on the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 he eagerly
espoused the democratic and anti-clerical movement then sweeping over
France. On returning to Corsica he became the leading speaker in the
Jacobin club at Ajaccio. Pushing even Napoleon to more decided action,
Lucien urged his brothers to break with Paoli, the leader of the more
conservative party, which sought to ally itself with England as against
the regicide republic of France. He headed a Corsican deputation which
went to France in order to denounce Paoli and to solicit aid for the
democrats; but, on the Paolists gaining the upper hand, the Bonapartes
left the island and joined Lucien at Toulon. In the south of France he
worked hard for the Jacobinical cause, and figured as "Brutus" in the
Jacobin club of the small town of St Maximin (then renamed Marathon).
There on the 4th of May 1794 he married Mlle Catherine Boyer, though he
was a minor and had not the consent of his family--an act which brought
him into a state almost approaching disgrace and penury. The _coup
d'etat_ of Thermidor (July 28, 1794) compelled the young disciple of
Robespierre hurriedly to leave St Maximin, and to accept a small post at
St Chamans. There he was arrested and imprisoned for a time until
Napoleon's influence procured his release, and further gained for him a
post as commissioner in the French army campaigning in Germany. Lucien
soon conceived a dislike for a duty which opened up no vista for his
powers of oratory and political intrigue, and repaired to Corsica. In
the hope of being elected a deputy of the island, he refused an
appointment offered by Napoleon in the army of Egypt in 1798. His hopes
were fulfilled, and in 1798 he entered the Council of Five Hundred at
Paris. There his vivacious eloquence brought him into prominence, and he
was president of that body on the eventful day of the 19th of Brumaire
(November 10) 1799, when Napoleon overthrew the national councils of
France at the palace of St Cloud. The refusal of Lucien to put the vote
of outlawry, for which the majority of the council clamoured, his
opportune closing of the sitting, and his appeal to the soldiers outside
to disperse _les representants du poignard_, turned the scale in favour
of his brother.

By a strange irony this event, the chief event of Lucien's life, was
fatal to the cause of democracy of which he had been the most eager
exponent. In one of his earlier letters to his brother Joseph, Lucien
stated th