The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1896-02-07

fifteen months. His occupations at that
place were much like those at Valence and
Aiaccio He performed his military duties
In a deSultory way, but with more exacti-
tude than the French code of military
ethics at that time required. But military
duty demanded only q fraction of his time;
the rest was given TO that intense but
fragmentary study by which his mind was
trained and supplied with a wide range
of information.
The ambition of Napoleon to be an au-
thor did not for the present subside. AT
one time he was on the eve of bringing
out at Paris his History of Corsica. A
publisher agreed to do the work on condi
ton of share-and-s hare-alike in the pro
ceeds. But just at that juncture Mon
seigneur Marbeuf, Bishop of Sens, to
whom the work was dedicated, was deposed
from his see in disgrace. Here was state
of things indeed, TO dedicate great work
TO disgraced ecclesiastical The publica-
tion was accordingly postponed, and the
manuscript recast, with an inscription TO
Paoli. This was plain indication that
the authors mind, rs between French
despotism and Corsican independence, was
strongly tending to the latter
The winter, of 1888 50 was passed by
Bonaparte in his quarters at Auxonne In
the following April that disturbance oc-
Cured mt SeuTre which called forth half
month petty campaign from Napoleon 5
company, and ended in nothing. 1t was
like the episode at Lyons, but less impor-
tant As yet, Lieutenant Bonaparte had
never as a soldier drawn blood, or seen it
drawn by others. His restlessness now
bore him rapidly on to action. His passion
for doing something and for following
his destiny''-a fiction which he was al
ways dwelling upon-led him To commit
himself (ambiguOusly) to the Corsican pa
troits. His adroitness was such, however,
that he kept ever a cord to his purposes
whereby he might recover himself for
France. In fact, he knew not what thing
he would be called to do. or in what cause
his sword should first be actually un-
sheathed His nature was always To avail
himself of the first contingency. Napoleon
is duubtless-such was his sleepless vigi-
lance-the only great man of history who
never lost an opportunity!
Bonaparte was with his regiment, so
called "of Iron" at Auxonne, when the
great Revolution in France began. Within
month from the trifling event at Seurre,
the States General assembled at Versailles
There, on the 9Th of May, 17S9 the most
remarkable political body of modern times
went into session, on the condition OF
France and mankind. There was a process
sion of great men; a gathering to theil
seats in the Hall Of Menus; a seating oil
six hundred representatives of the people
looking down from the gallery of the
young Baroness de Stael- Holstein on the
heads of Riquetti de Mirabeau, the philo
70 ho
the big young Danton of Arcis sur. Aube
the 1.-the Camille, the Sea green Robes
pierre, and the rest. 1t was the beginning
of the end of much-the opening of
small crevasse in the great dyke whereby
|, feudal civilization had walled in the des
TIMES of mankind for centuries. Outside
that ancient wall lay the roaring ocean
soon to rush in wave on wave till the del
uge flecked with blood, should rise to tb,
pinnacles of all palaces, and splash thu
domes of all cathedrals.
The brlit of the great event reached tn
towns and cities and people of France
Men wot not the thing they did. Nom
knew that the ancient order was rushin,
on to doom. None imagined that tn
French monarchy itself was going head
long down to Orcus and eternal night
All stood together on the crumbling verg
of the chasm, and supposed that the.
would easily bridge IL over with some new
card boards of finance and paper billet
legislating bread for men. Vain delusion
of an awful hour Surely salvation 70
France and for mankind lies not tina
way, O Representatives of the Peoplel
The effects of the extraordinary move
ment thus begun for the reform of tn
French nation were strikingly diverse il
the different parts of the kingdom. Franc
was as yet homogeneous in nothing. Tn
towns of the South under the loyal senti
ments of the old Provencal race, receives
the news in one spirit, and the towns O
the North in another. They of the Girond
in the far southwest heard the tidings as
proclamation of good news to men; Will