During the night of August 27th, 1793, Toulon was delivered to the English, and its subsequent siege and retaking was destined to be the first incident of importance which enabled Bonaparte to distinguish himself in the eyes of the French Government, and of the world at large. The head of Louis XVI had rolled from the block, and a month afterwards the Convention had declared war against England.
Early in September France was attacked on every side, and a third of her provinces had rebelled against the government established at Paris, which enforced its supremacy by a regime carried on under a Reign of Terror. Among the provinces in open insurrection were all those of the south. An army corps invested Lyons, while another, after subduing Marseilles, marched against Toulon, the great arsenal and seaport, and delivered by the Bourbons into the hands of England. Adjutant Cervoni was at once dispatched to Marseilles to ascertain if he could find in that town some artillery officer of distinction to whom might be intrusted the chief command of the siege batteries before Toulon.
While strolling through the streets Cervoni met with a captain of artillery who was, like himself, perambulating the thoroughfares. This captain was a Corsican and a compatriot; his name was Napoleon Bonaparte. He was covered with the dust of the road along which he had been walking; for he had just arrived from Avignon, whither he had escorted a convoy of ammunition, and was on his way to Nice. Cervoni thought that Bonaparte would be just the man to watch over the movements of the army before Toulon: he appeared very young,—he was only twenty-four years of age—but it was stated that a month before the Republican army was on the point of beating a retreat in front of Avignon when he, with two field-pieces and eighty men, bombarded the town in the rear so effectively that the inhabitants and federal troops were overcome with fright and, convinced that they had been betrayed, abandoned the place to the Republicans who entered victorious, thanks to the boldness and foresight of Captain Bonaparte.
From a Painting by Lafit
Bonaparte Escapes Capture at Lonato
Cervoni invited him to enter a café; Bonaparte accepted, and the two men had a chat over a bowl of punch. The young captain doffed his hat, so that his features were lighted up by the blue flame of the liquor; his complexion was sallow and his head large, measuring as it did twenty-three inches round. If the size of his skull was large, the space between the two cheek-bones was enormous. The hair grew low on his forehead; the well-arched brows disclosed large eyes, sharp as steel, cold, clear and piercing; the aquiline nose was of the most delicate shape, the lower lip strong and receding, while the chin and the jaws were as well developed as the skull.
After a conference Napoleon departed for Toulon where he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General of Artillery, with the command of the artillery during the siege. The arsenal was filled with military stores, and twenty-five English and Spanish battleships were then riding in the harbor to protect it. Three months had passed, during which time no apparent progress had been made towards the recapture of the town, and when Napoleon arrived he was invested with the command of the artillery train.
A strong fort commanded the harbor, and after a careful examination Napoleon said the only way to retake Toulon was to neglect the body of the town, carry "Little Gibraltar," and the city would surrender in two days. Napoleon's brother Lucien visited him about this time. They went together one morning to a place where a fruitless assault had been made, and two hundred Frenchmen were dead upon the ground. On beholding them Napoleon exclaimed: "If I had commanded here all these brave men would still be alive!" A moment later he added: "Learn from this example, young man, how indispensable and imperatively necessary it is for those to possess knowledge who aspire to the command of others."