Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 2

"He laughed merrily and agreed with me. The order was given to try the range. The result was that the cold shot didn't carry more than a third of the distance. The bombarding of the fort was put off another day.

"Luckily Gasparin, the direct representative of the people with plenary powers, came riding up that night, and I told him what I had seen and heard. He agreed that the man in command was incompetent, and put me in charge. You all know the rest. I began the attack on the outlet of Toulon and was successful. Gasparin consoled Cartaux by telling him that I was only a subordinate, and that all the glory would go to him anyhow."

During this siege of the "Little Gibraltar Castle" Bonaparte showed his extensive knowledge of mankind, and which enabled him to discover and attach to him those men whose talents were most distinguished, and most capable of rendering him service. Several who afterwards became marshals and generals under the Empire, first made Napoleon's acquaintance at Toulon. Among these were Duroc and Junot. During one of the days of this long siege Napoleon, in pa.s.sing one of the trenches, called for some one to write an order from his dictation, and in obedience to this request a young and handsome soldier stepped out of the ranks, and resting his paper on the breastwork, began to write as directed.

Scarcely had he done so when a cannon ball fell at his feet and covered both commander and private with dirt. The soldier laughingly held up his paper and said: "Thank you, now I shall need no sand."

Napoleon was so pleased with his bravery, and ready wit, that he immediately promoted him. The name of this fortunate man was General Junot; he subsequently became Duke of Abrantes and was one of the most distinguished generals of the Empire under Napoleon. An apparent total insensibility to fatigue was observed in the young Corsican officer at this time. He worked through daylight, and slept nights wrapped in a blanket under his guns till his batteries were ready to begin operations.

During the siege Paris was very restless, and after a few weeks had pa.s.sed it became almost the sole topic of conversation at the capital; the newspapers contained innumerable suggestions for the ending of the siege, and hundreds of letters were addressed to the officers at Toulon, telling them how to drive the English from the sh.o.r.es of France. One day fifteen carriages arrived at Toulon containing sixty young men who had journeyed thither from the capital; they were gorgeously arrayed and asked to be presented to the commander-in-chief.

Bonaparte received the party courteously and asked what he could do for them. "Citizen Bonaparte," said the spokesman, "we come from Paris. The patriots there are indignant at your indecision and delay. The soil of the Republic has been violated. She trembles to think that the insult still remains unavenged. She asks, 'Why is Toulon not yet taken? Why is the English fleet not yet destroyed?' In her indignation she has appealed to her brave sons. We have obeyed her summons and burn with impatience to fulfill her expectations. We are volunteer gunners from Paris. Furnish us with arms. To-morrow we will march against the enemy!"

Early on the following day Napoleon conducted the "volunteers" to the seash.o.r.e. During the night he had ordered a number of cannon placed in position and as he pointed to the black hull out at sea he said: "Sink that s.h.i.+p!"

At some distance from the sh.o.r.e lay an English frigate, upon whose deck were to be seen a formidable array of cannon, all pointed sh.o.r.ewards.

"But there is no shelter here!" said the volunteers in chorus. At this moment a broadside was fired by the gunners on the frigate and the brilliantly decorated patriots from the capital fled in every direction, amid the smiles of the commander-in-chief who at once gave orders for his own gunners to return the fire of the enemy.

Toulon was at last retaken on December 17th, the siege having lasted four months.

When Bonaparte at last raised the French emblem over the city, and as it floated with the breezes over a scene of desolation long remembered by those who witnessed it, he said to Dugommier: "Go to sleep; we have taken Toulon!"

It was here that Napoleon was first severely wounded. When his body was being prepared for burial at St. Helena there was found upon his left thigh so deep a scar that it was nearly possible to place one's finger in it. This had been caused by a bayonet thrust received during this engagement, and in consequence of which he nearly lost his leg. In addition to the wound he had a number of horses shot under him. Another of the dangers which he incurred was of a singular character. An artilleryman being shot at the gun which he was serving, while Napoleon was visiting a battery, the commander took up the dead man's rammer, and to give encouragement to the soldiers, charged the gun with his own hands. The gunner had been afflicted with a skin disease which Napoleon contracted from the weapon, and for a number of years afterward he suffered from its ravages.

Soon after the retaking of Toulon Bonaparte accompanied General Dugommier to Ma.r.s.eilles. Some one struck with his appearance asked the general _who that little bit of an officer was, and where he picked him up_?

"That officer's name," replied the general, "is Bonaparte: I picked him up at the siege of Toulon, to the successful termination of which he eminently contributed; and you will probably see, one day, _that this little bit of an officer_ is a greater man than any of us!"

Napoleon was now rapidly rising in reputation. His science as an artillery officer and his valor had saved France from humiliation--taught her enemies to respect her--had suppressed the spirit of insurrection in the southern provinces, and had given the government of the Convention control of the whole army.

It has been said that Napoleon's fame first came to the knowledge of Barras, a member of the Directory, through a letter taken by his young protege to Paris not long after this siege. It was a commendatory letter addressed to Carnot in which Barras thus expressed himself: "I send you a young man who has distinguished himself very much during the siege, and earnestly recommend you to advance him speedily: _If you do not, he will most a.s.suredly advance himself!_"

Bonaparte's name was on the list of those whom the veteran Dugommier recommended for promotion, and he was accordingly confirmed in his provisional situation of chief of battalion and appointed to hold that rank in Italy. He therefore proceeded to join the headquarters of the French army then lying at Nice. Here he suggested a plan by which the Sardinians were driven from the Coe di Tendi. Saorgio, with all its stores, soon surrendered, and the French obtained possession of the maritime Alps, so that the difficulties of advancing into Italy were greatly diminished. Of these movements, however, Napoleon's superior officers reaped as yet the honor. While directing the means of attaining these successes Bonaparte acquired a complete acquaintance with that Alpine country in which he was shortly to obtain victories in his own name, not in that of others who were now rapidly acquiring reputation by acting on his timely suggestions.

One of his favorite methods of planning manoeuvres he originated at this time while studying his maps and plans of the Alpine country. He had so familiarized himself with the locality that no point of importance was unknown to him. With this data before him, Bonaparte would sit for hours, intent on studying the maps of the country, and upon which he had stuck pins, the heads of which he had covered with wax of various shades. One color was used to designate the French, another the enemy, and by changing the location of the pins on the map he formed various intricate plans of attack and retreat that some years later were most valuable to him. This ingenious scheme is often used at the present day by large wholesale houses to designate the territory of their salesmen while travelling about the country.

While in Nice Napoleon was suddenly arrested and thrown into prison on an order sent from Paris by the Committee of Public Safety. He had been sent there with secret instructions from the government "to collect facts that would throw light upon the intentions of the Genoese government respecting coalition, etc.," and although he acquitted himself with all the care necessary to success, his excess of zeal came nearly ending fatally to him, for it was a time when it was safe to have secrets from no one. It was a time, too, when revolutionists owed it to themselves to arrest their predecessors, and as there had been a change in the government, Napoleon's secret journey was unknown to Salicetti and Albitte, who had succeeded Ricord.

Young Robespierre, who received the order of arrest, was much astounded at it. The doc.u.ment added that the prisoner was to be at once brought under a strong escort to Fort Carre near Antibes and there imprisoned and tried "for treason against the Republic." Robespierre asked Napoleon to come into his room, and showed him the doc.u.ment, which might mean death. Then he said: "You must not go away yet. I will put you under arrest, and then I will write to my brother, who has some influence with the committee. He may be able to get the order rescinded."

Napoleon refused to get agitated over his arrest. Junot, Sebastiani and Marmont, his young aides-de-camp, had formed a plan of escape and advised him to choke the guard, steal a small boat, and flee to the Corsican coast, where he could hide himself in the mountains. Bonaparte, knowing his innocence, refused to try to escape, but addressed the following letter to Junot, et al: "I fully recognize your friends.h.i.+p, my dear Junot, in the proposition you make me: you have long known the sincerity of mine for you, and I hope that you trust in it. Men may be unjust towards me, my dear Junot, but for me my innocence is sufficient.

My conscience is the tribunal before which I summon my conduct. This conscience is calm when I question it. Do nothing, therefore; all friendly greetings. BONAPARTE.

_Under arrest at Fort Carre, Antibes._"

It was only when told that he was dismissed from the army, and declared unworthy of public confidence, that he addressed a spirited letter to Albitte and Salicetti, the committee that ordered his arrest, and which caused them to reconsider their resolution.

In his dramatic communication to this committee, Bonaparte said in part: "You have suspended me from my functions, arrested and declared me suspected. Therein you have branded me without judging,--or rather judged without hearing. * * * Hear me; destroy the oppression that environs me, and restore me in the estimation of patriotic men. An hour after, if villains desire my life, I shall esteem it but little; I have despised it often."

In a few days the influence of the great Robespierre had made itself felt; a message was consequently received rescinding the order and Napoleon was honorably discharged from custody. His papers had been examined, and as nothing was found in them to implicate him, he was set at liberty at once. In those stormy times more than one innocent man had been sent to the guillotine on a less flimsy accusation than this, and Napoleon had, therefore, good reason to be thankful for the interposition of Robespierre.

At this time the young warrior was most studious, and is said to have thus early acquired the habit of taking short s.n.a.t.c.hes of sleep, which seemed to refresh him fully as much as the longer periods required by others. While at Nice one of his friends, on a particular occasion, went to Napoleon's apartments long before daybreak, and not doubting that he was still in bed, knocked gently at the door, fearful of disturbing him too abruptly. Upon entering his chamber he was not a little astonished at finding Bonaparte dressed as during the day, with plans, maps and various books scattered around him.

"What!" exclaimed the visitor, "not yet in bed?"

"In bed," replied Napoleon, "I am already risen."

"Indeed, and why so early?"

"Oh, two or three hours are enough for any man to sleep!" was the general's reply.

Some years later, when Bonaparte was forming the "_Code Napoleon_," he astonished the Council of State by the readiness with which he ill.u.s.trated any point in discussion by quoting the Roman Civil Law, a subject which might seem entirely foreign to him, since the greater part of his life had been pa.s.sed on the battlefield. On being asked how he had acquired so familiar a knowledge of law affairs he replied: "When I was lieutenant I was put under arrest, unjustly, it is true, but that is nothing to the point. The little room which was a.s.signed for my prison contained no furniture but an old chair and an old cupboard: in the cupboard was a ponderous volume, older and more worm-eaten than all the rest. It proved to be a digest of the Roman law. As I had neither paper, pens, ink or pencil, you may easily imagine that this book was a valuable prize to me. It was so voluminous and the leaves were so covered with marginal notes in ma.n.u.script that, had I been confined one hundred years I could never have been idle. I was only deprived of my liberty ten days; but, on recovering it, I was saturated with Justinian and the decisions of the Roman legislators. _Thus, I picked up my knowledge of the Civil Law._"

Bonaparte did not resume his functions at Nice, after his release from imprisonment, but repaired to Ma.r.s.eilles where his mother was living in distressed circ.u.mstances. Before the end of the year he again came to Paris to solicit employment. At first he met with nothing but repulses.

Aubry, president of the military committee, objected to his youth, at which Bonaparte replied rather sharply: "One ages quickly on battlefields, and I have just left one." The president, who had not seen much actual service himself, thought he was insulted, and treated Napoleon very coldly in consequence.

Shortly afterwards Bonaparte was offered the command of a brigade of infantry which he refused, declaring that nothing could induce him to leave the artillery. Writing to Sucy, a friend, on this subject, Napoleon said: "I have been ordered to serve as a general of the line in La Vendee. I will not accept. Many soldiers could direct a brigade better than I, and few have commanded artillery with greater success."

His refusal was followed by the erasure of his name from the list of general officers in employment. Some time later he asked for a commission to Turkey to form a barrier against the encroachments of Russia and England, but it was not granted. No answer was returned to his memorial, over which he conversed for some weeks with great enthusiasm. "How strange it would be," he said to his friends, "if a little Corsican should become king of Jerusalem." Already he was contemplating greatness, and firmly believed in his "Star of Destiny."

At length he was nominated to the command of a brigade of artillery in Holland. The long-deferred appointment was, no doubt, very welcome; but in the meantime his services were called for in a more important field.

When the National Guard sided with the enemies of the Convention, and took up arms against the Government, a man of force and decision was needed to defend them from the insurgents. A collision had taken place on October 3rd, 1795, when the troops of the Convention were withdrawn by that body. The insurgents, who represented the forty-eight sections of Paris, were prepared to attack the Palace of the Tuileries next morning with upwards of 40,000 men, and take the Government in their own hands. The nation, and especially the superior cla.s.ses, aided by the Royalists, were indignant at the conduct of the members of the Convention,--who schemed to perpetuate themselves in office,--and formed a most formidable opposition to the measures of the existing Government.

General Bonaparte was at the theatre when informed of the events that were pa.s.sing. He at once hastened to the a.s.sembly where he found the members in the heat of debate and greatly exercised over their approaching danger.

Deliberating with Tallien and Carnot, Barras, who had been present at Toulon during the siege, said: "There is but one man who can save us. I have the man whom you want; _it is a little Corsican officer who will not stand upon_ _ceremony!_" Napoleon was sent for and notified that he had been chosen to defend the Government as second in command under Barras. Unknown to the a.s.sembly, he had been present at their meeting, and heard all that had been said of him. He deliberated on the best course to pursue for more than half an hour, and at last decided to take up their cause, if allowed to do so in his own way. When Barras presented Napoleon to the Convention as a fit man to be intrusted with the command, the President asked:

"Are you willing to undertake the defense of the Convention?"

"Yes," was the reply.

"Are you aware of the magnitude of the undertaking?"

"Perfectly; and I am in the habit of accomplis.h.i.+ng that which I undertake. I accept, but I warn you that, once my sword is out of the scabbard, I shall not replace it until I have established order."

He refused, however, to accept the appointment unless he received it free from all interference. The trembling Convention quickly yielded, and although Barras enjoyed the t.i.tle of "Commander-in-chief," Bonaparte was actually in control of the troops.

Upon consultation with Menou, who was then in prison, and whom he succeeded, Napoleon quickly obtained the information desired. He learned that the available defense consisted of but 5,000 soldiers of all descriptions, with 40 pieces of cannon then at Sablons and guarded by only one hundred and fifty men. Without the loss of a moment Napoleon began his preparations for the morrow which was to decide whether the mob was to triumph, and France lose all the fruits of her Revolution, or law and order be established. His first act was to dispatch Murat, then a major of cha.s.seurs, to Sablons, five miles off, where the cannon were posted. The Sectionaries sent a stronger detachment to seize these cannon immediately afterwards; and Murat, who pa.s.sed them in the dark, would have gone in vain had he received his orders but a few moments later, or had he been less active.

When the reveille sounded on the morning of October 4th, over 32,000 National Guards advanced by different streets to the siege of the palace; but its defense was in firmer hands than those of Louis XVI.--the hero of Toulon was now at the helm.

At the Church St. Roche the column which was advancing along the Rue St.

Honore, found a detachment of Napoleon's troops drawn up in line with two cannon to dispute their pa.s.sage. It is unknown which side began the firing, but in an instant Napoleon's artillery swept the streets and lanes, scattering grape-shot among the National Guards, and producing such confusion that they were soon compelled to give way. The first shot was a signal for opening all the batteries which Bonaparte had established, the quays of the Seine opposite the Tuileries being commanded by his guns below the palace and on the bridges.

In less than an hour the action was over. The insurgents fled in all directions, leaving the streets covered with the dead and wounded. The troops of the Convention then marched into the various Sections, disarmed the terrified inhabitants, and before nightfall everything was quiet. The sun went down as calmly over the helpless city as though nothing had happened. That same evening the theatres were opened and illuminated, and there were general rejoicings on almost every hand.

Napoleon's star rose that night above the horizon; all Paris rushed to catch a glimpse of the young commander, and for many years afterwards France continued to look to him for protection,--and not in vain.

On the night of the 13th Vendemiaire Napoleon wrote to his brother Joseph, saying: "At last all is finished and I hasten to send you news of myself. The Royalists, formed into Sections, were becoming daily more threatening. The Convention gave orders for the disarmament of the Lepelletier Section which resisted the troops. Menou, who commanded, was, it is said, a traitor, and was immediately disgraced. The Convention appointed Barras to command the armed forces; the committee named me to command them under him. We placed our troops; the enemy came to attack us at the Tuileries. We killed many of them, and lost thirty killed and sixty wounded of our men. We have disarmed the Sections, and all is peace again. As usual I am unhurt. P.S. Fortune is on my side.