before, do not permit us to regard him as wholly selfish. In Corsica he came into collision with Paoli―for Napoleon wished Corsica to remain French―and Paoli retorted by giving orders for the arrest and expulsion of the Bonaparte family; and with their property pillaged and burned behind them, the large and poverty-stricken family fled from their native island to Marseilles. In Marseilles Napoleon's pay was the chief support of the family; this was supplemented by the public relief given to distressed patriots who had suffered for the cause.
I pass rapidly over the episode at Toulon―which first gave Napoleon prominence with the observation that his action was not so highly regarded at the time as at a subsequent date. Bonaparte's name is scarcely mentioned in the bulletins, but he succeeded, in those days of improvised soldiers and quick promotions, in being made a General of Brigade.
Then there is another interval, during a portion of which he is imprisoned, and in some danger, as everybody was in the days of the Terror; and finally he is called to Paris in order to take part in the Vendean war. He is asked, however, to descend from the artillery to the infantry; he declines, and for some months he is in Paris―without employment, without money, without much hope. All kinds of projects hovered before his mind. There was an idea of his being sent to Turkey to put the troops of the Grand Sultan in
