Pauline—­or, as they called her in those days, Paulette—­wore unbecoming hats and shabby gowns, and shoes that were full of holes.  None the less, she was sought out by several men of note, among them Freron, a commissioner of the Convention.  He visited Pauline so often as to cause unfavorable comment; but he was in love with her, and she fell in love with him to the extent of her capacity.  She used to write him love letters in Italian, which were certainly not lacking in ardor.  Here is the end of one of them: 

I love you always and most passionately.  I love you for ever, my beautiful idol, my heart, my appealing lover.  I love you, love you, love you, the most loved of lovers, and I swear never to love any one else!

This was interesting in view of the fact that soon afterward she fell in love with Junot, who became a famous marshal.  But her love affairs never gave her any serious trouble; and the three sisters, who now began to feel the influence of Napoleon’s rise to power, enjoyed themselves as they had never done before.  At Antibes they had a beautiful villa, and later a mansion at Milan.

By this time Napoleon had routed the Austrians in Italy, and all France was ringing with his name.  What was Pauline like in her maidenhood?  Arnault says: 

She was an extraordinary combination of perfect physical beauty and the strangest moral laxity.  She was as pretty as you please, but utterly unreasonable.  She had no more manners than a school-girl—­talking incoherently, giggling at everything and nothing, and mimicking the most serious persons of rank.

General de Ricard, who knew her then, tells in his monograph of the private theatricals in which Pauline took part, and of the sport which they had behind the scenes.  He says: 

The Bonaparte girls used literally to dress us.  They pulled our ears and slapped us, but they always kissed and made up later.  We used to stay in the girls’ room all the time when they were dressing.

Napoleon was anxious to see his sisters in some way settled.  He proposed to General Marmont to marry Pauline.  The girl was then only seventeen, and one might have had some faith in her character.  But Marmont was shrewd and knew her far too well.  The words in which he declined the honor are interesting: 

“I know that she is charming and exquisitely beautiful; yet I have dreams of domestic happiness, of fidelity, and of virtue.  Such dreams are seldom realized, I know.  Still, in the hope of winning them—­”

And then he paused, coughed, and completed what he had to say in a sort of mumble, but his meaning was wholly clear.  He would not accept the offer of Pauline in marriage, even though she was the sister of his mighty chief.

Then Napoleon turned to General Leclerc, with whom Pauline had for some time flirted, as she had flirted with almost all the officers of Napoleon’s staff.  Leclerc was only twenty-six.  He was rich and of good manners, but rather serious and in poor health.  This was not precisely the sort of husband for Pauline, if we look at it in the conventional way; but it served Napoleon’s purpose and did not in the least interfere with his sister’s intrigues.