and to return to his Corsican home on furlough. Of course an
affecting scene was enacted by himself and his family when they were
at last reunited. Letitia, his fond mother, wept tears of joy, and
Joseph, shaking him by the hand, rushed, overcome with emotion, from
the house. Napoleon shortly after found him weeping in the garden.

"Why so sad, Joseph?" he inquired. "Are you sorry I have returned?"

"No, dear Napoleon," said Joseph, turning away his head to hide his
tears, "it is not that. I was only weeping because--because, in the
nature of things, you will have to go away again, and--the--the idea
of parting from you has for the moment upset my equilibrium."

"Then we must proceed to restore it," said Napoleon, and, taking
Joseph by the right arm, he twisted it until Joseph said that he felt
quite recovered.

Napoleon's stay at Corsica was quite uneventful. Fearing lest by
giving way to love of family, and sitting and talking with them in
the luxuriously appointed parlor below-stairs, he should imbibe too
strong a love for comfort and ease, and thus weaken his soldierly
instincts, as well as break in upon that taciturnity which, as we
have seen, was the keynote of his character, he had set apart for
himself a small room on the attic floor, where he spent most of his
time undisturbed, and at the same time made Joseph somewhat easier in
his mind.

"When he's up-stairs I am comparatively safe," said Joseph. "If he
stayed below with us I fear I should have a return of my nervous
prostration."