Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/279

Rh son Eugène to ask him to secure for him the sword of his father who had been put to death during the. But whether the story is true or not, certainly Napoleon always has the greatest affection for Eugène and his sister Hortense. Napoleon's family are now in Paris. They share equally in the prosperity that has come to him. He lavishes on his mother all that she will accept. It pains him that neither she nor his brothers and sisters are pleased with his marriage.

Two days after the wedding, Napoleon leaves Josephine to cross the Apennines as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy. We see the Italians running before those whom they had contemptuously called the "rag heroes." The French win victory after victory. Areola, Lodi, Milan—eighteen pitched battles, forty-seven smaller engagements. Everywhere Napoleon is the idol, not only of his own soldiers, but of a large number of Italians, who hope through him to gain political liberty.

When, after the Treaty of Campo Formio, Napoleon returns to Paris in December, 1797, France is at his feet, rejoicing in the glory