Lieutenant of Artillery
From the school at Brienne, Napoleon went on to the military school at Paris (facing the Champs de Mars) in October, 1784, to pass out the following year as a second lieutenant of artillery.
For this period we have only a few words to be found in the Recollections of his schoolmate Alexandre des Mazis (Figaro litteraire, 8th May, 1954), in which Buonparte appears as quarrelsome, violent and rather idle.
On leaving the military school, the young officer joined his regiment and was stationed first at Valence, then at Auxonne. Stendhal, who admired Napoleon without reserve, has set down what was told him by one of Lieutenant Buonaparte’s brother officers.
A very distinguished officer, a man of the old regime and perfectly amiable, said one day in Berlin that, frankly, nothing had amazed him so much as to find M. Bonaparte winning battles.
At first he had thought it must be another officer of the same name, a brother of Napoleon. From his acquaintance with the latter at Valence, and afterwards at Auxonne, he had carried away only the impression of a young windbag, plunging into interminable arguments in and out of season and for ever bent on reforming everything in the state.
‘I have known a score of ranters like that since I joined the service!’ added the officer.
As for his figure and appearance, his figure had neither grace nor ease, and his face, but for its extreme singularity, would have passed for ugly. But he was saved by the ladies’ verdict.
‘I think,’ said the Berlin officer, ‘they were fascinated by his sombre and intent, Italian glance. No doubt they imagined those were the eyes of a great lover.’
(Napoleon In His Time,Jean Savant, page 15)
