CHAPTER I.
Birth and Parentage of Napoleon Buonaparte--His Education at Brienne and at Paris--His Character at this Period--His Political Predilections--He enters the Army as Second Lieutenant of Artillery--His First Military Service in Corsica in 1793.
Napoleon Buonaparte was born at Ajaccio on the 15th of August, 1769.

The family had been of some distinction, during the middle ages, in Italy; whence his branch of it removed to Corsica, in the troubled times of the Guelphs and Gibellines.

They were always considered as belonging to the gentry of the island.

Charles, the father of Napoleon, an advocate of considerable reputation, married his mother, Letitia Ramolini, a young woman eminent for beauty and for strength of mind, during the civil war--when the Corsicans, under Paoli, were struggling to avoid the domination of the French.

The advocate had espoused the popular side in that contest, and his lovely and high-spirited wife used to attend him through the toils and dangers of his mountain campaigns.