"To learn obeying is the fundamental art of governing," says Carlyle.

It was so with Napoleon: at Valence he served his apprenticeship in the art of conquering and the art of governing.
This spring-time of his life is of interest and importance in many ways: it reveals many amiable qualities, which had hitherto been blighted by the real or fancied scorn of the wealthy cadets.

At Valence, while shrinking from his brother officers, he sought society more congenial to his simple tastes and restrained demeanour.

In a few of the best bourgeois families of Valence he found happiness.

There, too, blossomed the tenderest, purest idyll of his life.