This further exasperated the ultramontanes, and on Easter day, April
eighth, they made demonstrations so serious that the scheming
commander--Buonaparte again, it was believed--found the much desired
pretext to interfere; there was a melee, and one of the militia
officers was killed. Next morning the burghers found their town beset
by the volunteers. Good citizens kept to their houses, while the
acting mayor and the council were assembled to authorize an attack on
the citadel. The authorities could not agree, and dispersed; the
following forenoon it was discovered that the acting mayor and his
sympathizers had taken refuge in the citadel. From the vantage of
this stronghold they proposed to settle the difficulty by the
arbitration of a board composed of two from each side, under the
presidency of the commandant. There was again no agreement.

Worn out at last by the haggling and delay, an officer of the garrison
finally ordered the militia officers to withdraw their forces. By the
advice of some determined radical--Buonaparte again, in all
probability--the latter flatly refused, and the night was spent in
preparation for a conflict which seemed inevitable. But early in the
morning the commissioners of the department, who had been sent by
Paoli to preserve the peace, arrived in a body. They were welcomed
gladly by the majority of the people, and, after hearing the case,
dismissed the battalion of volunteers to various posts in the
surrounding country. Public opinion immediately turned against
Buonaparte, convinced as the populace was that he was the author of
the entire disturbance. The commander of the garrison was embittered,
and sent a report to the war department displaying the young officer's
behavior in the most unfavorable light. Buonaparte's defense was
contained in a manifesto which made the citizens still more furious by
its declaration that the whole civic structure of their town was
worthless, and should have been overthrown.

The aged Paoli found his situation more trying with every day. Under a
constitutional monarchy, such as he had admired and studied in
England, such as he even yet hoped for and expected in France, he had
believed his own land might find a virtual autonomy. With riot and
disorder in every town, it would not be long before the absolute
disqualification of his countrymen for self-government would be proved
and the French administration restored. For his present purpose,
therefore, th