e
Spaniards, Neapolitans, and Sardinians were gathered to share in the
defense of the town against the Convention forces. Soon the Girondist
fugitives from Marseilles arrived, and were received with kindness.
The place was provisioned, the gates were shut, and every preparation
for desperate resistance was completed. The fate of the republic was
at stake. The crisis was acute. No wonder that in view of his
wonderful career, Napoleon long after, and his friends in accord,
declared that in the hour appeared the man. There, said the inspired
memorialist of St. Helena, history found him, never to leave him;
there began his immortality. Though this language is truer ideally
than in sober reality, yet the Emperor had a certain justification for
his claim.

CHAPTER XVII.

Toulon.

The Jacobin Power Threatened -- Buonaparte's Fate -- His
Appointment at Toulon -- His Ability as an Artillerist --
His Name Mentioned with Distinction -- His Plan of
Operations -- The Fall of Toulon -- Buonaparte a General of
Brigade -- Behavior of the Jacobin Victors -- A Corsican
Plot -- Horrors of the French Revolution -- Influence of
Toulon on Buonaparte's Career.[39]

[Footnote 39: The authorities for this important epoch
are, primarily, Jung: Bonaparte et son temps; Masson:
Napoleon inconnu; but above all, Chuquet: La jeunesse de
Napoleon, Vol. III, Toulon. The Memoires of Barras are
utterly worthless, the references in Las Cases, Marmont,
and elsewhere have value, but must be controlled. The
archives of the war department have been thoroughly
examined by several investigators, the author among the
number. The results have been printed in many volumes to
which the above-mentioned authors refer, and many of the
original papers are printed in whole or in part by
them.]

[Sidenote: 1793.]

Coupled as it was with other discouraging circumstances, the "treason
of Toulon" struck a staggering blow at the Convention. The siege of
Lyons was still in progress; the Piedmontese were entering Savoy, or
the department of Mont Blanc, as it had been designated after its
recent capture by France; the great city of Bordeaux was ominously
silent and inactive; the royalists of Vendee were temporarily
victorious; there was unrest in Normandy, and f