REPORTED ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE NAPOLEON--HIS AMOUR WITH MADAME
FOURÉS--THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN--THE ‘SAVANTS’--CARICATURES ON
THEM.
The new year opens with a somewhat curious print by I. Cruikshank,
January 1, 1799, of the ‘Ghost of Buonaparte appearing to the
Directory.’ The latter are in fearful dismay at the apparition, which,
attired in the airiest of costume, shakes his notched sword at them,
saying, ‘Regicides, Parricides, Matricides, and Patricides, this
is the effect of your insatiable thirst for Conquest; this is your
reward for my glorious Achievements in Italy, Germany, &c.--to die by
the hand of an Assassin, a d--d Mussulman: and all my Brave Legions
Destroyed by Water melons and the Arabs. Go, Murderers in cold blood,
may your conscious guilt ever prey upon your vitals, and may the name
of _Nelson_ ever haunt you, sleeping and waking’! What is meant by
his dying ‘by the hand of an Assassin,’ I do not know; but probably
some rumour was afloat to that effect, as Barre observes: ‘Whilst
Buonaparte and his army were thus cut off from Europe, the most absurd
reports were spread (no doubt by the partisans of the artful Corsican)
representing him as a victim of the Directory, who had thought proper
to remove so great, famous, and fortunate a general.
‘They pretended that the Directory, unable to repay the signal services
of Buonaparte, and, fearing, at the same time, his popularity, had
contrived, with Talleyrand, to flatter the ambitious vanity of
that young conqueror with an expedition, which would raise his fame
above the glory acquired by Alexander, or Cæsar. They added, that,
as Buonaparte was sure of being director at the next election, the
Directory had resolved to put him out of the way, by sacrificing him
and his army; having even directed that the fleet should be exposed to
certain destruction, in order that no possibility could exist of his
return.’
The ‘Times’ of January 2, 1799, has the subjoined:--
The following Epigram has been handed about in Paris. The
French points are all that can be remembered by the Gentleman
who has put it in an English dress.
‘France, to get rid of Turbulence,
Sends her best Soldiers far from hence,
With promises, and wishes, hearty;
Pleas’d and content that what so e’er
May happen either here or there,
To hazard all _in Bonâ-parte_.
‘And still, though rous’d by home alarms,
Nay, threatened by the world in arms,
France holds her head up bold and hearty--
Since now each Directorial Elf,
By losing _Bonaparte’s_ self
Enjoys the loss _in Bonâ-parte_.’
Meanwhile Napoleon was taking things pretty easily in Egypt, enjoying
himself after his manner. It is a marvel that none of the English
caricaturists ever depicted this portion of his life. True, Gillray,
as we have seen, drew him in Turkish costume; but he never wore it but
once, and then but for a very short time. But why did they spare him
in his _amour_ with Madame Fourés (Pauline, or _Queen of the East_, as
the army christened her)? De Bourrienne makes no secret of it. He says:
‘About the middle of September in this year (1798), Buonaparte ordered
to be brought to the house of Elfy Bey, half a dozen Asiatic women,
whose beauty he had heard highly extolled. However, their ungraceful
obesity displeased him, and they were immediately dismissed. A few
days after, he fell violently in love with Madame Fourés,[44] the wife
of a lieutenant of Infantry. She was very pretty, and her charms were
enhanced by the rarity of seeing a woman, in Egypt, who was calculated
to please the eye of a European. Bonaparte engaged, for her, a house
adjoining the palace of Elfy Bey, which he occupied. He frequently
ordered dinner to be prepared there, and I used to go there with him at
seven o’clock, and leave him at nine.
‘This connection soon became the general subject of gossip at
head-quarters. Through a feeling of delicacy to M. Fourés, the
General in Chief gave him a mission to the Directory. He embarked
at Alexandria, and the ship was captured by the English, who, being
informed of the Cause of his mission, were malicious enough to send him
back to Egypt, instead of keeping him prisoner.’
But he was not one to waste much time in dalliance. Turkey was not
at all satisfied with the occupation of Egypt, and two armies were
assembled, one in Syria, and one at Rhodes; the former of which had
already pushed forward into Egyptian territory as far as El-Arisch, and
also a train of artillery had been placed at Jaffa (the ancient Joppa).
The commander of this _corps d’armée_ (Achmet Pacha) had earned the
unenviable title of _Djezzar_, or _the Butcher_. Napoleon, very early
in the year 1799, marched against him, his busy brain having schemed
the plan of crushing these Turkish troops, a demonstration against
Constantinople itself, a forced peace with the Porte, and then hey!
for India. To pave the way for this latter he actually wrote to Tippoo
Sahib, saying he was coming to deliver him from the English yoke, and
requesting his answer, which he might possibly have received, had not
Tippoo been killed on May 4 of that year.
Napoleon, by way of conciliating the Egyptians, assisted at the
celebration of ‘Ramadan,’ with great pomp, which, naturally, would
afford his detractors another opportunity for outcry at his Mahometan
proclivities. As soon as it was over, he set out against Achmet Pacha,
and, on February 17, El-Arisch capitulated, and the army marched to
Gaza. How the vanguard lost their way, and their terrible sufferings
in the desert, it boots not to tell. Gaza was taken, its stores were
confiscated, and then Jaffa was their bourne, which was reached, and
invested, on March 4.
Before reading the sad page of history which Jaffa gives us, let us
glance at one or two caricatures which appeared in England about this
time. Napoleon had taken with him, in his expedition to Egypt, Denon
and divers other learned men to investigate the archæology of the
country, &c., and most valuable were the services of ‘the Institute,’
as this body of _savants_ was called. They furnished some fun to the
army, and the cry, when any danger threatened, of ‘the Asses and the
_Savants_ to the centre,’ was naturally productive of mirth; the army
also christening the asses ‘_Demi-savants_.’
Gillray makes great fun of the expedition to Egypt, and satirises the
French soldiers unmercifully; nor do the poor _savants_ who accompanied
the army fare any better. A good example is the ‘Siege de la Colonne
de Pompée, or Science in the Pillory,’ published March 6, 1799. At
the foot of the picture is: ‘It appears by an intercepted letter from
General Kleber, dated Alexandria, 5 brumaire, 7th year of the Republic,
that when the garrison was obliged to retire into the New Town, at the
approach of the Turkish Army, under the Pacha of Rhodes, a party of the
_sçavans_, who had ascended Pompey’s Pillar for scientific purposes,
was cut off by a Band of Bedouin Arabs, who, having made a large Pile
of Straw, and dry Reeds, at the foot of the Pillar, set fire to it, and
rendered unavailing the gallant defence of the learned Garrison, of
whose Catastrophe the above design is intended to convey an idea.
‘To study Alexandria’s store
Of Science, Amru deem’d a bore
And briefly set it burning.
The Man was ignorant, ’tis true,
So sought one comprehensive view
Of the light shed by learning.
Your modern Arabs grown more wise,
French vagrant Science duly prize;
They’ve fairly bit the biters.
They’ve learnt the style of Hebert’s Jokes,
Amru to books confined his Hoax;
These Bedouins roast the writers.’
The _savants_ are, indeed, in a parlous state, on the broad summit
of the pillar, exposed to fire from below, and the guns and pistols
of the Arabs; they defend themselves as well as possible by hurling
their globes, and scientific instruments, at their assailants, who are
exceedingly astonished at them. A balloon, La Diligence d’Abyssinie, is
fired at, and struck, the aeronauts, one of whom has a parachute, being
precipitated to the ground.
‘The Institute,’ which was modelled on that of Paris, also gave scope
to Gillray’s facile pencil, and he published a series of half a dozen
plates, in the first one of which it was most amusingly caricatured.
It was published on March 12, 1799, and called, ‘L’Insurrection de
l’Institut Amphibie--The pursuit of Knowledge.’ A _savant_ is depicted
as studying a work ‘Sur l’Education du Crocodile,’ some plates
from which have dropped out. They show how useful the crocodile may
become, by training, to tow vessels, and to ride and drive on land.
He evidently is intending to put his theories into practice, for he
has brought with him, to the river’s side, a saddle, a fearfully cruel
bridle, and a huge whip, when he is seized by an enormous saurian, and
devoured. Another learned man, who has been reading ‘Les Droits du
Crocodile,’ drops it, when he finds one of these creatures asserting
its rights by seizing his coat-tails.