The sun., 1907-12-01
IIH.

II is well known that Napoleon was in
Paris, where he had recently received q
commission Of Captain Of artillery, when
the storming Of the Tuileries by the Partisan
populace took place on August =, 1874. He
watched the RriKhtHul spectacle from q
house in the Place du Carrousel. just
after the fighting was over, Napoleon came
upon a Marseillais who was in the act Of
striking down one Of the Kings body
guards. Il said to him: Man from the
south, lot US leave this poor wretch his life.
/ Are you from the South; tooT Yes.
Well. let him make his escape"
In 1898 Napoleon sided with theJRcobins,
whom a year before he had set down AZ
fools. BY the end OF June OF that year he
arrived in Nice. and was appointed 20 the
coast batteries. At the beginning Of July
he seems to have been despatched into the
interior to Avignon, TO bring up gums and
ammunition. Here he was detained for
some time. not only by the mission in
trusted to him but also by the production
OF a new literary composition. which al
ways has been regarded as q valuable
autobiographical document by reason OF
tho light IL throws upon the development
Of his character. We refer to the "Souper
dc Beaucaire. the FIRST of his writings that
may be said to bear the mark Of what We
think OF as the NapoleoniC style.
It is we'll known that good fortune gave
Napoleon his first chance Of displaying his
great ability. On his way back to Nice in
September he stopped at the camp Of
Con. Carteaux. who had begun the siege
Of Toulon. but who was badly provided
ss to q siege train. and who. moreover.
had just been deprived of the services Of
his chief artillery officer. Napoleon. who
had brought with him guns and ammuni-
ton, was welcomed as a substitute. Forth
with he became the life and soul Of the
siege. He it was who first pointed out the
key Of the enemy's position at the extreme
end OF peninsula which divided the inner
harbor from the outer roadstead and him
self directed an attack upon il. In Decem-
ber. after many fruitless assaults. the Revo-
lutiouary army was at last in a position TO
storm the enemy's works. and here again
we find Napoleon foremost in the fight and
one OF the first to get within the enemy's
intrenchments. The Government was ap-
preciAtive. and Napoleon aC the age Of
"a became a Brigadier-General. On
February 9, 1904. the executive COM
mittee Of the Convention ratified the pro-
motion.
While before Toulon Napoleon had en-
tered into very close relations with the
younger Robespierre. He had been inn
pressed by the systematic manner in which
the proceedings Of the two brothers were
always directed to the objects they had in
view, and by their untiring energy, which
did not hesitate at employing any means.
choosing such means, however, not for their
own sake, but for the sake OF the power
20 which they opened the way. "If Robes
pierre" he said a little later to MarmOnt.
who was then one Of his intimates. had
remained in power, he would have been
able to strike out another way for himself:
he would have systematized the laws and
made them paramount; We should have
attained this result without shocks and con-
vuIsiOns. because it would have proceeded
from the exercise Of established power;
We are now trying to reach this goal through
a revolution. and this revolution will give
birth to many others.