LIFE OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. CHAPTER I. Birth and Parentage of Napoleon Buonaparte-His Education at Brienne and at Paris-Enters the Army-His first military Service in Corsica in 1793. NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE was born at Ajaccio on the 15th of August, 1769. The family had been of some distinction, during the middle ages, in Italy; whence his branch of it removed to Corsica in the troubled times of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. They were always considered as belonging to the gentry of the island. Charles, the father of Napoleon, an advocate of considerable reputation, married his mother, Letitia Ramolini, a young woman, eminent for beauty and for strength of mind, during the civil war-when the Corsicans, under Paoli, were struggling to avoid the domination of the French. The advocate had espoused the popular side in that contest, and his lovely and high-spirited wife used to attend him through the toils and dangers of his mountain campaigns. Upon the termination of the war he would fain have exiled himself along with Paoli; but his relations dissuaded him from this step, and he was afterward reconciled to the conquering party, and protected and patronised by the French governor of Corsica, the count de Marbœuff. It is said that Letitia had attended mass on the morning of the 15th of August; and, being seized suddenly on her return, gave birth to the future hero VOL. I.-B of his age, on a temporary couch covered with tapestry, representing the heroes of the Iliad. He was her second child. Joseph, afterward king of Spain, was older than he: he had three younger brothers, Lucien, Louis, and Jerome; and three sisters, Eliza, Caroline, and Pauline. These grew up. Five others must have died in infancy; for we are told that Letitia had given birth to thirteen children, when at the age of thirty she became a widow. In after-days, when Napoleon had climbed to sovereign power, many flatterers were willing to give him a lofty pedigree. To the emperor of Austria, who would fain have traced his unwelcome son-inlaw to some petty princes of Treviso, he replied, “I am the Rodolph of my race,' "* and silenced, on a similar occasion, a professional genealogist, with, "Friend, my patent dates from Monte Notte."t Charles Buonaparte, by the French governor's kindness, received a legal appointment in Corsica― that of Procureur du Roi (answering nearly to attorney-general); and scandal has often said that Marbœuff was his wife's lover. The story received no credence in Ajaccio. Of Napoleon's boyish days few anecdotes have been preserved in Corsica. His chosen plaything, they say, was a small brass cannon; and, when at home in the school-vacations, his favourite retreat was a solitary summer-house among the rocks on the seashore, about a mile from Ajaccio, where his mother's brother (afterward cardinal Fesch) had a villa. The place is now in ruins, and overgrown with bushes, and the people call it "Napoleon's Grotto." He has himself said that he was remarkable only for obstinacy and curiosity: others add, that he was high-spirited, quarrelsome, imperious; fond of solitude; slovenly in his dress. Being detected stealing figs in an orchard, the proprietor *Rodolph of Hapsburgh was the founder of the Austrian family. † His first battle. 1776.] AJACCIO BRIENNE. 15 threatened to tell his mother, and the boy pleaded for himself with so much eloquence, that the man suffered him to escape. His careless attire, and his partiality for a pretty little girl in the neighbourhood, were ridiculed together in a song which his playmates used to shout after him in the streets of Ajaccio: "Napoleone di mezza calzetta Fa l'amore a Giacominetta."* His superiority of character was very early felt. An aged relation, Lucien Buonaparte, archdeacon of Ajaccio, called the children about his death-bed to take farewell and bless them: "You, Joseph," said the expiring man," are the eldest; but Napoleon is the head of his family. Take care to remember my words." Napoleon took excellent care that they should not be forgotten. He began with beating his elder brother into subjection. From his earliest youth he chose arms for his profession. When he was about seven years old (1776), his father was, through Marbœuff's patronage, sent to France as one of a deputation from the Corsican noblesse to king Louis XVI.; and Napoleon, for whom the count had also procured admission into the military school of Brienne, accompanied him. After seeing part of Italy, and crossing France, they reached Paris; and the boy was soon established in his school, where, at first, every thing delighted him, though, forty years afterward, he said he should never forget the bitter parting with his mother ere he set out on his travels. His progress in Latin, and in literature generally, attracted no great praise; but in every study likely to be of service to the future soldier, he distinguished himself above his contemporaries. Of the mathematical tutors accordingly he was a great favourite. One of the other teachers having condemned him for some offence.or neglect to wear a coarse woollen dress on * Napoleon, with his stockings about his heels, makes love to Giacominetta. |