His was one of fifty-eight commissions which Louis XVI.

signed for the Ecole Militaire.

Eleven years later, November 15, 1796, Bonaparte, commander-in-chief of the army of Italy, at the Bridge of Arcola, which was defended by two regiments of Croats and two pieces of cannon, seeing his ranks disseminated by grapeshot and musket balls, feeling that victory was slipping through his fingers, alarmed by the hesitation of his bravest followers, wrenched the tri-color from the rigid fingers of a dead color-bearer, and dashed toward the bridge, shouting: "Soldiers! are you no longer the men of Lodi ?" As he did so he saw a young lieutenant spring past him who covered him with his body.
This was far from what Bonaparte wanted.

He wished to cross first.

Had it been possible he would have gone alone.
Seizing the young man by the flap of his coat, he drew him back, saying: "Citizen, you are only a lieutenant, I a commander-in-chief! The precedence belongs to me." "Too true," replied the other; and he followed Bonaparte instead of preceding him.
That evening, learning that two Austrian divisions had been cut to pieces, and seeing the two thousand prisoners he had taken, together with the captured cannons and flags, Bonaparte recalled the young man who had sprung in front of him when death alone seemed before him.
"Berthier," said he, "tell my aide-de-camp, Valence, to find that young lieutenant of grenadiers with whom I had a controversy this morning at the Bridge of Arcola." "General," stammered Berthier, "Valence is wounded." "Ah! I remember I have not seen him to-day.