Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte With A Sketch Of Josephine
Book: Life Of Napoleon
Author: Tarbell, Ida
Chapter I
Napoleon's Youth And Early Surroundings - His School Days At Brienne
"If I were not convinced that his family is as old and as good as my
own," said the Emperor of Austria when he married Marie Louise to Napoleon
Bonaparte, "I would not give him my daughter." The remark is sufficient
recognition of the nobility of the father of Napoleon, Charles Marie de
Bonaparte, a gentleman of Ajaccio, Corsica, whose family, of Tuscan
origin, had settled there in the sixteenth century, and who, in 1765, had
married a young girl of the island, Laetitia Ramolino.
Monsieur Bonaparte gave his wife a noble name, but little else. He
was an indolent, pleasure-loving, chimerical man, who had inherited a
lawsuit, and whose time was absorbed in the hopeless task of recovering an
estate of which the Church had taken possession. Madame Bonaparte brought
her husband no great name, but she did bring him health, beauty, and
remarkable qualities. Tall and imposing, Mademoiselle Laetitia Ramolino
had a superb carriage, which she never lost, and a face which attracted
attention particularly by the accentuation and perfection of its features.
She was reserved, but of ceaseless energy and will, and though but fifteen
when married, she conducted her family affairs with such good sense and
firmness that she was able to bring up decently the eight children spared
her from the thirteen she bore. The habits of order and economy formed in
her years of struggle became so firmly rooted in her character that later,
when she became mater regum, the "Madame Mere" of an imperial court, she
could not put them aside, but saved from the generous income at her
disposal, "for those of my children who are not yet settled," she said.
Throughout her life she showed the truth of her son's characterization: "A
man's head on a woman's body."
The first years after their marriage were stormy ones for the
Bonapartes. The Corsicans, led by the patriot Pascal Paoli, were in
revolt against the French, at that time masters of the island. Among
Paoli's followers was Charles Bonaparte. He shared the fortunes of his
chief to the end of the struggle of 1769, and when, finally, Paoli was
hopelessly defeated, took to the mountains. In all the dangers and
miseries of this war and flight, Charles Bonaparte was accompanied by his
wife, who, vigorous of body and brave of heart, suffered privations,
dangers, and fatigue without complaint. When the Corsicans submitted, the
Bonapartes went back to Ajaccio. Six weeks later Madame Bonaparte gave
birth to her fourth child, Napoleon.
"I was born," said Napoleon, "when my country was perishing. Thirty
thousand Frenchmen were vomited upon our soil. Cries of the wounded,
sighs of the oppressed, and tears of despair surrounded my cradle at my
birth."
Young Bonaparte learned to hate with the fierceness peculiar to
Corsican blood the idea of oppression, to revere Paoli, and, with a boy's
contempt of necessity, even to despise his father's submission. It was
not strange. His mother had little time for her children's training. His
father gave them no attention; and Napoleon, "obstinate and curious,"
domineering over his brothers and companions, fearing no one, ran wild on
the beach with the sailors or over the mountains with the herdsmen,
listening to their tales of the Corsican rebellion and of fights, on sea
and land, imbibing their contempt for submission, their love for liberty.
At nine years of age he was a shy, proud, wilful child, unkempt and
untrained, little, pale, and nervous, almost without instruction, and yet
already enamored of a soldier's life and conscious of a certain
superiority over his comrades. Then it was that he was suddenly
transplanted from his free life to an environment foreign in its language,
artificial in its etiquette, and severe in its regulations.
It was as a dependent, a species of charity pupil, that he went into
this new atmosphere. Charles Bonaparte had become, in the nine years
since he had abandoned the cause of Paoli, a thorough parasite. Like all
the poor nobility of the country to which he had attached himself, and
even like many of the rich in that day, he begged favors of every
description from the government in return for his support. To aid in
securing them, he humbled himself before the French Governor-General of
Corsica, the Count de Marboeuf, and made frequent trips, which he could
ill afford, back and forth to Versailles. The free education of his
children, a good office with its salary and honors, the maintenance of his
claims against the Jesuits, were among the favors which he sought.
By dint of solicitation he had secured a place among the free pupils
of the college at Autun for his son Joseph, the oldest of the family, and
one for Napoleon at the military school at Brienne.
To enter the school at Brienne, it was necessary to be able to read
and write French, and to pass a preliminary examination in that language.
This young Napoleon could not do; indeed, he could scarcely have done as
much in his native Italian. A preparatory school was necessary, then, for
a time. The place settled on was Autun, where Joseph was to enter
college, and there in January, 1779, Charles Bonaparte arrived with the
two boys.
Napoleon was nine and a half years old when he entered the school at
Autun. He remained three months, and in that time made sufficient
progress to fulfil the requirements at Brienne. The principal record of
the boy's conduct at Autun comes from Abbe Chardon, who was at the head of
the primary department. He says of his pupil:
"Napoleon brought to Autun a sombre, thoughtful character. He was
interested in no one, and found his amusements by himself. He rarely had
a companion in his walks. He was quick to learn, and quick of
apprehension in all ways. When I gave him a lesson, he fixed his eyes
upon me with parted lips; but if I recapitulated anything I had said, his
interest was gone, as he plainly showed by his manner. When reproved for
this, he would answer coldly, I might almost say with an imperious air, 'I
know it already, sir.'"
When he went to Brienne, Napoleon left his brother Joseph behind at
Autun. The boy had not now one familiar feature in his life. The school
at Brienne was made up of about one hundred and twenty pupils, half of
whom were supported by the government. They were sons of nobles, who,
generally, had little but their great names, and whose rule for getting on
in the world was the rule of the old regime - secure a powerful patron,
and, by flattery and servile attentions, continue in his train. Young
Bonaparte heard little but boasting, and saw little but vanity. His first
lessons in French society were the doubtful ones of the parasite and
courtier. The motto which he saw everywhere practised was, "The end
justifies the means." His teachers were not strong enough men to
counteract this influence. The military schools of France were at this
time in the hands of religious orders, and the Minim Brothers, who had
charge of Brienne, were principally celebrated for their ignorance. They
certainly could not change the arrogant and false notions of their
aristocratic young pupils.
It was a dangerous experiment to place in such surroundings a boy
like the young Napoleon, proud, ambitious, jealous; lacking any healthful
moral training; possessing an Italian indifference to truth and the rights
of others; already conscious that he had his own way to make in the world,
and inspired by a determination to do it.
From the first the atmosphere at Brienne was hateful to the boy. His
comrades were French, and it was the French who had subdued Corsica. They
taunted him with it sometimes, and he told them that had there been but
four to one, Corsica would never have been conquered, but that the French
came ten to one. When they said: "But your father submitted," he said
bitterly: "I shall never forgive him for it." As for Paoli, he told them,
proudly, "He is a good man. I wish I could be like him."
He had trouble with the new language. They jeered at him because of
it. His name was strange; la paille au nez was the nickname they made
from Napoleon.
He was poor; they were rich. The contemptuous treatment he received
because of his poverty was such that he begged to be taken home.
"My father [he wrote], if you or my protectors cannot give me the
means of sustaining myself more honorably in the house where I am, please
let me return home as soon as possible. I am tired of poverty and of the
jeers of insolent scholars who are superior to me only in their fortune,
for there is not one among them who feels one hundredth part of the noble
sentiment which animates me. Must your son, sir, continually be the butt
of these boobies, who, vain of the luxuries which they enjoy, insult me by
their laughter at the privations which I am forced to endure? No, father,
no! If fortune refuses to smile upon me, take me from Brienne, and make
me, if you will, a mechanic. From these words you may judge of my
despair. This letter, sir, please believe, is not dictated by a vain
desire to enjoy extravagant amusements. I have no such wish. I feel
simply that it is necessary to show my companions that I can procure them
as well as they, if I wish to do so.
"Your respectful and affectionate son,
"Bonaparte."
Charles Bonaparte, always in pursuit of pleasure and his inheritance,
could not help his son. Napoleon made other attempts to escape, even
offering himself, it is said, to the British Admiralty as a sailor, and
once, at least, begging Monsieur de Marboeuf, the Governor-General of
Corsica, who had aided Charles Bonaparte in securing places for both boys,
to withdraw his protection. The incident which led to this was
characteristic of the school. The supercilious young nobles taunted him
with his father's position; it was nothing but that of a poor tipstaff,
they said. Young Bonaparte, stung by what he thought an insult, attacked
his tormentors, and, being caught in the act, was shut up. He immediately
wrote to the Count de Marboeuf a letter of remarkable qualities in so
young a boy and in such circumstances. After explaining the incident he
said:
"Now, Monsieur le Comte, if I am guilty, if my liberty has been taken
from me justly, have the goodness to add to the kindnesses which you have
shown me one thing more - take me from Brienne and withdraw your
protection: it would be robbery on my part to keep it any longer from one
who deserves it more than I do. I shall never, sir, be worthier of it
than I am now. I shall never cure myself of an impetuosity which is all
the more dangerous because I believe its motive is sacred. Whatever idea
of self-interest influences me, I shall never have control enough to see
my father, an honorable man, dragged in the mud. I shall always, Monsieur
le Comte, feel too deeply in these circumstances to limit myself to
complaining to my superior. I shall always feel that a good son ought not
to allow another to avenge such an outrage. As for the benefits which you
have rained upon me, they will never be forgotten. I shall say I had
gained an honorable protection, but Heaven denied me the virtues which
were necessary in order to profit by it."
In the end Napoleon saw that there was no way for him but to remain
at Brienne, galled by poverty and formalism.
It would be unreasonable to suppose that there was no relief to this
sombre life. The boy won recognition more than once from his companions
by his bravery and skill in defending his rights. He was not only
valorous; he was generous, and, "preferred going to prison himself to
denouncing his comrades who had done wrong." Young Napoleon found, soon,
that if there were things for which he was ridiculed, there were others
for which he was applauded.
He made friends, particularly among his teachers; and to one of his
comrades, Bourrienne, he remained attached for years. "You never laugh at
me; you like me," he said to his friend. Those who found him morose and
surly, did not realize that beneath the reserved, sullen exterior of the
little Corsican boy there was a proud and passionate heart aching for love
and recognition; that it was sensitiveness rather than arrogance which
drove him away from his mates.
At the end of five and one-half years Napoleon was promoted to the
military school at Paris. The choice of pupils for this school was made
by an inspector, at this time one Chevalier de Keralio, an amiable old
man, who was fond of mingling with the boys as well as examining them. He
was particularly pleased with Napoleon, and named him for promotion in
spite of his being strong in nothing but mathematics, and not yet being of
the age required by the regulations. The teachers protested, but De
Keralio insisted.
"I know what I am doing," he said. "If I put the rules aside in this
case, it is not to do his family a favor - I do not know them. It is
because of the child himself. I have seen a spark here which cannot be
too carefully cultivated."
De Keralio died before the nominations were made, but his wishes in
regard to young Bonaparte were carried out. The recommendation which sent
him up is curious. The notes read:
"Monsieur de Bonaparte; height four feet, ten inches and ten lines;
he has passed his fourth examination; good constitution, excellent health;
submissive character, frank and grateful; regular in conduct; has
distinguished himself by his application to mathematics; is passably well
up in history and geography; is behindhand in his Latin. Will make an
excellent sailor. Deserves to be sent to the school in Paris."
