Napoleon leaves for Paris in a bid to find a better posting
Although Napoleon was posted to the Vendée, he refused to take the post. Not only was there no glory in civil war but he didn’t like the idea of shedding French blood. He returned to Paris with the aim of finding a better command, taking with him his 16-year old brother Louis and 2 of his aides-de-camp – Marmont and Junot.
Napoleon claimed illness, enjoying his pay as an unemployed general and doing his best to ignore the War Ministry’s demands to report for his post in the Vendée, provide proof of illness or retire altogether. These were uncomfortable months for him but he was philosophical about his lot, telling his brother Joseph in August: ‘Me, I’m very little attached to life.’