PREFACE.

The name of Madame Eugenie Foa has been a familiar one in French homesfor more than a generation. Forty years ago she was the most popularwriter of historical stories and sketches, especially designed for theboys and girls of France. Her tone is pure, her morals are high, herteachings are direct and effective. She has, besides, historicalaccuracy and dramatic action; and her twenty books for children havefound welcome and entrance into the most exclusive of French homes. Thepublishers of this American adaptation take pleasure in introducingMadame Foa's work to American boys and girls, and in this Napoleonicrenaissance are particularly favored in being able to reproduce herexcellent story of the boy Napoleon.

The French original has been adapted and enlarged in the light of recentresearch, and all possible sources have been drawn upon to make acomplete and rounded story of Napoleon's boyhood upon the basisfurnished by Madame Foa's sketch. If this glimpse of the boy Napoleonshall lead young readers to the study of the later career of thismarvellous man, unbiased by partisanship, and swayed neither by hatrednor hero worship, the publishers will feel that this presentation of theopening chapters of his life will not have been in vain.