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* NAPO. 235 NAPOLEON I. forpstcovcrc'il plain, almost unexplored, and spaisi'lv inliahiti'd b_v savayos. The Napo is navigable for steamers nearly 400 miles, but the natural wealth of the region, including gold, sar- saparilla, and rubber, is but little exploited. NAPO'LEON. A village and the county-seat of Henry County, Ohio, 35 miles southwest of Toledo; on the ilaumee- River, the Miami and Erie Canal, and the Wabash and Detroit and Lima Nortlicrn railroads (Map: Ohio, B 3). It is of some importance as an industrial centre, its chief manufactured product being flour. The water-works and electric-light plant are owned bv the numicipalitv. Population, in 1890, 2764; in 1900, 3639. NAPOLEON I., Fr. pron. na'po'lii'oN' ( Napo- leon Bonajiarte) (1769-1821). Emperor of the French, born at Ajaccio, on the island of Corsica, August 1.5, 1709. The family of Buonaparte (as the name was spelled until 1796) was of Tuscan origin, but had been settled in Corsica since 1529. The parents of tile future Emperor were Carlo Maria de Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, a descendant of a good Florentine family. Napo- leon was the fourth child and the second son. After a few months spent in learning French in a school at Autun, he entered the military school at Brienne on April 23, 1779, and there remained until he was transferred to the great military school in Paris in Septend)er. 1784. Just a year later he received his commission as second lieu- tenant in La F&re Regiment of Artillery, which was stationed at Valence. He served with this regiment until 1791, but passed the greater part of his time (1786-88 and 1789-91) on furlough in Corsica, where he took part in the patriotic movement under Paoli. He was in Paris during the events of August 10. 1702, when the mob of Paris attacked the Tuileries, and on August 30th attained the rank of captain in the army. He returned to Corsica, but this time he had a falling out with Paoli and identified him- self with the French Revolutionary Party on the island. The defeat of this party compelled Napoleon and the other members of his family to escape and take refuge in France in June. 1703. As yet Napoleon had shown little indica-' tion of his genius and of the mighty career he was destined to lead. Self-contained and gloomy, he had made scarcely any friends except Bour- rienne. He had mastered his profession of arms, had sliown a capacity for intrigue, and had learned to rely up<m himself. In his long leisure hours he had devoted himself faithfully to books of a solid character. He was in the beginning an enthusiastic admirer of Rousseau, and his earliest writings, which date from the Valence period, reveal an amount of sentiment that is strangely unlike the man who later squandered hnnian lives l)y flic himdred thousand in order to gratify his ambilion. Buonaparte rejoined his regiment in Soithern France, participated in the occupation of Marseilles by the Revolutionary forces, and then nuirched to Toulon to take part in the siege of that town. As chef de hntnillon in the .Second Regiment of Artillery he was prac- tically in charge of the artillery during the siege operations, and won for himself golden opinions I from the commissioners of the Convention with I the army. One of these commissioners was Robespierre's younger brother, .ugustin. whose I intimate friend and confirlant Buonaparte now j became. His conduct at Toulon won him promo- V'OL. XIV.— 16. tion to the rank of general of brigade, but his relations with the younger Robespierre and his outspoken Jacobinism caused his imprisonment after the coup of the 9th Thcrmidor. An old Cor- sican acquaintance, Saliceti, was one of the com- missioners of the Convention in the south of France at this moment and intervened on behalf of the young artillery ollicer. Marmont, who was in position to help Buonaparte at this time, said that he did so because he saw "there was so much future in his mind." He was released on August 20. 1794. and after further misfortunes he turned up in Paris, where he found temporary einplo nent in the topographical bureau. The Convention was now drawing to a close, but was forced to face one more insurrection, one antagonistic to the new Constitution of the Year III. (See French Revolution.) The work of defending the Convention was intrusted to Barras (q.v.). who .selected as his second in command Bumuiparte, whom he had seen at Toulon, and whom he now found in Paris half fed and shabbily clothed, awaiting the next turn of the wheel of fortune. "From the first," says Thiebault, "his activity was astonishing; he seemed to be eveiywhere at once: he surprised people by his laconic, clear, and prompt orders: everybody was struck by the vigor of his arrange- ments, and passed from admiration to confidence, and from confidence to enthusiasm." With the 'whifT of grape shot' he swept the Parisian mob from the streets on the 13th Vend^miaire (Octo- ber 5, 1795). The Convention came to an end, the Directory took its place with Barras as one of the Directors, and Buonaparte .succeeded Barras as commander of the Army of the Interior. Barras welcomed the young hero of the hour to his salon, where the grace of person and charm of manner of a young Creole widow, .Josephine de Beauharnais, aroused in Buonaparte passionate admiration and love. Despite a disparity of six years in their ages, the influence of Barras brought about a marriage on March 9, 1796. Meanwhile the favor of another Director had brought to Buonaparte a nuich more important command in the army. Buonaparte had visited the Genoese Riviera in 1794. and at the Topo- graphical Bureau he had taken the opportunity to prepare a plan of campaign in Northern Italy, which he now ]jerfected and presented to Carnot (q.v.), who admired it and ordered its execution. Scherer, the general of the Army of Italy, replied that if the Directors wanted the plan carried out they could send dowTi the man who devised it to do it. He was taken at his word : Buonaparte was a|ipointed to the com- mand, and left Paris two days after his marriage, arriving at Nice in March. 1796. At this moment, after the treaties of Basel, France was still at war with England. Austria, and Sardinia. England was no longer a factor in the military situation on the Continent: Aus- tria had been attacked only in Southern Ger- many, while on the Italian frontier France had done nothing except to make intermittent attacks on Sardinian territory. Italy was made up of patches of Austri;in territory an<l of petty States inder Austrian influence, which offered a rich spoil for the conqueror. The main body of the Austro-Sardinian army was at IMontenotte. oc- cupying the pass between the ilaritime Alps and the Apennines at the headwaters of the Bormida and the Tanaro, two affluents of the Po. One