tainebleau 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 wished to print at Warsaw, at her own expense, a
translation I had executed of Kotzebue's 'Menschenhass and Reue, to which
I gave the title of 'L'Inconnu'.

--[A play known on the English stage as The Stranger.]--

I arrived at Vienna on the 26th of March 1792, when I was informed of the
serious illness of the Emperor, Leopold II, who died on the following
day. In private companies, and at public places, I heard vague
suspicions expressed of his having been poisoned; but the public, who
were admitted to the palace to se