When Napoleon set out from Paris on the 21st of March 1796, to take command of the Army of Italy, after a honeymoon of but three days, he traversed France with the swiftness of a courier, turning aside but a few hours at Marseilles with his mother and family, whom he was now able to provide for in an adequate manner. His letters to Josephine were full of passionate expressions of tenderness, and regret at their separation. But after paying his tribute to the affections, his heart was speedily filled with exultation and triumph. For the first time he was chief in command; the power within him was now free to direct his actions, unhampered by the restraint he had so long felt in the capital. He was extremely anxious to commence the career to which Fate called him, by placing himself at the head of the Army of Italy at once. It would not be difficult to imagine with what delight this young general--then scarcely twenty-six years old--advanced to an independent field of glory and conquest, confident in his own powers, and in the perfect knowledge of the country which he had previously acquired. He had under his command such men, already distinguished in war by success and bravery as: Augereau, Massena, Serrurier, Joubert, Lannes, Murat, La Harpe, Stengel and Kilmaine, all of whom were astonished at the youthful appearance of their new commander. It was not without some discontent that the old generals beheld a young man, lately their inferior, taking the command over their heads,--to which each supposed he had a prior claim, and reaping the benefits of a plan of operations they did not imagine to have originated with himself. As he rode along the ranks the soldiers observed that he did not sit well on horseback, and complained that a "mere boy" had been sent to command them. The young general, however, soon obtained that respect for his character, which had been denied to his physical constitution. The firmness he exhibited, soon put a stop to the insubordination which had prevailed in the army; and, even before they had conquered under him, the troops became as submissive as at any subsequent period, when his character was fully established. Some years before, when Bonaparte was conversing at Toulon with M. de Volney, the well-known Corsican traveler and literary man, at a dinner given to the two friends by Turreau, then in command of the military force at Nice, a campaign in Italy was suggested. After the dessert was brought in Napoleon said to Turreau: "Don't you think it's altogether too bad to have 10,000 men lying idle here at Nice when the Republic could make such excellent use of them in Italy?" "Possibly," replied Turreau, "but we can do nothing; we have no order to move from the Committee of Public Safety." "Then," said Napoleon, "it is your duty to make the committee ashamed of its inactivity."