The Boy Life of Napoleon, Afterwards Emperor of the French

The name of Madame Eugenie Foa has been a familiar one in French homes for more than a generation. Forty years ago she was the most popular writer of historical stories and sketches, especially designed for the boys and girls of France. Her tone is pure, her morals are high, her teachings are direct and effective. She has, besides, historical accuracy and dramatic action; and her twenty books for children have found welcome and entrance into the most exclusive of French homes. The publishers of this American adaptation take pleasure in introducing Madame Foa's work to American boys and girls, and in this Napoleonic renaissance are particularly favored in being able to reproduce her excellent story of the boy Napoleon.

The French original has been adapted and enlarged in the light of recent research, and all possible sources have been drawn upon to make a complete and rounded story of Napoleon's boyhood upon the basis furnished by Madame Foa's sketch. If this glimpse of the boy Napoleon shall lead young readers to the study of the later career of this marvellous man, unbiased by partisanship, and swayed neither by hatred nor hero worship, the publishers will feel that this presentation of the opening chapters of his life will not have been in vain.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER ONE.

In Napoleon's Grotto

CHAPTER TWO.

The Canon's Pears

CHAPTER THREE.

The Accusation

CHAPTER FOUR.

Bread and Water

CHAPTER FIVE

A Wrong Righted

CHAPTER SIX.

The Battle with the Shepherd Boys

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Good-bye to Corsica

CHAPTER EIGHT.

At the Preparatory School

CHAPTER NINE.

The Lonely School-Boy

CHAPTER TEN.

In Napoleon's Garden

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

Friends and Foes CHAPTER TWELVE.

The Great Snow-tall Fight at Brienne School

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Recommended for Promotion

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Napoleon goes to Parts

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A Trouble over Pocket Money

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

Lieutenant Puss-in-Boots

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

Dark Days

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

By the Wall of the Soldiers' Home

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

The Little Corporal

CHAPTER TWENTY.

"Long Live the Emperor!"

THE BOY LIFE OF NAPOLEON.

CHAPTER ONE.

IN NAPOLEON'S GROTTO.

On a certain August day, in the year 1776, two little girls were strolling hand in hand along the pleasant promenade that leads from the queer little town of Ajaccio out into the open country.

The town of Ajaccio is on the western side of the beautiful island of Corsica, in the Mediterranean Sea. Back of it rise the great mountains, white with snowy tops; below it sparkles the Mediterranean, bluest of blue water. There are trees everywhere; there are flowers all about; the air is fragrant with the odor of fruit and foliage; and it was through this scented air, and amid these beautiful flowers, that these two little girls were wandering idly, picking here and there to add to their big bouquets, that August day so many years ago.

Every now and then the little girls would stop their flower-picking to cool off; for, though the August sun was hot, the western breezes came fresh across the wide Gulf of Ajaccio, down to whose shores ran broad and beautiful avenues of chestnut-trees, through which one could catch a glimpse, like a beautiful picture, of the little island of Sanguinarie, three miles away from shore.

As they came out from the shadow of the chestnut-trees, one of the little girls suddenly caught her companion's arm, and, pointing at an opening in a pile of rocks that overlooked the sea, she said,--

"Oh, what is this, Eliza?--an oven?"