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Whenever a pupil had reached the age of fourteen. a cuſtom (which we kept up with great care) give him the privilege to purchaſe a quantity of gun-powder for St. Louis day; and during the fortnight which preceded the ſolemnity, the young people of that age afficiated together to prepare fire-works. The indulgency, went even ſo far, as to intruſt them with ſome ſmall pieces of artillery, ſome muſkets and piſtols, which were fired to announce the day. What joy! what moment! perhaps the moſt happy of our lives.
So complete and ſo animated was the general pleaſure amongst the ſcholars, as to render more remarkable the indifference, real or affected, which Bonaparte teſtified on that occaſion, being the laſt year (1785) which he paſſed at the ſchool of Brienne. Retired the whole day in his garden, he not only did not participate in the public rejoicing, but affected to continue his uſual ſtudy and occupations, without being diſturbed by the noiſe. His comrades were too much engaged in their own amuſement, to think of troubling his, and would only have laughed at him, if his ſtrange behaviour, in an uncommon circumſtance, had not drawn upon him the general attention.
Towards nine o'clock of the evening, about twenty of the young people were aſſembled in that garden which joined to his, where the proprietor had promiſed a ſhow to his friends.
