er, or to Metz, in order to make up his
deficiencies in the mathematical sciences and pass his examinations to
enter the royal service along with Napoleon, on condition that the
latter would renounce his plans for the navy, and choose a career in
the army.

The letter in which the boy communicates his decision to his father is
as remarkable as the one just mentioned and very clearly the sequel to
it. The anxious and industrious parent had finally broken down, and in
his feeble health had taken Joseph as a support and help on the
arduous homeward journey. With the same succinct, unsparing statement
as before, Napoleon confesses his disappointment, and in commanding
phrase, with logical analysis, lays down the reasons why Joseph must
come to Brienne instead of going to Metz. There is, however, a new
element in the composition--a frank, hearty expression of affection
for his family, and a message of kindly remembrance to his friends.
But the most striking fact, in view of subsequent developments, is a
request for Boswell's "History of Corsica," and any other histories or
memoirs relating to "that kingdom." "I will bring them back when I
return, if it be six years from now."[5] The immediate sequel makes
clear the direction of his mind. He probably did not remember that he
was preparing, if possible, to strip France of her latest and highly
cherished acquisition at her own cost, or if he did, he must have felt
like the archer pluming his arrow from the off-cast feathers of his
victim's wing. It is plain that his humiliations at school, his
studies in the story of liberty, his inherited bent, and the present
disappointment, were all cumulative in the result of fixing his
attention on his native land as the destined sphere of his activity.

[Footnote 5: This letter, which is without date, is
printed in Coston, as taken from the newspapers; again
in a revised form in Nasica: Memoires sur l'enfance et
la jeunesse de Napoleon, p. 71, who claimed to have
collated it with the original; and again in Jung:
Bonaparte et son temps, who gives as his reference,
Archives de la guerre, preserving exactly the form given
by Nasica. The Napoleon papers of the War Department
were freely, and I believe entirely, put into my hands
for examination. This letter was not among them; in
fact, my