Directors. Carnot, who succeeded Sieyes, lived at the top of a house beneath the ruins of the Luxembourg, his official apartments not being ready; it was on a Monday that Bonaparte presented himself, the day when a celebrated writer regularly visited Carnot. This person was singing an air, accompanied by a young lady on the piano-forte. The appearance of Bonaparte, a little well-made olive complexioned youth, amid five or six tall young men, who paid him great attention, was a great contrast: he entered the room and bowed with an air of ease and self-possession, and the author in question asked Carnot who the gentlemen were. The Director answered, The General of the armed force of Paris, and his aids-de-camp.' His being unlike such generals as Santerre or Rossignol was striking. What is his name?' said the author. Bonaparte.' 'Has he great military skill?' 'So it is said.' 'What has he ever done that is remarkable?' 'He is the officer who commanded the troops of the Convention on the day of Vendemiare.' The inquirer was one of the electors of Vendemiare; he retired to an obscure part of the room, and looked on the new visitor in thoughtfulness and silence.

Bonaparte seeing the young lady still at her instrument, and the company taken up with him, said, 'I have stopped your amusements; some person was singing, I beg I may not interrupt the party.' The Director apologised; the General insisted, and after two or three national airs were played, he rose, and took his leave. When he departed, the conversation turned on Bonaparte, and Carnot predicted from this short interview, that the young General would not long retain a command that an aspiring genius would consider only as a step to future fame and glory.

Barras was not wanting in discernment; and he, therefore duly valued the exertions of Bonaparte in the business of the sections; he saw that he was fitted for a station in which vigilance and activity were essentially requisite, and he procured him the command of the army of the interior; the high

rank of this appointment was attended with adequate emoluments, and carried with it considerable influence.

This period formed a remarkable era in the life of Napoleon, and the connection he now formed produced considerable influence on his future fortune, by opening his road to the eminence he had in view. It also evinced that the tender feelings, even at this season of his youth, could offer no serious obstacle in the way of his interest.

Josephine La Pagerie, when twenty-two years of age, married the Viscount Alexander de Beauharnois, Major in a royal French regiment of infantry; both were descended from noble families, both natives of Martinique, and both educated in France. The fortune of the beautiful Josephine was a pleasing addition to the slender income of the youthful Viscount; their expenditure was liberal; and, having been introduced at court, their rank, their manners, and the elegance of their entertainments, ensured them the best company in Paris.

At the beginning of the revolution, M. de Beauharnois was chosen, by the nobility of the bailiwick of Blois, a deputy to the States-General, or National Assembly; and, in June, 1791, he was elected their president, and in that capacity signed the proclamation to the French people on the journey of the King to Varennes. He served under General Biron in April 1792, and bore the rank of Adjutant-General when the French were defeated near Mons. He succeeded Custine in the command of the army of the Rhine; was suspended by the deputies in August, 1793, and soon after arrested with his wife. He was consigned to the guillotine on the 23d of July 1794; if Robespiere had not followed him, a few days after, Madame Beauharnois would also have perished on the republican scaffold. In one of the 36 lists of persons destined by Fouquier Thionville to feed the guillotine for 36 successive days, appeared the name of Madame de Beauharnois; another list contained the name of Barras. On the 12th of August, 1794, he was released by Legendre.

Barras had the national seals taken off her house, in the Rue de Victoire, a few weeks after, and honoured her with his protection, by sojourning in her hotel, until October, 1795, when his being chosen to the office of Director, required that he should make use of the splendid suite of apartments allotted to him in the palace of the Luxembourg.

Barras, dignified as one of the chief magistrates of France, found it inconvenient to continue his intimacy with Madame Beauharnois; had their attachment been mutual, it was easily subdued, or it had suddenly subsided, for the lady agreed to an arrangement, which shewed an obedience to the wishes of her friend, and the self command she had acquired over her own feelings; she agreed to give her hand to Napoleon Bonaparte, the General of the interior, if the General could be brought to offer her his vows of conjugal affection. The plan was formed, and Barras proceeded to provide his mistress with a husband, and his friend with a wife.

The army of Italy had no leader; Carnot displaced Genera! Scherer for habitual intoxication. Bonaparte having shewn his talents both at Toulon and on the 13th Vendemiare, Barras recommended him to Carnot, as most likely to serve the Republic faithfully in Italy. Carnot's high opinion of the genius of Bonaparte seconded the nomination. Barras offered to Bonaparte Madame Beauharnois and 500,000 livres, and Carnot offered him the army. Barras told him the lady and the army were equally necessary to a youthful and aspiring General; his ambition was roused, and as the terms of the offer signified, that neither could be gratified without the other, he obliged his friend Barras, and became the husband of Madame Beauharnois, and Commander in Chief of the army of Italy.

CHAP. VI.

BONAPARTE ARRIVES AT HEAD QUARTERS-COMMENCES HOSTILITIES THE BATTLE OF MONTENOTTE-GENERAL POVERA SURRENDERS-BEAULIEU DEFEATED-THE DIRECTORY COMPLIMENTS BONAPARTE-THE KING OF

SARDINIA SUES FOR PEACE.

BONAPARTE arrived at head quarters early in the spring of 1796. Here he first displayed the full powers of his genius, for he had to contend with difficulties of every sort, moral, political, and military, and yet he triumphed over all. On this occasion, one of his friends suggested to him that he was too young for so great a charge; to which he replied, with Roman dignity and Spartan brevity, 'In one year I shall either be dead or old. His predecessor had left him an army without money, discipline, or clothes, in the face of a powerful enemy, provided with every thing the richest country in the world could supply-renowned also for its valour and obedience; yet in the space of two months, by his affa-. bility and firmness, and by exercising no great delicacy in the means of obtaining them provisions and clothing, he so won the hearts of his soldiers, and recalled them to a sense of their duty, that in the first and every successive engagement, he was victorious over an army superior in every thing but the justice of their cause, and the genius of their commander. To appease the discontent of his troops, and excite them to victory, he told them at one time, If we are conquered we have too much-if we are conquerors we shall want for nothing. At another time, on a general muster, he said to them, "It is true you are now in want of every thing, but push your way to Milan and you will want for nothing.

He lived familiarly with the soldiers, marched on foot, at their head, suffered their hardships, redressed their grievances, and acquired, by attention to their desires, their esteem and affection.

The Austrians and Piedmontese occupied all those parts of the Alps which command the river of Genoa. The French had their right supported by Savona, and their left towards Montonette, while two demi-brigades were much advanced in front of their right at Voltri.

After some time spent in movements intended to deceive the French, hostilities were commenced by the Imperialists. Beaulieu ordered 10,000 men to attack the post at Voltri. General Cervoni with 3000 men retreated in the night, in great order, to the church of Our Lady of Savona, and Bonaparte covered him with 1500 men, posted expressly in the avenues of Sospello, and on the heights of Verraggio. On the 10th, Beaulieu, with 15,000 men, attacked and drove in all which supported the centre of the French, and at one o'clock of the day was before the redoubt of Montonette, the last of their entrenchments. In spite of repeated charges this redoubt arrested the progress of the enemy. The chief of brigade, Rampon, who commanded these 1500 men, made his soldiers take an oath to perish in the redoubt, and, for the whole night, kept the enemy at the distance of pistol-shot. In the night-time General Laharpe took post behind the redoubt, and Bonaparte, followed by the Generals Berthier and Massena, and the commissioner Salieetti, brought up his centre and his left, at one o'clock in the morning, by Altara, on the flank and rear of the Austrians. On the 11th, at daybreak, Beaulieu and Laharpe attacked each other with vigour, and various success, when Massena appeared, dealing death and terror on the Austro-Sardinians, where General Argenteau commanded. The enemy's Generals, Roccavino and Argenteau, were wounded, and the route was complete. Fifteen hundred men were killed, and 2500 made prisoners, of which sixty were officers; several standards were also