There will be a truce to-morrow. Letizia we are winning! Corsica will be free ! Every Corsican
longs for many children. It is a land where an affront is instantly avenged by a dagger thrust
where the vendetta is sacred where family feuds last from decade to decade and from century to
century. The man before us wants many children to ensure that his race shall persist and the
woman has learned from mother and grandmother that children are tokens of honour. She had
become a mother at fifteen but the baby she has just been nursing was her first boy. The
thought of freedom glows afresh for the officer is adjutant to Paoli the leader of the
people. No longer shall our children be the slaves of France ! With the coming of spring
despondency prevails. The enemy has landed reinforcements the children of the island take up
arms once more again the young wife accompanies her husband to the war this time she carries
a child beneath her heart the child conceived during the storms of the previous autumn. Often
in search of news I would steal forth from our mountain nook to the battle-field I heard the
bullets whistling but I put my trust in Our Lady - so she would tell the story in later years.
In May the Corsicans were defeated. There was a terrible retreat through the dense forests and
the rugged mountains. Among the multitude of men and the few women rode Letizia big with
child carrying her one-year-old boy in her arms seated on a mule. They reached the coast
safely. In June the defeated Paoli accompanied by a few hundred of his faithful followers had
to flee to Italy. In July Paoli's adjutant Letizia's husband with other envoys capitulated
to the conqueror. The insular pride was humbled. But in August his wife brought the avenger
into the world. She named him Napolione. Reprint of the wonderful book about the life of
Napoleon Bonaparte original published in 1927.
