NAPOLEON THE OPPORTUNIST
It is quite fair, I think, to characterize his early career as that of an adventurer. He was watching for a chance, and had determined to take it, regardless of where it offered itself. It was at a moment when he was in disgrace for having refused the orders of his superiors in the army that the chance he wanted came.
LÆTITIA BONAPARTE
The Mother of Napoleon.
The convention in which at that moment the French government centered was attacked by the revolting Parisians. Bonaparte had no particular sympathy with the convention,—in fact, he had more with the rebels,—but when one of his friends in the government who knew his ability as an artillery officer asked him to take charge of the force protecting the Tuilleries, where the convention sat, he accepted—with hesitation; but, having accepted, he did his work with a skill and daring that earned him his first important command, that of general in chief of the French Army of the Interior. Four months later he was made commander in chief of the Army of Italy, the army that was disputing the conquest of northern Italy with Austria.