freedom, while the Convention sent an expedition, at the head of which were La Combe Saint Michel,29 and Salicetti,30 one of the Corsican deputies to the Convention, with the usual instructions for bloodshed and pillage issued to their commissaries.31
Buonaparte was in Corsica, upon leave of absence from his regiment, when these events were taking place; and although he himself, and Paoli, had hitherto been on friendly terms, the young artillery officer did not hesitate which side to choose. He embraced that of the Convention with heart and hand; and his first military exploit was in the civil war of his native island. In the year 1793, he was despatched from Bastia, in possession of the French party, to surprise his native town Ajaccio, then occupied by Paoli or his adherents. Buonaparte was acting provisionally, as commanding a battalion of national guards. He landed in the gulf of Ajaccio with about fifty men, to take possession of a tower called the Torre di Capitello, on the opposite side of the gulf, and almost facing the city. He succeeded in taking the place; but as there arose a gale of wind which prevented his communicating with the frigate which had put him ashore, he was besieged in his new conquest by the opposite faction, and reduced to such distress, that he and his little garrison were obliged to feed on horse-flesh. After five days he was relieved by the frigate, and evacuated the tower, having first in vain attempted to blow it up. The Torre di Capitello still shows marks of the damage it then sustained, and its remains may be looked on as a curiosity, as the first scene of his combats, before whom
"Temple and tower
Went to the ground."32
The strength of Paoli increasing, and the English preparing to assist him, Corsica became no longer a safe or convenient residence for the Buonaparte family. Indeed, both Napoleon and his brother Joseph, who had distinguished themselves as partisans of the French, were subjected to a decree of banishment from their native island; and Madame Buonaparte, with two of her daughters, set sail under their protection, and settled for a time, first at Nice, and afterwards at Marseilles, where the family remained in obscurity, until the dawning prospects of Napoleon afforded him the means of assisting them.
One small fountain at Ajaccio is pointed out as the only ornament which, in after days, his bounty bestowed on his birth-place.33 He might perhaps think it impolitic to do any thing which might remind the country he ruled that he was not a child of her soil, nay, was in fact very near having been born an alien, for Corsica was not united to, or made an integral part of France, until June 1769, a few weeks only before Napoleon's birth. This stigma was repeatedly cast upon him by his opponents, some of whom reproached the French with having adopted a master, from a country from which the ancient Romans were unwilling even to choose a slave; and Napoleon may have been so far sensible to it, as to avoid showing any predilection to the place of his birth, which might bring the circumstance strongly under observation of the great nation, with which he and his family seemed to be indissolubly united. But as a traveller already quoted, and who had the best opportunities to become acquainted with the feelings of the proud islanders, has expressed it, – "The Corsicans are still highly patriotic, and possess strong local attachment – in their opinion, contempt for the country of one's birth is never to be redeemed by any other qualities. Napoleon, therefore, certainly was not popular in Corsica, nor is his memory cherished there."34
The feelings of the parties were not unnatural on either side. Napoleon, little interested in the land of his birth, and having such an immense stake in that of his adoption, in which he had every thing to keep and lose,35 observed a policy towards Corsica which his position rendered advisable; and who can blame the high-spirited islanders, who, seeing one of their countrymen raised to such exalted eminence, and disposed to forget his connexion with them, returned with slight and indifference the disregard with which he treated them?
On his return from Corsica, Buonaparte had arrived at Nice, and was preparing to join his regiment, when General Degear, who commanded the artillery of "the army of Italy," then encamped round the city, required his services, and employed him in several delicate operations. Shortly after, the insurrection of Marseilles broke out – a movement consequent upon the arrest of the leaders of the Girondist party in the Convention, on the first Prairial (31st May;) and which extended with violence into the departments. The insurgents of Marseilles organized a force of six thousand men, with which they took possession of Avignon, and thereby intercepted the communications of the army of Italy. The general-in-chief being much embarrassed by this circumstance, sent Buonaparte to the insurgents, to try to induce them to let the convoys pass. In July he went to Marseilles and Avignon, had interviews with the leaders, convinced them that it was their own interest not to excite the resentment of the army of Italy, and in fine secured the transit of the convoys.
During his residence at Marseilles, when sent to the insurgents, having, he says, an opportunity of observing all the weakness and incoherence of their means of resistance, he drew up a little pamphlet, which he called "Le Souper de Beaucaire," and which he published in that city. "He endeavoured," he says, "to open the eyes of these frantic people, and predicted that the only result of their revolt would be to furnish a pretext to the men of blood of the day, for sending the principal persons amongst them to the scaffold." "It produced," he adds, "a very powerful effect, and contributed to calm the agitation which prevailed."36 During these proceedings Toulon had surrendered to the English. Buonaparte was ordered on service to the siege of that town, and joined the army on the 12th of September.
CHAPTER II
Siege of Toulon – Recapitulation – Buonaparte appointed to the Command of the Artillery at Toulon – Finds every thing in disorder – His plan for obtaining the Surrender of the Place – Adopted – Anecdotes during the Siege – Allied troops resolve to evacuate Toulon – Dreadful Particulars of the Evacuation – England censured on this occasion – Lord Lynedoch – Fame of Buonaparte increases, and he is appointed Chief of Battalion in the Army of Italy – Joins Headquarters at Nice – On the Fall of Robespierre, Buonaparte superseded in command – Arrives in Paris in May, 1795, to solicit employment – He is unsuccessful – Retrospect of the Proceedings of the National Assembly – Difficulties in forming a new Constitution – Appointment of the Directory – of the Two Councils of Elders and of Five Hundred – Nation at large, and Paris in particular, disgusted with their pretensions – Paris assembles in Sections – General Danican appointed their Commander-in-Chief – Menou appointed by the Directory to disarm the National Guards – but suspended for incapacity – Buonaparte appointed in his room – The Day of the Sections – Conflict betwixt the Troops of the Convention under Buonaparte, and those of the Sections of Paris under Danican – The latter defeated with much slaughter – Buonaparte appointed Second in Command of the Army of the Interior – then General-in-Chief – Marries Madame Beauharnais – Her Character – Buonaparte immediately afterwards joins the Army of Italy.
The siege of Toulon was the first incident of importance, which enabled Buonaparte to distinguish himself in the eyes of the French Government, and of the world at large.
Buonaparte's professional qualifications were still better vouched than the soundness of his political principles, though these were sufficiently decided. The notes which the inspectors of the Military School always preserve concerning their scholars, described his genius as being of the first order; and to these he owed his promotion to the rank of a lieutenant-colonel of artillery, with the command of the artillery during this siege.
We have already mentioned that a general diffidence, and dread of the proceedings of the Jacobins, joined to the intrigues of the Girondists, had, after the fall of the latter party, induced several of the principal towns in France to take arms against the Convention, or rather
La Combe Saint Michel was afterwards employed by Napoleon in Italy, Spain, and Germany. He died in 1812.
During the reign of Joseph, he was appointed minister of police at Naples, where he died in 1809.
Napoleon, Memoirs, vol. iv., p. 51.
Such is the report of the Corsicans concerning the alleged first exploit of their celebrated countryman. See Benson's
"As you quit the town, the first object that presents itself is a little fountain on the left, which, except the pavement of the quay, is the only public work of Buonaparte, for the place of his birth." – Benson.
Benson's Sketches of Corsica, p. 121. – S.
Not literally, however; for it is worth mentioning, that when he was in full-blown possession of his power, an inheritance fell to the family, situated near Ajaccio, and was divided amongst them. The First Consul, or Emperor, received an olive garden as his share. —
Montholon, tom. iii., p. 14. – Nothing can be more inaccurate than to term the
