For the past few days, it had been raining continuously in Ajaccio, and finally even the sea seemed to be wet. The incessant rain, thick and sticky, pelted down the bay from the heights of the seemingly never-drying sky. The sea was like a gray, soft sponge, rising up in the confused bay. However, in the continuous rain, the surface of the water did not seem to move; there was only an imperceptible, wide oscillation from afar, raising a hazy vapor on the sea. No matter which direction one went, it seemed that all one breathed was water, and the air was finally drinkable.
In the midst of this watery atmosphere, Joseph Bonaparte, the oldest of the Bonaparte family, long and thin like a bamboo pole, was holding an umbrella and walking along the beach of the coast towards the cliff that jutted into the sea. The cliff, now dyed greenish-gray like the sea by the endless rains, stretched into the bay like an arm. During the dry Mediterranean summers, Joseph and his younger siblings used to come here to fish from the reef below the cliff or to look for all kinds of shells and oysters. At this time, the family's second youngest would take a book and run to a natural cave in the middle of the cliff to read.
"But now, it's raining? This is not to let people worry about the guy, can not run to that cave again? Joseph walked towards the side of the cliff while muttering in his mind.
That uncomfortable man was his second brother, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was destined to leave a big mark in history. But at this time, His Majesty, the future emperor of Europe, was still just a little boy who was a pain in the ass.
Among Joseph's seven younger siblings, Napoleon was the most troublesome one. He was probably a little eccentric because he was always ridiculed for not growing tall enough. Even in the siblings, can get along with him well not many people. And a small individual Napoleon, but also a violent maniac. Once he was ridiculed, or because of other reasons and other people in conflict, he always like to directly use violence to solve the dispute.
Frankly speaking, Napoleon's size, in fact, is very unsuitable for the use of such a way. Because theoretically speaking, fighting this thing is to rely on strength, and strength and size are inseparable. Otherwise, why should boxing competitions be divided into weight classes? Since size and strength alone will not work, and Napoleon was keen to use violence to solve problems. As a result, the little man developed two methods to make up for his lack of strength.
The first move is to use unconventional means to attack weaknesses. For example, when people are defenseless, use teeth to bite, or use the knee to attack someone's vital point.
The second move is "the first to sue". This trick is generally used to deal with their brothers. Anyone who has many brothers, there is no one who did not fight with their brothers when they were young. Whenever there was a fight, when Letizia, the mother, came to stop it in a panic, Napoleon was the first one who jumped to complain and made a face like "I have suffered a lot". And because Napoleon had already rehearsed in his mind how to pretend to be poor and how to deceive his mother many times before he acted, every time it was he who hit the other brothers first, but in the end it was the other brothers who were scolded by their mother.
In this way, the brothers did not like Napoleon very much, but they were all a little afraid of him and did not want to go against his wishes. There was only one person, who was not only not afraid of Napoleon's ways, but could often dominate him. This man is Napoleon's elder brother Joseph. This is because once, Napoleon and Joseph had a conflict, according to the previous practice, Napoleon first, when Joseph was defenseless, and kicked Joseph in the small stomach. The defenseless Joseph was kicked backward, fell to the ground, the back of the head hit a sharp stone, immediately bleeding all over the ground, unconscious. Little Napoleon was also completely stunned and panicked. He rushed to call his mother ．．．．．．
Joseph was unconscious for two whole days before he woke up. When he woke up, not only did he not recognize his family, he could not even speak. No, to be precise, he suddenly couldn't speak the Corsican dialect, a kind of Italian, and opened his mouth in a strange language that people couldn't understand, which sounded a bit like English, but with many differences. The family thought he had been possessed by the devil. ｛According to Catholic documents, Joseph's father, Carlo, was a nobleman, though a small, declining nobleman, and Joseph would have ended up in a very tragic situation. Carlo invited Bishop Minnie to perform a ritual exorcism on Joseph.
The ritual was so effective that after it was completed, Joseph had not fully recovered - he still did not speak the Corsican dialect and his memory had not returned - but at least he no longer spoke that strange, frightening, possibly hellish language.
"The devil was banished from him," Bishop Mignonette said. But like a house set on fire, we put out the fire, but what's left is probably just rubble," Bishop Mignone said. When the devil takes over a person's body, it can do as much or more damage than a fire. Now that the devil has been expelled, it is a difficult task to rebuild the house, and it is up to God's will whether the damage will eventually be restored.
"Amen!" Carlo, Letizia, and Joseph's brothers and sisters all said this together.
Then Carlo made a donation of thirty francs to the parish, which was not a small sum in those days, and asked Bishop Mignonette to bring Joseph to the church for a time of restoration. After all, in a sacred church, the damage caused by the devil should be recovered more quickly.
Obviously, Carlo's decision was a wise one. Joseph recovered very quickly in church, and within three months, under the bishop's tutelage, he had relearned how to speak and write Italian, and even to use Latin. Bishop Mignonette always liked to take Joseph with him and tell everyone about him: "How wonderful is the will of God, you see, that the devil has taken over this man's body. When I drove the devil out of his body in the name of God, I saw only a wilderness burned with fire. But God's light shone on him, and the wilderness grew back into a sapling, and the sapling grew rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it will grow from a sapling to a real tree. Praise be to God, the Almighty and the Good." In his view, Joseph's restoration was not only a manifestation of God's grace, but also, in a sense, a manifestation of his piety.
"Amen." He who heard this said so, and at the same time reached out his hand and drew a cross on his chest.
After being convinced that Joseph was fully restored, Bishop Minerva asked Charles to take Joseph home. Everyone found that the kind Joseph they knew so well was back. Only he was much quieter than before, and he had become addicted to reading. He even began to learn French on his own.
Letizia, the mother, was overjoyed at this change in her son. She decided that it was by God's grace that her son was okay and doing so well. She donated a Mass to express her gratitude to God for this. Because of this, she could not listen to anyone who said anything bad about Joseph to her now. For how could her son, who had received the grace of God, do anything bad?
Therefore, Napoleon's evil tactics were no longer useful with Joseph. If Napoleon had tried to blame Joseph for something bad, Letizia would have reached out, twisted his ear, and sent him to the icon of the Virgin to repent of his slander against his brother.
The wise young Napoleon quickly realized this, so he had to make a compromise and show respect to his older brother Joseph.
Of course, the change in Napoleon's attitude toward his older brother Joseph is not only because he now has the unconditional trust of his mother. It was also because his older brother was now very different from before. In the past, although he was generous, he was foolish. Yes, very stupid. Stupid like a nerdy goose. But now, big brother has completely changed, his own little thoughts, often just emerge, big brother can see through. But although he saw through it, but did not reveal it, just never step on the trap dug by Napoleon. In addition, the elder brother has become knowledgeable, he has read a lot of books, know a lot of things. Napoleon had a lot of things he did not understand, can ask his brother, and his those difficult and strange questions, brother can also give most of the convincing answers.
Of course, the brother also has a lot of changes that people do not like, one of the most disliked point is, that is, Joseph in answering Napoleon's questions, always like to reach out to rub his hair, and will appear such a sentence: "My stupid brother, this question, it is so ．．．．．．".
Today Napoleon got into trouble again, he beat the neighbor's child Paul to a beating. He hit him so hard that he knocked him out. ｛One of Napoleon's own lessons in fighting is that if you do it, don't hold back, you have to be bold.}
Paul's father, Mr. Giovanni, is a friend of Carlo's and he only has one son. So when he saw Paul passed out, Napoleon immediately realized that his father would probably beat him up for it, so he ran away before anyone could react.
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