In the night, Fort Poné was blown up by the English, and an hour afterwards a part of the French squadron was set on fire. Nine seventy-four gun ships and four frigates or corvettes became a prey to the flames.

The fire and smoke from the arsenal resembled the eruption of a volcano, and the thirteen vessels which were burning in the road were like so many magnificent displays of fireworks. The masts and forms of the vessels were distinctly marked by the blaze, which lasted many hours, and formed an unparalleled spectacle. It was a heart-rending sight to the French to see such grand resources and so much wealth consumed within so short a period. They feared, at first, that the English would blow up Fort La Malgue, but it appeared that they had not time to do so.

The Commandant of artillery then went to Malbosquet. The fort was already evacuated. He ordered the fieldpieces to sweep the ramparts of the town, and heighten the confusion by throwing shells from the howitzers into the port, until the mortars, which were upon the road with their carriages, could be planted in the batteries, and shells thrown from them in the same direction.

During all this time the batteries of l'Eguillette and Balagnier kept up an incessant fire on the vessels in the road. Many of the English ships were much damaged, and a great number of transports with troops on board were sunk. The batteries continued their fire all the night, and at break of day the English fleet was seen out at sea. By nine o'clock in the morning a high Libeccio wind got up, and the English ships were forced to put into the Hyeres.

The news of the taking of Toulon caused a sensation in Provence and throughout France, the more lively as such success was unexpected and almost unhoped-for. From this event Napoleon's reputation commenced; he was made Brigadier-general of artillery in consequence, and appointed to the command of that department in the Army of Italy. General Dugommier was appointed Commander-in-chief of the Army of the Eastern Py

renees.

CHAP. II.

Sent on a Mission to Genoa-his Arrest-proposal to send him to La Vendee-is struck off the list of General Officers-the 13th Vendemiaire-the Day of the Sections-marries Josephine-appointed to command the Army of Italy-battles of Monte Notte-Millesimo -Mondovi-Peace granted to Sardinia.

AFTER the taking of Toulon, Bonaparte rapidly advanced in his profession. On the 13th of July, 1794, the Representatives of the People, with the Army of Italy, passed the following resolution :-That General Bonaparte should proceed to Genoa, to confer, in conjunction with the Charge d' Affairs of the French Republic, with the Genoese government, on the matters comprised in his instructions. To the above were added private instructions to inform himself of the state of the fortresses of Genoa and Savona, and of the neighbouring country, and to become acquainted, as far as possible, with the conduct, civil and political, of the French ambassador, Tilly; and to collect all facts which might develope the intentions of the Genoese government relative to the coalition.

This mission and the secret instructions evince the confidence with which Bonaparte, who had not completed his twenty-fifth year, had inspired men, who were deeply interested in making a prudent choice of their agents.

He proceeded to Genoa, and there fulfilled the purposes of his mission. The 9th of Thermidor arrived, and the deputies called Terrorists were superseded by Albitte and Salicetti. In the disorder which then existed, they were either ignorant of the orders given to General Bonaparte, or they were inspired by envy at the rising glory of the young general of artillery. Be this as it may, these Representatives of the People issued an order that General Bonaparte should be arrested, suspended from his rank, and arraigned before the Committee of Public Safety; and, extraordinary as it may appear, this resolution was founded on that very journey which Bonaparte executed by order of the Representatives of the People.

Had this decree been published three weeks sooner,

and had Bonaparte been given up previously to the 9th Thermidor to the Committee of Public Safety, it is very probable that his career would have been at an end, and we should have seen perish on a scaffold at the age of twenty-five-the man who was destined in the fiveand-twenty years following to astonish the world by the vastness of his conceptions-his gigantic projects-the greatness of his military glory-his extraordinary good fortune;-his errors-his reverses-and his final overthrow.

On being arrested he addressed a very energetic note to Albitte and Salicetti, which had the effect of causing more particular inquiry to be made; and on the 20th of August, 1794, they issued a decree, declaring that they saw nothing to justify any suspicion of his conduct, and ordering that he should be provisionally set at liberty. He remained under arrest fifteen days.

General Bonaparte returned to Paris, where I also shortly afterwards arrived from Germany. Our intimacy was resumed, and he gave me an account of all the principal events which had passed in the campaign of the South. He loved to talk over his military achievements at Toulon. He spoke of his first successes with that feeling of pleasure and satisfaction which they naturally inspired.

The government of the day wished to send him to La Vendée, as Brigadier-general of infantry. Two reasons determined the youthful general to refuse this appointment. He considered the scene of action as unworthy of his talents, and he considered his projected removal from the artillery to the infantry as an insult. The last was that which he officially assigned for his refusal. In consequence of his refusal to accept the appointment offered him, the Committee of Public Safety decreed that he should be struck off the list of general officers in active employment.

Deeply mortified at this unexpected blow, Bonaparte returned into private life, and found himself doomed to an inactivity intolerable to his ardent temperament and youthful energy. He lodged in the Rue de Mail, in a house near the Place de Victoires. We recommenced the life which we had led previous to his departure for Corsica, in 1792. It was with pain that he resolved to wait patiently the removal of the prejudices which men

in power had entertained against him; and he hoped that, in the perpetual changes which were taking place, power would at length pass into the hands of those who would be disposed to consider him with favour. At this time he frequently dined and spent the evening with me and my elder brother; and on these occasions he rendered himself very agreeable by his amiable manners and the charms of his conversation. I called on him almost every morning, and I met at his lodgings several persons who were distinguished at the time; and among others with Salicetti, with whom he used to maintain very animated conversations, and shewed a wish to be left alone with him. Salicetti at one time sent him 3000 francs (£125.) as the price of his carriage, which his poverty had laid him under the necessity of selling. I imagined that our young friend either was, or wished to become, a party in some political intrigue. He now became thoughtful, frequently melancholy and disturbed, and he waited daily with marked impatience the arrival of Salicetti, who having become implicated in the insurrectionary movement of the 20th of May, 1795, was obliged to withdraw himself to Venice. Sometimes returning to more homely ideas, he envied the good fortune of his brother Joseph, who had just married Mademoiselle Clery, the daughter of a rich and respectable merchant at Marseilles. He would often say, That Joseph is a lucky fellow!'

Meanwhile time passed away, but nothing was done; his projects were unsuccessful, and his applications unattended to. This injustice embittered his spirit, and he was tormented with the desire to do something. To remain in the crowd was intolerable. He resolved to leave France; and the favourite idea, which he never afterwards abandoned, that the East was the most certain path to glory, inspired him with the determination to proceed to Constantinople, and to make a tender of his services to the Grand Seignior. What dreams, what gigantic projects, did he not entertain, during this excitement of his imagination! He asked me to go with him, which I declined. I looked upon him as a young enthusiast, driven on to extravagant enterprises and desperate resolutions by his restless activity of mind, and by the irritating treatment which he had experi enced, and, it may be added, his want of money.

He did not blame me for refusing to accompany him, but said that he would be accompanied by Junot, Marmont, and some other officers with whom he had become acquainted at Toulon, and who would be willing to attach themselves to his fortunes.

In accordance with this feeling he drew up a note, which he addressed to Aubert and Coni, in which he requested to be sent, with a few officers of different services, but possessing collectively a perfect knowledge of the military art, under the patronage of the French government, for the purpose of placing the army of the Grand Seignior in a condition more suitable to the circumstances of the times, as it seemed highly probable that the Porte might find itself in alliance with France, and assaulted by the continental armies of Austria and Russia.

No answer was returned to this application. Turkey remained unaided, and Bonaparte unoccupied. If, however, it had been endorsed, granted,' that word would probably have changed the fate of Europe.

At length Bonaparte was nominated to the command of a brigade of artillery in Holland; but as there were indications of an approaching crisis, his services were called for on a nearer and more important field.

The agitation continued till the 13th of Vendemiaire (Oct. 5, 1795), when the storm burst. This day, when the Sections of Paris attacked the Convention, must be considered as influencing, in a remarkable degree, the astonishing destiny of Bonaparte. This, although at the time not well understood, was the cause of those enormous disorders which afterwards convulsed Europe. The blood then shed fed the germs of his young ambition; and it must be admitted that the history of past ages presents few periods filled with events so extraordinary as those which occurred between the years 1795 and 1815. The man whose name serves in some measure as a remembrance of all these wonderful events might well count upon immortality.

Living retired at Sens since the month of July, I only learned from the journals and public report the cause of the insurrection of the Sections. I cannot therefore positively say what part Bonaparte may have taken in the plots which preceded the explosion. He appeared only a secondary actor in that bloody drama, to which