nder control, and his
chart correct. Whether we attribute his conduct to accident or to
design, from an adventurer's point of view the instinct which made him
spread his sails to the breezes of Jacobin favor was quite as sound as
that which later, when Jacobinism came to be abhorred, made him
anxious that the fact should be forgotten.

In the earlier stages of army reorganization, changes were made
without much regard to personal merit, the dearth of efficient
officers being such that even the most indifferent had some value.
About the first of June, 1791, Buonaparte was promoted to the rank of
first lieutenant, with a salary of thirteen hundred livres, and
transferred to the Fourth Regiment, which was in Valence. He heard the
news with mingled feelings: promotion was, of course, welcome, but he
shrank from returning to his former station, and from leaving the
three or four warm friends he had among his comrades in the old
regiment. On the ground that the arrangements he had made for
educating Louis would be disturbed by the transfer, he besought the
war office for permission to remain at Auxonne with the regiment, now
known as the First. Probably the real ground of his disinclination was
the fear that a residence at Valence might revive the painful emotions
which time had somewhat withered. He may also have felt how discordant
the radical opinions he was beginning to hold would be with those
still cherished by his former friends. But the authorities were
inexorable, and on June fourteenth the brothers departed, Napoleon for
the first time leaving debts which he could not discharge: for the new
uniform of a first lieutenant, a sword, and some wood, he owed about a
hundred and fifteen livres. This sum he was careful to pay within a
few years and as soon as his affairs permitted.

Arrived at Valence, he found that the old society had vanished. Both
the bishop and the Abbe Saint-Ruf were dead. Mme. du Colombier had
withdrawn with her daughter to her country-seat. The brothers were
able, therefore, to take up their lives just where they had made the
break at Auxonne: Louis pursuing the studies necessary for entrance to
the corps of officers, Napoleon teaching him, and frequenting the
political club; both destitute and probably suffering, for the
officer's pay was soon far in arrears. In such desperate straits it
was a relief for the elder brother that the allurements of his former
associations were dissipated; such compan