"The Bishop of Autun would have objected to my project, but the prince, who was colonel-general of the French infantry, saw with pleasure these warlike dispositions on my part, and encouraged me to ask for what I wanted. I then declared my desire to enter the artillery, and it was determined that I should. Imagine my joy. I was proud of the prince's caresses, and rejoiced more in his encouragement than I have since in the two crowns which I have worn.
Letter to Napoleon.
"I immediately wrote a long letter to my brother Napoleon, imparting my happiness to him, and relating in detail all that had passed; concluding by begging him, out of friendship for me, to give up the navy and devote himself to the artillery, that we might be in the same regiment, and pursue our career side by side. Napoleon immediately acceded to my proposal, abandoned from that moment all his naval projects, and replied that his mind was made up to dedicate himself, with me, to the artillery – with what success the world has since learned. Thus it was to this visit of the Prince of Condé that Napoleon owed his resolution of entering on a career which paved the way to all his honors."
Return to Corsica.
Death of his Father.
In 1784, Joseph, then sixteen years of age, returned to Corsica. During his absence he had entirely forgotten the Italian, his native language, and could neither speak it nor understand it. After a few months at home, during which time he very diligently prosecuted his studies, his father, whose health was declining, found it necessary to visit Paris to seek medical advice. He took his son Joseph with him. Arriving at Montpellier, after a tempestuous voyage, he became so ill as to be unable to proceed any farther. After a painful sickness of three months, he died of a cancer in the stomach, on the 24th of February, 1785. The dying father, who had perceived indications of the exalted powers and the lofty character of his son Napoleon, in the delirium of his last hours repeatedly cried out,
"Napoleon! Napoleon! come and rescue me from this dragon of death by whom I am devoured."
Letitia.
Upon his dying bed the father felt great solicitude for his wife, who was to be left, at the early age of thirty-five, a widow with eight children, six of whom were under thirteen years of age. Joseph willingly yielded to his father's earnest entreaties to relinquish the profession of arms and return to Corsica, that he might solace his bereaved mother and aid her in her arduous cares. Napoleon says of this noble mother:
Her Character.
"She had the head of a man on the shoulders of a woman. Left without a guide or protector, she was obliged to assume the management of affairs, but the burden did not overcome her. She administered every thing with a degree of sagacity not to be expected from her age or sex. Her tenderness was joined with severity. She punished, rewarded all alike. The good, the bad, nothing escaped her. Ah, what a woman! where shall we look for her equal? She watched over us with a solicitude unexampled. Every low sentiment, every ungenerous affection was discouraged and discarded. She suffered nothing but that which was grand and elevated to take root in our youthful understandings. She abhorred falsehood, and would not tolerate the slightest act of disobedience. None of our faults were overlooked. Losses, privations, fatigue had no effect upon her. She endured all, braved all. She had the energy of a man combined with the gentleness and delicacy of a woman."
Madame Permon.
Madame Permon, mother of the Duchess of Abrantes, a Corsican lady of fortune who resided at Montpellier, immediately after the death of Charles Bonaparte, took Joseph, the orphan boy, into her house. Madame Permon and Letitia Raniolini had been companions and intimate friends in their youthful days. "She was to me," says Joseph, "an angel of consolation; and she lavished upon me all the attentions I could have received from the most tender and affectionate of mothers."
Lucien.
Joseph soon returned to Corsica. Napoleon had just before been promoted to the military school in Paris, in which city Eliza still continued at school. Lucien, the next younger brother, had also now been taken to the Continent, where he was pursuing his education. The four remaining children were very young.
"My mother," says Joseph, "moderated the expression of her grief that she might not excite mine. Heroic and admirable woman! the model of mothers; how much thy children are indebted to thee for the example which thou hast given them!"
Habits of Napoleon.
Studies of the Brothers.
Mirabeau.
Joseph remained at home about a year, devoting himself to the care of the family, when Napoleon obtained leave of absence, and, to the great joy of his mother, returned to Corsica. He brought with him two trunks, a small one containing his clothing, and a large one filled with his books. Seven years had now passed since the two affectionate brothers had met. Napoleon had entirely forgotten the Italian language; but, much chagrined by the loss, he immediately devoted himself with great energy to its recovery. "His habits," says Joseph, "were those of a young man retiring and studious." For nearly a year the two brothers prosecuted their studies vigorously together, while consoling, with their filial love, their revered mother. After some months Napoleon left home again, to rejoin his regiment at Valence. During this brief residence on his native island, with his accustomed habits of industry, he employed the hours of vacation in writing a history of the revolutions in Corsica. At Marseilles he showed the manuscript to the abbé Raynal. The abbé was so much pleased with it that he sent it to Mirabeau. This distinguished man remarked that the essay indicated a genius of the first order.
Joseph studies Law.
Joseph decided, being the eldest brother, to remain at home with his mother, to study law, and commence its practice in Ajaccio, where his mother then resided. He accordingly went to Pisa to attend lectures in the law school connected with the celebrated university in that place. His rank and character secured for him a distinguished reception, and he was presented by the French minister to the grand duke. Here Joseph became deeply interested in the lectures of Lampredi, who boldly advocated the doctrine, then rarely heard in Europe, of the sovereignty of the people. There were many illustrious patriots at Pisa, and many ardent young men, whose minds were imbued with new ideas of political liberty. Freely and earnestly they discussed the themes of aristocratic usurpation, and of the equal rights of all men. Joseph, with enthusiasm, embraced the cause of popular freedom, and became the unrelenting foe of that feudal despotism which then domineered over all Europe. His associates were the most illustrious and cultivated men of the liberal party. At that early period Joseph published a pamphlet advocating the rights of the people.
Commences Practice.
Treatise of Napoleon.
Having finished his studies and taken his degree, Joseph returned to Corsica. He was admitted to the bar in 1788, being then twenty years of age, and commenced the practice of law in Ajaccio. Upon this his return to Corsica he met his brother Napoleon again, who, a few days before, had landed upon the island. Napoleon was then intensely occupied in writing a treatise upon the question, "What are the opinions and the feelings with which it is necessary to inspire men for the promotion of their happiness?"
Testimony of Joseph.
"This was the subject of our conversations," says Joseph, "in our daily walks, which were prolonged upon the banks of the sea; in sauntering along the shores of a gulf which was as beautiful as that of Naples, in a country fragrant with the exhalations of myrtles and oranges. We sometimes did not return home until night had closed over us. There will be found, in what remains of this essay, the opinions and the characteristic traits of Napoleon, who united in his character qualities which seemed to be contradictory – the calm of reason, illumined with the flashes of an Oriental imagination; kindliness of soul, exquisite sensibility; precious qualities which he subsequently deemed it his duty to conceal, under an artificial character which he studied to assume when he attained power, saying that men must be governed by one who is fair and just as law, and not by a prince whose amiability might be regarded as weakness,