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NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 37 then much in vogue ; but he did not complete what he had designed. A pretty Mile. Calom- bier of Valence, with whom he had stolen interviews and " ate innocent cherries," was supposed to have inspired the sentimental part of this literary plan. A more suitable under- taking was the project of a history of Corsica, which he began, and communicated to Paoli, then living in exile in London. The parts of it still preserved are full of warm patriotic ex- pressions and vehement democratic thoughts. They were not phrases borrowed from the classic authors, but the spontaneous outbursts of a fresh young mind, stimulated by the spirit of his age, and not yet contaminated by the ex- periences of life, or fettered by its own schemes of aggrandizement. Napoleon visited Ajaccio every year, and interested himself in furthering the education as well as the fortunes of his brothers and sisters. Though not the oldest son, he was instinctively recognized as the true head of the family, his father having died in 1785. His allowance in those days, probably furnished by his uncle, was 1,200 francs. Nothing could have been more decided than his democratic tendencies at this period. The great revolution of France was already moving powerfully onward, and he, in common with the other officers of the regiment at Valence, watched its complicated movements with deep- ening anxiety. Many of those officers openly took part with the royalists, while others, and among them Napoleon, inclined as strongly to the revolutionary side. On Feb. 6, 1792, he be- came a captain of artillery by seniority, and in the same year, being at Paris, he witnessed the insurrections of June 20 and of Aug. 10. Bour- rienne relates that on the former of these oc- casions, when he saw the mob break into the palace, and force the king to appear at the window, with the bonnet rouge on his head, Bonaparte exclaimed : " It is all over with that pour man ! A few discharges of grape would have sent those despicable wretches flying." Paoli, having emerged from his retirement, had been enthusiastically received at Paris, and in- vested with the presidency and military com- mand of his native island, where the ferment of revolution was also at its height. Ajaccio appears to have been for a while the headquar- ters of the patriots, the Bonaparte house their place of meeting, and Joseph and Napoleon (who had returned hither) the acknowledged leaders. But Paoli's views of liberty were far more moderate than those of the national legis- lature, and in a little while he found himself in direct opposition to the government. The Bo- napnrtes, strongly attached to him personally, did not follow him in this movement, as the in- habitants of Ajaccio did generally, but adhered to the cause of the convention. A civil war was the consequence of Paoli's defection ; and in the course of it Napoleon, who acted pro- visionally as the commander of a battalion of the national guard, had the unpleasant duty laid upon him of assaulting his native place. He succeeded against it at the outset ; but the besieged party rallying, and his communication with the frigate which had set him ashore hav- ing been cut off, he was deprived of his tem- porary success, and in turn besieged in the tower of Capitello. During this time he and his 50 men were reduced to the extremity of living for three days upon horse flesh, when some shepherds from the mountains released them from their situation. The exasperation of the adverse faction now drove the Bona- partes out of Ajaccio. Madame Lsctitia, fright- ened by the signs of imminent danger, fled with her children to Milelli, and thence across the rugged mountain roads to the seashore, where they concealed themselves in the thick- ets until Napoleon succeeded in conveying them to Nice, whence they removed to Mar- seilles (1793). During their residence at Mar- seilles Napoleon was employed by the gen- eral commanding the artillery of " the army of Italy " to negotiate with the insurgents of Marseilles and Avignon. In the latter place he published in the same year a little pamphlet called Le souper de Seatieaire, in which he endeavored to persuade the excited people of those parts not to provoke the vengeance of the revolutionists, who were then the ruling power, and who were dealing a fearful retribu- tion upon all whom they suspected to be the enemies of the country. Its sentiments were generally republican, and in favor of the Montague, as against the Girondists, but not at all Jacobinical, as has been alleged. The pamphlet is given in Bourrienne, and trans- lated in the appendix to Sir Walter Scott's " Bonaparte." But the provinces were not the sphere for Napoleon, and he repaired to Paris, where he spent a part of the summer of 1793. In September he was ordered on service at the siege of Toulon, then possessed by the Spanish and English, where he displayed such extraordinary military intelligence and activity as to lay the foundation of his whole subsequent military career. After reconnoitring Toulon for a month, he communicated to the council of war a plan of attack, which was adopted, and which he himself executed with brilliant success. The place was so important that the capture of it diffused a general joy over France, and gave to the young colonel of artillery, by whom the reduction had been chiefly accom- plished, a distinguished name. In consequence of his services, he was recommended by Gen. Dugommier for promotion, and on Feb. 6, 1794, was made a brigadier general of artillery. He was then in his 25th year. Dugommier's let- ter to the committee of public safety in regard to him said sagaciously enough : " Eeward this young man and promote him ; for, should he lie ungratefully treated, he will promote him- self." Joining the army under Gen. Dumer- bion, stationed at the foot of the Maritime Alps, he made the campaign of 179-1 against the Pied- montese troops. On the downfall of Eobes- pierre, on the 9th Thermidor, 1794, he was sus-