Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-11-01
NApOLEON'S SCHOOL DAYS.
Were Full of Bitterness and Marked
by Quarrels.


He Challenged One OF His FeIlow-pupils
who Haunted Him ON His Ancestry to
Fight a Duel-He Had no Companion
ship.
Prof. w. NJ. Sloane's new Life of
Napoleon, which begins in the Novem-
Der number of the Oentury, devotes more
attention than anyprevious memoir to the
youth of Napoleon. This school days,
Prof. Sloane writes:
1t was an old charge that the sons of
poor gentlemen destined to be artillery
officers were bred like princes. Brienne,
with nine other similar academies, had
been but recently founded as u protest
against the luxury which had reigned in
the military schools at Paris and La
Fleche. Both the latter were closed for
a time because they could not be re-
formed; that at Paris was afterward re-
opened as finishing school. Various
religious orders were put i'll charge OF
the new colleges, and instructed to Sc.
cure simplicity OF life and manners, the
formation of character, and other de-
siratle benefits, each one in its own way
in the school or schools intrusted to it,
The result so far had been failure;
structors to be found in France for the
new positions in each branch; the in
struction was therefore much impaired,
and with it declined the right standards
of behavior, while the old notions of
hollow courtlinesS and conventional
manner fourished as never before.
! Money and polished manners, therefore,
were the things most needed to secure
kind treatment for an entering boy.
These were exactly what the young
| foundation scholar from Corsica had
not. The ignorant and unworldly
| Minim fathers could neither foresee nor,
| if they had foreseen, alleviate the mis-
cries incident to his arrival under such
conditions.
At Autun Napoleon had at least en-
! joyed the sympathetic society of his
mild and Unconditional brother, whose
| easy going nature would smooth many
rough place. He WAS now entirely
without companionship, resenting from
the outset both the ill.natured attacks
and the playful personal illusions
through which boys so often begin, and
with time knit ever more firmly, their
inexplicahle friendships. To the taunts
about Corsica, which began immedi-
ately, he answered coldly, 81 hope one
day to be in position to give Corsica
her liberty" Entering on another oc-
casion room in which, unknown to
him, there hung portrait of the hated
Ghoi5eul, he started back as he caught
sight Of it and burst into bitter revil-
ings, for this he was compelled to
undergo chastisement Brienne was II
nursery for the qualities first developed
at Autun. Dark, solitary and untamed,
the new scholar assumed the inditfer-
ence of wounded vanity, despised all
pastmes and found delight either in
books or in scornful evaporation Of his
comrades when compelled TO associate
with them. There were quarrels and
!, bitter fights, in which the lshmaelite's
!, hand was against every other. Some.
times in kind of frenzy he inflicted
J serious wounds on his fellow-students
, At length even the teachers Knocked
, him and deprived him of his position as
captain in the school battalion.
, The climax of the miserable business
was reached when to taunt that his
ancestry was nothing, "his father Q
wretched tipstaff,h Napoleon replied by
challenging his tormentor to fight q
duel For this offence he was put in
confinement while the instigator went
UNPUBLISHED. 1t was by the intervention
of Marbeuf, who came in person, tina
his young friend was at length released
Bruised and wounded in spirit, the boy
would gladly have shaken the dust O
, BrieDne from his feet, hut necessity for
babe. Either from the talk Napoleon
, had with his protector, or through dra
matte but unauthenticated letter pur
porting to have been written by him tc
: his friends in Corsica, and still in exist
ence, Marheuf learned that the chiefes
cause of all the bitterness was the in
equality between the pocket allowances
! of the young French mobiles and that o
the young Corsican. The kindly genera
displayed the generosity Of family frient
: and gladly increased his gratuity, ad
. ministering at the same time smart re
Duke to the boy for his readiness to tax
: offence. He likewise introduced hi
young charge to Nine. de Brienne
/ whose mansion was near by. This nobl
woman became second mother to tn
i lonely child; his vacations and holiday
a were passed with her; her tenderness
+ softened the rude nature, the more so a
= she knew the value Of tips to school
, boy, and administered them LIBERAL,
A and judiciously.