Accordingly, when the youngster was fourteen years old--after several years of instruction under the private tutorship of Lachabeaussiere, _pere_--he was entered under the fictitious name of "Pierre Buffiere," at a private military school in Paris. Here, strong of limb, body, and mind, industrious and aggressive, he remained for four years. Then his father placed him in the Berry regiment of cavalry, which regiment had been commanded, sixty-two years before, by his grandfather. This event marked the end of a boyhood which had been clouded by an almost entire absence of paternal favor, and wholly free from maternal care--the mother's absence having been secured by the father, by a _lettre de cachet_. In addition, that boyhood had been irritated and embittered by a continuous and exasperating development of his natural personal disfigurement. His enormous head grew less in harmony with his torso, his lips and nose became thick and heavy, great moles revealed themselves upon his cheeks, and in every way, physically, his growth was a perpetual disappointment. However, he was now (1767) the eighteen-year old "Pierre Buffiere," a lieutenant of cavalry, conscious of his exceptional mental strength and somewhat vain thereof, and full of ambition and determination to win as he wished and in spite of all of his many obstacles. Unfortunately, but most naturally, considering his temperament, the first test of his will, his passion, and his determination, resulted in his victory. He won the affection of a young woman to whom his colonel had long been devoted, and the scandal resulting therefrom caused the father to obtain a _lettre de cachet_, by authority of which the indiscreet young man was placed in confinement in the Isle of Rhe. Immediately the prisoner began his first illustration of his ability to gain to his own purposes the ability and influence of others--one of his strongest and most useful characteristics. Within two months he had secured the esteem and confidence of his jailer, so that that official soon made a most favorable report, upon the strength of which Mirabeau was accepted as a volunteer to accompany the French expedition sent (in 1769) to conquer Corsica. So well did the young soldier conduct himself during this campaign, that he was not only promoted to a captaincy in the dragoons, but he effected a partial reconciliation with his father, returned to Provence, was permitted to assume his true name and title, and was presented at court. In June, 1772, he married, by his father's advice, Marie Emile de Covet, only daughter of the Marquis de Marignane. She came to him portionless, and he, impetuous, ambitious, and extravagant, became, during the next two years, deeply involved in debt. The marriage was a failure. Again the father utilized the _lettre de cachet_, and a second time was Mirabeau a prisoner (August 23, 1774), this time in the Chateau d'If, at Marseilles. Here it was that he wrote his first work of