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his delight. The employed, during a long time, ſome of the hours allowed to recreation, in cultivating, as a little garden, that ſpot which fell to his ſhare, of a conſiderable portion of ground which was divided among us. After having forced two of his partners to give it up entirely to him, his firſt care was to render the acceſs to it difficult, by means of a ſtrong paliſade; in forming which, he ſpent all the money which the Court de Marboeuf had ſent to him for his little expences. The green arbours, which he planted himſelf, and cultivated with the utmoſt pains, rendered his garden, at the end of two years, the retreat of a perfect hermit. Woe to the curious, the malicious or the playful, who dared to trouble his repoſe ! You might ſee him burſt furious from his retreat to repel them! nor was he deterred by the number of his aſſailants. It was in this concealed retirement, where the foul of Bonaparte, greedy of glory, inſenſibly evolved the seed of that noble ambition, feaſting on the example of theſe great men whom he was preparing himſelf to ſurpaſs.
A mode of life ſo very ſingular, could not fail to be remarked. Incapable to eſtimate his uncommon merit, or rather to penetrate his true motives, his ſuperiors, and his ſchool-fellows, taxed him as fooliſh and rediculous. Every mean was tried, but in vain, to reſtore him to himſelf, by making him change his
