Carlo Buonaparte died and the family was in straitened circumstances. he sustained pain and vomiting had led the ailing Carlo to consult physicians in Paris, Montpellier and Aix-en-Provence, but they were powerless against cancer. Carlo died on 24 February 1785, leaving Napoleon in financial crisis. He wrote to his uncle Lucien, the archdeacon, asking him to sustain the family until he qualified as an officer, and set to work to cram two or three years' work into as many months.
Napoleon immersed himself in his studies, now desperate to make the grade as an artillery officer. Entry to the elite corps of the artillery was normally a two-stage process. First came an examination on the first volume of Etienne Bezout's Cours de Mathematiques, the artilleryman's bible. There then followed a year in artillery school, after which cadets were examined on the next three volumes of Bezout; if successful, candidates were then commissioned as second lieutenants. Oustandingly gifted boys could take a single examination on all four volumes of Bezout and go straight into a regiment with a commission. Only a very few attempted this feat every year, but among them in 1785 was Napoleon Buonaparte.
Every summer an examiner came to the military school to test artillery candidates. Only fifty-eight candidates were taken into the artillery from all schools and colleges in France. The Ecole Royale Militaire in Paris should have had the edge but, of the seventeen boys put in for the examination, only four featured among the successful fifty-eight. Among them was Napoleon, placed forty-second, Des Mazis, placed fifty-sixth and Napoleon's bitter student rival Le Picard de Phelipeaux, who was fortyfirst. To be forty-second out of fifty-eight does not sound distinguished, and this fact has contributed to the persistent idea that Napoleon was not a particularly brilliant student, but it must be remembered that he was up against students who in some cases had had two years' more study than he.
In September, just sixteen, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He and Des Mazis had expressed a wish to join the same regiment, and the request was granted; the two friends were gazetted to join the La Fere regiment at Valence in the Rhone valley. Napoleon's education was now complete and his personality formed in all essentials. He entered the Army prepared for military life, at least by modern standards. Knowing nothing of the real conditions he might encounter on a battlefield, and still less of Army regulations.
Napoleon immersed himself in his studies, now desperate to make the grade as an artillery officer. Entry to the elite corps of the artillery was normally a two-stage process. First came an examination on the first volume of Etienne Bezout's Cours de Mathematiques, the artilleryman's bible. There then followed a year in artillery school, after which cadets were examined on the next three volumes of Bezout; if successful, candidates were then commissioned as second lieutenants. Oustandingly gifted boys could take a single examination on all four volumes of Bezout and go straight into a regiment with a commission. Only a very few attempted this feat every year, but among them in 1785 was Napoleon Buonaparte.
In September, just sixteen, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He and Des Mazis had expressed a wish to join the same regiment, and the request was granted; the two friends were gazetted to join the La Fere regiment at Valence in the Rhone valley. Napoleon's education was now complete and his personality formed in all essentials. He entered the Army prepared for military life, at least by modern standards. Knowing nothing of the real conditions he might encounter on a battlefield, and still less of Army regulations.
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