Joseph Bonaparte

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Abbott John Stevens Cabot. Joseph Bonaparte

CHAPTER I. Scenes in Early Life. 1768-1793

CHAPTER II. Diplomatic Labors. 1793-1797

CHAPTER III. JOSEPH THE PEACE-MAKER. 1798-1802

CHAPTER IV. JOSEPH KING OF NAPLES. 1803-1807

CHAPTER V. THE CROWN A BURDEN. 1806-1807

CHAPTER VI. THE SPANISH PRINCES. 1807-1808

CHAPTER VII. JOSEPH KING OF SPAIN. 1808

CHAPTER VIII. THE SPANISH CAMPAIGN OF NAPOLEON. 1808-1809

CHAPTER IX. The War in Spain Continued. 1809-1812

CHAPTER X. THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN. 1812-1813

CHAPTER XI. LIFE IN EXILE. 1815-1832

CHAPTER XII. LAST DAYS AND DEATH. 1832-1844

Отрывок из книги

The island of Corsica, in the Mediterranean Sea, sixty miles from the coast of Tuscany, is about half as large as the State of Massachusetts. In the year 1767 this island was one of the provinces of Italy. There was then residing, in the small town of Corté, in Corsica, a young lawyer nineteen years of age. He was the descendant of an illustrious race, which could be traced back, through a succession of distinguished men, far into the dark ages. Charles Bonaparte, the young man of whom we speak, was tall, handsome, and possessed strong native powers of mind, which he had highly cultivated. In the same place there was a young lady, Letitia Raniolini, remarkable for her beauty and her accomplishments. She also was of an ancient family. When but sixteen years of age Letitia was married to Charles Bonaparte, then but nineteen years old.

About a year after their marriage, on the 7th of January, 1768, they welcomed their first-born child, Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte. In nineteen months after the birth of Joseph, his world-renowned brother Napoleon was born. But in the mean time the island had been transferred to France. Thus while Joseph was by birth an Italian, his brother Napoleon was a Frenchman.

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The mayor of the city, Jean Jerome Levie, was a very noble man, and a particular friend of the Bonapartes. Very liberally he contributed of his large fortune to aid the poor. "Napoleon," says Joseph, "honored him at Saint Helena in his last hour, and left him a hundred thousand francs. This proves the truth of what I have often said of the kindness and tenderness of Napoleon's heart. It was this which led him in his last moments to remember the abbé Recco, Professor of the Royal College of Ajaccio, who in our early childhood, before our departure for the Continent, kindly admitted us to his class, and devoted to us his attention. I recall the incident when the pupils were arranged facing each other upon the opposite sides of the hall under an immense banner, one portion of which represented the flag of Rome, and the other that of Carthage. As the elder of the two children, the professor placed me by his side under the Roman flag.

"Napoleon, annoyed at finding himself beneath the flag of Carthage, which was not the conquering banner, could have no rest until he obtained a change of place with me, which I readily granted, and for which he was very grateful. And still, in his triumph, he was disquieted with the idea of having been unjust to his brother, and it required all the authority of our mother to tranquilize him. This abbé Recco was also remembered in his will."

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