The strength of Paoli increasing, and the English preparing to assist
him, Corsica became no longer a safe or convenient residence for the
Bonaparte family. Indeed, both Napoleon and his brother Lucien, who had
distinguished themselves as partisans of the French, were subjected to a
decree of banishment from their native island; and Madame Bonaparte,
with her three daughters, and Jerome, who was as yet but a child, set
sail under their protection, and settled for a time, first at Nice, and
afterwards at Marseilles, where the family is supposed to have undergone
considerable distress, until the dawning prospects of Napoleon afforded
him the means of assisting them.

Napoleon never again revisited Corsica, nor does he appear to have
regarded it with any feelings of affection. One small fountain at
Ajaccio is pointed out as the only ornament which his bounty bestowed on
his birthplace. He might perhaps think it impolitic to do any thing
which might remind the country he ruled that he was not a child of her
soil, nay, was in fact very near having been born an alien, for Corsica
was not united to, or made an integral part of France, until June, 1769,
a few weeks only before Napoleon's birth. This stigma was repeatedly
cast upon him by his opponents, some of whom reproached the French with
having adopted a master, from a country from which the ancient Romans
were unwilling even to choose a slave; and Napoleon may have been so far
sensible to it, as to avoid showing any predilection to the place of his
birth, which might bring the circumstance strongly under the observation
of the great nation, with which he and his family seemed to be
indissolubly united. But, as a traveller already quoted, and who had the
best opportunities to become acquainted with the feelings of the proud
islanders, has expressed it,--"The Corsicans are still highly patriotic,
and possess strong local attachment--in their opinion, contempt for the
country of one's birth is never to be redeemed by any other qualities.