pus who solves this riddle for France is
the man of the hour. He was found in Bonaparte. What mean these
ringing words from the headquarters at Nice, which, on March
twenty-seventh, 1796, fell on the ears of a hungry, eager soldiery and
a startled world? "Soldiers, you are naked, badly fed. The government
owes you much; it can give you nothing. Your long-suffering, the
courage you show among these crags, are splendid, but they bring you
no glory; not a ray is reflected upon you. I wish to lead you into the
most fertile plains of the world. Rich provinces, great towns, will be
in your power; there you will find honor, glory, and riches. Soldiers
of Italy, can you be found lacking in honor, courage, or constancy?"

Such language has but one meaning. By a previous understanding with
the Directory, the French army was to be paid, the French treasury to
be replenished, at the expense of the lands which were the seat of
war. Corsicans in the French service had long been suspected of
sometimes serving their own interests to the detriment of their
adopted country. Bonaparte was no exception, and occasionally he felt
it necessary to justify himself. For example, he had carefully
explained that his marriage bound him to the republic by still another
tie. Yet it appears that his promotion, his engagement with the
directors, and his devotion to the republic were all concerned
primarily with personal ambition, though secondarily and incidentally
with the perpetuation of a government professedly based on the
Revolution. From the outset of Napoleon's independent career,
something of the future dictator appears. This implied promise that
pillage, plunder, and rapine should henceforth go unpunished in order
that his soldiers might line their pockets is the indication of a
settled policy which was more definitely expressed in each successive
proclamation as it issued from his pen. It was repeated whenever new
energy was to be inspired into faltering columns, whenever some
unparalleled effort in a dark design was to be demanded from the rank
and file of the army, until at last a point-blank promise was made
that every man should return to France with money enough in his pocket
to become a landowner.

There was magic in the new spell, the charm never ceased to work; with
that first call from Nice began the transformation of the French army,
fighting now no longer for principle, but for glory, victory, and
booty. Its leader, if successful