import whether
Cervoni or Salicetti gave the impulse. At the same time his mother
received a grant of money, and while favors were going, there were
enough needy Buonapartes to receive them. Salicetti and Gasparin,
being the legates of the Convention, were all-powerful. The latter
took a great fancy to Salicetti's friend and there was no opposition
when the former exercised his power. Fesch and Lucien were both
provided with places, being made storekeepers in the commissary
department. Barras, who was the recruiting-officer of the Convention
at Toulon, claims to have been the first to recognize Buonaparte's
ability. He declares that the young Corsican was daily at his table,
and that it was he himself who irregularly but efficiently secured the
appointment of his new friend to active duty. But he also asserts what
we know to be untrue, that Buonaparte was still lieutenant when they
first met, and that he created him captain. It is likely, in view of
their subsequent intimacy at Paris, that they were also intimate at
Toulon; the rest of Barras's story is a fabrication.

But although the investment of Toulon was complete, it was weak. On
September eighteenth the total force of the assailants was ten
thousand men. From time to time reinforcements came in and the various
seasoned battalions exhibited on occasion great gallantry and courage.
But the munitions and arms were never sufficient, and under civilian
officers both regulars and recruits were impatient of severe
discipline. The artillery in particular was scarcely more than
nominal. There were a few field-pieces, two large and efficient guns
only, and two mortars. By a mistake of the war department the general
officer detailed to organize the artillery did not receive his orders
in time and remained on his station in the eastern Pyrenees until
after the place fell. Manifestly some one was required to grasp the
situation and supply a crying deficiency. It was with no trembling
hand that Buonaparte laid hold of his task. For an efficient artillery
service artillery officers were essential, and there were almost none.
In the ebb and flow of popular enthusiasm many republicans who had
fallen back before the storms of factional excesses were now willing
to come forward, and Napoleon, not publicly committed to the Jacobins,
was able to win many capable assistants from among men of his class.
His nervous restlessness found an outlet in erecting buttresses,
mounting guns, an