Almost everywhere I saw only men lulled to rest by the charms of the most exquisite climate, occupied solely with the details of a monotonous existence, and tranquilly vegetating under its beneficent sky."-- (On Milan, in 1796, cf.

Stendhal, introduction to the "Chartreuse de Parme.")] [Footnote 1109: "Miot de Melito," I., 131: "Having just left one of the most civilized cities in Italy, it was not without some emotion that I found myself suddenly transported to a country (Corsica) which, in its savage aspect, its rugged mountains, and its inhabitants uniformly dressed in coarse brown cloth, contrasted so strongly with the rich and smiling landscape of Tuscany, and with the comfort, I should almost say elegance, of costume worn by the happy cultivators of that fertile soil."] [Footnote 1110: Miot de Melito, II., 30: "Of a not very important family of Sartene."-- II., 143.

(On the canton of Sartene and the Vendettas of 1796) .-- Coston, I., 4: "The family of Madame Laetitia, sprung from the counts of Cotalto, came originally from Italy."] [Footnote 1111: His father, Charles Bonaparte, weak and even frivolous, "too fond of pleasure to care about his children," and to see to his affairs, tolerably learned and an indifferent head of a family, died at the age of thirty-nine of a cancer in the stomach, which seems to be the only bequest he made to his son Napoleon .-- His mother, on the contrary, serious, authoritative, the true head of a family, was, said Napoleon, "hard in her affections she punished and rewarded without distinction, good or bad; she made us all feel it."-- On becoming head of the household, "she was too parsimonious-even ridiculously so.

This was due to excess of foresight on her part; she had known want, and her terrible sufferings were never out of her mind....

Paoli had tried persuasion with her before resorting to force...