nst his will, for it
weakened his influence with his own party. Pozzo di Borgo, his stanch
supporter and Buonaparte's enemy, was attorney-general in Salicetti's
stead. As Paoli was at the same time general of the volunteer guard,
the entire power of the islands, military and civil, was in his hands:
but the responsibility for good order was likewise his, and the people
were, if anything, more unruly than ever; for it was to their minds
illogical that their idol should exercise such supreme power, not as a
Corsican, but in the name of France. The composition of the two chief
parties had therefore changed materially, and although their
respective views were modified to a certain extent, they were more
embittered than ever against each other.

Buonaparte could not be neutral; his nature and his surroundings
forbade it. His first step was to resume his command in the
volunteers, and, under pretext of inspecting their posts, to make a
journey through the island; his second was to go through the form of
seeking a reconciliation with Paoli. Corsican historians, in their
eagerness to appropriate the greatness of both Paoli and Napoleon,
habitually misrepresent their relations. At this time each was playing
for his own hand, the elder exclusively for Corsica's advantage as he
saw it; the younger was more ambitious personally, although he was
beginning to see that in the course of the Revolution Corsica would
secure more complete autonomy as a French department than in any other
way. It is not at all clear that as late as this time Paoli was eager
for Napoleon's assistance nor the latter for Paoli's support. The
complete breach came soon and lasted until, when their views no longer
clashed, they both spoke generously one of the other. In the clubs,
among his friends and subordinates at the various military stations,
Napoleon's talk was loud and imperious, his manner haughty and
assuming. A letter written by him at the time to Costa, then
lieutenant in the militia and a thorough Corsican, explains that the
writer is detained from going to Bonifacio by an order from the
general (Paoli) to come to Corte; he will, however, hasten to his post
at the head of the volunteers on the very next day, and there will be
an end to all disorder and irregularity. "Greet our friends, and
assure them of my desire to further their interests." The epistle was
written in Italian, but that fact signifies little in comparison with
the new tone used in