and significant both because it was heavily influenced by Rousseau and
because Laclos, like Napoleon, was an artilleryman.
The entente between Napoleon and Joseph was particularly close
during this leave. The two brothers held long, animated discussions on all
the subjects that fascinated Napoleon. Joseph was said to have remarked
later: 'Ah, the glorious Emperor will never compensate me for Napoleon,
whom I loved so well, and whom I should like to meet again as I knew
him in 1786, if indeed there is a meeting in the Elysian fields.' But over
both young men a financial shadow continued to hang, and in particular
there was the problem of Carlo's mulberry groves. His investment was
predicated on a subsidy from the French government which had been
suspended because of financial retrenchment. Joseph had to return to his
studies in Pisa, so it fell to Napoleon to try to sort out the implicit breach
of contract.
On zr April 1787 Napoleon wrote to Colonel de Lance, his
commanding officer in the La Fere regiment, enclosing a medical
certificate stating that he was suffering from 'quartan ague', and
requesting an extension of leave on grounds of illness. This was granted
readily: Napoleon was informed he need not report back for duty until
December 1787. To obtain leave after only nine months' service and then
to be away from the regiment for what eventually turned out to be nearly
two years suggests an extremely complaisant attitude to the professional
officer by the ancien regime military authorities. Nor does there appear to
have been any liaison between government departments, for nobody
seemed to have questioned how Napoleon was too ill to be on military
duty yet fit enough to make a long journey to Paris to lobby the financial
bureaucracy about Carlo's mulberry groves. Such laxity was common in
the pre-r789 years: a colonel, for example, was required to be present
with his regiment for only five months a year.
Napoleon's financial mission began when he left Corsica on r2
September 1787. By the beginning of November he was installed at the
Hotel de Cherbourg in the rue du Faubourg-St-Honore in Paris. For the
first time he really got to know the French capital, having been a virtual
prisoner at the Ecole Royale; he made the most of his time, visiting as
many theatres as possible, with the Italian Opera a particular favourite.
His audience with the Comptroller-General of Finance was abortive:
nothing for the groves was offered. As if in compensation, Napoleon
received the six-month extension of leave he had requested before leaving
Corsica. This time he asked for prolongation on the ground that he
wished to attend a meeting of the Corsican Estates; since he did not ask
for pay, the request was granted.
marcin
(Marcin)
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