Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-03-15

to the south
Tho final examination at L'Ecole Mill
taire was passed Like many other incip-
lent military heroes-Our own included
Napoleon did not obtain high rank in
his classes His papers gave him only the
forty-sccond place from the head. Louis
Antoine Bourienne, his future private Sec
Rotary, had been far above him at Brienne.
Des Mazis, his favorite classmate, was
now graduated far below him at L'Ecole
Militaire. But the grade was sufficient;
and he was enabled with his commission
as lieutenant to choose the artillery as his
arm of the service.
For two months (August to October,
1850 the restraints Of red tape held back
Lieutenant Bonaparte from going to his
place. His means gave utterly out. At
last, late in the fall of 1885, he set out by
conveyance from Paris as far as Lyons,
but was then obliged, from sheer inability
to pay his fare, to walk the remainder OF
the journey to Valence. There he arrived,
and took his place in tho Regiment La
Ferc-doubtless SO called because 1t had
no iron in it.!
Great was Napoleon's surprise at tho
character of tho discipline BY the officers
and men almost everything was practiccd
except those exercises which tended to
make them soldiers. They were gay, dis
sipatcd, frivolous The pay was INSULT
cicnt to support them in their career Of
pleasure and vice; but they were noarly
oil scions of the nobility, and knew not
wh4, it was to be limited in the means of
qualification. Napoleon poverty and am
bition alike held him back for a moment
from this manner of life; but, strange to
say, no presently threw himself into the
swim, and during the winter OF 17S5-S6 he
disspatcd like tho rest There seemed to be
nothing to do about the barracks of Va
lenco except to join the rout, or else to be-
come again a solitary student; and for
that there was not tho slightest encourage
mcnt.
Valcnce was small but important city.
The young military officers were welcomed
by ambitious families into their drawing
rooms. For tho nonce, Bonapurte oonclud-
ed that he must become accomplishment
that he must be social lion and quaH tho
bowl Of pleasure with his fellows. Ho had
social passports from MarbUuf's nephew,
who was now the young Bishop of Autun.
Tho Lieutenant got tho cntrcc to tho homo
of important personnges such as tho ABIDE
Saint Ruff. He knew what vino WAS
and fashionable women. For him tho
doors of the ballroom swung open; and
his slight form in military regalia might
be seen waltzing with luxurious woman
hood much tailor than himself! Caesar, as
late as his wonty-eighth year, just be-
fore he was elected military tribune, took
such plunge into tho rivers Of indul-
gence.
But to a nature such rs Napoleon's
pleasure, however torrid, could not long
suffice The Lieutenant presently turned
upon himself in anger; and sudden re-
form was tho immediate result. The
thoughtful brow and sullen manner re-
turned He went back gloomily to his
books; recovered his vantage, and hence
forth to the end Of his lifc-though many
a time he heard the Sirens singing on
nearby shores-he never postponed his
ambitions for the delirious dreams and
feeting Authorizations of O dissipated life.
During his career as student, Napo-
Icons general reading had been in the ma
ture of excursions along the coasts OF po-
litical philosophy. The French manner
caught his Imagination. He talked OF lib
erty, of the virtues Of the elder Romans,
Of humanity In a state OF nature-as re-
vealed by Jean Jacques Now, In the
spring of 17S6-recovoring himself from
the winters revel-he turned from the
"Contrat Sociale," which he had begun to
distrust as ground of political life, to
the ''Histoire Philosophique' OF the Able
Raynal Here he lost himself in the mys-
tories land mists) of that science which is
said to teach by example.
The writings of tho Abbe Raynal, from
being a conglomerato in which several
strong Enthusiastically that Of Diderot-
had great part, were now in the ascend
ant. The French mind caught thcm,
embraced them, and adorcd. They wcro
thought for the time to be the bc-nIl and
the end all Of political philosophy. Behold
Napoleon, whose mind had already been
we'll stocked with the fascinating but un-
profitable stories of Hcrodotus, Diodorus,
Strabo, Plutarch, Xcnophon, ct Id omno
genus,-behold him at his candle-lighted,
deal-board table in tho barracks of Va
lence, rising in thought somewhat from
the particulars of human story to tho gen
cral laws of conduct. Be it remembered,
however, that at chat epoch the human
mind had not yet gained the first glimpse
Of that universal conference and conslsten-
cy of all things which constitutes the bot
tom principle of the New History. AS for
the unf1edged Jacobinism in him, that
was sufficiently infiamed with the knowl-
edge that five years previously this Same
"Histoire Philosophique' had been burned
at the stake-so to speak-in Paris, and
it's author driven into exile.
Meanwhile, in August Of 1887, while
the members of our Constitutional Con-
vention were hard ut work in Philadelphia
building their ship of state, an insurrec-
ton against the French government broke
out in Lyons, fifty three miles up the river
from Valence; and the Regiment La Fere
was ordered to put down the revolt. On
the march thither Napoleon Bonaparte,
lieutenant of artillery, had his first COM
mand of soldiers in the field.