But though faithful to the end, he was always erratic and troublesome; and in an attack of morbid chagrin he came to a violent end in 1813. The other comrade was but a boy of twenty, the son of an officer who, though of the lower nobility, was a convinced revolutionary. The boys had met several years earlier at Dijon and again as young men at Toulon, where the friendship was knitted which grew closer and closer for twenty years. At Wagram, Marmont became a marshal. Already he had acquired habits of luxurious ease and the doubtful fortunes of his Emperor exasperated him into critical impatience. He so magnified his own importance that at last he deserted. The labored memoirs he wrote are the apology for his life and for his treachery. Though without great genius, he was an able man and an industrious recorder of valuable impressions. Not one of the three accomplished anything during the Corsican expedition; their common humiliation probably commended both of his junior comrades to Buonaparte's tenderness, and thereafter both enjoyed much of his confidence, especially Marmont, in whom it was utterly misplaced. CHAPTER XX. The End of Apprenticeship. The English Conquest of Corsica -- Effects in Italy -- The Buonapartes at Toulon -- Napoleon Thwarted Again -- Departure for Paris -- His Character Determined -- His Capacities -- Reaction From the "Terror" -- Resolutions of the Convention -- Parties in France -- Their Lack of Experience -- A New Constitution -- Different Views of Its Value. [Sidenote: 1795.]