A little before the French Revolution, a lady of Geneva, being upon a visit to her friends at Lyons, was told of a young artillery officer who had little money and was confined by sickness in a room of the hotel where she lodged. Her benevolent feelings carried her to the bedside of the invalid, whose name was Napoleon Bonaparte. By her unremitting attention, she saw him so far restored as to be able to set out for his regiment.
On Napoleon's coronation, this good lady wrote to the emperor, and mingled with her felicitations some account of her own situation, which the casualties of the times had rendered less prosperous than formerly. Soon afterwards, she received a very handsome letter from Napoleon, containing bank notes to the amount of 10,000 francs and very friendly assurances of immediate attention to any application which she might hereafter think proper to make to him.
法國大革命爆發之前不久，日內瓦一名女士到里昂訪友，聽說她下榻那所旅館的一個房間裏，有個砲兵團軍官卧病，而且阮囊羞澀。她動了憐憫之心，走到那軍官病榻前，悉心照顧，終於見到他逐漸康復，可以動身回到砲兵團。那軍官名叫拿破崙．龐那巴特。
拿破崙登基加冕之後，這名善心女士寫信給他，致賀之餘，也稍稍提到自己的情況：人無千日好，她的家道已不如前。不久，她就接到拿破崙高義隆情的回信。信中除了有一萬法郎的鈔票，拿破崙還殷勤致意說，日後假如接到她任何要求，都會馬上處理。
*秦朝末年，韓信少年潦倒，獲一漂母贈飯，後封楚王，即召漂母，賜千金。李白因有《贈新平少年》詩：「千金答漂母，萬古共嗟稱。」