fact, to the
latest times,--he courted the society of the lowly, and established,
when possible, a certain intimacy with them. This gave him popularity,
while at the same time it enabled him to obtain the most valuable
indications of the general temper.

CHAPTER XI.

Traits of Character.

Literary Work -- The Lyons Prize -- Essay on Happiness --
Thwarted Ambition -- The Corsican Patriots -- The Brothers
Napoleon and Louis -- Studies in Politics -- Reorganization
of the Army -- The Change in Public Opinion -- A New Leave
of Absence -- Napoleon Again at Auxonne -- Napoleon as a
Teacher -- Further Literary Efforts -- The Sentimental
Journey -- His Attitude Toward Religion.

[Sidenote: 1791.]

On his return to Ajaccio, the rising agitator continued as before to
frequent his club. The action of the convention at Orezza in
displacing Buttafuoco had inflamed the young politicians still more
against the renegade. This effect was further heightened when it was
known that, at the reception of their delegates by the National
Assembly, the greater council had, under Mirabeau's leadership,
virtually taken the same position regarding both him and his
colleague. Napoleon had written, probably in the previous year, a
notorious diatribe against Buttafuoco in the form of a letter to its
object and the very night on which the news from Paris was received,
he seized the opportunity to read it before the club at Ajaccio. The
paper, as now in existence, is pompously dated January twenty-third,
1791, from "my summer house of Milleli." This was the retreat on one
of the little family properties, to which reference has been made.
There in the rocks was a grotto known familiarly by that name;
Napoleon had improved and beautified the spot, using it, as he did his
garden at Brienne, for contemplation and quiet study. Although the
letter to Matteo Buttafuoco has been often printed, and was its
author's first successful effort in writing, much emphasis should not
be laid on it except in noting the better power to express tumultuous
feeling, and in marking the implications which show an expansion of
character. Insubordinate to France it certainly is, and intemperate;
turgid, too, as any youth of twenty could well make it. No doubt,
also, it was intended to secure notoriety for the writer. It makes
clear the thorough apprehension its author had as to the radical
character of the Revolution. It is his