The city of Ajaccio had been gloomy and rainy for the past few days, so much so that even the sea seemed to be damp at last. The incessant downpour, so thick it was viscous, lashed down toward the bay from the heights of a sky that seemed never to dry up. The sea rumbles like the gray, soft sponge of a misty bay. But, in the persistent rain, the water did not seem to move; there was only an imperceptible, broad bulge far out to sea, which raised a hazy fog and roamed towards the harbor, which was enclosed amidst the drenched forest. A patch of mist rose from the city itself and swept over the watery walls on its way to meet the vapor from the sea. No matter which direction one faces, all one breathes seems to be water, and the air is all drinkable.
It was in the midst of this watery atmosphere that Joseph Bonaparte, the eldest of the Bonaparte family, who was long and thin as a bamboo pole, was walking under an umbrella along the sandy beach of the coast toward the cliffs that extended into the sea on that side. The cliff, now stained the same greenish-gray as the sea by the endless rain, reached out into the bay like an arm. During the dry Mediterranean summers, Joseph and his younger siblings used to come here to catch fish from the reefs below the cliffs or to look for all kinds of shells and oysters. And that's when the family's little runt, the second one, would grab a book all by himself and run inside a little natural cave in the middle of the cliffs to go and read a book.
"How come you're here now, though, when it's raining? This guy who didn't care for others, did he run into that cave again?" Joseph muttered inwardly as he made his way over toward the cliff.
The guy who doesn't let anyone stop him is his second brother, Napoleon Bonaparte, who is destined to make his mark on history. At this time, however, His Imperial Majesty, who would later be the mighty Emperor of Europe, was only a small child who gave people headaches.
Among Joseph's seven younger siblings, Napoleon was the one who gave him the most headaches. This guy probably has a somewhat eccentric personality because he's always being ridiculed for not getting tall enough. Even among his siblings, there weren't many who could get along well with him. And the tiny Napoleon turned out to be a violent maniac. Once he was taunted or had a conflict with someone because of something else, he always preferred to settle the dispute by straight-up violence.
Honestly, Napoleon's size actually makes him quite unsuitable for such an approach. Because, in theory, the whole fighting thing relies on strength, and strength is inextricably linked to size. Why else would there be weight classes in boxing? His size and strength alone won't do, but Napoleon is keen on using violence to solve problems. As a result, the dwarf developed two sets of tactics to make up for his lack of strength.
The first move is to use unconventional means to attack a weak point. For example, Napoleon was biting someone with his teeth when they were not expecting it or attacking a vital part of their body with his knee.
The second tactic is to 'sue first'. This trick is generally used against his brothers. Anyone with many brothers didn't fail to fight with them as a child. Whenever there was a fight, and when Letizia, the mother, came in a panic to stop it, it was Napoleon who was the first to jump out and complain and who was the most likely to look like 'I've been wronged'. And because Napoleon had practiced in his mind so many times how to act pitifully and how to deceive his mother before he did it, every time he hit the other brother first, he ended up with the other brother being scolded by his mother.
In this way, none of the brothers liked Napoleon very much, but they were all a little afraid of him and were not willing to go against his wishes. Except for one man, and that man not only wasn't afraid of Napoleon's shit, he could often even dominate Napoleon. This man was Napoleon's older brother, Joseph. This is because on one occasion, Napoleon and Joseph had a conflict, and following the old practice, Napoleon made the first move, taking advantage of the fact that Joseph was not on guard, and ruthlessly directed a kick at the lower part of Joseph's stomach. Joseph, who was defenseless at the time, was kicked backward and fell to the ground, where the back of his head touched a sharp stone, and he was left bleeding and unconscious. Little Napoleon was also completely stunned and panicked. Rushing to call his mother...
Joseph was in a coma for two whole days before he woke up. When he woke up, he did not recognize his family and couldn't even speak. No, to be precise, he suddenly couldn't speak the Corsican dialect (a kind of Italian), and when he opened his mouth, there was a strange, unintelligible language that sounded, somehow, a little bit like English, but with many differences. The family thought he was possessed and that the devil had possessed him. (According to Catholic writings, saying a language that no one understands is a typical sign of demonic possession.) If Joseph's father, Carlo, hadn't been an aristocrat (albeit a minor aristocrat in decline), it would have only been Joseph's end that would have been very tragic. Carlo invites Bishop Myriel to perform an exorcism on Joseph.
The ritual was effective, and after it was completed, Joseph, though not fully recovered - still didn't speak the Corsican dialect, and his memory had not returned - at least, he was no longer speaking that strange, frightening, possibly hellish language.
"The devil was expelled from him." Bishop Myriel said, "But just as a house is set ablaze by a fire, even though we extinguish the fire, what remains is likely to be nothing more than rubble. When the devil takes over a person's body, it can cause just as much damage as a fire, if not more. Now that the devil has been expelled, it is a great task to rebuild the house, and even whether or not this damage will eventually be restored depends only on the will of God."
"Amen!" Carlo, Letizia, and Joseph's siblings all said this together.
Carlo then donated thirty francs to the diocese (no small sum in those days) and begged Bishop Myriel to bring Joseph to the church for a period of recovery. After all, in the holy church, it should be possible to recover more quickly from damage caused by the devil.
Obviously, this was quite a wise decision on Carlo's part. Joseph recovered quite quickly in the church, and less than three months under the bishop's tutelage, he re-learned how to speak and write Italian and even learned to use Latin. Bishop Myriel always liked to take Joseph with him and tell everyone about him: "How marvelous is the will of God, you see, when the devil once invaded this man's body. When in God's name I expelled the devil from his body, all I saw was a barren land that a great fire had burned. But when the light of God shone on him, it caused a new sapling to grow in the wilderness, and it also caused the sapling to grow rapidly, and in the twinkling of an eye, it was about to grow from a small sapling into a real tree. Praise be to the Almighty and Omnipotent God." In his view, Joseph's recovery was a manifestation of divine grace and, in a sense, of his piety.
"Amen." And so said the one who heard it while at the same time putting out his hand and drawing a cross on his chest.
After being assured of Joseph's full recovery, Bishop Myriel asked Carlo to take Joseph home. Everyone realized that the kind and gentle Joseph they knew was back. He is just a lot quieter than he used to be and is hooked on reading. He's even started learning French on his own.
As a mother, Letizia was pleased with this change in her son's heart. She decided that it was entirely by God's grace that her son was able to be okay and become this better. For this reason, Letizia made another donation of another Mass so that she could express her gratitude to God. And because of that, nowadays, if anyone comes to her and says anything bad about Joseph, she will not hear anything about it. Since her son had been blessed with God's grace, how could he do evil?
So Napoleon's wicked tactics would no longer work with Joseph. If Napoleon had tried to pin anything bad on Joseph, then Letizia would have reached out her hand, twisted his ear, and sent him to the statue of the Blessed Virgin to make him repent of his mistake in slandering his brother.
Clever little Napoleon quickly realized this, so he had no choice but to compromise and show his respect to his big brother Joseph.
Of course, the change in the young Napoleon's attitude toward his older brother Joseph was not just because the older brother now had his mother's unconditional trust. It's also because there's a big difference between the big brother now and before. In the old days, Big Brother was stupid despite his generous character. Yes, very stupid. Stupid as a dull goose. But nowadays, Big Brother has completely changed. The slightest bit of his own mind often only just popped up. Big Brother can see through it at a glance. Although he sees through it, he doesn't reveal it. He just never steps on the traps that little Napoleon has dug. In addition, the elder brother became erudite; he read many books and knew many things. There were many things that Napoleon did not understand that he was able to ask his brother, and he was able to give convincing answers to most of his tricky and odd questions.
Of course, there were many disagreeable changes in his brother, and one of the most disagreeable was that Joseph always reached up and rubbed his hair when answering those questions of Napoleon's and would come up with this: "My stupid brother, here's the problem ..."
Napoleon got into trouble again today when he beat up Paolo, the little kid from the neighborhood. The blow was so heavy that it actually knocked the person unconscious. (One of the lessons Napoleon himself learned about fighting is that if you do it, don't shrink from it; you must dare to do it.)
Paolo's father, Monsieur Giovanni, was a friend of Carlo's, and he had only such a son. So, as soon as he saw Paolo fainted, Napoleon immediately realized that his old man would probably beat himself up pretty hard for it. He ran away before anyone could react.