Bonaparte enters the Military College of Paris—­He urges me to embrace the military profession—­His report on the state of the Military School of Paris—­He obtains a commission—­I set off for Vienna—­Return to Paris, where I again meet Bonaparte—­His singular plans for raising money—­Louis XVI, with the red cap on his head—­ The 10th of August—­My departure for Stuttgart—­Bonaparte goes to Corsica—­My name inscribed on the list of emigrants—­Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon—­Le Souper de Beaucaire—­Napoleon’s mission to Genoa—­His arrest—­His autographical justification —­Duroc’s first connection with Bonaparte.

Bonaparte was fifteen years and two months old when he went to the Military College of Paris.

—­[Madame Junot relates some interesting particulars connected with Napoleon’s first residence in Paris:  “My mother’s first care,” says she, “on arriving in Paris was to inquire after Napoleon Bonaparte.  He was at that time in the military school at Paris, having quitted Brienne in the September of the preceding year.

“My uncle Demetrius had met him just after he alighted from the coach which brought him to town; ‘And truly.’ said my uncle, ’he had the appearance of a fresh importation.  I met him in the Palms Royal, where he was gaping and staring with wonder at everything he saw.  He would have been an excellent subject for sharpers, if, indeed, he had had anything worth taking!’ My uncle invited him to dine at his house; for though my uncle was a bachelor, he did not choose to dine at a ‘traiteur’ (the name ‘restaurateur’ was not then introduced).  He told my mother that Napoleon was very morose.  ‘I fear,’ added he, ’that that young man has more self-conceit than is suitable to his condition.  When he dined with me he began to declaim violently against the luxury of the young men of the military school.  After a little he turned the conversation on Mania, and the present education of the young Maniotes, drawing a comparison between it and the ancient Spartan system of education.  His observations on this head be told me he intended to embody in a memorial to be presented to the Minister of War.  All this, depend upon it, will bring him under the displeasure of his comrades; and it will be lucky if he escape being run through.’  A few days afterwards my mother saw Napoleon, and then his irritability was at its height.  He would scarcely bear any observations, even if made in his favour, and I am convinced that it is to this uncontrollable irritability that he owed the reputation of having been ill-tempered in his boyhood, and splenetic in his youth.  My father, who was acquainted with almost all the heads of the military school, obtained leave for him sometimes to come out for recreation.  On account of an accident (a sprain, if I recollect rightly) Napoleon once spent a whole week at our house.  To this day, whenever I pass the Quai Conti, I cannot help looking up at a ‘mansarde’