At the country house of a cultured lady who had befriended him in his solitude, he saw his first love, Caroline de Colombier.

It was a passing fancy; but to her all the passion of his southern nature welled forth.

She seems to have returned his love; for in the stormy sunset of his life at St.Helena he recalled some delicious walks at dawn when Caroline and he had--eaten cherries together.

One lingers fondly over these scenes of his otherwise stern career, for they reveal his capacity for social joys and for deep and tender affection, had his lot been otherwise cast.

How different might have been his life, had France never conquered Corsica, and had the Revolution never burst forth! But Corsica was still his dominant passion.