t merely to M. de Buonaparte, but to his two
colleagues, in view of the "excellent behavior"--otherwise
subserviency--of the Corsican delegation at Versailles. When, in
addition, the certificate of Napoleon's appointment finally arrived,
and the father set out to place his son at school, with a barely
proper outfit, he had no difficulty in securing sufficient money to
meet his immediate and pressing necessities.

CHAPTER IV.

Napoleon's School-days[2].

[Footnote 2: The authorities for the period are Masson:
Napoleon inconnu. Chuquet: La jeunesse de Napoleon.
Jung: Bonaparte et son temps. Boehtlingk: Napoleon
Bonaparte: seine Jugend und sein Emporkommen. Las Cases:
Memorial de Sainte-Helene. Antommarchi: Memoires.
Coston: Premieres annees de Napoleon, Nasica: Memoires
sur l'enfance et la jeunesse de Napoleon.]

Military Schools in France -- Napoleon's Initiation into the
Life of Brienne -- Regulations of the School -- The Course
of Study -- Napoleon's Powerful Friends -- His Reading and
Other Avocations -- His Comrades -- His Studies -- His
Precocity -- His Conduct and Scholarship -- The Change in
His Life Plan -- His Influence in His Family -- His Choice
of the Artillery Service.

[Sidenote: 1779-84.]

It was an old charge that the sons of poor gentlemen destined to be
artillery officers were bred like princes. The institution at Brienne,
with eleven other similar academies, had been but recently founded as
a protest against the luxury which had reigned in the military schools
at Paris and La Fleche. Both these had been closed for a time because
they could not be reformed; the latter was, however, one of the twelve
from the first, and that at Paris was afterward reopened as a
finishing-school. The monasteries of various religious orders were
chosen as seats of the new colleges, and their owners were put in
charge with instructions to secure simplicity of life and manners, the
formation of character, and other desirable benefits, each one in its
own way in the school or schools intrusted to it. The result so far
had been a failure; there were simply not twelve first-rate
instructors in each branch to be found in France for the new
positions; the instruction was therefore limited and poor, so that in
the intellectual stagnation the right standards of conduct declined,
while