CHAPTER I.

THE BIRTH, CHILDHOOD, AND POSITION OF LETITIA.—HER MARRIAGE WITH CARLO BONAPARTE.

MARIA LETITIA RAMOLINO, THE MOTHER of Napoleon the Great, was born at Ajaccio in Corsica, but it is not accurately known in what year. Some biographers affirm that it was in 1736, a calculation that would bring her to the advanced age of a hundred; her lady-in-waiting, the Duchess d’Abrantès, whose mother was the friend of her youth, says that she was born in 1748, and her son Lucien, in his Mémoires, speaks of his mother’s birthday as August 24th of that year; but other writers maintain that she first saw the light in 1750. The strange difference in these dates is accounted for by the fact that the church registers in Corsica were destroyed in the Civil Wars, and although they were subsequently re-written, it is impossible to rely upon their accuracy. Napoleon caused a search to be made in 1806 for any official documents relating to his family, but even these were afterwards lost. Time, too, has effaced nearly every incident of Letitia’s childhood, but we know for certain that her parents possessed a moderate fortune, and that her grandfather, as well as her father, occupied important positions on the island, which, until 1768, belonged to the Genoese Republic. Her father, Jean Jérôme Ramolino, was at one time a captain in the army, and later on, a general inspector of roads in Corsica. Her mother, Angela Maria di Pietra-Santa, was the daughter of a nobleman in the province of Sartène, the very centre of the vendetta, a rugged, wild district, where the houses were mere huts, from which the inhabitants went forth in armed bands to procure their provisions, and lived in a state of deadly hatred one against the other.

The first issue of this marriage was a daughter, who died at a very early age, and whose birth has probably been mistaken in the church registers for that of her younger sister; there was also one son, who does not appear to have played any part in the life of Letitia. Their father died in 1755, and his widow married, in 1757, Franz Fesch, a captain in the Genoese Marines, who belonged to a distinguished Swiss family, and was an ardent adherent of Zwingli’s congregation, but who embraced Roman Catholicism in order to marry the beautiful widow, who could not be induced to abjure her own faith. Their children were Joseph Fesch, born January 3rd, 1763, and a daughter some years younger, who married a tradesman of Basle, named Burkly.

Frank Fesch died at an early age, and when Letitia married, she adopted her young half-brother and brought him up as one of her own children. He became celebrated as Cardinal Fesch, and never wavered in grateful attachment to his sister.

Both friends and enemies have rightly concurred in considering Letitia the most beautiful woman in Corsica. She was well formed and of medium height, with particularly pretty, small hands and feet, which her son Napoleon inherited, and lovely teeth, in which all her children resembled her. She had sunny chestnut hair, a good forehead, long black eyelashes, shadowing, not large, but piercing eyes that lighted up the whole face, a fine, expressive mouth, and a slightly prominent chin that betokened energy and strength of will. Her nose was well formed and rather long, her ears small and pretty, while her every movement, her carriage and walk, were characterised by inborn grace.

The education of Corsican girls was terribly neglected a hundred years ago, when almost their sole instruction was derived from intercourse with servants, who were far more friendly towards them than their own mothers, whose duty seemed to consist in scolding on every possible occasion, those who completely overawed their daughters being considered the most capable. This rigorous treatment lasted until an opportunity to marry them presented itself, and it was not till she was wedded that a girl could lay claim to the slightest individuality.

Letitia grew up under the same injudicious management as her companions, and never made good the defects of her faulty education. We learn from her own statement that she was barely thirteen when her mother and step-father began to look about for a suitable husband for her, and believed that they had found one in Carlo di Bonaparte, who, like themselves, belonged to an ancient noble family. The Bonapartes and the Ramolinos had both emigrated to Corsica from North Italy, and the former had held important political positions in Florence, Sarzane, and San Miniato, as well as serving with honour both as soldiers and civil officials.

There was certainly no wide scope for their powers, but the successful exercise of these was sufficient to bring them renown. If anything, the Ramolino family was of higher birth than the Bonapartes, and could trace its descent from the Counts Coll’ Alto; but in many respects the fortunes of the two families were very similar. Neither of them remained in Lombardy, their native province, nor in Tuscany, to which they afterwards migrated, while traces of their talents and thoroughness are to be met with both in Naples and Genoa, which latter city the Ramolinos left about the close of the 15th century, and removed to Corsica, the existing head of the house having for his wife the daughter of a Genoese Doge, in whose city he had been received with high and honourable distinction.

The Bonapartes did not reach Corsica till towards the close of the 16th century, since which time the two families had lived near each other, had occupied similar municipal appointments, and had frequently intermarried.

It is as difficult to give the exact date of the birth of Carlo Maria di Bonaparte as of that of Letitia, but his eldest son mentions in his Mémoires that his father was born in 1740; some maintain that it was in 1744, while 1746 is the date assigned by others.

The young man’s grandfather had had three sons: Joseph, Napoleon, and Lucien. Napoleon had only one daughter. Lucien belonged to the priesthood, and Carlo was the only son of Joseph, consequently the family heir. Like Letitia Ramolino he lost his father at a very early age, but his uncle Lucien, at that time Archdeacon of Ajaccio, took charge of him and treated him like a son. At the age of fourteen, he was sent by his uncle to the High School in Corte, to which Pascal Paoli had given the proud name of “University,” though it possessed but five teachers, all monks. Here the boy gained the personal friendship of Paoli, who received him into his own house, to be rewarded by the laudatory Latin verses of the boy, proclaiming him the deliverer of Corsica.

But he did not remain here long, as it had always been the custom in the Bonaparte family that the sons should be sent to Italy for their finishing studies, and it was at the University of Pisa that Carlo prepared to pass his examinations in law. His means were very small, but he had considerable ability, and enough conceit and will to ensure success; he was besides good-looking, in the style of Louis XV., tall, with regular refined features full of expression, and a faultless carriage and bearing. When in Italy, he was always called “Conte di Bonaparte,” and the old title flattered his vanity and conceit. While in Pisa he became acquainted with a charming girl of good means, Signorina Alberti, and in the conviction that his personal qualities alone would ensure him a well-dowered wife, he confidently sought her hand, but the lady’s father considered that the prospects of the young lawyer were too insecure, and refused his consent to the engagement. About the same time, while he was enjoying himself and making love in Italy, Carlo received a letter from his uncle, in which he was urged to return to Ajaccio, where the Archdeacon had been busy with matrimonial schemes for his adopted son, who at first was unwilling to obey the summons, until the ever more and more persistent refusals of Alberti to give him his daughter finally induced him to return home, where he was warmly welcomed by Lucien, who lost not a moment in telling him about the lovely and wealthy Letitia, and the day following his arrival they set out together to call upon Captain Fesch and his family.

There is but little doubt that Carlo loved Signorina Alberti’s money far more than herself, and it is quite certain that he quickly forgot her in the presence of the ravishing beauty of Signorina Ramolino, and became passionately in love with the young girl provided for him by his uncle. But there was one point against the marriage that troubled Letitia’s mother, who like all the Ramolinos for centuries, was in full sympathy with the Genoese, the lords of the island, while the Bonapartes loudly declared themselves the friends and adherents of Paoli, the leader of the Independent Party. But as the match was a thoroughly suitable one in every other respect, neither she nor her husband were disposed to reject what they had wished from the very first.

Early marriages are usual in Corsica, but when Carlo expressed his wish to be united to Letitia immediately after their engagement, his uncle thought him a little too precipitate, still, as the passion of the young man was even stronger than it had been for the Pisan beauty a few weeks previously, and as he declared that if the ceremony were not performed at once, he would take his fiancée home without the consent of his guardian, the Archdeacon was compelled to yield, and united the couple a few days later, but the exact date is not to be found in any Corsican archives, though in the memoirs of several of the children, June 2nd, 1764, is mentioned as the wedding...