ment of volumes. Most of these during his stay at Valence, he read over and over, pushing his studies beyond the limits of his profession and the taste of his class, into the distant regions of ecclesiastical history and papal government. Even from this irregular reading he appears to have gleaned a fund of sound and applicable knowledge. At the age of eighteen he became a competitor for literary honours. The academy of Lyons offered a prize for the best essay on the following question by the Abbé Raynal: "What are the principles and institutions, the application of which is most conducive to the happiness of society?" A subject so abstract and comprehensive, it required boldness to undertake, and ability to manage. Bonaparte it seems, though but a strip

ling, was deficient in neither prerequisite, and his anonymous Wom essay not only gained the academical prize, but general applause. Cast in a liberal political mould, it coincided with the literary spirit and popular feeling of the time, and to that circumstance doubtless, owed in some degree its success. But there was a force of logic, and an energy of feeling and expression in the essay, which under any circumstances must have been admired. The upward progress of its author, soon left this small title to credit beneath him. When however he had risen high in the firmament of power and glory, it was retrieved by the officious flattery of Talleyrand. The Emperor, with a fastidiousness proper to his elevation, and common to men of great genius, saw, in his juvenile essay, nothing but its imperfections, and threw it into the fire. A copy, it seems, had been taken by his brother Louis, and the essay is now in print.

About this time too, actuated by a noble veneration for the place of his birth and the land of his fathers, he undertook to compose a history of Corsica. He made some progress in the work, which, with a proper feeling of respect, he dedicated to the Abbé Raynal. But though thus early and strongly inclined to authorship, the disposition appears to have proceeded more from the abundance of his resources, and the creative ardour of his mind, than from a predilection for pursuits so meditative. His essay towards a history of Corsica was read and commended by the Abbé Raynal, who in vain advised its publication. The production itself is lost, but the familiarity which its preparation had given its author with the subject, no doubt furnished his retentive memory with the materials out of which was constructed

VOL. I.

2

the clear and succinct account of Corsica, which he dictated at St. Helena.

In consequence of popular disturbances at Lyons, in the year 1788, his regiment was ordered to that city. From Lyons it was transferred to Auxonne, and it was while there that he was near being drowned in the Saône. In swimming, he was seized with the cramp, and sunk so suddenly, that his companions thought he was diving. After struggling some time he lost his recollection, and drifted to a distance by the current, was lodged on a sand bank. Here his comrades, after giving him up as lost, recovered him before it was too late.

In 1790, while he was stationed at Auxonne, the Prince of Condé announced his intention of inspecting the school of artillery at that place. The name, as well as the rank of this personage, rendered his visit an important occasion for the garrison. The Commandant therefore, determined to place the most accomplished, instead of the eldest, officer, at the head of the battery, and Bonaparte was of course the officer selected. His comrades, to revenge their being postponed to him, secretly spiked his guns the night before the review. But the military glance of the future conqueror, was already too quick and pervasive to be surprised. Before the prince came upon the ground, he had detected and frustrated the scheme, and, at the appointed hour, was in full readiness to receive him.

Little could the prince have foreseen that in the youth before him stood the chief, who was to eclipse the renown of his name, and to shorten its succession.

The young officers of the garrison, who were élèves of the royal seminaries, were associated in the exercises of the school at Auxonne. A mathematical problem of great difficulty having been proposed for their study, Bonaparte, in order to accomplish its solution, confined himself to his chamber seventy-two hours without intermission. His power of application, in truth, seems to have been as remarkable as his genius.

It was during his residence at Auxonne, that he wrote and published his letter to Buttafoco, the Corsican deputy of the nobles in the national assembly. Besides force of invective and reasoning, this letter exhibits a patriotic spirit, and a sense of popular rights, which must have removed all doubt as to the political inclination of the author, with regard to the revolution. It concludes with

an apostrophe to the great patriots and orators of the assembly, which would alone be sufficient to show that, like Cæsar, had Bonaparte cultivated rhetoric, he would have rivalled the greatest masters of eloquence. The effect of this letter was equal to its intrinsic excellence, and greater than any expectation which the age or station of its author could have excited. It was adopted and republished by the patriotic society of Ajaccio, who, under its influence, passed a resolution, attaching the epithet infamous, to the name of their noble deputy. About this period, he was in treaty with M. Joly, a bookseller of the neighbouring town of Dôle, for the publication of his history of Corsica. But, partly from diffidence, and partly from the indecision occasioned by his approaching transfer to another regiment, he seems to have dropped the project, without putting the last hand to his work, or completing the agreement.

The office of chaplain having been abolished by the government, the clerical ornaments and sacred implements of the regiment, were deposited in Bonaparte's care at Auxonne. He showed them to M. Joly, and expressing himself respectfully with regard to religious observances, said: "If you have never heard Mass I can repeat it to you." The functions of his uncle and his mother's example had made him, from his childhood, familiar with the forms of the Catholic church.

That course of protection, which he extended so liberally and so constantly, to the members of his family, he seems to have commenced when a simple lieutenant. At Auxonne, his brother Louis, then but ten years of age, was under his care and instruction, shared his meals, and occupied a room in his quarters (1). It was by his care that Louis received the religious information necessary for a communicant, and by his exhortations, that he took the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; conduct on the part of Napoleon, which was not only kind and considerate as a brother, but affectionate and respectful as a son. In consequence of his promotion to a first lieutenancy in the regiment of Grenoble, or the 4th artillery, he left Auxonne in 1790, and returned to his old station of Valence, where the regiment of Grenoble was quartered. Here he became acquainted with young d'Hedouville who was an officer in that regiment. They were in the same mess, and sat beside each other at table. Among their rules was one imposing a fine on any member who,

at meals, should introduce a professional subject. Bonaparte's fondness for his profession made him, it was observed, the most frequent infractor, and a constant victim of this rule (2).

Attended by his friend and comrade Desmazzis he made an excursion from Valence into Burgundy as far as Mont Cenis, a town, famous for its manufacture of chrystal. On his way, he stopped at Nuits and was invited to sup with Gassendi, a captain of his regiment, who had married the daughter of a physician residing there. Gassendi was a royalist, his father-inlaw a patriot. Their opposition was displayed by a warm discussion at supper, in which Bonaparte's superior intelligence and logic were so efficient on the side of the doctor, that he visited his guest next morning in his chamber, and thanked him in flattering terms for his interposition. The eloquence and patriotism of the young officer, became the subject of conversation in the town. It was Sunday, and when he walked out, the people in the streets pulled off their hats to him as the champion of their cause. But the triumph of the morning was overcast at night. He was invited to pass the evening at the house of Madam Mery, a lady of wealth and fashion, who entertained all the aristocracy of the district. Here having expressed some of his opinions, they were assailed and reprobated with the utmost violence. He attempted a war of words, but overpowered by noise and numbers, was able to extricate himself only by the assistance of his hostess, who gracefully parried the blows which he could not resist. This incident, though it mortified him for the moment, contributed still farther to connect his name and feelings with the cause of the people. Of this trip, in which his curiosity and friendship were both gratified, and which appears to have been the last as well as the first he ever performed from mere motives of pleasure, his recollection was so agreeable, that he conceived for the moment an idea of writing a description of it after the manner of Sterne, and spoke of it in after life with peculiar complacency, calling it his sentimental journey.

Though reflective in the general bent of his mind, it would seem that, when under the influence of professional duties and pleasing recreations, the shade of early mortification having passed away from his temper, he was become companionable and cheerful. His success in society at Valence, has been mentioned already,

and, at St. Helena, he himself recorded various little anecdotes, indicative of the sportive disposition of his youth. As a sample of these anecdotes, this may be repeated. An octogenary general undertook to exercise the young officers in gunnery, and was very intent on tracing the balls with his spy-glass. Bonaparte persuaded the young men to fire blank cartridges. The veteran could not of course discover where the balls struck, and reproached the wags with taking very wide aim. Their amusement consisted more in fun than in wit; in witnessing the general's eagerness in looking out for balls which were not fired, and asking the bystanders where they struck. After five or six rounds, he suspected the trick and ordered the balls to be counted. He laughed heartily at the joke, but notwithstanding, had its prepetrators put under a momentary arrest. This veteran was General Duthiel, for whose memory, evidence of respect and a title to honour are found in Napoleon's will.

The revolution was now decisively in progress, and the political dissensions by which it eventually distracted the nation, were making their way into the army. The soldiers, having the soundest feelings, were first affected by the patriotic spirit. Gradually it spread from them to the officers, and after the famous and comprehensive oath of allegiance to the nation, the law, and the king" was prescribed by the national assembly, officers of superior rank and aristocratic connections, espoused the popular side of the question. Bonaparte who had given early and frequent evidence of this disposition, and who was confirmed in it by the promulgation of the oath, acquired in addition to the authority conferred by professional talent, the influence arising from political sympathy with the men. In consequence, he and his adherents were able to manage the corps, although a preponderance of officers in rank if not in number was against them. This control he exercised with generosity, and rescued from a military mob an officer who had excited the fury of the soldiers, by singing, at the window of the mess-room, the famous royalist song, "Oh Richard, Oh my King!" a song, which was one day to be proscribed on his account. Thus, though deeply imbued with the liberal principles by which the revolutionary party was actuated, he was not tainted by their cruelty, nor even their intolerance. Indeed in reference to the motives of the opposite parties, he made subsequently this sound and just remark; "Had I been a general officer, I might