Plutarch was his favourite author; upon the study of whom he had so
modelled his opinions and habits of thought, that Paoli afterwards
pronounced him a young man of an antique caste, and resembling one of
the classical heroes.

Some of his biographers have about this time ascribed to him the
anecdote of a certain youthful pupil of the military school, who desired
to ascend in the car of a balloon with the aeronaut Blanchard, and was
so mortified at being refused, that he made an attempt to cut the
balloon with his sword. The story has but a flimsy support, and indeed
does not accord well with the character of the hero, which was deep and
reflective, as well as bold and determined, and not likely to suffer its
energies to escape in idle and useless adventure.

A better authenticated anecdote states, that at this time he expressed
himself disrespectfully towards the king in one of his letters to his
family. According to the practice of the school, he was obliged to
submit the letter to the censorship of Monsieur Domairon, the professor
of belles lettres, who, taking notice of the offensive passage, insisted
upon the letter being burnt, and added a severe rebuke. Long afterwards,
in 1802, Monsieur Domairon was commanded to attend Napoleon's levee, in
order that he might receive a pupil in the person of Jerome Bonaparte,
when the first consul reminded his old tutor good-humouredly, that times
had changed considerably since the burning of the letter.

Napoleon Bonaparte, in his seventieth year, received his first
commission as second lieutenant in a regiment of artillery, and was
almost immediately afterwards promoted to the rank of first lieutenant
in the corps quartered at Valence. He mingled with society when he
joined his regiment, more than he had hitherto been accustomed to do;