He sets out secretly, with a trusty shepherd as companion, to cross the island: but at the village of Bocognano he is recognized and imprisoned by the partisans of Paoli.

Some of the villagers, however, retain their old affection to the Buonaparte family, which here has an ancestral estate, and secretly set him free.

He returns to Ajaccio, only to find an order for his arrest issued by the Corsican patriots.

This time he escapes by timely concealment in the grotto of a friend's garden; and from the grounds of another family connection he finally glides away in a vessel to a point of safety, whence he reaches Bastia.
Still, though a fugitive, he persists in believing that Ajaccio is French at heart, and urges the sending of a liberating force.

The French commissioners agree, and the expedition sails--only to meet with utter failure.