her was not a _huissier_ (or bailiff) as is
generally stated, but a _greffier_ (or register of one of the courts of
justice). His mother is a Genoese; she is a woman of very bad
character; and it is currently reported that Napoleon was the son of
General Paoli; and that Louis and Jerome were the sons of the Marquis de
Marbeuf, governor of the island. The conduct of the Marquis to the
family of Bonaparte, then in the utmost indigence, would sanction a
belief in this account; he protected the whole family, but particularly
the sons, and he caused Napoleon to be placed at the Military School of
Brienne, where he supplied him with money. This money was never spent
among his companions, but went to purchase mathematical books and
instruments, and to assist him in erecting fortifications. The only
times when he deigned to amuse himself with others was during the
attacks of these fortifications, and immediately on these being
finished, he would retire and shut himself up among his books and
mathematical instruments. He was, when a boy, always morose, tyrannical
and domineering. "[11]Il motrait dans ces jeux cet esprit de domination
qu'il a depuis manifestee sur le grand theatre du monde; et celui qui
devoit un jour epouvanter l'Europe a commence par etre le maitre et
l'effroi d'une troupe d'enfans[12]."

He left the military college with the rank of lieutenant of artillery,
and bearing a character which was not likely to recommend him among good
men. He had very early displayed principles of a most daring nature. In
a conversation with the master of the academy, some discussion having
taken place on the subject of the difficulty of governing a great
nation, the young Corsican remarked, "that the greatest nations were as
easily managed as a school of boys, but that kings always studied to
make themselves beloved, and thus worked their own ruin." The infant
despot of France was certainly determined that no such foolish humanity
should dictate rules to his ambition. He was once in a private company,
where a lady making some remarks on the character of Marshal Turenne,
declared that she would have loved him had he not burned the Palatinate.
"And of what consequence was that, Madame," said the young Napoleon,
"provided it assisted his plans?" We may here trace the same unfeeling
heart that ordered the explosion of the magazine of Grenelle, which, if
his orders had been executed, must have laid Paris in ruins. Some of my
readers may