“Yes,” was the laconic and calm reply. With half-disdainful contempt the president continued,—
“Are you aware of the magnitude of the undertaking?”
Sweeping the assembly with his magnetic glance, and fixing his eagle eye upon the president, Napoleon replied, “Perfectly; and I am in the habit of accomplishing what I undertake.”
And accomplish he did. But how? By the same measures he had declared should have been taken when, a short time before, he had watched the furious mob rush unrestrained through the palace of the imprisoned monarch. Then he had exclaimed, “They should have swept down the first five hundred with grapeshot, and the rest would have soon taken to flight.” And his own successful quelling of the insurgents proved the correctness of his plans and the marvellous executive force of his genius. So Napoleon established the new government of France called the Directory. We have space only for a glance at his boyhood. He was born upon the island of Corsica, on the 15th of August, 1769. His father died while Napoleon was quite young, and his mother, Madame Letitia Bonaparte, was left with small means to provide for eight children,—Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, Louis, Jerome, Eliza, Pauline, and Caroline.
When Napoleon was about ten years of age, Count Marbœuf obtained his admission to the military school at Brienne, near Paris. Regarded as a charity student by his companions, he was here subjected to neglects and taunts which stung his sensitive nature to the quick. When Napoleon was fifteen, he was promoted to the military school at Paris. On one occasion a mathematical problem of great difficulty was given to his class. Napoleon secluded himself in his room for seventy-two hours and solved the problem. Napoleon did not blunder into greatness. His achievements were not accidents. That he possessed native genius cannot be denied; but he also possessed that perseverance and application which alone can win the success which genius aspires to, but which only energy and perseverance can make possible. When Napoleon was sixteen years of age, he was examined for an appointment in the army. At the close of this examination, one of the professors wrote opposite the signature of Napoleon, “This young man will distinguish himself in the world, if favored by fortune.”
Napoleon secured the position of second lieutenant in a regiment of artillery. He was ordered to Lyons with his regiment. While there, the Academy at Lyons offered a prize for the best dissertation upon the question, “What are the institutions most likely to contribute to human happiness?” Napoleon won the prize. The English, uniting with the Royalists of France, had seized Toulon, a naval depot and arsenal of France. The Convention, the revolutionary government, promoted Napoleon to the rank of brigadier-general, and gave him the command of the artillery train at Toulon. It was here that his military abilities were noticed by the member of the Convention who afterwards proposed him as being the only man who could defend them against the mob, as we have already narrated. After quelling this formidable insurrection, Napoleon was enthusiastically received by the Convention. Five Directors were now chosen by the Convention, who should constitute the new Directory, and the Convention dissolved itself, surrendering the government into the hands of the Directory. Napoleon was appointed by them commander-in-chief of the Army of the Interior, and intrusted with the military defence and government of the metropolis. Having attained this high dignity, Napoleon placed his mother and the rest of his family in comfort.
Famine was great in Paris. The Revolution had left all industries paralyzed. The poor were perishing.
Napoleon immediately organized the National Guards, established order, and distributed wood and bread to the perishing citizens. It was at this time that he met his future wife, Josephine. She was a widow with two children. Her husband, the Viscount Beauharnais, had perished on the scaffold during the Revolution. On the 6th of March, 1796, Napoleon and Josephine were married. Napoleon was twenty-six years of age, Josephine being two years older. This marriage was one of ideal love. When Napoleon was crowned Emperor, he was privately married again by Cardinal Fesch, in accordance with the forms of the Church, which the Emperor had re-established.
Napoleon turned with disgust from the profligacy and dissipation which ever disgrace an army. To the defamations of his enemies who endeavored to malign his character, by accusing him of immorality, let his own words answer: “When I took command of the army of Italy, my extreme youth rendered it necessary that I should evince great reserve of manners and the utmost severity of morals. My supremacy could be retained only by proving myself a better man than any other man in the army. Had I yielded to human weaknesses, I should have lost my power.”
Napoleon was temperate in the extreme, and manifested the strongest disapproval for gaming. Napoleon’s first campaign in Italy was one of self-defence on the part of the French. France had renounced a monarchy and established a republic. The kings of Europe trembled. England was hovering around the coasts of France assailing every available point. Austria had marched an army of nearly two hundred thousand men to the banks of the Rhine. She had called into requisition her Italian possessions, and in alliance with the British navy the armies of the king of Sardinia together with the legions of Naples and Sicily, prepared to attack the French Republic.