Indeed, after paying for his board and lodging, he had left only about seven dollars a month to spend for clothes and "fun." So he soon tired of this attempt to keep up appearances on a little money.

He took to his books again, studying philosophy, geography, history, and mathematics.

He thought he might make a living by his pen, and concluded to become an author.

So he began writing a history of his native island--Corsica.
He even tried a novel, but boys of seventeen are not very well fitted for real literary work, and his first attempts were but poor affairs.
His reading in history and geography drew his attention to Asia; and he always had a boyish dream of what he should like to attempt and achieve in the half-fabled land of India, where he believed great success and vast riches were to be secured by an ambitious young man, who had knowledge of military affairs, and the taste for leadership.

At last he was ordered away on active service; first to suppress what was known as the "Two-cent Rebellion" in Lyons, and after that to the town of Douay in Belgium.
If was while there that bad news came to him from Corsica.