list of lieutenants at the Ministry of War: 'Has given up his profession,
and has been replaced on February 6th, 1792.'
Some time early in May 1792 Napoleon left Corsica on his urgent
mission to Paris. He reached the French capital on 28 May, to find that
war had broken out with Prussia and France had sustained its first
defeats. He wrote to Joseph that the capital was in a tense state, with
financial chaos and the assignat at half its old value. It seemed to be a
season for meeting old acquaintances, not all of them pleasant, for when
Napoleon booked in at the Hotel des Patriotes Hollandais in the rue
Royale, he found his old enemies Pozzo di Borgo and Peraldi staying
there. Next day he bumped into a different sort of acquaintance, for he
went to a session of the Assembly and met Bourrienne. For once
Bourrienne's memoirs, noting the event, are probably trustworthy:
Our friendship dating back to childhood and college was completely
revived ... adversity weighed him down and he was often short of
money. We spent our time like two young people of twenty-three who
have nothing to do and not much money; he was even harder up than I
was. Each day we thought up new plans. We were trying to make some
profitable speculations. Once he wanted us to rent several houses which
were being built in the rue Montholon in order to sub-let them
immediately. We found the demands of the landlords exorbitant.
Everything failed.On 16 June he went to St-Cyr to visit his sister, who asked him to get her
out of the convent as soon as legislation promised by the revolutionary
government made this possible. On 20 June he had arranged to dine with
Bourrienne in the rue St-Honore, near the Palais Royal, but, seeing an
angry crowd, some s-6,ooo strong, debouch from the direction of Les
Halles and head towards the river, the two young men decided to follow.
Two huge crowds organized by Antoine Santerre headed for the
Tuileries. After browbeating the Legislature, the crowd, chanting the
revolutionary song (:a Ira pressed on into the undefended palace grounds
themselves. In the Salon de l'Oeil de Boeuf they came upon Louis XVI
himself, with just a handful of attendants. For the whole of that afternoon
the monarch was systematically humiliated, unable to escape, forced to
listen to the taunts and abuse of the crowd. Finally, he put on a red hat -
'the crowning with thorns' - and was forced to drink the health of the
people of Paris. It was well past six o'clock before Jerome Petion, the
representative of the Assembly, persuaded the now placated multitude to
leave. This was a much greater affront to the monarchy even than the