In this way he received a good military
education at Brienne and at Paris. He early displayed a marked fondness
for the study of mathematics and history as well as for the science of
war; and, though reserved and taciturn, he was noticeably ambitious and
a keen judge of men.
During his youth Buonaparte dreamed of becoming the leader in
establishing the independence of Corsica, but the outbreak of the
French Revolution afforded him a wider field for his enthusiasm and
ambition. Already an engineer and artilleryman, he threw in his lot
with the Jacobins, sympathized at least outwardly with the course of
the Revolution, and was rewarded, as we have seen, with an important
place in the recapture of Toulon (1793) and in the defense of the
Convention (1795). It was not, however, until his first Italian
campaign,--when incidentally he altered his name to the French form,
Bonaparte,--that he acquired a commanding reputation as the foremost
general of the French Republic.
[Sidenote: Character of Bonaparte]
How Bonaparte utilized his reputation in order to make himself master
of his adopted country has already been related.
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