The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-14
Educated by the King

The solution of the problem of educat-
Ing their children was easy for the Bona
partes-have the government do it. Count
Marbeuf, the French governor, and a
kindly soul, seconded this plan, and it
was carried out with amazing success.
While Napoleon was bileted on the royal
treasury at Brienne. his elder brother
Joseph was taken into a church school
at Autun, and the young uncle, Joseph
Fesch was placed in the seminary at
AK. all at the Kings expense.
Carlos memorandum when he went
home. after bringing the three boys to
France, was characteristic of the father
of Napoleon: II started for the
court of France, deputy noble of the es-
tates of Corsica, taking with me 100 louis
/ received while in Paris 1000 francs in
qualification from the King. and 100 ecus
in fees and returned without a SOU"
He had. however. brought back from
Paris u beautiful suits of silk and velvet
for himself.
AS fast as the young children grew up
they were regularly and promptly trans
ferred by Carlo to the care and keep of
a generous government, while he HIM
self was on the payroll as assessor of
the royal court of justice in Ajaccio and
drew his emoluments as the deputy of
the Corsican nobility in Paris.
A lawyer by profession, he seems to
have had hardly any other client than
himself While a talented man and in
dustrious enough he labored hard and
constantly all his days to support HIM
self and family by some more respectable
means than earning his living.
School Days in Ajaccio
With his father away most of the time
and his mother ignorant of books Napc-
leon received no education at home From
his uncle, Joseph Fesch he learned the
alphabet and he was taught the catechism
by his great uncle, Luciano Bonaparte,
the archdeacon. At he was sent to
girls school to receive Lessons from nuns,
and next he passed to a brothers school.
Able Recco's, where he gave the first
sign of his aptitude for mathematics.
The boy was only when he bade good
by to his home to enter upon six years
school course among strangers In a
strange land, never again to know
throughout the tender years of youth the
loving care of a mother or the affections
and comforts of family circle Sailing
away from Ajaccio on a winters day
with his father and Joseph and his uncle
Fesch, he first set foot on the soil of
France at Marseiles.
In Strange Land
For three months he stayed with Joseph
at Autun, In order that he might be in
structed little in the French language.
as he still spoke only the italian dialect of
Corsica When the time came for him
to leave for Brienne the elder brother
wept loudly at the parting. but only one
tear escaped Napoleons self-repression,
and that evidence Of weakness was quick
ly brushed away. Joseph might cry he
was going to be priest. but soldier
must have stout heart
The boy would need at Brienne all the
stoicsm in his nature. The discipline
here was prescribed by the war depart
ment as suited to the breeding of soldiers.
In some respects it would have been
equally suitable for a prison and it would
be looked upon in our day as cruelty
severe regime to impose upon boy as
young as Napoleon.
Once he was In Brienne he was there
to stay until his course was finished. He
had no vacation or hardly an opportunity
to see the inside of a home. He saw his
mother only once, when yearning to look
upon her boys. she persuaded herself to
leave her family cares and join her hus-
band on journey to France where she
was shocked to find Napoleon SO thin and
worn.
He wore blue uniform with red fac