CHAPTER TWOOn I 5 December 1779 a veritable cohort of Buonapartes left Corsica, all
ultimately headed in different directions. Carlo, once again named deputy
for the nobility of the Estates-General of Corsica, was on his way to
Versailles. In his charge were the young Fesch, who was beginning his
studies at the seminary at Aix-en-Provence, Napoleon, who was to spend
four months learning French before being assigned to a military school,
and Joseph, likewise going to the school at Autun to learn French before
beginning to study for the priesthood. The other adult in the party was
Letizia's cousin, the Abbe Varese, who had been appointed subdeacon at
Autun Cathedral.
In his memoirs Joseph states categorically that the party crossed to La
Spezia and visited Florence before proceeding to France, but the calendar
tells against him, for he and Napoleon were definitely enrolled at the
school at Autun in Burgundy on New Year's Day I779· Carlo dropped
off Fesch at the Aix seminary and then proceeded north with Varese to
Autun. Three weeks after his sons had started school, Carlo was notified
by the War Ministry that Napoleon had, in principle, been assigned to
the military school at Tiron, but that some final formalities concerning
the title to nobility had still to be cleared up. However on 28 March 1779
Montbarrey informed Carlo that Napoleon was actually being sent to the
military school at Brienne in Champagne. Since Carlo was by now in
Versailles and detained on business, he asked Mgr Marbeuf, the Bishop
of Autun, to take Napoleon up to Brienne to begin his education proper.
Serendipity intervened, so that Napoleon did not actually commence
his schooling at Brienne on 23 April, official school records notwithstand
ing. A certain captain Champeaux, on leave from his regiment in Nice,
arrived in Autun to convey his son from the school to Brienne. Learning
that the Champeaux boy was going to the same place as the young
Buonaparte, Mgr Marbeuf decided to save himself a journey and
prevailed on Champeaux to take Napoleon with him. Joseph described
the parting from his brother: he Ooseph) was red-eyed from weeping but
Napoleon shed just a single tear. On 22 April the Champeaux family took