Merton of the Movies

“This is a shocking work on Bonapartes life and deeds and on that period of worlds History alike. The De Bourrienne first hand impressions make the difference between this book and others.<p> Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne (July 9, 1769 - February 7, 1834), French diplomat, was born at Sens.<\/p><p> He was educated at the military school of Brienne in Champagne along with Napoleon Bonaparte; and although the solitary habits of the latter made intimacy difficult, the two youths seem to have been on friendly terms. However, the stories of their very close friendship, as told in Bourriennes memoirs, are open to suspicion.<\/p><p> Leaving Brienne in 1787, and conceiving a distaste for the army, Bourrienne proceeded to Vienna. He was pursuing legal and diplomatic studies there, and afterwards at Leipzig, when the French Revolution broke out and went through its first phases. Not until the spring of 1792 did Bourrienne return to France; at Paris he renewed his acquaintance with Bonaparte. They led a Bohemian life together, and among other incidents of that exciting time, they witnessed the mobbing of the royal family in the Tuileries (June 20) and the overthrow of the Swiss Guards at the same spot (August 10).<\/p><p> Bourrienne next obtained a diplomatic appointment at Stuttgart, and soon his name was placed on the list of political \u00e9migr\u00e9s, from which it was not removed until November 1797. Nevertheless, after the affair of 13th Vend\u00e9miaire (October 5, 1795) he returned to Paris and renewed his acquaintance with Bonaparte, who was then second in command of the Army of the Interior and soon received the command of the Army of Italy. Bourrienne did not proceed with him into Italy, but was called there by the victorious general at the time of the long negotiations with Austria (May-October 1797), when his knowledge of law and diplomacy was useful in drafting the terms of the Treaty of Campo Formio (October 7).<\/p>”