but was fired upon by the fort. Since only thirty people rallied to their
standard in Ajaccio, the coup was abandoned next day. Napoleon
meanwhile had landed at Provenzale on 29 May and made rendezvous
with his refugee family, getting them by longboat on to a three-masted
xebec, which took them to Giralda. Letizia remembered making yet
another of her perilous night journeys before being united with her
family at Calvi. Napoleon himself arrived there disconsolately on 3 June.
Calvi was in friendly hands, but was being blockaded by the English.
Eight days later, after enjoying the hospitality of the Giubega family, the
entire family embarked for Toulon, virtually penniless. They risked
capture by the British by taking passage on a coaster navigated by a noted
blockade-runner.
Paoli's triumph was complete. To cement it, on the very day of the
Bonapartes' departure the Paolista National Assembly declared them to
be 'traitors and enemies of the Fatherland, condemned to perpetual
execration and infamy'. Paoli's success, in socioeconomic terms, meant
the triumph of the mountain folk, the shepherds and the peasants over
the great landowners, the nobility and the bourgeoisie of the ports and
cities. Most of those who fled into exile with the Bonapartes were
merchants or landowners; the paradox was that Napoleon the 'Rousseau
ist revolutionary' was from the viewpoint of social class more 'reactionary'
than the 'counter-revolutionary' Paoli. The French still maintained a
precarious toehold in Corsica, for they still held a few towns and villages,
and Commissioner Lacombe St-Michel stayed on to encourage them.
Paoli's triumph was shortlived. Fearing the inevitable French invasion
to restore their position on the island, he ended by inviting the British in.
When Admiral Hood anchored at San Fiorenzo with rz,ooo troops, Paoli
added his 6,ooo men and proceeded to besiege the French in Calvi and
Bastia. In June 1794 the Council of Corsica, with Paoli at its head,
proclaimed perpetual severance from France and offered the crown to the
King of England. George III accepted and sent out Sir Gilbert Elliot as
viceroy. Paoli, who was officially in retirement, still wanted to be the
power on the island and, not surprisingly, soon quarrelled bitterly with
Elliot. The British, tired of his prima-donnaish antics, hinted broadly
that Paoli might like to retire to England. Paoli hesitated, saw France still
in the grip of anarchy and then thought of the possible consequences of
war with both France and England. He accepted the offer. His victory
over the Bonapartes was therefore a hollow one. His loyal ally Pozzo di
Borgo left Corsica for a diplomatic career that would eventually find him
in the service of the Czar of Russia.
What is the explanation for Napoleon's violent split with Paoli? The
marcin
(Marcin)
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