Oh, yes, this little Lieutenant Buonaparte from the Military School of Brienne was a singular figure.

"There is a man," said I, when I saw him, "who will sit upon a throne or kneel upon a scaffold." And now look at him!' 'And that is ten years ago,' I exclaimed.
'Only ten years, and they have brought him from a barrack-room to the Tuileries.

But he was born for it.

You could not keep him down.
De Bourrienne told me that when he was a little fellow at Brienne he had the grand Imperial manner, and would praise or blame, glare or smile, exactly as he does now.

Have you seen his mother, Monsieur de Laval?
She is a tragedy queen, tall, stern, reserved, silent.