Page:Life of Napoleon Buonaparte.pdf/3

 humanely extended to his widow and family. Under this patronage Napoleon was early sent to France and placed at the military school of Brienne, and thence in 1784 removed to that of Paris, in quality of king's scholar. Here he distinguished himself by his strong desire to excel in the mathematics and military exercises; and began to exhibit some of the strong qualities for which he was a subsequently so remarkable. Studious and reserved, he mixed but little in the sports of his fellow-students, and exhibited that taste for ancient ideas of greatness, and for the Spartan pith and brevity which afterwards, with a dexterous adaptation to the French character, shone so conspicuously in his speeches and bulletins. His propensity to mathematical studies, as connected with the art military, is supposed to have operated against much philological attainment or attention to the belles lettres; but he very honourably passed his examination preparatory to being admitted into the artillery, of which he was appointed a second lieutenant in 1785. After serving a short time, he quitted his regiment and retired to Corsica, but returning to Paris in 1790, he became a captain in 1791; and at the siege of Toulon in 1793, having the command of the artillery, his great soldierly abilities began to develop themselves. He was soon after made general of brigade, and it was to his plans that the republic was indebted for the first successes which it obtained on the Italian frontier. At length, supported by the patronage of Barras, he was appointed to command the conventional troops at Paris, with which he defeated those of the sections in the memorable struggle of the 5th October, 1794. His influence and the impression produced by his character and abilities continually increasing, at the desire of the officers