* * * * * * * * * * ’Twas on a welcome festive morn, For some great saint divinely born. No matter why, it was a jolly day, Boys must be merry on a holiday; And now behold their bulging pockets, Enrich’d with pistols, squibs, and rockets-- When some, but humbly begg’d his pardon Threw fireworks into Boney’s garden; ’Twas chiefly manag’d by the breeze Which sent them ’mong his plants and trees; Bursting, the cracks were oft repeated, Nap’s ears were with the thunder greeted; Th’ explosions discomposed, I wot, Th’ arrangement of the lovely spot. Nap saw it with corroding spite, And now began his lips to bite; But strove his anger to restrain, Until revenge he could obtain. [Illustration: NAPOLEON BLOWING UP HIS COMRADES.] For weeks he plann’d what he should do, And in about a month or two Contrived his infamous design, By having made a kind of mine Beside the garden; where, in haste, Long trains of gunpowder he plac’d; Deliberately now, as stated, He for the little fellows waited; And just as they were passing through it, A lighted bit of stick put to it; The boys were suddenly alarm’d, And some were miserably harm’d, While all, with fright and consternation, Were in a state of perturbation. Th’ _heroic_ Boney, with a club, Now came the sufferers to drub; But soon the master was in sight, Which put the Conqueror to flight. CHAPTER IV. NAPOLEON AT THE ECOLE MILITAIRE--PERSONAL DESCRIPTION--_PUSS IN BOOTS_--VISIT TO CORSICA--SOLICITS SERVICE IN ENGLAND--REPORTED VISIT TO LONDON--SIEGE OF TOULON. On October 14 or 17, 1784, he left Brienne for the Ecole Militaire at Paris. Gillray, when he drew the picture (on next page) of the abject, ragged, servile-looking Napoleon, could hardly have realised the fact that Napoleon was then over fifteen years of age, and that, having been already five years at a military school, he must necessarily have carried himself in a more soldierly manner. He stayed at the Ecole Militaire till August 1875, when he obtained his brevet of second lieutenant of Artillery in the regiment of La Fère. Madame Junot[20] tells an amusing anecdote of him at this period, which I must be pardoned introducing here, as it helps us to imagine his personal appearance. ‘I well recollect that on the day when he first put on his uniform, he was as vain as young men usually are on such an occasion. There was one part of his dress which had a very droll appearance--that was his boots. They were so high and wide, that his little thin legs seemed buried in their amplitude. Young people are always ready to observe anything ridiculous; and, as soon as my sister and I saw Napoleon enter the drawing-room, we burst into a loud fit of laughter. At that early age, as well as in after life, Bonaparte could not relish a joke; and when he found himself the object of merriment, he grew angry.