Bonaparte was undoubtedly a man of good family.  I have seen an authentic account of his genealogy, which he obtained from Tuscany.  A great deal has been said about the civil dissensions which forced his family to quit Italy and take refuge in Corsica.  On this subject I shall say nothing.

Many and various accounts have been given of Bonaparte’s youth.

—­[The following interesting trait of Napoleon’s childhood is derived from the ’Memoirs of the Duchesse d’Arbranes’:—­“He was one day accused by one of his sisters of having eaten a basketful of grapes, figs, and citrons, which had come from the garden of his uncle the Canon.  None but those who were acquainted with the Bonaparte family can form any idea of the enormity of this offence.  To eat fruit belonging to the uncle the Canon was infinitely more criminal than to eat grapes and figs which might be claimed by anybody else.  An inquiry took place.  Napoleon. denied the fact, and was whipped.  He was told that if he would beg pardon he should be forgiven.  He protested that he was innocent, but he was not believed.  If I recollect rightly, his mother was at the time on a visit to M. de Marbeuf, or some other friend.  The result of Napoleon’s obstinacy was, that he was kept three whole days on bread and cheese, and that cheese was not ‘broccio’.  However, he would not cry:  he was dull, but not sulky.  At length, on the fourth day of his punishment a little friend of Marianne Bonaparte returned from the country, and on hearing of Napoleon’s disgrace she confessed that she and Marianne had eaten the fruit.  It was now Marianne’s turn to be punished.  When Napoleon was asked why he had not accused his sister, he replied that though he suspected that she was guilty, yet out of consideration to her little friend, who had no share in the falsehood, he had said nothing.  He was then only seven years of age” (vol. i. p. 9, edit. 1883).]—­

He has been described in terms of enthusiastic praise and exaggerated condemnation.  It is ever thus with individuals who by talent or favourable circumstances are raised above their fellow-creatures.  Bonaparte himself laughed at all the stories which were got up for the purpose of embellishing or blackening his character in early life.  An anonymous publication, entitled the ‘History of Napoleon Bonaparte’, from his Birth to his last abdication, contains perhaps the greatest collection of false and ridiculous details about his boyhood.  Among other things, it is stated that he fortified a garden to protect himself from the attacks of his comrades, who, a few lines lower down, are described as treating him with esteem and respect.  I remember the circumstances which, probably, gave rise to the fabrication inserted in the work just mentioned; they were as follows.