 unceasing energy and perseverance, and 
 his daring to do what he would in the 
 face of all opposition, had grown steadily 
 stronger and greater as he grew older. 
 
The Little Corsican 5P 
 
 The first time his remarkable will and 
 fearless daring were brought forcibly to 
 light was about two years after the life at 
 Valence, when Napoleon was on one of his 
 furloughs in Corsica. It came time to 
 elect a new commander of the National 
 Guards of Ajaccio, and Napoleon decided 
 that he wanted the position. In spite of 
 the fact that the same place was sought for 
 by Marius Peraldi and Pozzo di Borgo, 
 rich and influential men who had all the 
 leading citizens of Corsica on their side. 
 
 Napoleon determined to have the posi- 
 tion. He immediately went to work with 
 an activity and enthusiasm that swept all 
 obstacles before him. He smiled, threat- 
 ened, promised, made his friends work for 
 him and with him, until his party nearly 
 equaled that of the other side, and the 
 town was divided into bands, each firmly 
 determined to win. And then they waited 
 anxiously for the coming of the commis- 
 sioners, for whichever side was favored by 
 these oflicers would be sure to win the 
 coveted reward. 
 
6o Napoleon 
 
 At last the commissioners came, and 
 Marati, the most important of them all, 
 went directly to the home of Marius 
 Peraldi, Napoleon's most dreaded oppo- 
 nent. This announced to every one that 
 the great man was in favor of Peraldi, 
 whose party went wild with joy. Napo- 
 leon for a few hours lost heart, and became 
 moody and irresolute, then, recovering his 
 unbounded faith in himself, he began to 
 work. For a whole day he tried to inspire 
 his friends — they were paralyzed. Seeing 
 that nothing could be expected from them 
 he resolved to act for himself. That even- 
 ing as Peraldi 's family and Marati were at 
 dinner they were startled by a loud knock- 
 ing, and before they realized what had 
 happened, a band of masked men burst into 
 the room, seized Marati and carried him 
 off to the home of Napoleon. The young 
 Corsican greeted the astonished, indignant 
 officer with a quiet smile, saying: 
 
 * I washed you to be free, perfectly free ; 
 you were not so at Peraldi' s house." 
 
 The next day Napoleon was elected. 
 
The Little Corsican 6i 
 
 The people of Ajaccio, startled by the bold 
 fearlessness of the act, made no objection, 
 until, at the meeting of the next court, 
 Pozzo di Borgo entered a complaint. It 
 is said that as soon as the enthusiastic 
 followers of Napoleon heard of this, they 
 seized di Borgo, threw him to the ground, 
 and were about to trample him to death in 
 .their excitement, when Napoleon appeared 
 upon the scene and rescued his enemy. 
 
 Napoleon's newly acquired power, in- 
 stead of satisfying his ambition aroused 
 him more fully to an understanding of 
 what he might accomplish in Corsica if 
 he was shrewd enough in his planning. 
 His confidence in his position, as the son 
 of one of the most highly respected fam- 
 ilies in Ajaccio, led him, perhaps, beyond 
 the bounds of his usual shrewdness. 
 
 About this time trouble broke out be- 
 tween the Roman Catholics and their 
 political opponents in the Corsican town. 
 Napoleon was very active in the numerous 
 broils that followed and was accused of 
 being the cause of many of them. These 
 
62 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 outbreaks were especially unfortunate at 
 this time, for Paoli, the beloved Corsican 
 patriot, was trying to establish a consti- 
 tutional government on the island, and 
 peace was absolutely neces- 
 sary for success. 
 
 So long as Napoleon remain- 
 ed in Ajaccio peace seemed 
 impossible. Paoli and other 
 authorities were not long in 
 giving voice to their displeas- 
 ure. Napoleon was made to 
 feel that he must abide by 
 their wishes or leave the is- 
 land. His restless, active na- 
 ture chafed under the re- 
 straint. To remain in Corsica 
 without attempting to push 
 
 The hoy Napoleon. From ■* • ^c- ^ 
 
 a marble bust by the himSCll tO pOWCr WaS impOS- 
 
 sible. Outside of Corsica his 
 
 natural inclination was toward 
 
 France, partly because' of his 
 
 boyhood associations with that country, 
 
 and partly because of the condition of 
 
 affairs in the French country at this time. 
 
 fam-ous Corsican sculp- 
 tor Ceracchi, now in 
 the museum at Ajaccio, 
 Corsica. This was 
 made during the Ital- 
 ian campaign. 
 
The Little Corsican 6j 
 
 At last his decision was made: he would 
 leave Corsica and go to France — to Paris. 
 
 The very name of Paris was enough at 
 this time to stir the blood of such a young 
 patriot of freedom as our Corsican. The 
 country whose government he had so 
 despised in the days at Brienne was now 
 the center of a fierce struggle for liberty 
 and equality. For years France had been 
 ruled by kings whose power was absolute. 
 So long as the king was a man of great 
 strength and wisdom the French govern- 
 ment grew in power ; but with the coming 
 of the weak, frivolous Louis XV., a man 
 who shirked his duties while claiming all 
 kingly rights, the work of governing fell 
 into the hands of greedy courtiers. These 
 men cared for nothing but the bettering of 
 their own fortunes. 
 
 Before the French king had assumed 
 absolute control of his people, the nobility 
 and clergy had rendered certain services 
 of government; for this work they were 
 relieved from taxation. Although the 
 duties they had performed were now per- 
 
64 Napoleon 
 
 formed by the king, these two classes were 
 still favored with freedom from taxation. 
 About half of the land of France was owned 
 by the nobility and the clergy. The taxes 
 needed for the support of the government 
 had to come from the other half, which 
 was occupied by the lower and poorer 
 classes of people. 
 
 This order of affairs had brought much 
 misery to the peasants of France, even 
 when the king had been a man of superior 
 strength and justice. But with the reign 
 of Louis XV. their condition became most 
 pitiable. To support the extravagant 
 court and supply the demands of the cour- 
 tiers who were doing the king's work, the 
 taxes were increased until the poor people 
 had not enough left from their toil to keep 
 them from hunger. 
 
 Matters were in this state when Louis 
 XVL came to the throne. He was a young, 
 inexperienced king who lacked energy but 
 who desired to help his people. Numerous 
 attempts were made to straighten out the 
 tangle, but each of them failed after a 
 
The Little Corsican 6^ 
 
 time. The oppressed class began to see 
 that help was not to come from the king, 
 and that if they were to be freed from their 
 heavy burden they must free themselves. 
 
 Fortunately for them, greater and wiser 
 men had long been questioning why such 
 things should be. Why should one class 
 of human beings starve and work, with no 
 reward, to support another class to whom 
 they owed nothing? These men had put 
 their thoughts into words, and the country 
 was flooded with pamphlets and books in 
 which freedom for all men was the chief 
 theme. The thoughts of these great men 
 had been working throughout France and 
 Europe for years, until their influence w^as 
 felt by all classes. 
 
 In the meantime the middle class of 
 France had gradually grown stronger, both 
 in intellect and in wealth, because the lazi- 
 ness and dissipation of the upper class 
 created a demand for their work. All of 
 these things — the belief in freedom for all 
 men, the increasing strength of the sub- 
 stantial middle class, the weakness and 
 
66 Napoleon 
 
 greed of the governing power, and the 
 oppression of the lower classes — created a 
 mighty discontent in France, and this dis- 
 content grew until the whole land was in 
 a turmoil, and the great French Revolution 
 broke out in 1789. 
 
 It was into this struggle that Napoleon 
 decided to throw himself. His resolve to 
 join the French was approved by his fam- 
 ily. The Corsicans, life -long enemies of 
 the French, could not understand this sud- 
 den change in a family which had always 
 been noted for its loyalty to Corsica. Full 
 of resentment they drove the Bonapartes 
 from the island, burning their home and 
 leaving them penniless and dependent on 
 what fortune would bring them in France. 
 
 But Napoleon had spent only five 
 months with his regiment in the last two 
 and a half years, and, although he had 
 done no more than was common in those 
 days in the French army, his leaves were 
 not always granted him ; he extended them 
 to suit his pleasure. The result was that 
 when he returned to Paris in the spring of 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 67 
 
 1792 he found he had lost his place in the 
 French army. This was partly on account 
 of his numerous absences and partly on 
 
 From a lithograph by Charlet 
 
 Napoleon at the Tuileries, Atigust lo, 1792, watching the mob dur- 
 ing the Reign of Terror, assembled to massacre the Swiss Guards. 
 
 account of the way he had borne himself 
 toward the French while in Corsica. He 
 
68 Napoleon 
 
 at once made application to regain his 
 place, but it was not until the following 
 August that he was reinstated in the army. 
 
 In the meantime, almost penniless, he 
 wandered about the streets of Paris, even 
 pawning his watch to get money to live. 
 Bourrienne, his old schoolmate and friend 
 at Brienne, found him, and the two 
 schemed and planned in different ways to 
 better their fortunes. 
 
 While they worked and waited, Paris 
 was being drenched with blood. Napoleon 
 saw the savage mobs sweep through the 
 city, leaving terror, desolation, and death 
 in their wake. He saw the king forced 
 from the throne, the nobles driven from 
 the city; murder, robbery, and treachery 
 were on all sides. He began to under- 
 stand that while his ideas of liberty and 
 equality might be right, in the hands of 
 the ignorant, impulsive classes, they were 
 nothing but watchwords for destruction. 
 
 He saw that the Revoltition needed some 
 one to guide it — that France needed a 
 head. 
 
Chapter VI 
 The Young General 
 
 IT was December, 1797. All Paris was 
 in holiday attire, gay with bright 
 colors, and a shouting, excited crowd 
 was pushing its way toward the great 
 palace. In the court of this magnificent 
 building was a large amphitheater which 
 had been erected for this day's jubilee. 
 Opposite the main entrance stood the altar 
 of France surrounded by statues of Liberty, 
 Equality, and Peace. The great hall was 
 filled with brilliantly dressed officials and 
 beautiful women, eager, expectant, curious. 
 Suddenly a loud cheer was started, and the 
 building rang with the shout as a group of 
 high officials entered. Every head was 
 bared in an instant. 
 
 ''Which one is he?" asked one of the 
 crowd eagerly. 
 
 ''The young man with the sallow face 
 and large head. Don't you see him?" 
 
JO Napoleon 
 
 answered a neighbor, pulling the other to 
 the front, where he could see the speaker. 
 
 ''That little man the conqueror of Italy !" 
 exclaimed some one in a disappointed voice. 
 And then all were silent, for Talleyrand, a 
 famous minister of France, had begun to 
 talk. The people listened to him, discon- 
 tentedly, anxiously waiting to hear the 
 hero of the day. At last the tiresome 
 speech was ended, and a wild cheer went 
 up as a small, deep-chested young man 
 of about twenty-eight took the speaker's 
 place. He, stood quietly while the crowd 
 shouted, his piercing eyes sweeping the vast 
 crowd. It was our little Corsican. 
 
 Soon after he and his family had been 
 driven penniless from Corsica an insurrec- 
 tion arose in Marseilles where the Bona- 
 
 At the siege of Toulon, 1792, '' Buonaparte y 
 
 partes had taken refuge. Napoleon wrote 
 a paper on the affair in which he expressed 
 
The Little Corsican Jl 
 
 the whole trouble so clearly and justly 
 that the authorities ordered copies of the 
 pamphlet to be scattered, throughout the 
 country. This pamphlet first brought the 
 young foreigner into notice and he was 
 promised favor as soon as the opportunity 
 should come. That time soon came. 
 
 In the winter of 1793, at Toulon, a 
 French seaport, the French surrendered 
 their town to the English, whose fleet was 
 occupying the bay. Napoleon was sent at 
 the head of the Second Regiment to join 
 the troops which were already trying to 
 retake the city. As soon as he arrived 
 he saw that the siege was useless so long 
 as the English fleet lay in the harbor. He 
 was only a subordinate officer, however, 
 and it was some time before he could get 
 the general in command to listen to him. 
 At last, however, he succeeded. He placed 
 the artillery at point;^ which commanded 
 the harbor, the fleet was bombarded, forced 
 to withdraw, and the city, exactly as the 
 young officer had foreseen, was subdued. 
 
 For his services here Napoleon was made 
 
72 Napoleon 
 
 general of the brigade. The wiry, uncon- 
 querable little Corsican had at last made 
 an opening for himself, The poverty 
 which he had fought all his life became a 
 thing of the past, his family was helped, 
 and the young man felt relieved from the 
 burden of anxiety which he had carried 
 since a child. 
 
 Although this relief was very great and 
 left him free to do many things which 
 before were impossible. Napoleon soon 
 found that his misfortunes were not at an 
 end. In August, after the fall of Toulon, 
 he was arrested because of his intimacy 
 with a young man by the name of Robes- 
 pierre, whose father, falhng under the sus- 
 picion of the Revolutionists, had been 
 beheaded. The favor of the impulsive 
 French people was a very unreliable thing 
 in those days of the Revolution, and Napo- 
 leon spent tw^o very anxious weeks in prison 
 before he was released and assured that he 
 was not to be one of the many who were 
 each day carted off to the dreaded guillo- 
 tine. 
 
The Little Corsican y^ 
 
 But while this experience was decidedly 
 uncomfortable, it was not considered much 
 
 After a lithograph by Motte 
 
 Napoleon in prison. At the foil of Robespierre from power, all his 
 
 friends were cast into prison, Napoleon among them.. At the 
 
 end of thirteen days his friends procured his release. 
 
 of a disgrace, and did not affect Napoleon 
 half as much as an incident which occurred 
 
74 Napoleon 
 
 in A\ *ril of the next spring. Napoleon had 
 been away from Paris all winter on one 
 expedition and another, and when he 
 rejoined the army he found that he had 
 been changed from the department of the 
 artillery to that of the infantry. This 
 change was considered a great disgrace, 
 and just why it had been done no one 
 seemed to know. Napoleon refused to go 
 with his command, under such circum- 
 stances, and the opening which he had 
 worked so fiercely to make, and which had 
 looked so bright and full of promise, was 
 closed. A sullen despair, a feeling that he 
 was doomed to be a failure, settled over 
 him. 
 
 One great secret of Napoleon's success m 
 life was the quickness with which he sprang 
 to his feet after a downfall. Even now, 
 when the working and waiting of years 
 seemed to have brought him nothing but 
 disappointment, he did not allow his mis- 
 fortune to overwhelm him for long. His 
 restless, ambitious mind had long been 
 attracted to the countries of the far East, 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 75 
 
 and he was soon in the midst of enthusi- 
 astic schemes for an expedition to Turkey. 
 While he was busy studying routes, 
 planning campaigns, and writing numerous 
 letters to his brother Joseph about what he 
 
 Napoleon studying routes, and planning campaigns. 
 
 should do when he had the Orient at his 
 feet, the war committee at Paris were look- 
 ing for some one to draw up plans for an 
 Italian campaign. An old friend of Na- 
 poleon, who knew of the long hours of 
 thorough study which the young man 
 had given to the geography of foreign coun- 
 tries, recommended him to the commit- 
 tee.- He was called before it and his clear 
 
y6 Napoleon 
 
 judgment, careful attention to all details, 
 and enthusiastic energy soon made him 
 friends and brought him the confidence 
 of those in authority. 
 
 So great was this confidence that when 
 the overthrow of the government was 
 threatened by a revolt in Paris, October, 
 1795, Napoleon was asked to take charge 
 of the force which was to defend the Tuil- 
 eries where the national convention was in 
 session. 
 
 "I accept," he said to the friend who 
 came to him with the request, "but I warn 
 you that once my sword is out of the scab- 
 bard, I shall not replace it till I have estab- 
 lished order." 
 
 And he kept his word. With swiftness 
 and a perfectness of method which took the 
 breath of those whom he commanded, he 
 prepared the defense of the palace. Can- 
 nons were placed at the head of all the 
 avenues leading from the Tuileries, so that 
 their deadly fire could sweep the long 
 streets. So thoroughly was the work done 
 that when the mob marched up the streets 
 
The Little Corsican yy 
 
 toward the Tuileries a roar from the can- 
 nons greeted them, and Paris was quieted 
 almost before the people realized that the 
 revolt had begun. 
 
 A few weeks later Napoleon was made 
 general-in-chief of the Army of the Interior. 
 He had come to the front once more, and 
 this time with a bound that placed him 
 firmly in a position which many an old and 
 experienced general would have considered 
 it an honor to hold. 
 
 Loyal to those who had been his friends 
 in times of trouble, on the very day after 
 the sweeping victory of the Tuileries, when 
 every one was singing the praises of the 
 "little officer," and excited Paris clamored 
 for a sight of the hero, Napoleon, sym- 
 pathetic and full of sorrow, spent Sv:iveral 
 hours at the Permons, where Monsieur Per- 
 mon had just died. With the honor which 
 came to him through his new jjosition, 
 came also the power to secure positions of 
 ease for many who had been kind to him in 
 the past, and through his efforts his mother 
 brothers, and sisters were placed in luxury. 
 
yS Napoleon 
 
 During these months of excitement and 
 quick advance in public favor, Napoleon 
 was made much of and entertained by 
 many wealthy and influential people. 
 Among the many whom he met was Jose- 
 phine de Beauharnais, a woman whose 
 charm of manner and sweetness of dispo- 
 sition made her a favorite in the brilliant 
 circle around her. Napoleon was attracted 
 to her from their very first meeting, and 
 determined to marry her. In his love 
 affairs, as in his public life, to will was to 
 do with the masterful Napoleon, and Jose- 
 phine became Madam.e Bonaparte in the 
 month of March, 1796. 
 
Chapter VII 
 Napoleon's First Great Campaigns 
 
 JUST one week before his marriage 
 Napoleon had been made commander 
 ^ in chief of the Army of Italy, an 
 army which had been in Italy for three 
 years without making any headway against 
 the Austrians, who were steadily gaining 
 possession of the disputed territory. The 
 position was one of great difficulty for the 
 yoimg commander. Under him were men 
 much older than himself — generals who 
 had won fame and grown old in years of 
 service. It was not to be supposed that 
 they would welcome as a commander a 
 young man, barely twenty-seven, a for- 
 eigner of whom they knew nothing except 
 that he had won Paris by a skillful trick in 
 defending the Tuileries. 
 
 Dignified, severe, and with an air of 
 undisputed power. Napoleon joined his 
 ragged, half-starved, rebellious command 
 
8o 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 on March 22, 1796; just nineteen days 
 afterward disobedience and rebellion were 
 at an end, the most rigid discipline had 
 taken its place, and the army was ready 
 and eager to act. 
 
 Not for one instant had Napoleon 
 appeared at a loss. Familiar with every 
 detail of army life, from the planning of a 
 great campaign to the loading and firing of 
 his army's cannons, he had been complete 
 master of the situation from 
 the very start; just as he 
 had been in the snowball 
 fight at Brienne so many 
 years before. The old offi- 
 cers who came into his pres- 
 ence, for the first time, 
 with a feeling of contempt 
 in their hearts for his abil- 
 ity, had been given curt, 
 decisive orders, accompa- 
 nied with a shrewd, piercing 
 glance from under the heavy brows, which 
 assured them that the dark young officer 
 was there to command, and they to obey. 
 
 ^^^^^^ 
 
 A French cavalryman. 
 
The Little Corsican 8i 
 
 All disobedience had been met with swift, 
 sure punishment; all attention to duty 
 with a quiet word of approval. 
 
 On the tenth of April, enthusiastic and 
 certain of victor}^, Napoleon led his army 
 against the Austrians; fifteen days after- 
 ward his troops were drawn up before him 
 and he addressed them as follows : 
 
 ' ' Soldiers ! In fifteen days you have 
 gained six victories, taken twenty-one 
 stands of colors, fifty-five pieces of cannon, 
 and several fortresses, and conquered the 
 richest part of Piedmont. You have made 
 fifteen hundred prisoners, and killed or 
 wounded ten thousand men 
 
 ''You were utterly destitute, and have 
 supplied your wants. You have gained 
 battles without cannons, passed rivers 
 without bridges, performed forced marches 
 without shoes, bivouaced without brandy 
 and often without bread. None but repub- 
 lican phalanxes — soldiers of liberty — could 
 have borne what you have endured. For 
 this you have the thanks of your country." 
 
 The people of Italy were astonished, 
 
82 Napoleon 
 
 France was wild, and the army itself was 
 breathless and bewildered over the sweep- 
 ing victories of a fortnight. The remain- 
 der of the campaign was like the beginning, 
 a series of brilliant battles, of deeds of fear- 
 less daring on the part of the French, of 
 overwhelming defeat for the enemy. The 
 revolting provinces in Italy were subdued, 
 the Austrians were driven out of the fair 
 country and made to sue for peace under 
 the very walls of Vienna. Napoleon was 
 in every place, inspiring his soldiers with a 
 bravery that made them his devoted fol- 
 lowers ever after, cheer- 
 
 /3i/»^ 09 ^ V^'" ^ ^^^ them when they had 
 li^/^lP^<\/^a^\X^ ^ done their best, chiding 
 
 During the Italian campaign, 1796, thcm for thc IcaSt nCg- 
 
 " Bonaparte y 
 
 lect of duty. 
 At the battle of Lodi, the bulk of the 
 Austrian army lay beyond a bridge, the 
 end of which had been fortified with can- 
 nons. The French troops rushed forward, 
 but the great Austrian guns belched forth 
 such a terrible storm of shot and shell that 
 the lines gave way, faltered, and fell back. 
 
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE ON THE BRIDGE AT LODI AT THE BATTLE 
 
 OF ARCOLE 
 
 From the painting in the Louvre , by Antoine-Jean Gros. This portrait ivas 
 
 painted in Milan, Italy, in 1797 at the solicitation of Josephine 
 
 Bonaparte. Napoleon sat for it after the campaign was over. 
 
The Little Corsican 8j 
 
 Napoleon, seeing that all was about to be 
 lost, sprang to the front, cheering his men, 
 while he stood directly in the sweep of the 
 death-dealing cannon. The French army, 
 wild with enthusiasm, rushed after him and 
 the victory was won; won, too, was the 
 loyalty of the French army for their Little 
 Corporal, a name which the soldiers gave 
 Napoleon that day and which clung to him 
 ever after. From that battle the soldiers 
 were his to do with as he would, and never, 
 in all history, has any general had the 
 influence over his men, or the unbounded 
 love and admiration of those under him, 
 that Napoleon had. 
 
 While all this was going on in Italy, Paris 
 was receiving, along with the news of vic- 
 tory, money, magnificent pictures, beau- 
 tiful statues, and treasures of untold value 
 from the conquered country. Procession 
 after procession filed through the streets 
 of Paris, made up of chariots filled with 
 all this wealth from Italian galleries and 
 treasure houses, accompanied with fly- 
 ing colors, with bands of musicians, and 
 
Napoleon 
 
 with soldiers and citizens singing national 
 hymns to celebrate the wonderful victory. 
 It is no wonder that the people of Paris 
 went wild with enthusiasm over the man 
 who had brought them all this good for- 
 tune ; that all else should be laid aside on 
 the day of his return, while the multitude 
 crowded in and around the grand court of 
 the palace to hear the Little Corporal tell, 
 modestly and hesitatingly, of the victories 
 his army had won in sunny Italy. 
 
 It was a great day for Napoleon, but one 
 for which he had worked and waited. 
 Many people, dazzled by the brilHancy of 
 our little Corsican's life, believe 
 that his wonderful success was 
 due alone to his remarkable 
 military genius. But the 
 friends who have followed 
 him through his lonely, discon- 
 tented days at Brienne, where 
 he spent his time studying 
 the life of Plutarch and the 
 campaigns of C^sar, and 
 through the long hours at 
 
 A French grenadier. 
 
The Little Corsican 8^ 
 
 Valence and Auxonne, where he pinched 
 and starved to help his people; working 
 always, desperately and thoroughly, with a 
 perseverance unknown among the young 
 soldiers ; these friends know that it was not 
 genius alone. 
 
 For days after Napoleon's return from 
 Italy, the enthusiasm for the hero con- 
 tinued. He tried to shut himself up, away 
 from the crowds who came to see him, but 
 he could not restrain the admiration of the 
 French people. At the theaters there were 
 plays produced descriptive of his Italian 
 campaign; the great poets wrote about 
 him, and whenever he ventured out he was 
 received with the greatest dignity and 
 respect. But none of this pomp and glory 
 satisfied Napoleon. It was impossible for 
 him to remain inactive, and he said: 
 
 "Paris weighs on me like a leaden 
 mantle." 
 
 France Vs^as now at peace with all the 
 continent, but was on the eve of war with 
 England. To make a direct attack on the 
 island it was necessary to have a fleet. 
 
86 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 The French had no fleet. Therefore it was 
 decided to attack England through her 
 colonies. Far-away Egypt, a Turkish 
 province, was selected as the first field of 
 war ; if it could be secured for the French, 
 England would be cut off from India. 
 
 The dreams that Napoleon had had of 
 seeking wealth and fame in the Orient 
 began to haunt him again as the govern- 
 ment made its plans for invading the land 
 of the Pyramids. He asked to be sent to 
 Egypt; his request was granted, and he 
 left Paris May, 1798. By the last of July 
 the island of Alalta 
 had been won by him 
 for the French, Alex- 
 
 Napoleon and the Sphinx. His tribute during the Egyptian 
 campaign. 
 
 andria had been taken, the great battle of 
 the Pyramids had been fought, and the 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 87 
 
 French government was in control of Cairo. 
 In the months that followed, Napoleon 
 worked hard to establish his eastern em- 
 pire. He had brought with him a number 
 of great scholars, who explored the ancient 
 coimtry far and wide, and 
 discovered, among other 
 
 Detail after the painting by Maurice Orange 
 
 Bonaparte at the base of the Pyramids, being shown the mummies of 
 Egypt. 
 
 things, the bed of an old canal, which 
 has since been turned into the present 
 Suez Canal. The Institute of Egypt was 
 founded, and civilization and education 
 were encouraged everywhere. 
 
88 Napoleon 
 
 Shortly after the arrival of Napoleon in 
 Egypt, the English fleet, which had been in 
 search of the French for weeks, discovered 
 the enemy's vessels off the coast of Egypt. 
 A battle followed between the two fleets, 
 in which the French were conquered and 
 their ships destroyed. Napoleon and his 
 land forces awakened to find themselves 
 shut up in a foreign country with the Brit- 
 ish war vessels guarding the coast and cut- 
 ting off all communications with France. 
 Napoleo'n controlled the land, however, 
 and so long as the trouble confined itself 
 to the naval forces he continued his peace- 
 ful labors at Cairo. 
 
 But in the midst of his work he received 
 word that Turkey had declared war against 
 France, and that two Turkish armies were 
 already on their way to attack the French 
 force in Egypt. Napoleon at once massed 
 his troops and marched to meet the enemy. 
 The plague and the heat weakened the 
 French army, and the expedition ended in 
 failure and retreat. And, although a sec- 
 ond division of the Turks was routed soon 
 
The Little Corsican 8q 
 
 after in the battle of Aboukir, Napoleon 
 never again had the same dreams of estab- 
 lishing an oriental kingdom. 
 
 During the negotiations of the two 
 armies concerning peace some old French 
 newspapers fell into the hands of Napoleon. 
 It had been nearly a year since he had 
 heard anything from Paris, and now he 
 read with dismay that Italy had been lost, 
 that France was threatened by war with 
 Russia, and that the French government 
 was about to fall. Napoleon started for 
 Paris at once, leaving his army in Egypt. 
 
 An adverse wind arose as Napoleon's 
 boat neared the island of Corsica, and at 
 last forced the voyagers to take shelter in 
 the Gulf of Ajaccio. For nearly a week 
 they v/ere kept here, and Napoleon wan- 
 dered through the town, pointing out, with 
 all his old-time pride, the home of his an- 
 cestors, and greeting his boyhood friends. 
 The resentment which the Corsicans had 
 felt for Napoleon when he had cast in 
 his fortune with that of France was swal- 
 lowed up in their pride in the little Cor- 
 
go Napoleon 
 
 sican who had once belonged to them, and 
 whose name and fame were now world-wide. 
 
 Uncle Joey Fesch, who was soon to be 
 made an archdeacon, still lived in Ajaccio, 
 and he and Napoleon again lived over the 
 days when they had routed the shepherd 
 lads, and the older boy had sympathized 
 with and protected his queer, dark little 
 nephew. Even now he came to the rescue, 
 as in the old times. Napoleon had left 
 Egypt much poorer than when he went 
 there, although the money chest of the 
 army was under his control, and he could 
 have supplied his wants if he had cared to 
 do so. The archdeacon now helped him 
 by exchanging French money for the Turk- 
 ish, but even with that help. Napoleon had 
 barely enough to meet his expenses to 
 Paris, which he reached October, i6, 1799. 
 
 One disaster after another had come to 
 France since Napoleon had left. No sooner 
 had he landed in Egypt than Austria and 
 Russia, supported by English money, 
 had waged war upon the republic. The 
 French were driven from the conquered 
 
The Little Corstcan 
 
 91 
 
 provinces in Italy and Germany and the 
 enemy threatened to invade France itself. 
 Added to these troubles the new govern- 
 ment in France had not been satisfactory, 
 and the people of the king's party were 
 creeping from their hiding places with an 
 assurance that boded no good to the new 
 republic. 
 
 No wonder that the young commander, 
 who had gained such brilliant victories in 
 Italy, who had disappeared so soon after 
 in the Egyptian campaign, only to reappear 
 again in the hour of their greatest need, 
 was received with the wildest joy. So 
 swift, so sure, so complete had been his 
 victory in the past, that the im- 
 pulsive French people gave them- 
 selves up to rejoicing. They had 
 the utmost faith that what the 
 Little Corporal had done once 
 he could do again, and that 
 France was saved. His journey 
 from Frejus, where he landed, 
 to Paris was one of the greatest 
 triumph. All, from the highest 
 
 One of Napoleon's 
 
 non-commissioned 
 
 officers. 
 
g2 Napoleon 
 
 to the lowest, hastened to greet the yoiing 
 hero ; hastened to welcome him home. 
 
 Such -universal faith in his power brought 
 the grea^test happiness to Napoleon, and 
 now, as ever, when his people were with 
 him, he acted quickly, with unerring judg- 
 ment, and with a certainty of success. 
 With cunning and military force he over- 
 threw the government at Paris November 
 9, 1799, and was made Dictator of France. 
 Shortly afterward the constitution was 
 revised by him and his friends and the 
 whole government was given into the 
 hands of one man, the First Consul. 
 Napoleon was chosen to fill this place. 
 France lay at the feet of the little Corsican ; 
 it was his to do with as he would. 
 
Chapter VIII 
 Napoleon, First Consul of France 
 
 IN the days that followed Napoleon bore 
 himself as the true servant of France. 
 He apparently cared nothing for flat- 
 tery or attention. His time was given up 
 to straightening out the troubles of his 
 country. Outside of the meeting of the 
 council, which he attended three or four 
 times a week. Napoleon spent the days of 
 that winter in his cabinet, reading and 
 writing letters, examining all the work he 
 had ordered done, signing his documents 
 with the short syllable "Nap" or a great 
 scrawling " N," talking, thinking, planning, 
 and subduing the rebellious provinces. 
 
 Sometimes he would drop his work and 
 begin singing as he whittled the arm of his 
 great chair ; and then, acting, as he looked, 
 more like an overgrown boy than the ruler 
 of all France, he would start to his feet 
 and suddenly announce some great plan 
 
g4 Napoleon 
 
 for the improvement of the country, or 
 describe rapidly some starthng scheme 
 which soon after would astonish and dis- 
 may the whole world. 
 
 As the most powerful man in all France, 
 he was, of course, flooded with requests for 
 money and positions. Kindly, thought- 
 fully, and sympathetically he answered 
 these, wherever he felt that the cause was a 
 just one or the suppliant worthy. 
 
 One day he received a letter from an old 
 man who had been a friend of Charles 
 Bonaparte, and had lived in Ajaccio when 
 Napoleon was a schoolboy. He had lent 
 Monsieur Bonaparte twenty-five louis to 
 meet some expense connected with Napo- 
 leon's work at Brienne. Napoleon's father 
 was unable to pay the debt, and after his 
 death the old friend would not hear of 
 Madame Bonaparte's paying it. Old and 
 poor, he now wrote to Napoleon. The 
 First Consul was overcome with emotion 
 when he read the letter, and turning quickly 
 to Bourrienne, who was now his secretary, 
 he said • 
 
The Little Corsican g^ 
 
 ** Bourrienne, this is sacred ! Do not 
 lose a minute. Send the old man ten times 
 the sum." 
 
 Mindful of the distress which he had 
 seen in the provinces, where the people 
 were in a turmoil of civil strife and at the 
 same time in danger of foreign invasion; 
 where the land was left uncultivated that 
 all able-bodied men might go to war; 
 where hunger and disease were wide- 
 spread, Napoleon determined to make 
 peace, if possible, with England and 
 Austria, the two foreign enemies. While 
 these efforts for peace were being made, 
 however, Napoleon was preparing himself 
 for war, if it had to come. His offers were 
 rejected by these countries. The great 
 maps which belonged to him were brought 
 out and spread on his study floor, and 
 Napoleon, on his hands and knees with 
 pencil, compass, and measure, went over 
 the countries he expected to invade, inch 
 by inch, until every step his army was 
 to take was perfectly known. Even the 
 battles were fought over and over on his 
 
g6 Napoleon 
 
 study floor with black and red-headed pins 
 to represent the different armies. 
 
 "Time is everything" was one of Napo- 
 leon's great rules of warfare. As soon as 
 he saw that France must fight, he began, 
 with the secrecy which he always kept 
 concerning his military plans, to gather his 
 forces. Bfefore the people realized what 
 was to happen, the French troops were on 
 the march and the Little Corporal's plan 
 was evident. He intended to lead his men 
 across the Alps. France and the world 
 stood aghast at the daring of the venture. 
 
 Of the three passes through the moun- 
 tains, one was guarded by the Austrians. 
 By a feint Napoleon directed the attention 
 of the enemy to a second. The central 
 pass was left without defense. It was 
 along this road that Napoleon led his army, 
 undaunted by difficulties that seemed to 
 the bravest to be unconqtierable. The 
 whole army — infantry, cavalry, baggage, 
 artillery — passed along narrow paths where 
 even the mountain goats picked their way 
 with care. Man by man, horse by horse, 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 97 
 
 with the artillery in pieces and dragged in 
 hollow trunks of trees, they struggled on. 
 Napoleon in his gray great-coat, led them 
 all. At times the trail passed along the 
 very edge of a dizzy precipice, 
 while overhead great masses of 
 snow and tottering rocks hung, 
 ready to fall. 
 
 When the summits of the 
 mountains were reached the 
 soldiers coasted down the slopes. 
 This was great fun, and was only 
 stopped when the mud put an 
 end to the snow. Coming to a 
 little mountain town in posses- 
 sion of the Austrians, the horses' 
 feet and the wheels of the can- 
 non were bound in straw, and 
 the army passed through the streets at 
 night, under the very nose of the Austrian 
 fort, without being discovered. Nothing 
 stopped them; enthusiastic, fearless, dar- 
 ing, on they went until they reached the 
 sunny plains of Italy. It was no wonder 
 that the greatest generals of that time and 
 
 The gray riding coat 
 and little hat worn 
 by Napoleon dur- 
 ing his last cam- 
 paigns. 
 
98 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 since looked upon the achievement as a 
 miracle, and that the people of Paris said 
 in bewilderment : 
 
 "The First Consul pointed his finger at 
 the frozen summits and they bowed their 
 heads." 
 
 With such a beginning the campaign 
 could not help being successful. The vic- 
 tory at Marengo was won June 14, 1800, 
 and the Austrians were again driven from 
 Italy. In the meantime the French army 
 had been equally successful against the 
 Austrians in the Rhine valley, and France 
 was rid of one enemy. In 1.802 England 
 also agreed to Napoleon's 
 terms and France was at peace 
 with the world. 
 
 But long before this peace 
 had been made, in fact as soon 
 as the Little Corporal had been 
 made First Consul, the people 
 of France had begun to feel 
 that a new and better freedom 
 had come to them and their 
 country. Directing the affairs 
 
 Napoleon addressing the giant 
 
 infantryman. 
 
^ The Little Corsican gg 
 
 of a state was new work for the soldier 
 Napoleon, but to many people what he did 
 as a statesman for France is more wonder- 
 ful than his brilliant campaigns. That a 
 man who had spent his childhood in mili- 
 tary schools and his manhood in army 
 camps should have the necessary knowl- 
 edge to carry on the affairs of state, seemed 
 impossible. But Napoleon in his dreams 
 of an eastern empire had worked out his 
 ideas of a government, and his life-long 
 study of people had helped him to make 
 those ideas practical and beneficial. 
 
 But such a state as France was when it 
 gave itself into the hands of Napoleon! 
 The treasury was empty and the country 
 was bankrupt. Taxes were high and it was 
 next to impossible to collect them. The 
 factories of the country were standing idle, 
 and the fields were laid bare by the many 
 rebellions that had swept France since 1 789. 
 
 Napoleon took up his new work with the 
 sam^e boldness and self command that 
 marked him in his military life. A quiet, 
 honest man was given charge of the fman- 
 
 tOfC. 
 
100 Napoleon 
 
 cial affairs, and the credit of France was 
 soon reestablished. Napoleon insisted that 
 the taxes should pay all expenses, and yet 
 the people of France had never before been 
 so free from the burden of taxation. Where 
 a laboring man had had only eighteen or 
 nineteen francs left after paying his taxes, 
 he now had, under Napoleon's rule, 
 seventy-nine. 
 
 The trait which had made the little Cor- 
 sican rebel against extravagance at school 
 showed itself now in the strict watch he 
 kept on all his officials, and the carefulness 
 with which he guarded the expenses of his 
 own household. Every man was made to 
 earn the money his country paid him, and 
 no one worked harder than the First Con- 
 sul himself, who sometimes slept but one 
 hour in the twenty-four. Nothing was too 
 small to receive his personal attention. 
 Once, when asked if he could not pass 
 some of his work over to a secretary, he 
 answered : 
 
 "Later, perhaps. Now it is impossible. 
 I must answer for all." 
 
The Little Corsican loi 
 
 Not satisfied at relieving the actual need 
 of his country, Napoleon was constantly 
 at work on improvements, for which the 
 French will have good cause to remember 
 and bless him long after the glory of his 
 victories has ceased to thrill them. Roads 
 and public buildings were restored and new 
 ones built ; education along every line w^as 
 encouraged. Remembering the poor train- 
 ing and easy lives the boys had had at 
 Paris, Napoleon reorganized the military 
 schools and saw that the strictest discipline 
 was enforced ; the renowned University of 
 France was established and many private 
 schools were organized. Religion, which 
 had vanished from France with the coming 
 of the Revolution, was again respected; 
 churches were rebuilt, and the poor people, 
 who had all along said their prayers in 
 silence and had longed for a place to wor- 
 ship, blessed the name of Napoleon. He 
 also gave to France a body of laws, clear, 
 practical, and systematic, which alone 
 was sufficient to make his name famous. 
 /^The last work was the most difficult of 
 
102 Napoleon 
 
 all for Napoleon, for it was necessary to 
 have a knowledge of law to oversee and 
 grasp the discussions that came up. In 
 order to do this Napoleon would study 
 far into the night, preparing himself for 
 the next day. So well could he fix his 
 mind on one thing, so thoroughly did 
 he master his subject, that the able 
 lawyers and statesmen who had been 
 selected by him to draw up the code 
 were often puzzled to answer his shrewd 
 questions, i 
 
 Outside of the present boundaries of 
 France, in the countries which Napoleon 
 conquered and brought under his rule, the 
 First Consul also carried on his work of 
 improvement. Passes were made through 
 the Alps so that the journey can now be 
 made with comparative ease ; canals were 
 built, harbors improved, industries estab- 
 lished and encouraged. 
 
 So great was the work done by this one 
 man, so small in body but with such won- 
 derful endurance, that the France which, 
 at the beginning of his reign, had lain deso- ' 
 
Tlie Little Cor sic an loj 
 
 late before the discouraged people, had 
 now, as a countryman contentedly said : 
 
 ** Nothing to ask from heaven, but that 
 the sun may continue to shine, the rain to 
 fall on our fields, and the earth to render 
 the seed fruitful." 
 
 If Napoleon had been satisfied with this 
 great work of improvement, all would have 
 been well, but his love of glory and of ac- 
 tion could not long be satisfied by these 
 works of peace. As successful in running 
 the affairs of a nation as he had been in his 
 military campaigns, he began to feel that 
 a republic was too narrow a field in which 
 to display his brilliant powers. 
 
 In 1802 he had himself elected First 
 Consul for life. But Napoleon was not 
 content that the power which he had 
 brought to the Bonaparte family should 
 end with his life. There was only one way 
 to prevent this and that was to abandon 
 the republic and establish an empire. 
 
 As if to aid him in the carrying out of 
 this desire, the French people had begun 
 to ask themselves about the fate of France 
 
104 Napoleon 
 
 when the First Consul should be no more. 
 This question had been caused by the 
 numerous attempts against the life of 
 Napoleon. These attacks, made by peo- 
 ple who were jealous of the great man's 
 power, only strengthened the devotion of 
 his followers. At last, after much schem- 
 ing on the part of Napoleon and his friends, 
 it was decided to establish an empire, over 
 which Napoleon and, after him, his de- 
 scendants should rule. 
 
Chapter IX 
 
 Napoleon, Emperor of France and 
 King of Ital}^ 
 
 NAPOLEON was crowned in the 
 cathedral of Notre Dame, Decem- 
 ber 2, 1804. The day began cold 
 and rainy, but just as the procession started 
 from the Tuileries the sun burst out 
 from the clouds. The courtiers came first 
 dressed with all the magnificence which 
 Napoleon insisted on in his newly made 
 court. After them came the marshals of 
 the empire, their jeweled decorations fiash- 
 ing brilliantly in the sunshine. They were 
 followed by the high officers of the court. 
 The emperor came last. The great crowds 
 of people thronged, the streets, pushing 
 each other hither and thither, some laugh- 
 ing, others in a bad humor from their 
 wait' through the long rainy morning. 
 But as Napoleon came in sight, all dis- 
 comforts, all other thoughts were forgot- 
 
io6 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 ten, the crowd became as one man, and 
 cheer after cheer rang down the gay streets. 
 Within the cathedral all the great people 
 of France had gathered to give their bless- 
 ing to the man who had brought them such 
 vast territories and wonderful victories, 
 and had restored their country to peace 
 and prosperity. As they waited for his 
 coming, the great Pope of Rome entered 
 and walked slowly to his place, while the 
 solemn chanting of many priests filled th^ 
 great building. Shortly after, the firing of 
 cannon told the people of Paris that Napo- 
 leon was on his way. 
 
 When he arrived at Notre 
 Dame he at once ascended 
 the throne before the grand 
 altar. Josephine stood be- 
 side him, and around them 
 were many of the powerful 
 rulers of Europe, who had 
 come to honor the corona- 
 tion of the man who filled 
 them with amazement at his genius and 
 terrified them with his victories. Calmly 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 loy 
 
 and reverently Napoleon stood, while the 
 Pope prayed: 
 
 "Diffuse, O Lord, by our hands, the 
 treasures of your grace and benediction on 
 your servant Napoleon, whom, in spite of 
 our personal un worthiness, we this day 
 anoint emperor, in your name." 
 
 As he closed the prayer the Pope turned 
 to take the crown from the altar in order 
 to place it on the head of Napoleon, but 
 before he could do so, Napoleon seized it 
 and placed it upon his own head, while his 
 face lighted up with an expression of power 
 and fearlessness which the people who saw 
 it never forgot. 
 
 When it came time for Josephine to be 
 crowned, she stepped down from her 
 throne, and, ascending the steps toward 
 the altar, knelt before Napoleon with her 
 hands clasped and her eyes full of tears. 
 Napoleon took the little crown intended 
 for the empress, put it first on his own head, 
 and then lightly and gracefully placed it 
 on the head of Josephine. 
 
 On the first day of the next April the 
 
io8 Napoleon 
 
 emperor, accompanied by a great train of 
 officials, started for Italy, where he was to 
 be crowned king of the country which he 
 had twice rescued for F'rance. The coro- 
 nation took place in the great cathedral at 
 Milan, and the crown used was the heavy 
 iron one which for so many years had been 
 used in the coronation of the kings of 
 Lombardy. Here, as at Notre Dame, 
 Napoleon seized the crown and placed it 
 on his head, while he repeated loudly the 
 words engraved on it : 
 
 *' God gives it to me ; beware who touches 
 it." 
 
 Just a year before the coronation the 
 treaty of peace with England had been 
 broken. Both countries were to blame, 
 and both began elaborate preparations for 
 war. Napoleon assembled an army at 
 Boulogne and for months threatened the 
 island of England with an attack. He was 
 forced to give up this plan, however, on 
 account of the lack of a good fleet and of a 
 new combination that was formed against 
 France, for after the French Empire was 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 log 
 
 established and Italy came under the con- 
 trol of France, Austria and Russia became 
 jealous of the power of Napoleon and joined 
 England in a plan to subdue France. 
 
 The instant that news reached Napoleon 
 of this combination of forces, he was on 
 his feet and ready for action. Messengers 
 were sent flying to Italy, to the Rhine 
 
 From a lithograph by Eaffet 
 
 Napoleon reviewing the Old Guard, the pride of the armies of France. 
 
 states, and to Boulogne, where a great 
 army had been in camp for months, await- 
 ing the emperor's orders to descend on 
 England. In a marvelously short time 
 the whole French army was on its way to 
 
no Napoleon 
 
 the Rhine. After that river was crossed 
 speed meant everything, if the Austrians 
 were to be crippled before the Russians 
 could unite with them. 
 
 In the face of terrible weather, the sol- 
 diers moved forward in response to their 
 little general, under whom many of them 
 had fought at Lodi and Marengo. There 
 was no rest day or night, and Napoleon was 
 in their midst at all times. For one week 
 he did not take his boots off. He talked, 
 he explained their position in an enemy's 
 country, he cheered them with promises of 
 victory, while sometimes they stood knee 
 deep in icy slush. 
 
 His promises were kept, for the Aus- 
 trians, bewildered by the swiftness of the 
 march and deceived by certain moves of 
 the French troups, were defeated, and 
 compelled to surrender 60,000 prisoners, 
 120 guns, 90 colors, and over 30 generals. 
 It was a victory gained by legs, as Napo- 
 leon said, for scarcely four weeks had 
 passed since the French army crossed the 
 Rhine. 
 
The Little Corsican iii 
 
 Before the Austrians had time to recover 
 their breath from this defeat the French 
 were on their way again, and by the middle 
 of the next month, November, Vienna was 
 surrounded, and the royal family had fled 
 in fear and confusion. 
 
 The Austrian army now retreated rapidly 
 to the east, and managed to meet the Rus- 
 sian forces which were coming to their aid 
 under Alexander I., the young czar. The 
 combined force of the enemy now num- 
 bered 90,000 men. Napoleon had about 
 10,000 less and was in the midst of a 
 hostile country. 
 
 Feeling that victory must be his, Alex- 
 ander marched against Napoleon, and the 
 battle of Austerlitz was fought on the sec- 
 ond of December, 1805. At four o'clock 
 that morning Napoleon was on his horse, 
 waiting for the dense fog to lift, to see the 
 position of the enemy's lines. At eight he 
 rode along in front of his magnificent army, 
 inspiring his men with his faith in their 
 strength and finally giving the signal for 
 attack with the command : 
 
112 Napoleon 
 
 "Close the campaign with a clap of 
 thunder." And they did. Before night 
 the enemy were driven flying from the 
 field, and the Austrians were compelled to 
 sue for peace, while the Russians were too 
 crippled to continue the struggle. 
 
 The emperor was back in Paris by the 
 first of the year 1806, within three months 
 after leaving it, but not to rest. England 
 was still to be subdued and Prussia had 
 joined her in the attempt to crush France. 
 All through the spring and summer, of 1806 
 Napoleon tried to make peace without war, 
 but all attempts failed, and by the end of 
 September the grand army of France was 
 again on the march, this time toward 
 central Germany. 
 
 Napoleon had made his preparations so 
 
 secretly, it being believed until the last 
 
 minute that he was going on a long hunt, 
 
 that when the French suddenly appeared 
 
 on the flanks of the Prussian 
 
 ^'%y army the latter were over- 
 
 /^ f. /^^V. whelmed and forced to re- 
 
 IT 1 treat. The battle of Tena 
 
 Battle of Jena, 1806, 
 "Napol." 
 
The Little Corsican iij 
 
 was fought, bringing the French another 
 great victory, and on the twenty- fifth of 
 October Napoleon marched into Berlin with 
 flying colors. The 
 Prussian king fled to 
 the Russians for help 
 and protection. Na- 
 poleon followed and 
 the struggle continued 
 until the following 
 summer, when, it was 
 
 closed by the battle As Emperor, battle of Friedland, 
 
 of Friedland, June 14. 1807, "N" 
 
 Napoleon wrote to Josephine after this 
 battle : 
 
 *' I write you only a few words, for I 
 am very tired. I have been bivouack- 
 ing for several days. My children 
 have worthily celebrated the anniver- 
 sary of Marengo. The battle of Fried- 
 land will be just as celebrated and as 
 glorious for my people. The whole 
 Russian army routed, 80 guns cap- 
 tured, 30,000 men taken prisoners or 
 killed, with 25 generals; the Russian 
 guard annihilated ; it is the worthy 
 
114 Napoleon 
 
 sister of Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena. 
 The bulletin will tell you the rest. 
 My loss is not large. I successfully 
 outmanoeuvered the enemy. 
 
 "Napoleon." 
 
 It was no wonder that Napoleon was 
 tired. For, while carrying on the cam- 
 paign of the last two years, he had con- 
 tinued his orders concerning public im- 
 provements, and, although in the heart 
 of an enemy's country, he knew every 
 detail of the state affairs of France, and 
 controlled them as if in the council cham- 
 ber at Paris. 
 
 The peace of Tilsit closed the war with 
 Prussia and Russia, and brought Napoleon 
 to the height of his power. The little 
 Corsican was now Emperor of France and 
 King of Italy; Protector of the Rhine 
 States, and Mediator of Switzerland. 
 Central Europe lay prostrate at his feet, 
 while Russia was now his ally. It was not 
 strange that all Europe 
 looked upon the Little Cor- 
 poral with fear. Country 
 
 As Emperor, 1804, "Napoleon." 
 
The Little Corsican iij 
 
 after country was being added to his realm, 
 and those that were not already under his 
 control trembled at his power. 
 
 Many of the vast domains conquered by 
 him were ruled by his brothers, sisters, and 
 friends; Louis had, been made king of 
 Holland; Joseph, king of Naples; Jerome, 
 king of Westphalia. But all were answer- 
 able to the emperor, who knew exactly 
 what was being done in every country over 
 which the French colors floated. 
 
Chapter X 
 The Tide Begins to Turn 
 
 ENGLAND still remained uncon- 
 quered. That fact was the one 
 thorn in the flesh of the great 
 " King of Kings." All through the months 
 that he was busy crushing Prussia and 
 Russia he was thinking, scheming, working 
 to humble the proud British. His task 
 was difficult, for while he had been on his 
 march to Vienna, the English fleet had 
 met the allied French and Spanish fleets 
 off Trafalgar and had completely de- 
 stroyed them. 
 
 Napoleon was compelled to see that his 
 power extended only over land forces. 
 It was impossible to carry the war directly 
 into the island kingdom. The plan he 
 at last settled upon was one of the most 
 despotic and daring the world has ever 
 known. All the ports of the European 
 continent which were in any way con- 
 
The Little Cor si can 
 
 ^^; 
 
 trolled by Napoleon were to be closed 
 against the commerce of England. Noth- 
 ing was to be received from that country 
 and nothing sold to it. Napoleon's power 
 extended along the whole coast line of 
 Europe, except that of Denmark and 
 Portugal. Such an order if obeyed, could 
 not help but bring want to many people. 
 With the issuing of this command the 
 welfare of his subjects became a secondary 
 matter with the emperor ; he thought only 
 of his desire to revenge himself on. England. 
 The suffering of a 
 starving people 
 meant nothing to him 
 in the face of this 
 overwhelming desire. 
 Napoleon was beginn- 
 ing to forget in his 
 ambition and in his 
 hatred of England, 
 that his chief power 
 lay in the love and 
 allegiance of those 
 whom he controlled. 
 
 A General of Cavalry. 
 
Ii8 Napoleon 
 
 In this unusual and strange forgetfulness 
 he vShowed his greatest weakness as a ruler. 
 
 Portugal refused to close her ports at 
 Napoleon's command, and with that re- 
 fusal the emperor's trouble begaji. War 
 with Portugal was followed by war with 
 Spain, and, while engaged in trying to over- 
 come the stubborn resistance of the patri- 
 otic Spanish peasants, the treachery of 
 some of his supposed friends called Napo- 
 leon back to Paris. In the meantime, 
 Austria, knowing that Napoleon was being 
 hard pressed by these wars, had collected 
 her army and started with forced marches 
 to reach the Rhine before the emperor 
 could collect his forces. 
 
 It was the twelfth of April, 1809, when 
 Napoleon heard that the Austrians were 
 nearing France. Five days later he had 
 gathered his army from all parts of his vast 
 empire, was ready for battle, and by the 
 fifth of July the Austrians were again forced 
 to accept Napoleon's terms of peace. In 
 1 8 10 this last treaty was sealed by the 
 marriage of the emperor with Marie Louise 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 IIQ 
 
 of Austria, Josephine having been divorced 
 from Napoleon a short time before. 
 
 At the close of the war with Russia in 
 1807, when Frederick William III. of Prus- 
 sia and Alexander of Russia had met 
 Napoleon at Tilsit to draw up the treaty of 
 peace, Napoleon had taken a great fancy 
 to Alexander, and the two men became 
 friends. The old king of Prussia, over- 
 come by his great losses, was something 
 of a drawback to the enjoyment of the 
 younger men, and often, after the three 
 had dined together. Napoleon and Alex- 
 ander would go away by themselves, as 
 two schoolboys might do, and talk and 
 enjoy themselves until far into the night. 
 The two had made many plans in the 
 days that they had spent together, and 
 Alexander promised to help Napoleon 
 crush England. Later on a marriage be- 
 tween the emperor and the czar's sister, 
 Anna Paulo wna, was discussed and ap- 
 proved of. 
 
 But when Napoleon came to select his 
 second wife from the list of European 
 
120 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 princesses, there was a lack of enthusiasm 
 on the part of the Russian czar, and Napo- 
 leon, angered at the delay, chose Marie 
 Louise of Austria. His haste in doing so 
 was looked upon as a slight by Alexander, 
 and the friendship of the two great men 
 
 The state carriage used by Napoleon during the regime of the 
 Empire. 
 
 came to an end. For several months the 
 czar had not been strictly enforcing the 
 decree concerning the closing of Russian 
 ports against England's goods, and it soon 
 
The Little Corsican 121 
 
 became evident that war would have to 
 come between the two nations — Russia 
 and France. 
 
 Napoleon, with his usual decision, began 
 his preparations to invade Russia, although 
 he felt most deeply the breaking of his 
 friendship with the young czar. With an 
 army which has never been equaled in 
 magnificence, the emperor started from 
 Dresden in May, 181 2. There were troops 
 from all the conquered nations, side by 
 side with his own French soldiers, making 
 up an army of 1,100,000 men. Over one- 
 half of this large force was kept as reserve 
 to defend the towns and country which 
 the advancing army expected to conquer. 
 But although Napoleon managed the cam- 
 paign with the same assurance of victory 
 as in former years, although the same 
 strict discipline was now enforced, and 
 although he had an army under his con- 
 trol that was the wonder of all Europe, 
 he was unable to conquer the Russians. 
 
 After crossing the Niemen River the 
 French army began to meet with difficul- 
 
122 Napoleon 
 
 ties which were new to them, and with 
 which Napoleon was unable to cope. As 
 fast as the French advanced the Russians 
 retreated, leading the French farther and 
 farther into a hostile country which was 
 laid bare by the retreating army, leaving 
 nothing for the oncoming French to seize. 
 All the time that this chase was being car- 
 ried on, scattered troops from the Russian 
 army hung on the flanks of the French, 
 picking off man after man, engaging in 
 skirmishes with divisions of the French 
 army, but refusing to engage in a pitched 
 battle. 
 
 At last Smolensk came in sight, and 
 here the first battle of the campaign was 
 fought, August 1 2 . The town was taken by 
 Napoleon, but with a loss of 12,000 men, 
 and when the French army marched into 
 Smolensk it was found to be nothing but 
 burning ruins. The Russians had fired it 
 before leaving. Discouraged, with a scar- 
 city of suppHes, and suffering from sick- 
 ness, the French had nothing left but to 
 follow the still retreating Russians. 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 123 
 
 Moscow was reached in the middle of 
 September, and the French entered the 
 city with great rejoicing. There were food 
 and shelter for all and they thought the 
 long march was at an end for the present. 
 That night Moscow was burned to the 
 ground, set on fire by the few Russians who 
 had remained in the city. 
 
 The days which followed increased the 
 alread}'^ terrible suffering of the French. 
 And still Napoleon would not retreat. He 
 wrote to France of the loss Russia had 
 sustained in the burning of Moscow. He 
 wrote to Alexander, hoping to make peace. 
 But Alexander had taken a vow that he 
 would not make peace as long 
 as there was a single foe on 
 Russian ground ; and he kept 
 the vow. 
 
 Napoleon saw only two 
 ways open to him : to keep his 
 troops starving and freezing in 
 the ruined city through a Rus- 
 sian winter or to go back to 
 France. To go on across the 
 
 7/.- 
 
 A Russian grenadier. 
 
124 Napoleon 
 
 great frozen plains of Russia in pursuit of 
 the enemy was utter folly. Anything was 
 better than to sit quietly by while the army 
 starved, and Napoleon ordered the retreat 
 toward France to begin. 
 
 In the retreat, as in the advance, the 
 dreaded Cossacks hindered the progress of 
 the French, while the days grew steadily 
 colder and colder. The climax was reached 
 at Smolensk, where Napoleon had ordered 
 that provisions and clothing should be 
 waiting for the destitute army. Starved 
 and half frozen, the soldiers had struggled 
 on with the hope of relief, only to find, on 
 reaching the city, that Napoleon's order 
 had not been obeyed, and that they must 
 take up their march again with no prospect 
 of relief. 
 
 It was too much for even these brave 
 men to endure. Angry, rebellious, and 
 disheartened, the army turned into a sullen 
 mob, and straggled back to France as best 
 it could, each man looking out for himself ; 
 discipline became a thing of the past. 
 When the Niemen was reached only about 
 
The Little Corsican 12^ 
 
 40,000 men were left of the glorious army 
 which had started out so full of hope and 
 strength but a few months before, and, 
 of this ghastly remnant, many had barely 
 strength enough to reach a place where 
 they could die in peace. 
 
 Never did the unconquerable will of 
 Napoleon show itself so clearly as in the 
 days following this terrible retreat. Self- 
 reliant, commanding, fearless, he returned 
 to Paris and almost immediately began his 
 preparations to enter Russia again in the 
 spring. To no one did he acknowledge 
 that he had been defeated; it was always 
 the Russians whose cities had been burned, 
 whose country had been laid waste. Once 
 only did he show that tmdemeath the bold 
 appearance there was a heart that was 
 bleeding for the noble men who had per- 
 ished so pitiably on the snow-covered fields 
 of Russia. He had been giving the legisla- 
 ture of France an account of his campaign, 
 calmly assuring them that while the victory 
 had been hardly won, yet won it had been. 
 Perhaps some vivid picture of the terrible 
 
126 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 suffering he had seen, perhaps the remem- 
 brance of the grand army he had led to an 
 ignominious death, came suddenly before 
 him, for all at once he stopped, then went 
 on huskily: 
 
 '' In a few nights everything changed. I 
 have suffered great losses. They would 
 have broken miy heart if I had been acces- 
 sible to any other feelings than the interest, 
 the glory, and the future of my people." 
 
 In spite of the stories that each day were 
 being brought back to the French people 
 by the straggling, ragged remnant of the 
 grand army, the Senate voted that Napo- 
 
 Russian peasants attacking stragglers from the French army in i}ie 
 disorganized retreat from Moscow. 
 
The Little Corsican T2y 
 
 leon should have a new army of 350,000 
 men, fully equipped, to meet the Russians. 
 In the meantime, x^lexander himself, with 
 his army, had crossed the Niemen and, 
 joined by England, Spain, Prussia, Sweden, 
 and Austria, prepared to defeat Napoleon. 
 A great terror of the Little Corporal had 
 taken hold of all these powerful nations. 
 It was not France they had combined 
 against, but it had been proved that not 
 one, or two, or three countries could outwit 
 or subdue Napoleon. So this great alli- 
 ance had been formed, with an army of 
 800,000 men, to crush one man, so great 
 was the fear and jealousy his power excited. 
 And they took the time when the grand 
 army of France was crushed by the ter- 
 rible Russian campaign to do this work. 
 
Chapter XI 
 Failure and Exile 
 
 IN the face of overwhelming difficulties 
 the first part of the year 1813 brought 
 victory to Napoleon and restored hope 
 to the French, while at the same time the 
 allies were seized with a fear that perhaps 
 the Little Corporal would triumph in spite 
 of them. But it was impossible that an 
 army of 350,000, even when commanded 
 by Napoleon, could long stand against 
 800,000. The end was hastened by the 
 desertion of many troops from the con- 
 quered states. Weakened by these losses, 
 and overwhelmed by the great armies sur- 
 rounding him. Napoleon lost by the end of 
 the year what he had gained at the first. 
 
 The end came at Leipsic, where a great 
 three days' battle was fought. The French 
 army was crushed, Germany was lost, and 
 Napoleon was forced to flee across the 
 Rhine. 
 
The Liiilc Cor si can J2g 
 
 France was now at the feet of the enemy. 
 The country which but a few years before 
 had "blossomed Hke the rose," now lay 
 desolate and barren. Men had gone out 
 from the homes of France in search of 
 glory and in defense of their country, only 
 to find death or to return as helpless crip- 
 ples. War in its awful greed had drained 
 the fair land, leaving starvation and death 
 where plenty had been. The crushed 
 people moaned and cried out from their 
 stricken homes that the hopeless, cruel 
 struggle might end. But even with all 
 Europe ready to march, upon French 
 ground, with a country back of him 
 urging him to peace, with many of his 
 brave generals insisting that defeat was 
 sure,. Napoleon would not agree to the 
 terms offered by the allied countries. 
 
 The struggle began again in January, 
 1 814. w^hen Napoleon marched out of Paris 
 at the head of 60,000 men, to meet an army 
 of nearly 600,000. For two months he 
 fought desperately and never more bril- 
 liantly. In spite of the great numbers 
 
IW 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 against him, in spite of disheartened gen- 
 erals and the hopeless terror and panic at 
 Paris, he very nearly drove the allies from 
 the country. But it was impossible, 
 hampered as he was, to make any lasting 
 impression on such great forces, ten times 
 the number of his faithful little army, and 
 the allies closed in steadily day after day 
 about the Little Corporal. 
 
 On the thirtieth of March Paris 
 surrendered, and the next day the 
 French greeted the allies as they 
 marched through the streets, with 
 cries of/' Long live the sovereigns ! 
 Long hve the Emperor Alexander !" 
 Napoleon, who had brought them 
 victory after victory, who had made 
 France one of the foremost coun- 
 tries in the world, who had spared 
 neither time, strength, nor energy 
 in defense of his people, was now 
 / deserted ; deserted by all except his army, 
 who, still faithful to their Little Corporal, 
 surrounded and protected him at Fontaine- 
 bleau, while all over France the soldiers 
 
 One of the Old 
 Guard. 
 
The Little Corsican iji 
 
 who were not already with their general 
 were making every effort to reach him. 
 
 But the men whom Napoleon had placed 
 in positions of trust in the government, and 
 in whom he had placed his greatest faith, 
 had for months been plotting and waiting 
 to rid themselves of the man whose power 
 the}^ envied and feared. The common 
 people, whom Napoleon, knowing that a 
 country's strength lay in this class, had 
 made the greatest efforts to win, were worn 
 out by the long struggle and cared for noth- 
 ing except peace. They were told that 
 peace could only come when Napoleon was 
 out of the country; that so long as their 
 fearless emperor, the man of iron will, of 
 undaunted perseverance, of boundless am- 
 bition, was in France he would fight and 
 his army with him. The common people 
 Hstened and believed. 
 
 It only remained to win the army. No- 
 where has Napoleon's attractive person- 
 ality shown itself more strongly than here. 
 The officers of his grand old army knew 
 that peace should have been made long 
 
IJ3 Napoleon 
 
 ago ; the welfare of the cotintry demanded 
 it, and the overwhelming forces of the 
 enemy made it folly to continue the 
 struggle. They knew that Napoleon had 
 been the cause, the sole cause, of the hope- 
 less war. Still had he not brought France, 
 and the army of France, through nights of 
 rebellion and great suffering to days of 
 prosperity and glory? Should they turn 
 against him now, when he stood alone? 
 Every method of persuasion was brought 
 to bear upon the faithful soldiers, but none 
 proved successful until they were told that 
 it was the will of their country that they 
 should lay down their arms. 
 
 Finally one of Napoleon's oldest and 
 most loyal generals deserted, and the army 
 gave up the contest. Fearless, full of faith 
 in himself and his army, Napoleon had kept 
 heart until now. But now, defeated, de- 
 serted by all in whom he had placed his 
 faith, surrounded by enemies, pushed to 
 the wall with every hand against him, he 
 lost courage and, sick at heart, attempted 
 to end his life. But the poison he took 
 
The Little Corsican 775 
 
 failed in its work ; even death turned from 
 him and left him to finish the struggle. 
 
 Alexander refused to treat for peace 
 with Napoleon or any of his family. The 
 last blow had fallen on the emperor. If 
 peace was to be made he would have to 
 give up the throne. On April 11, 18 14, 
 Napoleon signed the following document: 
 
 "The allied powers having proclaimed 
 that the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is 
 the only obstacle to the reestablishment of 
 peace in Europe, the Emperor Napoleon, 
 faithful to his oath, declares that he 
 renounces for himself and his heirs, the 
 throne of France and Italy, and that there 
 is no personal sacrifice, even that of his life, 
 which he is not ready to make in the inter- 
 est of France." 
 
 Even stripped of all power and support, 
 it was not considered safe by the allies and 
 the treacherous friends of Napoleon that 
 he should remain in France, and at last it 
 was decided that he should be sent to Elba, 
 a little island lying between Corsica and the 
 coast of Italy. After this decision was made 
 
 10 
 
^34 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 there remained nothing for Napoleon to do 
 but say farewell to his soldiers at Fontaine- 
 bleau. These men, still devoted to their 
 commander, but believing that they were 
 best serving their country by refusing to 
 support him in carrying on the war, were 
 overcome with emotion as Napoleon said : 
 
 
 ) I tl>: 
 
 After the paintmg by Horace Vernet 
 
 Napoleon bidding farewell to the Imperial Guard at Fontainebleau 
 April 20, 1814. 
 
 ''Farewell, my children! I would clasp 
 you all to my heart; let me at least kiss 
 your flag!" 
 
 One of his bravest generals sprang for- 
 
The Little Corsican ijj 
 
 ward at these words and embraced the 
 Little Corporal, while many veterans stood 
 with the tears running down their cheeks as 
 they thought of Lodi, of Marengo, of Aus- 
 terlitz ; of the man who had led them on 
 to victory and fame, sharing their discom- 
 forts, inspiring, loving, trusting, sympa- 
 thizing with them at all times and in all 
 places, and who now stood before them 
 ruined, deserted, exiled. 
 
 On the twentieth of April Napoleon left 
 Fontainebleau for Elba. He had been 
 appointed governor of the island, and no 
 sooner was his future home and work 
 decided upon than his gloomy mood disap- 
 peared. He immediately began planning 
 his new life with as much energy as he had 
 ever shown. If the people of France did not 
 want him, the people of his new country 
 did, and they received him with all the 
 honor the little island could show. Al- 
 though the welcome must have seemed 
 small and mean compared with the grand- 
 eur of his past receptions in France, Napo- 
 leon accepted it as heartily as it was given. 
 
136 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 It was not many days before the con- 
 queror of nations was apparently as deeply 
 absorbed in the affairs of Elba as he had 
 been in those of France. Never had the 
 little island thrived as it did under Napo- 
 leon's government. Improvements were 
 begun everywhere and carried on rapidly, 
 
 The villa at Porto Ferrajo. Napoleon's residence while at the 
 island of Elba. 
 
 with the new governor's attention given to 
 every detail. The people flocked to him 
 with their suggestions and petitions, and 
 he listened to them all, while he advised 
 and promised relief. The little army was 
 drilled and disciplined with as much care 
 as the grand army of France. 
 
The Little Corsican ii,J 
 
 If Napoleon felt the littleness of his king- 
 dom, if his life was a lonely one, he made 
 no sign; but throughout his stay at Elba 
 he kept stored away carefully a stock of 
 fireworks, awaiting the coming of his wife 
 and his little boy, the King of Rome, as he 
 was called ; they were never used, for his 
 wife and child never came. His mother 
 and sister Pauline came, however, and what 
 brought the greatest joy to the heart of 
 Napoleon was the company of twenty-six 
 members of his old National Guard, who 
 had left France to join their beloved 
 general. 
 
Chapter XII 
 A Hopeless Restoration 
 
 BUT while absorbed in his new country, 
 news had reached Napoleon of dis- 
 content at Paris. The restored 
 Bourbon king was not bringing the longed- 
 for happiness and prosperity to the French. 
 With the greatest secrecy Napoleon began 
 planning to go back to Paris — back to the 
 people who had turned against him, but 
 whose hearts he felt were still his. So 
 quietly did he make his preparations that 
 the French were unaware of his intention 
 until he landed at Cannes, on the southern 
 coast of France, March i, 1815. 
 
 Accompanied by only 800 of his vet- 
 erans who had been with him at Elba, 
 Napoleon began his march to Paris the 
 night after he landed. The very daring 
 and fearlessness that permitted the man, 
 deserted and exiled by them, to thrust 
 himself again in their midst, awakened all 
 
The Little Cor sic an - ijp 
 
 the old-time enthusiasm and admiration 
 of the French people for their emperor. 
 Such faith in their good will could meet 
 with but one response, and the whole 
 south of France threw itself at the feet of 
 Napoleon. Assured by their support the 
 emperor now scattered broadcast the pam- 
 phlets he had prepared to recall his arrrty : 
 
 'Xoixie and range yourself under the 
 standard of your chief; his existence is 
 composed of yours ; his interests, his hon- 
 ors, and his glory are yours. Victory will 
 march at double-quick time. The eagle 
 with the national colors will fly 
 from steeple to steeple to the 
 towers of Notre Dame. Then you 
 will be able to show your scars 
 with honor; then you will be able 
 to boast of what you have done; 
 you will be the liberators of 3^our country." 
 
 And they came. Man by man, com- 
 pany by company, regiment by regiment. 
 There was no withstanding the power, the 
 faith of their bold general. At one place 
 he found a battalion of his old soldiers 
 
140 Napoleon 
 
 drawn up to oppose him. A messenger 
 was sent to make terms with them. They 
 would not Hsten. Without hesitation Na- 
 poleon marched straight before them, and, 
 throwing up his hand, called • 
 
 "What, my friends; do you not know 
 me? I am your emperor; if there be a 
 soldier among you who will kill his emperor 
 he may do it. Here I am ! " 
 
 What aUvSwer could they make to the 
 general who had bivouacked with them 
 through summer and winter, who had 
 shared with them his very food that they 
 might not want? 
 
 *'Long live the emperor!" burst from 
 the throats of the loyal men, and, even as 
 they "shouted, out came, as if by magic, old 
 soiled cockades of the tricolor, Napoleon's 
 emblem. The white ones of the Bourbons 
 vanished and the loved knots took their 
 place. 
 
 Farther on a force was met whose gen- 
 eral had promised the Bourbons to * ' bring 
 back Napoleon in an iron cage." No 
 sooner did the old veteran see his former 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 141 
 
 leader than he broke from the head of the 
 lines, and rushing forward clasped Napo- 
 leon in his arms. 
 
 Napoleon had not counted too much on 
 the love of the French. Their hearts were 
 undoubtedly his and never had their devo- 
 tion been shown so freely as at this time, 
 when he came to them from exile and dis- 
 grace. It is no wonder that, when asked 
 what was the happiest period of his life as 
 emperor, he said: 
 
 "The march from Cannes to Paris." 
 So completely had he won the country, 
 that the Bourbons fled as he neared Paris, 
 and Napoleon reen- 
 tered that city amid 
 the greatest rejoicing. 
 But the one thing that 
 would have brought 
 Napoleon the deepest 
 joy, and toward which 
 he had been looking 
 the m.ost eagerly, was ^ 
 missing : that was the 
 restoration of Marie 
 
 An Imperial Trooper. 
 
142 Napoleon 
 
 Louise and the little King of Rome, who 
 were with the Austrians. The disappoint- 
 ment grew all the greater as the days 
 passed and the emperor found that his 
 wife had promised never to see him again. 
 
 It was not long before the opposing 
 party, which had been cowed into tempo- 
 rary subjection by the overwhelming 
 triumph of Napoleon's return, raised its 
 head again. At the same time the allies, 
 in spite of Napoleon's promise to abide 
 by the treaty of peace which had been 
 made wliile he was at Elba, gathered their 
 vast armies together and marched to crush 
 the man whose mere presence was enough 
 to draw army and people to his standard, 
 strong in their renewed allegiance. 
 
 In three months, Napoleon, with all his 
 old-time swiftness and in face of the great- 
 est difficulties, collected an army of 200,- 
 000 men. The allies had 500,000. Even 
 against such odds as these Napoleon held his 
 own for a time, but it could not last long. 
 
 The end came in June when the French 
 met a part of the enemy near Brussels. 
 
The Little Corsican 14 j 
 
 After two days of hard fighting Napoleon 
 reached Waterloo, where the great English 
 general, Wellington, was drawn up to 
 receive him. Napoleon, who had stood the 
 long, hard campaigns of previous years, 
 whose endurance was a wonder to all who 
 knew him, was worn out and not himself. 
 And for some reason the general who had 
 never before failed to know the exact loca- 
 tion of every part of the enemy's force, 
 was surprised by the strong reinforcements 
 the allies received when least expected. 
 
 With the superior numbers of the enemy 
 and with such unexpected weakness on the 
 part of their hitherto unconquerable com- 
 mander, there could be but one result for 
 the French. They were 'defeated, and so 
 completely that even Napoleon accepted 
 the bitter truth — his star had set forever. 
 
 " I ought to have died at Waterloo," he 
 afterward told a friend, "but the misfor- 
 tune is that wlien a man most seeks death 
 he cannot find it. Men were killed around 
 me, before, behind, everywhere ; but there 
 was no bullet for me." 
 
144 Napoleon 
 
 After the battle of Waterloo Napoleon 
 returned at once to Paris. He realized that 
 it was useless to continue the struggle. 
 There was continued plotting against him 
 in Paris, and the allies declared that so 
 long as Napoleon was emperor they would 
 not cease to wage war against the ex- 
 hausted country. Napoleon had already 
 given to the French the best years of his 
 life ; he had worked as no man ever worked 
 before or since for the improvement of 
 France, and had brought to his adopted 
 country more glory in his short reign of 
 ten years than any ruler in all French his- 
 tory. 
 
 There remained but one thing more for 
 hiin to do, if peace was to come to his people. 
 He must again step down from his throne, 
 and not only that, but he must leave 
 sunny France, his home, and his people 
 forever. He again signed the act of abdi- 
 cation and left Paris for Malmaison, which 
 had been Josephine's home. Here a few 
 friends helped him to plan for the future. 
 
 Napoleon soon discovered that he would 
 
The Little Corsican 14^ 
 
 not be allowed to remain in France, so 
 great was the fear of his influence. With 
 all the European nations leagued against 
 him, there remained but one country 
 toward which he could turn for a refuge. 
 That country was America. 
 
 As soon as it was known that he wished 
 to escape to the United States he received 
 numerous offers of help from Americans 
 who giseatly admired the brave Napoleon. 
 One plan was suggested by a rich merchant 
 by which Napoleon was to hide in a hogs- 
 head on board an American ship, and 
 remain there until well. out to sea. But 
 this arrangement could only include Napo- 
 leon ; his few faithful friends would be left 
 in France. To this he would not con- 
 sent and the plan was abandoned. 
 
 A few days after leaving Paris, Napoleon 
 tried to reach the French coast, hoping to 
 find there some American ship that would 
 carry himself and friends to the United 
 States, but he found the coavSt so guarded 
 by the English that he gave up all hope of 
 escape. 
 
146 Napoleon 
 
 Napoleon now determined on a course 
 which was characteristic of his fearless dis- 
 position: he would place himself in the 
 hands of his greatest enemy, England. As 
 soon as this resolve was made he wrote the 
 following note to the English ruler: 
 
 ' ' Royal Highness : Exposed to the 
 factions which divide my country and 
 to the hostility of the greatest powers 
 of Europe, I have closed my political 
 career. I have come like Theristocles, 
 to seek the hospitality of the British 
 nation. I place myself under the pro- 
 tection of their laws, which I claim 
 from your Royal Highness as the most 
 powerful, the most constant, and the 
 most generous of my enemies. 
 
 "Napoleon." 
 
 Napoleon once said, in speaking of 
 prisoners of war : 
 
 "It is atrocious to insult brave men to 
 whom the fate of arms has proved un- 
 favorable." 
 
 Believing in this principle, as he did, it 
 was not strange that Napoleon should trust 
 
The Little Cor'sican 
 
 H7 
 
 ]iimself to his greatest enemy. But Eng- 
 land proved most unworthy of the trust 
 and showed a want of generosity and 
 an ignobleness which can be explained in 
 only one way^the fear of Napoleon's 
 power and ambitions which had thrown 
 Europe into such suffering and danger 
 through his reign. 
 
 The Emperor left France on the English 
 ship "Bellerophon," the fifteenth of July, 
 and was taken to Plymouth, England. 
 No sooner had he reached that harbor 
 than all his ideas of British hospitality 
 were changed. The "Bellerophon;" was 
 immediately surrounded by armed ships, 
 every precaution was taken to prevent 
 escape, and Napoleon was treated as a 
 common prisoner, while the British dis- 
 cussed what should be done with him. 
 The man who had held all Europe at bay 
 for years, who had proved himself an 
 enemy worthy of the greatest respect, 
 was now in their power. And what had 
 brought him there? Surely not the care- 
 ful study, by night and by day, in the far 
 
14S Napoleon 
 
 away years at the school of Paris where 
 his miHtary soul had been shocked by the 
 neglect of duties which he saw there. 
 Neither can the cause be found in the long 
 struggle which marked his early life as a 
 soldier, when poverty at home led to sacri- 
 fice that brought on him hunger and 
 disease. Perseverance, hard work, and 
 genius brought him to success through 
 those months of suffering. With the 
 coming of that success, however, can be 
 seen his forge tfulness of other's troubles, 
 the development of an overpowering am- 
 bition, and the never-ceasing cry for new 
 conquests. Each country that fell beneath 
 his conquering army only added to his 
 desire for greater power. That desire 
 could be gratified in but one way — by 
 war whose deadly evil laid waste, the 
 countries of Europe, filled the homes of 
 all France with sorrow and want, and 
 finally aroused the mighty rulers of the 
 world to a knowledge of the peril which 
 Napoleon was pushing upon them. The 
 result was that the man who had brought 
 
The Little Corstcati i^g 
 
 fame and prosperity to France saw it 
 reduced to poverty and famine and pro- 
 strate before a conquering army, and him- 
 self, once the ruler of nations, a prisoner 
 of war with all his greatness in ruin behind 
 him. 
 
Chapter XIII 
 The Famous Prisoner of St. Helena 
 
 WHAT should they do with him? 
 Where could they place him so 
 that his influence and power would 
 be rendered useless ? Place after place was 
 discussed and at last St. Helena, an island 
 in the mid- Atlantic, over a thousand miles 
 distant from the coast of Africa, was 
 chosen. 
 
 On the thirtieth of July Napoleon re- 
 ceived a note telling him of the decision, 
 and that three people would be allowed to 
 accompany him. Humiliated and enraged 
 by the restrictions which were placed upon 
 his actions. Napoleon received this note 
 with the greatest indignation, but he was 
 helpless. Only one escape remained, and 
 that was death. For a short time he seri- 
 ously considered taking his life as the 
 easiest way to solve his difficulties. He 
 gave it up, however, saying: 
 
The Little Corsican iji 
 
 ''A man ought to live out his destiny; I 
 will fulfill mine." 
 
 Napoleon was only forty-six years old 
 when he landed on the rocky, b*arren island 
 where he was to pass the remainder of his 
 life. Longwood, his new home, was situ- 
 ated on a plain, i,8oo feet above the sea, 
 and was one 
 of the gloom- 
 iest, loneliest 
 spots on the 
 island. The' 
 house consist- 
 ed of only five 
 rooms when 
 Napoleon I 
 came, all built 
 
 on one floor From an etching by Chienon 
 
 1 . , -, , Longwood, Napoleon's residence at St. Helena. 
 
 and without 
 
 respect to comfort or convenience. It 
 had to be improved before the exiled em- 
 peror coul(i live in it, but even after weeks 
 of work had been put on it, the place 
 was anything but comfortable. There 
 were a few gumwood trees scattered -over 
 
1^2 Napoleon 
 
 the plain, but the greatest part of it was 
 without shade, exposed to the fierce heat 
 of the sun and cutting sea winds. 
 
 As soon as Napoleon took up his resi- 
 dence at Longwood, a guard was placed 
 at the entrance, 600 feet from the house, 
 and sentinels surrounded the grounds. 
 x\fter nine o'clock Napoleon was not al- 
 lowed to leave the house, and these 
 guards were drawn closer. Every landing 
 on the island was guarded, and sentinels 
 were placed on the goat paths which led to- 
 the sea. No foreign vessel was permitted 
 to anchor unless disabled or in great need, 
 and then no one of the crew or passengers 
 was allowed to come on shore. Even the 
 fishing boats of the island were numbered 
 and made to report their goings and com-, 
 ing, and two great British warships sailed 
 back and forth, back and forth, day after 
 day on either side of the little island. All 
 this was done to prevent the escape of one 
 man from an island which in itself was so 
 constructed by nature as to have made 
 such an escape next to impossible. 
 
The Little Corsican ijj 
 
 The governor of St. Helena, Sir Hudson 
 Lowe, was a man who took deUght in 
 humiliating those under him. With a 
 prisoner in his charge, who was feared and 
 dreaded by all Europe, this man forgot 
 the dignity of his office and treated Na- 
 poleon with a 
 petty tyranny 
 beyond the 
 comprehension 
 
 of all generous- ^^ Longwood, St. Helena, 1816, "Napoleon:* 
 
 hearted people. 
 
 Napoleon, enraged by the governor's 
 manner, took the greatest dislike to him 
 and refused to see him. This refusal was 
 a blow to the conceit of Sir Hudson Lowe, 
 and he never forgave Napoleon for it. He 
 increased the restrictions on the exiled 
 emperor's freedom until life was almost 
 unbearable. Not a letter or paper was 
 allowed to go into the hands of Napoleon 
 without having first been opened and 
 examined; all news of his wife and child 
 was kept from him ; even a small statue of 
 the little King: of Rome that had been sent 
 
1^4 Napoleon 
 
 his exiled father was kept for weeks before 
 Napoleon received it. At last the islanders 
 were forbidden to hold any communication 
 with the prisoner, and his physician was 
 called to account for talking about any- 
 thing except his patient's health. 
 
 So closely was Napoleon guarded on his 
 daily rides that he finally gave up going 
 out. His health, which had begun to 
 break before he left France, was now miser- 
 able, and the unhealthful, damp climate 
 and lack of exercise added greatly to his 
 suffering. But for a man who had led the 
 busy, active life that he had, the greatest 
 trouble to face in his new home was the lack 
 of employment. It was impossible for him 
 to be idle, and he resolutely began the 
 task of filling the long, empty days with 
 some occupation. He wrote essays on 
 Csesar, Turenne, and Frederick the Great ; 
 composed a clear, concise History of the 
 Republic of France; studied English and 
 related story after story of his past life to 
 his companions, who afterward wrote them 
 down- and prepared them for the public. 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 155 
 
 For five years and a half Napoleon 
 worked and suffered, each month, each 
 day increasing his weakness and bringing 
 the assurance that the death for which he 
 longed was not far distant. His sister 
 Eliza died late in the year 1820. Wh en the 
 news was brought to him he said : 
 
 "You see, EHza has just shown me the 
 way. Death, which had forgotten my 
 
 Dreaming and longing for home. Napoleon exiled at St. Helena 
 walking along the bluff with his gaze toward hts beloved France. 
 
156 
 
 Napoleon 
 
 family, has begun to strike it. , My time 
 cannot be far off." 
 
 The same courage, carefulness of detail, 
 and thoughtfulness for others that had 
 characterized Napoleon's life, marked his 
 preparations for death. For two weeks 
 before he died he was at work, whenever 
 
 his strength 
 would permit, 
 planning and 
 dictating his 
 wishes, so 
 that nothing 
 should be left 
 undone at the 
 last. All of 
 his personal 
 possessions at 
 
 The bed on which Napoleon died at St. Helena. St. Hclcna 
 
 were marked with the names of those who 
 were to have them when he should need 
 them no more. No one who had served him 
 or been his friend was forgotten. To the 
 soldiers of the grand army he left half of his 
 personal fortune, to be divided according 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 ^57 
 
 to their rank and service ; large amounts to 
 be used in improvements were left to differ- 
 ent provinces in France. Of the foreigners 
 who worked about Longwood he said: 
 
 "Do not let them be forgotten. See 
 that they get a few score of napoleons." 
 
 Surrounded by only the few faithful 
 friends who had shared his exile, sepa- 
 rated by thousands of miles from his home 
 and those of his own blood, the great man 
 died May 5, 182 1. They buried him near 
 
 The tomb of Napoleon beneath the trees at Si. Helena. 
 
 12 
 
1^8 Napoleon 
 
 a shaded spring in a valley of the lonely 
 island ; one of the few spots that he loved 
 in his exile home. 
 
 The sentinels could be withdrawn; the 
 fishing vessels could sail in and out as they 
 pleased ; the two great British men-of-war 
 could sail slowly back to England; the 
 European nations could draw a long breath 
 of relief; the grand old army of France 
 could weep — the Little Corporal was dead. 
 
Chapter XXIV 
 Conclusion 
 
 NINETEEN years had passed since the 
 death of Napoleon. It was a bitter 
 cold day in December, 1840, but 
 the streets of Paris had been packed since 
 early morning. For months the people 
 had been waiting for this day, and now, as 
 they watched, a brilliant group of guards 
 came down the street. They were greeted 
 with but little interest; infantry, cavalry, 
 artillery passed in the same manner ; then 
 came a magnificent horse and the great 
 crowd gave a wild cheer. The horse was 
 the counterpart of Marengo, Napoleon's 
 old battle horse. Following Marengo were 
 the great officers of France, and after them, 
 closing the three-mile procession, came 
 sixteen beautiful black horses drawing a 
 great funeral car. A wave of genuine emo- 
 tion, of grief and reverence, swept the multi- 
 tude. Napoleon had come back to his own. 
 
i6o Napoleon 
 
 Six months before the French Minister 
 of War had astonished the French Chamber 
 of Deputies by asking for an appropria- 
 tion to bring back the remains of Napo- 
 leon, and erect a tomb which should be 
 worthy of the general's greatness. Before 
 he could finish his speech the great build- 
 ing shook with applause. Every feeling 
 against tlie exiled emperor was swept away 
 by that enthusiastic cheer. The whole 
 gathering was again under the magic influ- 
 ence of Napoleon. For over an hour the 
 great lawmakers of France forgot all order, 
 and cheered, shouted, and talked excitedly. 
 When the news swept through the coun- 
 try, the people of France received it with 
 the same wild enthusiasm. Napoleon had 
 never been forgotten ; he had held his place 
 in the hearts of his people through all the 
 years. 
 
 A magnificent tomb had been erected in 
 the church of the Hotel des Invalides, and 
 a great multitude had crowded the vast 
 building all that December day, awaiting 
 the coming of the procession. It was two 
 
The Little Corsican 
 
 i6i 
 
 o'clock in the afternoon before the chanting 
 of the white-clad priests and choir boys 
 announced the arrival of the funeral car. 
 
 The permanent tomb in France. Interior of the Hotel des Invalides, 
 Parts, ivhcrc Napoleon was buried. 
 
i62 ~ Napoleon 
 
 The deepest silence held the multitude as 
 the king, Louis Philippe, stepped down 
 from his throne to meet the little group of 
 officials who stood before him with the 
 coffin of Napoleon. After a short cere- 
 mony the king took the sword of Austerlitz 
 which an official handed him and presented 
 it to one of Napoleon's old generals, saying: 
 
 " General, I commission you to place the 
 emperor's glorious sword on the bier." 
 
 Amid the silence, which was broken only 
 by the stifled sobs of some old gray-haired 
 soldiers who had fought under the Little 
 Corporal, the general placed the sword 
 reverently on Napoleon's coffin. Sur- 
 rounded with emblems of his past glory, 
 guarded by his old soldiers and the people 
 of his loved France, Napoleon slept at last 
 where he most wished to sleep, for he had 
 said when dying alone and in exile : 
 
 " Bury me on the banks of the Seine 
 among the people whom I so loved." 
 
A Chronology of the Life of 
 Napoleon Bonaparte 
 
 This table is reprinted in part, by permission, 
 from Ida M. Tarbell s ='The Life of Napoleon Bona- 
 parte," published by McClure, Phillips & Co., New 
 York. 
 
 AGE DATE EVENT 
 
 1769 August I J, Napoleon born at Ajaccio, 
 
 in Corsica. 
 9 1778 December 15, Napoleon embarks for 
 
 France with his father. 
 9 1779 January i, Napoleon enters the College 
 
 of Autun. 
 9 1779 -^pT^il 2j, Napoleon enters the Royal 
 
 Military vSchool of Brienne. 
 
 15 1784 October 2j, Napoleon enters the Royal 
 
 Military School of Paris. 
 
 16 1785 September i, Napoleon appointed Sec- 
 
 ond Lieutenant in the artillery Regi- 
 ment de la Fere. 
 
 16 1785 October 2g, Napoleon leaves the Military 
 
 School of Paris. 
 
 17 1787 February i to October 14, Napoleon on 
 
 leave to Corsica. 
 2 J 1 79 1 June 2, Napoleon joins the Fourth Regi- 
 ment of Artillery at Valence as First 
 Lieutenant. 
 XI 
 
XII Napoleon 
 
 AGE DATE EVENT 
 
 2 2 1 791 August JO, Napoleon starts for Corsica 
 
 on leave for three months; leaves 
 
 Corsica May 2, i'/'p2, for France, 
 
 ^ where he has been dismissed for 
 
 absence without leave. 
 
 23 1792 August JO, Napoleon reinstsLted. 
 
 23 1792 September 14 to June 11, lygj, Napoleon 
 
 in Corsica engaged in revolutionary 
 attempts; having declared against 
 Paoli, he and his family have to leave 
 Corsica. 
 
 24 1793 October g to December ig, Napoleon 
 
 placed in command of part of artil- 
 lery of army of Carteaux before 
 Toulon; Toulon taken December ig. 
 24 1793 February 16, Napoleon receives his 
 commission as General of Brigade. 
 
 24 1794 August 6 to August 20, Napoleon in 
 
 prison after fall of Robespierre. 
 
 25 1794 September 14 to March 2g, lygs, 
 
 Napoleon commanding artillery of 
 
 an intended maritime expedition to 
 Corsica. 
 
 25 1795 May 10, Napoleon arrives in Paris as 
 
 commander of artillery of the army 
 in La Vendee. 
 
 26 1795 October 5 (13th Vendemiaire, Jour des 
 
 Sections), Napoleon defends the Con- 
 vention from the revolt of the Sec- 
 tions. 
 26 1795 October 16, Napoleon appointed pro- 
 visionally General of Division. 
 
26 
 
 1796 
 
 26 
 
 1796 
 
 to 
 
 to 
 
 28 
 
 1797 
 
 The Little Corsican XIII 
 
 AGE DATE EVENT 
 
 26 1795 Octo&^r 2(^, Napoleon appointed General 
 of Division and Commander of the 
 Army of the Interior (Paris). 
 
 26 1796 March 2, Napoleon appointed Com- 
 mander - in - Chief of the Army of 
 Italy. 
 
 26 1796 March g, Marries Josephine Tascher de 
 la Pagerie. 
 March 11, Leaves Paris for Ital3^ 
 First Italian campaign of Napoleon 
 against the Austrians and Sardini- 
 ans. Battles: Montenotte, Millesimo, 
 Dego, Mondovi, Lodi, Mantua, Lo- 
 nato, Castiglione, Wurmser, Areola, 
 etc.; Treaty of Campo Formio be- 
 tween France and Austria, October 
 17, 1797. 
 
 28 1798 Egyptian expedition. Napoleon takes 
 Malta, Alexandria, and Cairo. Battles 
 of the Pyramids, Nile, and Acre, etc. 
 
 30 1799 Napoleon returns from Egypt, landing 
 in Frejus October 6. 
 
 30 1799 A^ot^^w^^rp, Napoleon seizes the govern- 
 ment of France. 
 
 30 1799 December 25, Napoleon made First 
 Consul. 
 May and June, Marengo campaign. 
 December 24, Attempted assassination 
 
 of Napoleon by infernal machine. 
 July 75, Concordat with Rome. 
 January 26, Napoleon yice- President 
 of the Italian Republic. 
 
 30 
 
 1800 
 
 31 
 
 1800 
 
 31 
 
 I80I 
 
 32 
 
 1802 
 
36 
 
 i8o5 
 
 36 
 
 1805 
 
 36 
 
 1805 
 
 XIV Napoleon 
 
 AGE DATE EVENT 
 
 32 1802 Marcli 27, Treaty of Amiens between 
 France and England. 
 
 32 1802 August 4, Napoleon made First Consul 
 
 for life. 
 7,7, 1803 War between France and England. 
 
 33 1803 March 5, Civil Code (later, Code 
 
 Napoleon) decreed. 
 34-5 1804 May 18, Napoleon made Emperor of 
 
 France; crowned December 2. 
 Ulm campaign. 
 October 21, Battle of Trafalgar. 
 December 2, Defeated Russians and 
 
 Austrians at Austerlitz. 
 
 36 1806 July I, Confederation of the Rhine 
 
 formed, with Napoleon as the pro- 
 tector. 
 
 37 1807 Jena campaign with Prussia; battle of 
 
 Friedland June 14. 
 
 July 7, Treaty of Tilsit. 
 
 War with Spain. 
 
 War with Austria. Battle of Wagram, 
 July 6. 
 
 October 14, Treaty of Vienna. 
 
 December ij, Josephine divorced. 
 
 April I, Marriage of Napoleon to Marie 
 Louise, aged 18 years 3 months. 
 41 1810 December ij, Hanseatic towns and all 
 northern coast of Germany annexed 
 to the French Empire. 
 41 181 1 March 20, King of Rome, son of Napo- 
 leon, born. 
 
 37 
 
 1807 
 
 39 
 
 1808 
 
 39 
 
 1809 
 
 40 
 
 i8og 
 
 40 
 
 i8og 
 
 40 
 
 1810 
 
The Little Corsican XV 
 
 42-3 181 2 War with Russia; battle of Moskwa or 
 Borodino; Napoleon enters Moscow 
 September ij; retreats October ig. 
 
 43-4 1813 Leipsic campaign against the Russians 
 and Prussians; battles: Lutzen and 
 Bautzen; Austria joins the allies; 
 battle of Dresden; October ig, Napo- 
 leon is defeated at Leipsic. 
 
 44 18 14 Allies invade France; battles of Montmi- 
 rail, Craon, etc.; Paris falls March jo. 
 
 44 1 8 14 April 2, The French vSenate dethrones 
 
 Napoleon; April 6, Napoleon abdi- 
 cates unconditionally; signs the 
 treaty giving him Elba for life; April 
 20, Napoleon takes leave of the 
 Guard at Fontainebleau; May j, 
 Louis XVIIL enters Paris; Alay 4, 
 Napoleon lands at Elba. 
 
 45 181 5 February 26, Napoleon leaves Elba for 
 
 France; March i, lands at Cannes; 
 
 March ig, Louis XVIIL leaves Paris; 
 
 March 20, Napoleon enters Paris. 
 45 18 1 5 June 16, Battle of Ligny and Quatre 
 
 Bras; Jtine 18, battle of Waterloo. 
 45-6 181 5 July 75, Napoleon surrenders to the 
 
 English; August 8, sails for St. Helena ; 
 
 October 15, arrives at St. Helena. 
 5iyrsi82i Alay j, Napoleon dies, 5.45 p. m.; May 
 8 mos. 8, buried at St. Helena. 
 
 1840 October ij, Body of Napoleon taken to 
 
 France ; December ifi, buried in Hotel 
 
 des Invalides. 
 
A Reading List 
 
 BouRRiENNE, M. Fauvelt de. Memoirs of Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte. (4 Vols.) New York: Charles 
 Scribner's Sons. i 
 
 Fremaux, p. With Napoleon at St. Helena. Trans- 
 lated by Edith S. Stokoe. New York: John 
 Lane 
 
 GiBBS, Montgomery B. Military Career of Napo-^ 
 leon. Akron, O. : Saalfield Publishing Co 
 
 Hazlitt. Life of Napoleon. Philadelphia: J. B. 
 Lippincott & Co. 
 
 Headly, J, T. Napoleon and his Marshals. New 
 York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
 JuNOT, Madame. Memoirs of Napoleon. New York: 
 Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
 Morris, Wm. O. C. The French Revolution and 
 First Empire. (Epochs of Modern History.) 
 
 Morris Wm. O. C. Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler. 
 (Epochs of Modern History.) 
 
 Roseberry, Lord. Napoleon, The Last Phase. 
 New York: Harper & Brothers. 
 
 Sloane, W. M. Napoleon Bonaparte. (4 Vols.) 
 New York: The Century Co. 
 
 Tare ell, Ida M. A Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 New York: McClure, Phillips & Co. 
 
 Tolstoi, Count Leo M. Napoleon's Russian Cam- 
 paign, Power and Liberty, and Long Exile. 
 New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co. 
 XVI 
 
OCT 20 »9oe 
 
<e