A witness of these facts is
a certificate which Joseph Bonaparte a few months later procured
from Corsica, and which ran as follows:
"I, the undersigned, Louis Conti, procurator-syndic of the district
of Ajaccio, department of Corsica, declare and certify: in the month
of May of this year, when General Paoli and the administration of
the department had sent into the city of Ajaccio armed troops, in
concert with other traitors in the city, took possession of the
fortress, drove away the administration of the district,
incarcerated a large portion of the patriots, disarmed the
republican forces, and, when these refused to give up the
commissioners of the National Convention, Paoli's troops fired upon
the vessel which carried these commissioners:
"That these rebels endeavored to seize the Bonaparte family, which
had the good fortune to elude their pursuit:
"That they destroyed, plundered, and burnt everything which belonged
to this family, whose sole crime consisted in their unswerving
fidelity to the republicans, and in their refusal to take any part
in the scheme of isolation, rebellion, and disloyalty, of which
Paoli and the administration of the department had become guilty.
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