Georgiana thought Lupe looked very refined. In fact, he had once been a priest. He had been born into a Catholic family in Alsace, but later his father had decided to move to the Dutch Republic and become the chief surgeon of the Rotterdam Admiralty.
Lupe himself had attended Holland College in Leuven to study theology. When he was preparing to travel to Batavia as a missionary, problems arose between Austria and the university, so Lupe transferred to the University of Douai for further study. In 1790, he returned to Leuven and enrolled in the seminary, remaining there until the summer of 1794.
In the spring of that year, he was appointed subdeacon and received bachelor's and master's degrees in literature. Afterward, the rector of Leuven sent him to study at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
By then, Napoleon had already begun to distinguish himself at the Battle of Toulon. That July, his former backers, the Jacobins, were overthrown in the Thermidorian Reaction. Because of his achievements at Toulon, he had originally been appointed inspector of the coast and commander of coastal defenses. Yet in August, he was suddenly suspended and arrested. Although he had already written a letter of allegiance to the new state councillors, Saliceti submitted a report to the Committee of Public Safety, claiming that Napoleon was not only Robespierre's close associate, but that the treasonous scheme to seize Genoa had also been his doing.
On August 10, he was suspended and arrested. Around a dozen soldiers crowded around an officer as they burst into his residence, arrested Napoleon, and escorted him to Nice. On the 12th, he was sent to Fort Carré. The incident caused unrest among the Italian soldiers of the Army of the Alps. Compared with special envoys who only knew how to