This etext was produced from the 1902 Harper and Brothers edition by
David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
MR. BONAPARTE OF CORSICA
by John Kendrick Bangs
CHAPTER I: CORSICA TO BRIENNE1769-1779
Napoleon's father, Charles Bonaparte, was the honored progenitor ofthirteen children, of whom the man who subsequently became theEmperor of the French, by some curious provision of fate, was thesecond. That the infant Napoleon should have followed rather thanled the procession is so foreign to the nature of the man that manyworthy persons unfamiliar with the true facts of history havebelieved that Joseph was a purely apocryphal infant, or, as some havesuggested, merely an adopted child; but that Napoleon did upon thisoccasion content himself with second place is an incontrovertiblefact. Nor is it entirely unaccountable. It is hardly to be supposedthat a true military genius, such as Napoleon is universally concededto have been, would plunge into the midst of a great battle withoutfirst having acquainted himself with the possibilities of the future.A reconnoitre of the field of action is the first duty of asuccessful commander; and hence it was that Napoleon, not wishing torush wholly unprepared into the battle of life, assigned to hisbrother Joseph the arduous task of first entering into the world tosee how the land lay. Joseph having found everything to hissatisfaction, Napoleon made his appearance in the little island ofCorsica, recently come under French domination the 15th day August,1769. Had he been born two months earlier, we are told, he wouldhave been an Italian. Had he been born a hundred years later, it isdifficult to say what he would have been. As it was, he was born aFrenchman. It is not pleasant to contemplate what the man's futurewould have been had he been born an Italian, nor is it easy topicture that future with any confidence born of certainty. Since thedays of Caesar, Italy had not produced any great military commander,and it is not likely that the powers would have changed their scheme,confirmed by sixteen centuries of observance, in Napoleon's behalf—afact which Napoleon himself realized, for he often said in his latterdays, with a shudder: "I hate to think how inglorious I should havebecome had I been born two months earlier and entered the world as anItalian. I should have been another Joseph—not that Joseph is not agood man, but he is not a great man. Ah! Bourrienne, we cannot betoo careful in the selection of our birthdays."
It is the testimony of all who knew him in his infancy that Napoleonwas a good child. He was obedient and respectful to his mother, andsometimes at night when, on account of some indigestible quality ofhis food or other cause, it was necessary for his father to make aseries of forced marches up and down the spacious nursery in thebeautiful home at Ajaccio, holding the infant warrior in his arms,certain premonitions of his son's future career dawned upon theparent. His anguish was voiced in commanding tones; his wails, likehis subsequent addresses to his soldiers, were short, sharp, clear,and decisive, nor would he brook the slightest halt in these midnightmarches until the difficulties which stood in his path had beenovercome. His confidence in himself at this early period wasremarkable. Quick to make up his mind, he was tenacious of hispurpose to the very end.
It is related that when barely seven months old, while sitting in hisnurse's lap, by means of signs which she could not fail tocomprehend, he expressed the desire, which, indeed, is characteristicof most healthy Children of that age, to pos