NOTE ON THE REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

The republican calendar consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, each month being divided into three “decades” of ten days.  Five days (in leap years six) were added at the end of the year to bring it into coincidence with the solar year.

An I began Sept. 22, 1792. " II " " 1793. " III " " 1794. " IV (leap year) 1795.

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"  VIII began Sept. 22, 1799.
"    IX   "   Sept. 23, 1800.
"     X   "      "      1801.

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  " XIV " " 1805.

The new computation, though reckoned from Sept. 22, 1792, was not introduced until Nov. 26, 1793 (An ii).  It ceased after Dec. 31, 1805.

The months are as follows: 

Vendemiaire              Sept. 22 to Oct. 21. 
Brumaire                 Oct. 22  "  Nov. 20. 
Frimaire                 Nov. 21  "  Dec. 20. 
Nivose                   Dec. 21  "  Jan. 19. 
Pluviose                 Jan. 20  "  Feb. 18. 
Ventose                  Feb. 19  "  Mar. 20. 
Germinal                 Mar. 21  "  April 19. 
Floreal                  April 20 "  May 19. 
Prairial                 May 20   "  June 18. 
Messidor                 June 19  "  July 18. 
Thermidor                July 19  "  Aug. 17. 
Fructidor                Aug. 18  "  Sept. 16.

Add five (in leap years six) “Sansculottides” or “Jours complementaires.”

In 1796 (leap year) the numbers in the table of months, so far as concerns all dates between Feb. 28 and Sept. 22, will have to be reduced by one, owing to the intercalation of Feb. 29, which is not compensated for until the end of the republican year.

The matter is further complicated by the fact that the republicans reckoned An viii as a leap year, though it is not one in the Gregorian Calendar.  Hence that year ended on Sept. 22, and An ix and succeeding years began on Sept. 23.  Consequently in the above table of months the numbers of all days from Vendemiaire 1, An ix (Sept. 23, 1800), to Nivose 10, An xiv (Dec. 31, 1805), inclusive, will have to be increased by one, except only in the next leap year between Ventose 9, An XII, and Vendemiaire 1, An XIII (Feb. 28-Sept, 23, 1804), when the two Revolutionary aberrations happen to neutralize each other.

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THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON I

CHAPTER I

PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS

“I was born when my country was perishing.  Thirty thousand French vomited upon our coasts, drowning the throne of Liberty in waves of blood, such was the sight which struck my eyes.”  This passionate utterance, penned by Napoleon Buonaparte at the beginning of the French Revolution, describes the state of Corsica in his natal year.  The words are instinct with the vehemence of the youth and the extravagant sentiment of the age:  they strike the keynote of his career.  His life was one of strain and stress from his cradle to his grave.