ion in Paris in 1793. Napoleon earned the hatred of the Paolists by pretending to support Paoli and then turning against him (payment, one supposes, for Sardinia).
Paoli was convicted in absentia, a warrant was sent for his arrest (which could not be served) and Napoleon was dispatched to Corsica as Inspector-general of Artillery to take the citadel of Ajaccio from the royalists, who had held it since 1789. The Paolists combining with the royalists defeated the French in two pitched battles and Napoleon and his family went on the run, hiding by day, while the Paolists burned their estate. Napoleon and his mother, Laetitia, were taken out by ship in June 1793, by friends while two of the girls found refuge with other friends. They landed in Toulon with only Napoleon's pay for their support.
The Bonapartes moved to Marseille but in August Toulon offered itself to the British and received the protection of a fleet underAdmiral Hood. The Siege of Toulon began in September under revolutionary officers mainly untrained in the art of war. Napoleon happened to present socially one evening and during a casual conversation over a misplaced 24-pounder explained the value of artillery. Taken seriously he was allowed to bring up over 100 guns from coastal emplacements but his plan for the taking of Toulon was set aside as one incompetent officer superseded another. By December they decided to try his plan and made him a Colonel. Placing the guns at close range he used them to keep off the British fleet while he battered down the walls of Toulon. As soon as the Committee of Public Safety heard of the victory Napoleon became a Brigadier General, the start of his meteoric rise to power.
The Bonapartes were back in Ajaccio in 1797 under the protection of general Napoleon. Shortly after Napoleon became First Consul and then emperor, using the office to spread the revolution throughout Europe. In 1811 he made Ajaccio the capital of the new Department of Corsica
