Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/544

NAP Italian mainland. The Ajaccio Bonapartes seem to have settled there early in the seventeenth century, to have borne titles of nobility, and to have taken, for generations, a part in the civic administration of the Corsican capital. Napoleon was the second son of Carlo Bonaparte, the earliest of the family to distinguish himself in the political history of the island. Born when the Corsicans were struggling to throw off the yoke of Genoa, Carlo Bonaparte studied law and became the most popular advocate of Ajaccio. He attracted the notice of Paoli (q. v.), who made him his secretary, and in 1764 he married the mother of Napoleon, Letizia Ramolino, the most beautiful girl in Ajaccio. On the annexation of Corsica to France, Carlo was appointed an assessor in the supreme court of Ajaccio, and Count Marbœuf, the French governor of Corsica, became an intimate friend of the Bonaparte family. It was through Marbœuf's influence that, at the age of eleven, Napoleon was sent as a king's pensioner to the French military school of Brienne. Up to this period, according to his own account, he had been a turbulent, troublesome little boy, bullying his elder brother Joseph into subjection. His French schoolfellows of Brienne laughed at and at first tormented the new-comer with his Corsican patois, but such treatment of him was not of long duration. The young Corsican began to feel stirring within him the instinct of ambition and of intellectual curiosity. He applied himself to study; he became the chief mathematician of a school where mathematics ranked high in the curriculum, and in his hours of leisure he read largely in history and poetry. It was with a character for obedience and conduct, as well as for knowledge of mathematics, that at fifteen Napoleon left Brienne to enter as a cadet the military school of Paris. He remained there eleven months, in the course of which the death of his father, aggravating the otherwise serious embarrassments of his family, did not contribute to mitigate what from the turbulence of childhood had become the passion-veiling sternness of early youth. He left the school of Paris after an examination in mathematics by Laplace, to join the regiment of La Ferè, in which he had been appointed second lieutenant, and which was then in garrison at Valence. For the next four years, during which (September, 1787) Napoleon was promoted to be a first lieutenant he alternated his residence between the stations of his regiments and Ajaccio, where he visited his family and brooded over the wrongs and extinct nationality of Corsica. He read more widely than ever; Ossian and Göthe's Werther being among his favourite books He began to write, entering the lists unsuccessfully as competitor for a prize offered by the Academy of Lyons, for the best essay on the thesis;—"What are the principles and the sentiments which it is most important to inculcate on men for their happiness?" Napoleon's essay apparently is lost He wrote, too, a patriotic memoir, and a somewhat elaborate history of Corsica. The French revolution of 1789 arrived, and with it, or after it, Corsica, like France, was in a ferment; and Paoli returned to his native soil from his self-exile in England. It was to Corsica and distinction there, that the ardent and long-compressed soul of the young Napoleon first turned. In 1790 during one of his frequent visits to Corsica, on leave of absence from his regiment, he threw himself into the democratic movement of the island, and succeeded, after a fierce contest, in being chosen second in command of one of the two battalions to be raised in Corsica. He was then a devoted adherent of Paoli, who had accepted the supremacy of France, and given in his adhesion to the revolution. In the spring of 1791 Napoleon was appointed first-lieutenant of the 4th regiment of artillery, which he joined at Valence, and among his fellow-officers—most of them attached to the old régime—he distinguished himself by his republican fervour. In spite of this, when after, in 1792, receiving his captaincy he visited Paris, and was an eye-witness of the attack on the Tuilleries (10th August) which gave the death-blow to the French monarchy, the instincts of the soldier and the queller of anarchy overcame those of the republican; he vented his indignation to Bourrienne at the want of a few rounds of grape to repel the assailants of royalty. Returning to Corsica he found Paoli growing dissatisfied with the new state of things in France, while he for his part saw no chance for himself but in siding with the extreme republicans. A few months more and Napoleon was leading the ultra-democrats of Corsica against the Paolists, who wished for the independence of Corsica and looked for support rather to England than to France. Napoleon and his party lost the day, and the whole Bonaparte family sought refuge in France, with which, losing all special interest in Corsica, he thenceforth identified himself In the later Corsican struggle against the Paolists he had gained the esteem of some of the ultra-revolutionary members of the convention, and the younger Robespierre among them had both the wish and the power to aid him. Napoleon quitted Corsica in the March of 1793. In the late summer of the same year he received the appointment of commander of artillery in the army of the south, that of General Cartaux, employed to repress the Girondin revolt against the Reign of Terror. Marseilles taken, Cartaux and Napoleon proceeded to aid in the siege of Toulon, which had admitted the English. So early as the 25th of October, 1793, we find Napoleon as "commander of the artillery of the army of the south," addressing, direct, the committee of public safety with a scheme for the capture of Toulon, and the expulsion of the English. It was not adopted for a month by Dugommier, the general-in-chief, but when it was adopted and carried out by Napoleon himself it was completely successful. On the 19th of December, 1793, the English evacuated Toulon—the first of Napoleon's successes, and the beginning of all his greatness. His immediate reward was his appointment to be a general of brigade. He was next employed to inspect the defences of the Mediterranean coast, and then proceeded to Nice, the headquarters of the army of Italy, to command the artillery. His obscure activity here was fruitful afterwards, for he detected the weak points of the defences of Genoa and Piedmont. But it was cut short by the fall of Robespierre, 27th July, 1794, with whose brother he was allied, and with whose party he was considered identified. Deprived of his command he returned to Paris and languished there for a year in comparative inaction and ill-health, cheered only by the kind glances of Josephine Beauharnais (q.v.). His hour, however, was at hand. The convention, obeying the antiterrorist reaction, proposed a new constitution, with a directory, two chambers, and a money qualification for electors. Against this scheme democratic Paris rose once more in insurrection on the 3d October, 1795. The convention's general, Menou, failed to repress the movement, and Barras was appointed commandant of the troops. He had known Napoleon in the south, and Napoleon was made his second in command, but precisely why, or how, is uncertain. The plan of operations against the insurgents was drawn up and executed by Napoleon alone. At once decisive measures were taken; artillery was sent for, and next day employed without hesitation. The insurrection was quelled. A fortnight afterwards Napoleon was appointed general-in-chief of the army of the interior. The government of the directory was installed. On the 22d February, 1796 (at the instance of Carnot), Napoleon was appointed general-in-chief of the army of Italy. On t he 9th of March he married Josephine; on the 20th of the same month he arrived at Nice, and on the 27th he issued the celebrated proclamation which began—"Soldiers, you are naked, badly fed; the government owes you a great deal; it can give you nothing." It ended—"I wish to lead you to the most fertile plains in the world. Rich provinces, great cities will be in your power; there you will find honour, glory, wealth. Soldiers of Italy, can you fail in courage or constancy?" Napoleon kept his word. He had only some thirty-two thousand men fit for service to oppose to nearly as many Piedmontese, and nearly twice as many Austrians, under Beaulieu. Manœuvring so as to concentrate his whole strength upon one point of the opposing force, he attacked and defeated the enemy's centre at Montenotte (12th April, 1796), gaining new victories at Millesimo (14th), and at Dego (15th). On the 21st the Piedmontese were completely beaten at Mondovi, and the court of Turin had to ask for an armistice ending in a separate treaty with France, which placed Piedmont at her mercy. At the terrible passage of the bridge of Lodi (10th May), the Austrians were defeated with important results, for Beaulieu had to retreat behind the Adige. On the 15th, master of Lombardy, Napoleon entered Milan in triumph, and now began to deal with the directory less as a servant than as an equal. Having dictated a treaty to the king of Naples, and levied heavy contributions on the pope and the minor Italian princes. Napoleon turned to front the new Austrian army under Wurmser, which was advancing to relieve Mantua, blockaded by the French. One division of the Austrians was defeated at Lonato (3d August), and Wurmser himself at Castiglione on the 5th. The reinforced Austrian army was again defeated at