forge about a man.

In the interval between nomination and confirmation the young
aspirant, through the fault of his friends, was involved in a most
serious risk. Salicetti, and the Buonaparte brothers, Joseph, Lucien,
and Louis, went wild with exultation over the fall of Toulon, and
began by reckless assumptions and untruthful representations to reap
an abundant harvest of spoils. Joseph, by the use of his brother's
Corsican commission, had posed as a lieutenant-colonel; he was now
made a commissary-general of the first class. Louis, without regard to
his extreme youth, was promoted to be adjutant-major of artillery--a
dignity which was short-lived, for he was soon after ordered to the
school at Chalons as a cadet, but which served, like the greater
success of Joseph, to tide over a crisis. Lucien retained his post as
keeper of the commissary stores in St. Maximin, where he was the
leading Jacobin, styling himself Lucius Brutus, and rejoicing in the
sobriquet of "the little Robespierre."

The positions of Lucien and Louis were fantastic even for
revolutionary times. Napoleon was fully aware of the danger, and was
correspondingly circumspect. It was possibly at his own suggestion
that he was appointed, on December twenty-sixth, 1793, inspector of
the shore fortifications, and ordered to proceed immediately on an
inspection of the Mediterranean coast as far as Mentone. The
expedition removed him from all temptation to an unfortunate display
of exultation or anxiety, and gave him a new chance to display his
powers. He performed his task with the thoroughness of an expert; but
in so doing, his zeal played him a sorry trick, eclipsing the caution
of the revolutionist by the eagerness of the sagacious general. In his
report to the minister of war he comprehensively discussed both the
fortification of the coast and the strengthening of the navy, which
were alike indispensable to the wonderful scheme of operations in
Italy which he appears to have been already revolving in his mind. The
Army of Italy, and in fact all southeastern France, depended at the
moment for sustenance on the commerce of Genoa, professedly a neutral
state and friendly to the French republic. This essential trade could
be protected only by making interference from the English and the
Spaniards impossible, or at least difficult.

Arrived at Marseilles, and with these ideas occupying his whole mind,
Buonaparte regarded the situation as serious. The Brit