The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1895-03-15
EBENSBURG, PA, FRIDAY. MARCH Is, 1885,
NAPOLEoN.s pEsPoNpENCY.
Bad News from His Home Made Him
Talk OF Suicide.


Talk of Suicide.
The agreeable and studious life at
Nalcnce was soon ended. writes Prof.
Sloane in Century. Early in August.
1877. a little rebellion. known a. the
''Two-cent Revolt broke out in LYONS
over an attempt to reaSsert an ancient
feudal right concerning the sale OF wine
which had long been in allowance. The
neighboring garriSons were ordered to
furnish their respective quotas for its
suppression. Bonaparte's company was
sent among others, but the disturbance
was already quelled when he arrived
and the month he spent at LYONS was
50 agreeable that, a. he wrote his uncle
FcSch, he left the city with regret to
follow his destiny" His regiment had
E-en ordered northward to Douay in
Flanders. and there he rejoined it about
the middle of October.
The short time he spent under the in
element skies of that frontier fortress
WIS a dreary one. Bad news came from
home Joseph had some time before
turned his eyes towards Tuscany for
possible career In order to test his
chances of success at court. he had
made application for an empty decora-
ton. The answer to his request had
been gracious permission to prove his
Tuscan nationality. which was. of
course. equivalent to a repulsc. Utterly
without success in finding occupation
in Corsica, an d hopeless a. to France. he
was now about to make final dcSper-
ate effort, and. decorated or not. to go
in person to Florence and to seek en-
plOyment of any kind which offered.
Lucien. the archdeacon. was seriously
i'll. and Gen. Narbeuf. the last infiucn-
tial friend of the family. was dead.
Louis had been promised scholarship
in one of the royal artillery schools: de
prived of his patron. he would probably
lose the appointment.
Finally, the pecunfary affairs Of
Mime. de Buonaparte were again en-
tangled. and now appeared hopeless.
She had for some time received a state
bounty for planting mulberry trees. a.
France was introducing silk culture
into the island. The Inspector, had
condemned the years work. and were
Withholding the allowance. Her letter
put an end for q time to all study. his
torical or political. Napoleon imme-
diatcly applied. aS his mother request
ed, for leave OF absence. that he might
instantly set out to her relief. His re-
quest was refused. lie could obtain no
leave until January.
Despondent and anxious. he moped.
grew miserable, and contracted a slight
malarial fever. which for the next six
or seven years never entirely relaxed
its hold on him. The pages OF his jour
nal for the ensuing weeks show how
di>piritcd he was. and contain. among
other things. a long. wild. pc>SiIniStic
rhapsody. in which there l. talk OF
suicide. The plaint i Of the dc~cn-
cracy among men. Of the destruction Of
primitive simplicity in Corsica 10y the
French occupation. OF his own isolation.
and of his yearning To- see his friends
once more. Life l. no longer worth
while: his country gone. patriot has
naught to live for. specially when ne
has no pleasure and all i pain-xhcn
the character of those about him i To
his own as moonlight To- sunlight. Ii
there were but single life in his way
he would bury the avenging blade Of
his country and her violated laws in
the bosom OF the tyrant. Some of his
complaining was even less coherent
than this 1t Il absurd To take the
morbid outpouring seriously. except in
80 far a 1t goes To prove that its writer
was a victim of the sentimental cgoisln
into which the psychological studies Of
the eighteenth century had dcgen-
Grated. and to suggest that possibly if
he had not been Napoleon he might
have been a Werther.