Only one individual formed a mistaken idea of him; that was M. Bauer, the dull heavy German master. Young Napoleon never made much progress in the German language, which offended M. Bauer, who ranked German above all things, and he in consequence formed a most contemptible opinion of his pupil’s abilities. One day, Napoleon not being in his place, M. Bauer inquired where he was, and was told that he was attending his examination in the class of artillery. “What! does he know any thing?” said M. Bauer ironically. “Why, Sir, he is the best mathematician in the school,” was the reply. “Ah! I have always heard it remarked, and I have always believed, that none but a fool could learn mathematics.” “It would be curious,” said the Emperor, “to know whether M. Bauer lived long enough to see me rise in the world, and to enjoy the confirmation of his own judgment.”
Napoleon was scarcely eighteen years of age when the Abbé Raynal, struck with the extent of his acquirements, appreciated his merit so highly as to make him one of the ornaments of his scientific _déjeûners_. Finally, the celebrated Paoli, who, after having long inspired Napoleon with a sort of veneration, found the latter at the head of a party against him, the moment he shewed himself favourable to the English, was accustomed to say—“This young man is formed on the ancient model. He is one of Plutarch’s men.”
In 1785, Napoleon, who was appointed at once a cadet and an officer of artillery, quitted the military school to enter the regiment of la Fère with the rank of second lieutenant; from which he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the regiment of Grenoble.
Napoleon, on quitting the military school, went to join his regiment at Valence. The first winter he spent there, his comrades at the mess-table were Lariboissière, whom, during the empire, he appointed inspector-general of the artillery; Sorbier, who succeeded Lariboissière in that post; d’Hedouville, junior, afterwards minister plenipotentiary at Frankfort; Mallet, brother of him who headed the tumult in Paris in 1813; an officer named Mabille, whom, on his return from emigration, the Emperor appointed to a situation in the post-office; Rolland de Villarceaux, afterwards prefect of Nismes; Desmazzis, junior, his companion at the military school, and the friend of his early years, who after Napoleon ascended the throne, became keeper of the Imperial wardrobe.