s
clear, and the commander unwisely opened his lines to occupy the
evacuated towns on his front. Carteaux entered Avignon on the
twenty-sixth; on the twenty-seventh he collected his force and
departed, reaching Tarascon on the twenty-eighth, and on the
twenty-ninth Beaucaire. Buonaparte, whose battery had done excellent
service, advanced for some distance with the main army, but was
ordered back to protect the rear by reorganizing and reconstructing
the artillery park which had been dismantled in the assault on
Avignon.

[Footnote 36: These are the most probable reasons for
the retreat. Several local chroniclers, Soullier, Audri,
and Joudou, writing all three about 1844, declare each
and all that Buonaparte with his battery followed the
right bank of the Rhone as far as the Rocher de Justice
where he mounted his guns and opened fire on the walls
of the city. His fire was so accurate that he destroyed
one cannon and killed several gunners. The besieged
garrison of federalists were thrown into panic and
decamped. Neither the contemporary authorities nor
Napoleon himself ever mentioned any such remarkable
circumstances. In fact, a passage of the "Souper de
Beaucaire" attributes the retreat to the inability of
any except veteran troops to withstand a siege. Finally,
Buonaparte would surely have been promoted for such an
exploit. Dommartin, a comrade, was thus rewarded for a
much smaller service.]

This first successful feat of arms made a profound impression on
Buonaparte's mind, and led to the decision which settled his career.
His spirits were still low, for he was suffering from a return of his
old malarial trouble. Moreover, his family seems already to have been
driven from Toulon by the uprising of the hostile party: in any case
they were now dependent on charity; the Corsican revolt against the
Convention was virtually successful, and it was said that in the
island the name of Buonaparte was considered as little less execrable
than that of Buttafuoco. What must he do to get a decisive share in
the surging, rolling tumult about him? The visionary boy was transformed
into the practical man. Frenchmen were fighting and winning glory
everywhere, and among the men who were reaping laure