Napoleon: A Biography

(Marcin) #1

1790 Saliceti was instrumental in getting the Assembly to grant an
amnesty to Paoli and invite him to return to the island.
This was the context in which Napoleon, together with Joseph, who
was turning himself into a professional politician, started to acquire a
reputation as a small-time 'fixer'. He was in Bastia in early November
1789, and the fact that a popular rising took place there five days after his
arrival has always seemed more than coincidence. The first three months
of 1790 saw him active with Joseph in the election campaigns for the new
Corsican assembly, and on 12 April he and Joseph were present at a nine­
hour meeting of the new Assembly at Orezza. It was no wonder that the
commander of the Ajaccio garrison complained to the Minister of War in
December 1789 as follows: 'This young officer was educated at the Ecole
Militaire. His sister is at St-Cyr and his mother has received countless
kindnesses from the government. This officer had much better be with
his regiment since he spends all his time stirring up trouble.'
On 16 April 1790 Napoleon wrote to du Teil to request a prolongation
of his leave, on the grounds that he was suffering from anaemia and
needed to take the waters of Orezza. The request was so clearly bogus
that it is surprising that du Teil granted an extension of four-and-a-half
months with pay until October, but we must remember that by this time
he was something of a cynosure with his commanding officer. It was not
the water at Orezza Napoleon was interested in, but the hot air of political
disputation, for between 9 and 27 September he and Joseph were in daily
attendance at the Paolistas 'party conference'. The sessions were
dominated by Paoli, who, aged sixty-six and whitehaired, had made a
triumphant return to Corsica, landing at Bastia on 17 July, where
Napoleon met him.
The Assembly held at Orezza halted the growing move for the
partition of the island (for in addition to every other complexity, there
was a separatist movement within Corsica) and settled on Bastia as the
capital. The stage was now set for head-to-head conflict in the Corsican
Assembly between the partisans of Buttafuoco and Paoli. In this tactical
battle Saliceti decisively outpointed Buttafuoco and the clerical represen­
tative Peretti; the Third Estate and the Paolistas now held the whip hand
in Corsica.


For the whole of 1790 Napoleon was in effect a Corsican politician. He
did try to rejoin his regiment in October, but his ship was driven back to
Ajaccio several times by adverse winds. He used the time to get Joseph
elected to the Ajaccio municipal council, even though the Bonapartes'
enemies produced Joseph's birth certificate to show that he was too young
to serve. With the Republican majority on the Council behind him,

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