he suddenly developed great zeal in the study of artillery,
theoretical and practical, and that he redoubled his industry in the
pursuit of historical and political science. In the former line he
worked diligently and became expert. With his instructor Duteil he
grew intimate and the friendship was close throughout life. He
associated on the best of terms with his old friend des Mazis and
began a pleasant acquaintance with Gassendi. So faithful was he to the
minutest details of his profession that he received marks of the
highest distinction. Not yet twenty and only a second lieutenant, he
was appointed, with six officers of higher rank, a member of the
regimental commission to study the best disposal of mortars and cannon
in firing shells. Either at this time or later (the date is
uncertain), he had sole charge of important manoeuvers held in honor
of the Prince of Conde. These honors he recounted with honest pride in
a letter dated August twenty-second to his great-uncle. Among the
Fesch papers are considerable fragments of his writing on the theory,
practice, and history of artillery. Antiquated as are their contents,
they show how patient and thorough was the work of the student, and
some of their ideas adapted to new conditions were his permanent
possession, as the greatest master of artillery at the height of his
fame. In the study of politics he read Plato and examined the
constitutions of antiquity, devouring with avidity what literature he
could find concerning Venice, Turkey, Tartary, and Arabia. At the same
time he carefully read the history of England, and made some accurate
observations on the condition of contemporaneous politics in France.

[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