y for Corsica.

Salicetti had granted what Paoli would not: Buonaparte was free to
strike his blow for Corsican leadership. With swift and decisive
measures the last scene in his Corsican adventures was arranged.
Several great guns which had been saved from a war-ship wrecked in the
harbor were lying on the shore unmounted. The inspector-general
hypocritically declared that they were a temptation to insurgents and
a menace to the public peace; they should be stored in the citadel.
His plan was to seize the moment when the heavy pieces were passing
the drawbridge, and at the head of his followers to take possession of
the stronghold he had so long coveted, and so often failed to capture.
If he could hold it for the Convention, a career in Corsica would be
at last assured.

But again he was doomed to disappointment. The former garrison had
been composed of French soldiers. On the failure of the Sardinian
expedition most of these had been landed at Toulon, where they still
were. The men in the citadel of Ajaccio were therefore in the main
islanders, although some French infantry and the French gunners were
still there; the new commander was a Paolist who refused to be
hoodwinked, and would not act without an authorization from his
general-in-chief. The value of the seizure depended on its promptness.
In order to secure a sufficient number of faithful followers,
Buonaparte started on foot for Bastia to consult the commission.
Learning that he was already a suspect at Corte and in danger of
arrest, he turned on his steps only to be confronted at Bocognano by a
band of Peraldi's followers. Two shepherds from his own estate found
a place of concealment for him in a house belonging to their friends,
and he passed a day in hiding, escaping after nightfall to Ucciani,
whence he returned to Ajaccio in safety.[33] Thwarted in one notion,
Buonaparte then proposed to the followers he already had two
alternatives: to erect a barricade behind which the guns could be
mounted and trained on the citadel, or, easier still, to carry one of
the pieces to some spot before the main entrance and then batter in
the gate. Neither scheme was considered feasible, and it was
determined to secure by bribes, if possible, the cooeperation of a
portion of the garrison. The attempt failed through the integrity of a
single man, and is interesting only as having been Napoleon's first
lesson in an art which was thenceforward an unfailing resource. Rumors