His family was poor, and he was educated at the public expense, an advantage of which many honourable families availed themselves.

A memorial addressed by his father, Charles Buonaparte, to the Minister of War states that his fortune had been reduced by the failure of some enterprise in which he had engaged, and by the injustice of the Jesuits, by whom he had been deprived of an inheritance.

The object of this memorial was to solicit a sub-lieutenant's commission for Napoleon, who was then fourteen years of age, and to get Lucien entered a pupil of the Military College.

The Minister wrote on the back of the memorial, "Give the usual answer, if there be a vacancy;" and on the margin are these words--"This gentleman has been informed that his request is inadmissible as long as his second son remains at the school of Brienne.

Two brothers cannot be placed at the same time in the military schools." When Napoleon was fifteen he was sent to Paris until he should attain the requisite age for entering the army.