Footnote 14: The volumes of Napoléon inconnu contain the text of these papers as deciphered for M. Masson and revised by him. My own examination, which antedated his transcription by more than a year (1891), led me to trust their authenticity absolutely, as far as the writer's memory and good faith are concerned. I cannot rely as positively as Masson does on the Époques de ma vie, which has the appearance of a casual scribbling done in an idle moment on the first scrap that came to hand.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 15: Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I, 47.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 16: Souvenirs d'un officier royaliste, par M. de R..., Vol. I, p. 117.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 17: Printed in Napoléon inconnu, Vol. II, p. 167.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 18: Similar instances of repeated and lengthened absence from duty among the young officers are numerous and easily found in the archives. Nevertheless, Buonaparte's case is a very extraordinary example of how a clever person could work the system. The facts are bad enough, but as many cities claimed Homer, so in the Napoleonic legend events of a sojourn at Strasburg about this time were given in great detail. He was in relations with a famous actress and wrote verses which are printed. Even Metternich records that the young Napoleon Bonaparte had just left the Alsatian capital when he himself arrived there in 1788. Later, in 1806, a fencing-master claimed that he had instructed both these great men in the earlier year at Strasburg. Yet the whole tale is impossible. See Napoléon inconnu, Vol. I, p. 204.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 19: Printed in Coston, II, 94.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 20: Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I, 47.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 21: For the text see Napoléon inconnu, II, 92.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 22: These phrases may nearly all be found in the notes which he had taken or jottings he had made while reading Voltaire and Rousseau: Napoléon inconnu, II, 209-292.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 23: "I am in the cabin of a poor man whence I like to write you after long conversation with these good people." Nasica, p. 161.[Back to Main Text]