between a soldier (obviously the writer himself) and three men, citizens of Marseilles, Nîmes and Montpellier, who oppose the Jacobinical government and hope for victory over its forces. The officer points out the folly of such a course, and the certainty that the republic, whose troops had triumphed over those of Prussia and Austria, will speedily disperse the untrained levies of Provence. The pamphlet closes with a passionate plea for national unity.
He was now to further the cause of the republic one and indivisible in the sphere of action. The royalists of Toulon had admitted British and Spanish forces to share in the defence of that stronghold (29th of August 1793). The blow to the republican cause was most serious: for from Toulon as a centre the royalists threatened to raise a general revolt throughout the south of France, and Pitt cherished hopes of dealing a death-blow to the Jacobins in that quarter. But fortune now brought Bonaparte to blight those hopes. Told off to serve in the army of Nice, he was detained by a special order of the commissioners of the Convention, Saliceti and Gasparin, who, hearing of the severe wound sustained by Dommartin, the commander of the artillery of the republican forces before Toulon, ordered Bonaparte to take his place. He arrived at the republican headquarters, then at Ollioules on the north-west of Toulon, on the 16th of September; and it is noteworthy that as early as September 10th the commissioners had seen the need of attacking the allied fleet and had paid some attention to the headland behind l’Éguillette, which commanded both the outer and the inner harbour. But there is no doubt that Bonaparte brought to bear on the execution of this as yet vague and general proposal powers of concentration and organization which ensured its success. In particular he soon put the artillery of the besiegers in good order. Carteaux, an ex-artist, at first held the supreme command, but was superseded on the 23rd of October. Doppet, the next commander, was little better fitted for the task; but his successor, Dugommier, was a brave and experienced soldier who appreciated the merits of Bonaparte. Under their direction steady advance was made on the side which Bonaparte saw to be all important; a sortie of part of the British, Spanish and Neapolitan forces on the 30th of November was beaten back with loss, General O’Hara, their commander, being severely wounded and taken prisoner. On the night of the 16th–17th December, Dugommier, Bonaparte, Victor and Muiron headed the storming column which forced its way into the chief battery thrown up by the besieged on the height behind l’Éguillette; and on the next day Hood and Langara set sail, leaving the royalists to the vengeance of the Jacobins. General du Teil, the younger, who took part in the siege, thus commented on Bonaparte’s services: “I have no words in which to describe the merit of Bonaparte: much science, as much intelligence and too much bravery. . . . It is for you, Ministers, to consecrate him to the glory of the republic.” At Toulon Bonaparte made the acquaintance of men who were to win renown under his leadership—Desaix, Junot, Marmont, Muiron, Suchet and Victor.
It is often assumed that the fortunes of Bonaparte were made at Toulon. This is an exaggeration. True, on the 22nd of December 1793 he was made general of brigade for his services; and in February 1794 he gained the command of the artillery in the French army about to invade Italy; but during the preliminary work of fortification along the coast he was placed under arrest for a time owing to his reconstruction of an old fort at Marseilles which had been destroyed during the Revolution. He was soon released owing to the interposition of the younger Robespierre and of Saliceti. Thereafter he resided successively at Toulon, St Tropez and Antibes, doing useful work in fortifying the coast and using his spare time in arduous study of the science of war. This he had already begun at Auxonne under the inspiring guidance of the baron du Teil. General du Teil, younger brother of the baron, had recently published a work, L’Usage de l’artillerie nouvelle; and it is now known that Bonaparte derived from this work and from those of Guibert and Bourcet that leading principle, concentration of effort against one point of the enemy’s line, which he had advocated at Toulon and which he everywhere put in force in his campaigns.
On or about the 20th of March 1794 he arrived at the headquarters of the army of Italy. At Colmars, on the 21st of May 1794, he drew up the first draft of his Italian plan of campaign for severing the Piedmontese from their Austrian allies and for driving the latter out of their Italian provinces. A secret mission to Genoa enabled him to inspect the pass north of Savona, and the knowledge of the peculiarities of that district certainly helped him in maturing his plan for an invasion of Italy, which he put into execution in 1796. For the present he experienced a sharp rebuff of fortune, which he met with his usual fortitude. He was suddenly placed under arrest owing to intrigues or suspicions of the men raised to power by the coup d’état of Thermidor 9–10 (July 27–28) 1794. The commissioners sent by the Convention, Albitte, Laporte and Saliceti, suspected him of having divulged the plan of campaign, and on the 6th of August ordered his arrest as being the “maker of plans” for the younger Robespierre. On a slighter accusation than this many had perished; but an examination into the details of the mission of Bonaparte to Genoa and the new instructions which arrived from Carnot, availed to procure his release on the 20th of August. It came in time to enable him to share in the operations of the French army against the Austrians that led to the battle of Dego, north of Savona (21st of September), a success largely due to his skilful combinations. But the decline in the energies of the central government at Paris and the appointment of Schérer as commander-in-chief of the army of Italy frustrated the plans of a vigorous offensive which Bonaparte continued to develop and advocate.
Meanwhile he took part in an expedition fitted out in the southern ports to drive the English from Corsica. It was a complete failure, and for a time his prospects were overclouded. In the spring of 1795 he received an order from Paris to proceed to la Vendée in command of an infantry brigade. He declined on the score of ill-health, but set out for Paris in May, along with Marmont, Junot and Louis Bonaparte. At the capital he found affairs quickly falling back into the old ways of pleasure and luxury. “People,” he wrote, “remember the Terror only as a dream.” That he still pursued his studies of military affairs is shown by the compilation of further plans for the Italian campaign. The news of the ratification of peace with Spain brought at once the thought that an offensive plan of campaign in Piedmont was thenceforth inevitable. Probably these plans gained for him an appointment (20th of August) in the topographical bureau of the committee of Public Safety. But, either from weariness of the life at Paris, or from disgust at clerical work, he sought permission to go to Turkey in order to reorganize the artillery of the Sultan. But an inspection of his antecedents showed the many irregularities of his conduct as officer and led to his name being erased from the list of general officers (September 15th).
Again the difficulty of the republic was to be his opportunity. The action of the Convention in perpetuating its influence by the imposition of two-thirds of its members on the next popularly elected councils, aroused a storm of indignation in Paris, where the “moderate” and royalist reaction was already making headway. The result was the massing of some 30,000 National Guards to coerce the Convention. Confronted by this serious danger, the Convention entrusted its defence to Barras, who appointed the young officer to be one of the generals assisting him. The vigour and tactical skill of Bonaparte contributed very largely to the success of the troops of the Convention over the Parisian malcontents on the famous day of 13 Vendémiaire (October 5th, 1795), when the defenders of the Convention, sweeping the quays and streets near the Tuilleries by artillery and musketry, soon paralysed the movement at its headquarters, the church of St Roch. The results of this day were out of all proportion to the comparatively small number of casualties. With the cost of about 200 killed on either side, the Convention crushed the royalist or malcontent reaction, and imposed on France a form of government which ensured the perpetuation of
