| Show THE WORLDS GREAT EVENTS ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE 9 rj t by dodd lefta wead company napoleon bonaparte part 1 I A LEAN shy undersized youth of twenty five hung about parts paris in 1704 for employment ile he was it n good writer and had at one time planned a literary career but in this field he had failed and had therefore returned to military life he ha had bad served with distinction la in the army of the new french republic but the convention could find no further use tor for his services he was miserably y p poor 0 or chafing at inaction and without p prospects ro aspects within ten years lie he w was a destined to be emperor of france and the most powerful and famous man on earth the lonely unemployed youth was napoleon bonaparte one of the thirteen children of an italian lawyer hying in corsica at the alie age of ten young bonaparte had been sent to a military school where his poverty shyness and ignorance of french B n language he never learned to speak without accent made him unpopular and laughed at by hla his schoolmates many of these same schoolmates were on onla day to be the fawning cringing servants of the lad they now despised when he was sixteen bonaparte was wa commissioned a lieutenant of artillery and at twenty one was a captain the army was divided between allegiance to king louis XVI and the new revolutionary lutio nary party bonaparte sided with the latter when he noted the cowardice with which louis yielded to the tha mob lie he muttered it Is all up with him I 1 A few charges of grape would scatter that pack of curs ile he stored the lesson in his memory and later put it to use in september 1793 as lieutenant colonel of artillery it was his str strategic at e g lc skill that won toulon from england for this he was promoted to the rank of brig brigadier a dier general and allowed to wander idly and hungrily about parts paris cooki looking ng for work I 1 ile he la Is even said at this time to have planned to offer his services to the sultan of turkey but at the ebb of his fortune a sudden turn came in october 1795 the people of parts paris rose against the convention vent ven tion lon thirty thousand strong they marched on the tuileries Tull Tuil erles eries barras president of the convention appointed bonaparte to command the troops at that blodys disposal bonaparte turned his artillery into the ad of guardsmen guardsman guards men townsfolk and riffraff and sent them flying in reward he was placed in command of the army of the interior his career had bad begun ile he married march 9 1796 josephine a n rather elderly creole widow from martinique she did not love bonaparte but married him because barras told her the youth bad a future she was notoriously unfaithful to this new husband of hers and repaid hla his ardent devotion with mere tolerance almost directly after the marriage the young bridegroom was sent to take charge of frances italian army which had been dragging on an indecisive warfare against austria and sardinia he had a ragged lapali host of the allied austrians Aust lans rians and sardinians ians were far stronger yet inside of five days bonaparte lad whipped them together and separately and within a month had won all northern italy for france he ended the campaign by forcing austria to cede territory and indemnity creaking breaking every old tradition and established rule of warfare exercising wondrous ingenuity swiftness and audacity the corsican had completely dazed and outwitted his slower brained foes and these same unexpected and genius bred tactics were to serve him against many another foe he returned in triumph to paris when he was sent early in ID 1798 1708 with men to invade egypt this expedition tion lon so far as concerned the Mame lukes and turkish armies he encountered was it a brilliant success for french arms cut but Bona partes fleet was destroyed des toyed by the english and thi th garrison of acre made up partly of englishmen successfully resisted hl his attack from first to last england was Bona partes stumbling block in his time he thrashed and bullied and broN browbeat beai every other nation as the school bully might the littlest boy but whenever he clashed with england ht hp soon or late met discomfiture while bonaparte was in cairo on his return from syria news came ot of french defeats in italy and of it a p political 0 crisis in paris also and to hint him at that time perhaps most important of all came private advices advises of Jose josephine phines open flirtation with other menthe triple tidings sufficed leed to send bonaparte hurrying back homo home leaving his army to shift for itself ile he reached paris at the crucial moment of the governmental christs and ey by taking advantage of every turn of 0 fortune as foreseen by his rare diplomacy he be succeeded in winning tile the position of first consul then it was that the mans true character r forth ills his wit was 3 a double ambition first to make lr arance france ance strong at hume home and terrible abroad and second and above all to lo win for himself the bight highest st obtainable power and glory ile he set to work restoring order ond and prosperity to his unsettled country countr y conciliating rival factions and framing a new and inspired code of laws then lie he put into action his plan to con conallen aller the world |
