ves, such
as brushing their clothes, and cleaning their boots and shoes; that they
should eat the coarse bread made for soldiers, etc. Temperance and
activity, he added, would render them robust, enable them to bear the
severity of different seasons and climates, to brave the fatigues of war,
and to inspire the respect and obedience of the soldiers under their
command. Thus reasoned Napoleon at the age of sixteen, and time showed
that he never deviated from these principles. The establishment of the
military school at Fontainebleau is a decided proof of this.

As Napoleon was an active observer of everything passing around him, and
pronounced his opinion openly and decidedly, he did not remain long at
the Military School of Paris. His superiors, who were anxious to get rid
of him, accelerated the period of his examination, and he obtained the
first vacant sub-lieutenancy in a regiment of artillery.

I left Brienne in 1787; and as I could not enter the artillery,
I proceeded in the following year to Vienna, with a letter of
recommendation to M. de Montmorin, soliciting employment in the French
Embassy at the Court of Austria.

I remained two months at Vienna, where I had the honour of twice seeing
the Emperor Joseph. The impression made upon me by his kind reception,
his dignified and elegant manners, and graceful conversation, will never
be obliterated from my recollection. After M. de Noailles had initiated
me in the first steps of diplomacy, he advised me to go to one of the
German universities to study the law of nations and foreign languages.
I accordingly repaired to Leipsic, about the time when the French
Revolution broke out.

I spent some time at Leipsic, where I applied myself to the study of the
law of nations, and the German and English languages. I afterwards
travelled through Prussia and Poland, and passed a part of the winter of
1791 and 1792 at Warsaw, where I was most graciously received by Princess
Tyszicwiez, niece of Stanislaus Augustus, the last King of Poland, and
the sister of Prince Poniatowski. The Princess was very well informed,
and was a great admirer of French literature: At her invitation I passed
several evenings in company with the King in a circle small enough to
approach to something like intimacy. I remember that his Majesty
frequently asked me to read the Moniteur; the speeches to which he
listened with the greatest pleasure were those of the Girondists. The
Princess Tyszicwiez wis