enough to enable them to travel all night, and as nine o'clock was
striking from the Church of the Cordeliers they settled themselves
in the carriage and quitted Avignon, where their passage left
a fresh trail of blood, Roland with the careless indifference
of his nature, Sir John Tanlay with the impassibility of his
nation. A quarter of an hour later both were sleeping, or at
least the silence which obtained induced the belief that both
had yielded to slumber.

We shall profit by this instant of repose to give our readers
some indispensable information concerning Roland and his family.

Roland was born the first of July, 1773, four years and a few
days later than Bonaparte, at whose side, or rather following
him, he made his appearance in this book. He was the son of M.
Charles de Montrevel, colonel of a regiment long garrisoned at
Martinique, where he had married a creole named Clotilde de la
Clemenciere. Three children were born of this marriage, two boys
and a girl: Louis, whose acquaintance we have made under the
name of Roland, Amelie, whose beauty he had praised to Sir John,
and Edouard.

Recalled to France in 1782, M. de Montrevel obtained admission
for young Louis de Montrevel (we shall see later how the name
of Louis was changed to Roland) to the Ecole Militaire in Paris.

It was there that Bonaparte knew the child, when, on M. de Keralio's
report, he was judged worthy of promotion from the Ecole de Brienne
to the Ecole Militaire. Louis was the youngest pupil. Though
he was only thirteen, he had already made himself remarked for