versed in history and geography, much behind in his Latin and in belles-lettres, and other accomplishments; of regular habits, studious and well behaved, and enjoying excellent health." One of his preceptors said: "Keep an eye on young Bonaparte, and promote him as fast as possible, for if you do not he will make his way for himself."

Bourrienne, who was his school-fellow, says Napoleon was regarded as a foreigner; he spoke his own Corsican dialect, until he learned French at the school; he had no connections in France, he was comparatively poor, and yet proud; the other boys, more fortunate or more lively in their disposition, teased him and taunted him, and therefore he kept himself distant and was often alone. But that he was susceptible of social and friendly feelings, his intimacy with Bourrienne sufficiently proves. One severe winter the boys made bastions and ravelins of snow, and Napoleon distinguished himself at the head of the storming party. After remaining five years and six months at Brienne, he went to the military school in Paris. So extravagant was the students' manner of living that Napoleon wrote to Father Berton, his superior at Brienne, a long letter in which he forcibly exposed the error of such a system of education, as luxury and comforts were a bad preparation for the hardships and privations attendant on the military profession.

Leaving school in September, 1785, Napoleon received his commission as sub-lieutenant of artillery, and was soon after promoted to a first lieutenantcy in the artillery regiment of Grenoble, stationed at Valence. He engaged in authorship, but without distinction. On the outbreak of the Revolution, Napoleon took a lively interest in the proceedings of the first National Assembly. The officers of his regiment were divided into royalists and democrats; several of the former emigrated to join the Prince of Condé. Napoleon, however, who had hitherto been distinctively a Corsican, took the Republican side, and assisted in attaching his native island to the new government. His ambition seemed still to be insular. In 1792 he became a captain in the Grenoble artillery. On the 20th of June, 1792, being in Paris, he saw the mob break into the palace without opposition, and the

king afterwards appear at one of the windows with the red cap on his head. It is all over henceforth with that man!'' "How could they

he remarked to his friend Bourrienne. allow those despicable wretches to enter the palace? Why, a few discharges of grape-shot among them would have made them take to their heels; they would be running yet."

In 1793, Napoleon, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, was sent to join the besieging army before Toulon. This city had taken part in the insurrection against the Jacobin government installed in Paris; a garrison of the allies had entered the town, and an English and Spanish fleet held the adjoining roadsteads. The Convention had sent a considerable force to lay siege to the rebel city. By the advice of Napoleon, the operations were directed against an outwork on Mount Taron. When this was taken, it gave command over the ships in the harbor, and rendered the place no longer tenable. The British commander, General O'Hara, was taken prisoner, and Napoleon himself wounded. The evacu

ation of the place was resolved on by the allies, and the English, Spanish and Neapolitan fleets sailed out of the harbor, carrying with them about 14,000 of the inhabitants. The few who remained in Toulon were shot down with grape-shot in the public square, by the orders of Robespierre and his associates. Napoleon said that neither he nor his men had anything to do with this butchery.

In consequence of his services at Toulon, Bonaparte was raised to the rank of Brigadier-General of artillery, in February, 1794, with the chief command of that department of the army in the South. He was employed now to inspect the defenses of the Mediterranean coast, and then proceeded to Nice, the headquarters of the army in Italy. His labor bore fruit afterwards, for on his inspection he discovered the weak points of the defenses of Genoa and Piedmont. The Revolution of the 27th and 28th of July took place; Robespierre fell, and his party was proscribed. Bonaparte was suspected of being implicated with the government of Robespierre, and he shared in the disgrace of its fall. He was arrested, and ordered to proceed to Paris under an escort to appear before the Committee of Public Safety. He wrote a remonstrance which

had the effect of obtaining his release.

He joined the army

under General Dumerbion, and made a campaign against the Piedmontese troops. In the battle at Cairo, in the valley of Bormida, September 21st, Napoleon greatly distinguished himself, and the French had a decided advantage. The rainy season put an end to the campaign, and he, being unemployed, went to Marseilles.

The ruling Directory, having attempted arbitrarily to perpetuate its power, was reduced to extremities by the insurrection of the Sections in October, 1795. The first day's conflict in which General Menou commanded, turned entirely to the advantage of the insurgents, who were 30,000 strong, all National Guards. In alarm the Directors sent that night for the resolute Bonaparte, and besought his aid to crush Jacobinism. They gave him the full command of their forces, which amounted to only 5,000 men, shut up in the squares of the Carrousel and Louvre. Napoleon lost not a moment; he immediately dispatched Murat, an officer destined for future glory, to the camp of Sablons, near Paris, where were fifty pieces of artillery. Murat brought the guns to the Tuileries. Napoleon loaded these with grape-shot, and mounted them at the head of the various avenues through which the National Guards must advance. Next day, October 4th, 1795, the insurgents commenced their attack from the church of St. Roch, in the Rue St. Honoré, and at the same time from the opposite side of the river. Napoleon answered them with grape-shot, and after standing several rounds, they broke and fled, leaving the victory to the regular troops. The government of the Directory was thus established.

General Bonaparte was appointed by a decree of the Convention second in command of the Army of the Interior; Barras, as leading member of the Directory, retaining the nominal chief command himself. Barras, however, soon resigned, and Bonaparte became general of the Interior. The favor of Barras, as leading member of the Directory, contributed to this elevation, as Napoleon had recently married Josephine de Beauharnais, who had been a great friend of that Director. She was amiable, elegant and accomplished, though some years older than her husband. Her intimacy

with the political leaders of that period could not but prove advantageous to Bonaparte.

After a brief honeymoon he went to Italy, and took command of the troops, whom he found in the most miserable condition, perched on the shining summits of the Maritime Alps, whither they had been driven by the united armies of Austria and Piedmont. "Famine, cold and misery," said the young general in his first proclamation to the men, "are the school of good soldiers. Here on the plains of Italy you will conquer them, and then you will find comfort and riches and glory." In April, descending like a torrent from the summit of the Alps, he soon carried everything before him. Having defeated the combined armies at Montenotte and in two other battles, he appeared before the walls of Turin and forced the Piedmontese government to conclude a separate peace with France, the condition of which was the cession of all their fortresses to the Republic. Three splendid victories, forming a brief month's work, had given the conqueror a solid footing in Italy, and secured a basis for ulterior operations against the Austrians. Having refreshed his troops with a fortnight's rest, and supplied his stores with ample contributions, he advanced to Milan, where he was received by the revolutionary party with transports of joy, which were soon cooled by the imposition of 20,000,000 francs (about $3,896,000) on its inhabitants. After suppressing, with dreadful severity, an insurrection in Pavia, he forced the "terrible bridge of Lodi," as he himself called it, though defended by 25,000 Austrians. It was then first, as he writes in his Memoirs, that high ambition took possession of his soul; he became inspired with the idea that he was destined to do great things.

Following up his career of success, Bonaparte defeated the Austrians in several encounters, and compelled their commanders to shut themselves up within the fortifications of Mantua. Impressed with the importance of this stronghold, the bulwark of their possessions in Italy, the Austrian government made the greatest efforts for its relief. They successively collected three powerful armies to relieve it, one of which, after a series of desperate actions, succeeded under the

veteran Marshal Würmser in penetrating to the fortress, and reinforcing the garrison. But this advantage was gained only by incurring defeats in other quarters; for Napoleon, raising the siege, concentrated his forces and severely defeated the Austrians, who were incautiously advancing in two columns separated from each other by the Lake Garda. The blockade of Mantua, encumbered with 10,000 additional mouths, was now resumed. The third Austrian army assembled for its relief was defeated by Napoleon with dreadful loss on the dykes of Arcola in November. A fourth, collected in Tyrol, composed of the best troops in the monarchy, shared the same fate at Rivoli. Despairing now of being relieved and having exhausted all his means of subsistence, Würmser was obliged to capitulate. Bonaparte granted him honorable conditions, and behaved to the old marshal with the considerate regard due to his age and his bravery. The campaign closed with the French flag flying on Mantua and all the fortresses of the Adige, the Italian barrier of the Austrian monarchy.

During these hard-fought campaigns, the condition of the unfortunate inhabitants of North Italy, and especially of the Venetian provinces, was miserable in the extreme; both armies treated them as enemies. The towns were laid under a regular system of plunder by the French commissaries, by requisitions of provisions, clothes, horses and carts, and forced contributions of money. At the same time these enormous exactions contributed little to the comfort of the soldiers; but went to enrich commissaries, purveyors, contractors, and all the predatory crew that follow an invading army. Bonaparte was indignant at the prodigal waste of the resources extorted from the natives, while his soldiers were in utter destitution. Writing to the Directory, he pronounced the commissaries and contractors, with very few exceptions, thieves, and recommended the Directory to replace them by more honest men. The system of plunder, however, went on until Napoleon became First Consul, when he found means to repress, in some degree, the odious abuse.

Being now secure from the Austrians in the North, he turned his arms against the Pope, who had refused the heavy terms imposed upon him by the Directory. The papal troops,