would square with the tradition, which seems solidly grounded, that
Napoleon picked on Joseph, fought with him at every opportunity and
generally tried to browbeat and bully him. Joseph was quiet and mild, but
Napoleon was rumbustious and belligerent.
Finally, there is Letizia's testimony that she was a stickler for the truth
while Napoleon showed early signs of being a pathological liar. This was
part of a general clash of wills between mother and son which saw Letizia
frequently having recourse to the whip. Carlo spoiled his children, but
Letizia was a fearsome martinet with a rather masculine nature and a
natural love of power. A stern taskmistress who always punished for the
slightest fault, Letizia laid about her with gusto when her second son
misbehaved. She drove him to Mass with slaps and blows, whipped him
when he stole fruit, misbehaved in church or - on one notorious occasion
- laughed at a crippled grandmother. Letizia was also cunning and
devious. When her son was eight and an altar boy, she vowed to mete out
punishment for his less than reverent behaviour on the altar, but faced
the problem that she would find it hard to lay hands on the agile and
fully-clothed Napoleon. To lull his suspicions, she told him she would
not beat him for his offence. But when he took his clothes off she
pounced on him with the whip.
Napoleon never cried out under the lash, but fear and respect for his
mother replaced genuine love. Napoleon resented her doctrinaire
principles and her sacrifice of reality for appearances. A true Latin,
Letizia believed that outward show was the most important thing and
that it was better to go without food so as to be able to wear a smart suit.
Naturally austere and penny-pinching, she had no qualms about sending
her children to bed hungry, both because she thought such hardship was
good for them and because she genuinely preferred to spend the money
on furnishing the house and keeping up appearances. Superficially, at
least, the challenge and response between mother and son worked out
well, since Napoleon did learn the value of discipline; his siblings, by
contrast, were notorious for the lack of it. Napoleon's testimony to his
mother on St Helena is the truth, but it is not the whole truth: 'I owe her
a great deal. She instilled into me pride and taught me good sense.'
But it was on Carlo that Napoleon's future prospects depended.
Despite his later claims to have been at the heart of Paolista councils,
Carlo was always held at arm's length by Paoli, who never admitted him
to the inner circles. Perhaps Paoli sensed that his young secretary was a
political opportunist pure and simple. After the retreat to Corte in May
1769, following the rout at Ponte Nuovo, Paoli and 340 of his most
devoted followers continued on to Bastia and took ship for England