efforts to confirm the references of Jung were
sadly ineffectual.]

Four days after the probable date of writing he passed his examination
a second time, before the new inspector, announced his choice of the
artillery as his branch of the service, and a month later was ordered
to the military academy in Paris. This institution had not merely been
restored to its former renown: it now enjoyed a special reputation as
the place of reward to which only the foremost candidates for official
honors were sent. The choice of artillery seems to have been reached
by a simple process of exclusion; the infantry was too unintellectual
and indolent, the cavalry too expensive and aristocratic; between the
engineers and the artillery there was little to choose--in neither did
wealth or influence control promotion. The decision seems to have
fallen as it did because the artillery was accidentally mentioned
first in the fatal letter he had received announcing the family
straits, and the necessary renunciation of the navy. On the
certificate which was sent up with Napoleon from Brienne was the note:
"Character masterful, imperious, and headstrong."

CHAPTER V.

In Paris and Valence[6].

[Footnote 6: Authorities as before for this and the five
chapters following.]

Introduction to Paris -- Teachers and Comrades -- Death of
Charles de Buonaparte -- His Merits -- The School at Paris
-- Napoleon's Poverty -- His Character at the Close of His
School Years -- Appointed Lieutenant in the Regiment of La
Fere -- Demoralization of the French Army -- The Men in the
Ranks -- Napoleon as a Beau -- Return to Study -- His
Profession and Vocation.

[Sidenote: 1784-86.]

It was on October thirtieth, 1784 that Napoleon left Brienne for
Paris.[7] He was in the sixteenth year of his age, entirely ignorant
of what were then called the "humanities," but fairly versed in
history, geography, and the mathematical sciences. His knowledge, like
the bent of his mind, was practical rather than theoretical, and he
knew more about fortification and sieges than about metaphysical
abstractions; more about the deeds of history than about its
philosophy. The new surroundings into which he was introduced by the
Minim father who had accompanied him and his four comrades from
Brienne, all somewhat younger than himself, were different indeed from
those of the rude convent he had left