, of
course, he spoke broken French with an Italian accent. Open-mouthed
and with sparkling eyes, however, he listened attentively to the first
rehearsal of his task; repetition he heartily disliked, and when
rebuked for inattention he coldly replied: "Sir, I know that already."
On April twenty-first, 1779, Napoleon, according to the evidence of
his personal memorandum, left Autun, having been admitted to Brienne,
and it was to Marbeuf that in later life he correctly attributed his
appointment. After spending three weeks with a school friend, the
little fellow entered upon his duties about the middle of May.

On New Year's day, 1779, the Buonapartes had arrived at Autun, and for
nearly four months the young Napoleone had been trained in the use of
French. He learned to speak fluently, though not correctly, and wrote
short themes in a way to satisfy his teacher. Prodigy as he was later
declared to have been, his real progress was slow, the difficulties of
that elegant and polished tongue having scarcely been reached; so that
it was with a most imperfect knowledge of their language, and a sadly
defective pronunciation, that he made his appearance among his future
schoolmates. Having, we may suppose, been assigned to the first
vacancy that occurred in any of the royal colleges, his first
destination had been Tiron, the roughest and most remote of the
twelve. But as fortune would have it, a change was somehow made to
Brienne. That establishment was rude enough. The instructors were
Minim priests, and the life was as severe as it could be made with
such a clientage under half-educated and inexperienced monks. In spite
of all efforts to the contrary, however, the place had an air of
elegance; there was a certain school-boy display proportionate to the
means and to the good or bad breeding of the young nobles, also a very
keen discrimination among themselves as to rank, social quality, and
relative importance. Those familiar with the ruthlessness of boys in
their treatment of one another can easily conceive what was the
reception of the newcomer, whose nobility was unknown and unrecognized
in France, and whose means were of the scantiest.

During his son's preparatory studies the father had been busy at
Versailles with further supplications--among them one for a supplement
from the royal purse to his scanty pay as delegate, and another for
the speedy settlement of his now notorious claim. The former of the
two was granted no