general school,—an extraordinary compliment to the genius and proficiency of a boy of fifteen. He was one of three to receive that honor, a tribute paid to the precocity of his extraordinary mathematical talent, and the steadiness of his application. The entry made at that time in the military records says:

"Monsieur de Bonaparte (Napoleon) born August 15th, 1769; in height four feet, ten inches, ten lines; of good constitution, health excellent, character mild, honest and grateful; conduct exemplary; has distinguished himself by application to mathematics; understands history and geography tolerably well; is indifferently skilled in merely ornamental studies, as well as in Latin; would make an excellent sailor; deserves to be passed to the Military School at Paris."

The young student did not arrive in Paris in the guise of the future conqueror of the world. On the contrary, he looked like a "new-comer;" he gaped at everything he saw, and gazed about in a dazed sort of way. As a Corsican compatriot who met him as he was getting out of the coach has said: "His appearance was that of a youth whom any scoundrel would try to rob after seeing him, if indeed he had anything worth taking!" However, it should not be forgotten that he was but a youth of fifteen, felt his poverty keenly, and was about to enter into the noise and extravagant life of the rich students of this royal military school. As he himself said in 1811: "All these cares spoiled my early years; they influenced my temper and made me grave before my time."

At the Paris school Napoleon labored hard, as he had done at Brienne for five years, being especially proficient, as before, in mathematics. Everything was very luxurious here, and Bonaparte complained in a memorial, which he presented to the superintendent of the establishment, that the mode of life was too expensive and delicate for "poor gentlemen" and could not properly prepare them either for returning to their "modest homes," or for the hardships they would encounter in war. He proposed that instead of a regular dinner of two courses daily, the students should have ammunition bread and soldiers' rations, and be compelled to mend and clean their own stockings and shoes. "If I were king of France," he said one day to a companion, "I would change this state of things very quickly!" This memorial is said to have done him no service, for every third boy that looked on him was a duke from his cradle, while the Young Corsican was still a "pensioner of the king;" but the schools established by him after he became Emperor were on that severe plan. "Although believing in the necessity of show and magnificence in public life," says Meneval, his second private secretary, "Napoleon remained true to these principles, while lavishing wealth on his ministers and marshals: 'In your private life' said he, 'be economical and even parsimonious; in public be magnificent.'"

On being reproved one day by an uncle of the Duchess d'Abrantes for ingratitude as a "pensioner of the king," he broke out furiously with an expression of indignation. "Silence!" said the gentleman at whose table he was sitting; "It ill becomes you, who are educated by the king's bounty, to speak as you do."

"I am not educated at the king's expense," replied Bonaparte, his face flushed with rage, "but at the expense of the nation!"

Young Napoleon made but poor advancement in the German language while at this school, and by reason of it offended M. Bauer his tutor. One day, not being in his place, M. Bauer inquired where he was, and was told that he was attending his examination in the class of artillery.

"Oh! so he does learn something," said the professor ironically.

"Why, sire, he is the best mathematician in the school," was the reply.

"Ah, I have always heard it remarked and I have always believed, that none but a fool could learn mathematics!"

"It would be curious," said Napoleon, who related this anecdote when he was Emperor, "to know whether M. Bauer lived long enough to ascertain my real character, and to enjoy the confirmation of his own judgment."

Napoleon had not been in the Military School of Paris a year,—during which time his father had died,—and had barely completed his sixteenth year, when he successfully passed the examination, in August 1785,—for a commission in a regiment of artillery.

On September 1st the decree was signed which assigned Bonaparte as Second-Lieutenant in the company of bombardiers of the regiment of La Fere garrisoned at Valence. At the time of the examination there were thirty-six vacant places. M. de Feralio, one of the professors of the military school charged with this examination, is said to have inscribed on the margin, opposite to the signature of Napoleon, the following: "A Corsican by character and by birth. If favored by circumstances this young man will rise high." This professor was very fond of his young pupil, and when at school is said to have occasionally supplied him with pocket money. After his death Napoleon granted a handsome pension to his widow.

Napoleon's corps was at Valence when he joined it. Arriving there he was an occasional frequenter of the drawing room of Madame du Colombier, and it is said he made love to her daughter; but when not so engaged, he was devoted to his military studies, and read frequently from the Lives of Plutarch, a volume of which he generally carried about him. He also occupied himself in writing a "History of Corsica" which, when completed, the Abbe Raynal and other friends praised very highly; but he was unable to find a publisher for it.

At Valence Napoleon found the officers of his regiment divided, as all the world then was, into two parties; the lovers of the French monarchy, and those who desired its overthrow. Napoleon openly sided with the latter. "Had I been a general," said he, in the evening of his life, "I might have adhered to the king; being a subaltern I joined the patriots."

In the beginning of 1792 Napoleon became captain of artillery, unattached, and happening to be in Paris, witnessed the lamentable scenes of the 20th of June, when the revolutionary mob stormed the Tuileries, and Louis XVI. and his family, after undergoing innumerable insults and degradations, with the utmost difficulty preserved their lives. As he was strolling about with Bourrienne he saw the mob, numbering between five and six thousand, ragged and ridiculously armed, coming from the outskirts and making for the Tuileries. "Let us follow these scoundrels," he said. They went with the crowd into the garden before the palace, and when the king appeared at one of the windows on the balcony, surrounded by Revolutionists, and with the red cap of liberty, the emblem of the Jacobins, on his head, Napoleon could no longer suppress his contempt and indignation. "Poor driveller!" said he, loud enough to be heard by those near him; "how could he suffer this rabble to enter? If he had swept away five or six hundred with his cannon, the rest would be running yet!" Napoleon always abhorred anarchy. He said there was no remedy for mobs but grape-shot, and believed thoroughly in the theory of shooting first and listening to peace negotiations afterwards.

He was also a witness of the still more terrible 10th of August, in the same year, when the palace being once more invested, the National Guard assigned for its defense took part with the assailants. This time the royal family were obliged to take refuge in the National Assembly, and the brave Swiss Guards were massacred almost to a man.

Bonaparte was a firm friend of the Assembly, to the charge of a part of which, at least, these excesses must be laid; but the spectacle disgusted him. The yells, screams, and pikes with