_View of the respective Situations of Great Britain and France,
at the Period of Napoleon's return from Italy--Negotiations at
Lisle--Broken off--Army of England decreed, and Buonaparte named
to the Command--He takes up his Residence in Paris--Public
Honours--The real Views of the Directory discovered to be the
Expedition to Egypt--Armies of Italy and the Rhine, compared and
contrasted--Napoleon's Objects and Motives in heading the
Egyptian Expedition--those of the Directory regarding it--Its
actual Impolicy--Curious Statement by Miot--The Armament sails
from Toulon, on 19th May 1798--Napoleon arrives before Malta on
10th June--Proceeds on his course, and, escaping the British
Squadron, lands at Alexandria on the 1st July--Description of
the various Classes who inhabit Egypt:--1. The Fellahs and
Bedouins--2. The Cophts--3. The Mamelukes--Napoleon issues a
Proclamation against the Mamelukes--Marches against them on the
7th July--Discontent of the French Troops--Battle of the
Pyramids on 21st of July--Cairo surrenders._
It might have been thought, such was the success of the French arms on
the land, and of the British upon the sea, that the war must now be near
its natural and unavoidable termination, like a fire when there no
longer remain any combustibles to be devoured. Wherever water could bear
them, the British vessels of war had swept the seas of the enemy. The
greater part of the foreign colonies belonging to France and her allies,
among whom she now numbered Holland and Spain, were in the possession of
the English, nor had France a chance of recovering them. On the
contrary, not a musket was seen pointed against France on the continent;
so that it seemed as if the great rival nations, fighting with different
weapons, and on different elements, must at length give up a contest, in
which it was almost impossible to come to a decisive struggle.
[Sidenote: NEGOTIATIONS AT LISLE.]
An attempt accordingly was made, by the negotiation of Lisle, to bring
to a period the war, which appeared now to subsist entirely without an
object. Lord Malmesbury, on that occasion, gave in, on the part of
Britain, an offer to surrender all the conquests she had made from
France and her allies; on condition of the cession of Trinidad, on the
part of Spain, and of the Cape of Good Hope, Cochin, and Ceylon, on the
part of Holland, with some stipulations in favour of the Prince of
Orange and his adherents in the Netherlands. The French commissioners,
in reply, declared, that their instructions required that the English
should make a complete cession of their conquests, without any
equivalent whatever; and they insisted, as indispensable preliminaries,
that the King of Great Britain should lay aside his titular designation
of King of France--that the Toulon fleet should be restored--and that
the English should renounce their right to certain mortgages over the
Netherlands, for money lent to the Emperor. Lord Malmesbury, of course,
rejected a sweeping set of propositions, which decided every question
against England even before the negotiation commenced, and solicited the
French to offer some modified form of treaty.[337] The 18th Fructidor,
however, had in the interim taken place, and the Republican party, being
in possession of complete authority, broke off the negotiation, if it
could be called such, abruptly, and ordered the English ambassador out
of the dominions of the republic with very little ceremony. It was now
proclaimed generally, that the existence of the English Carthage in the
neighbourhood of the French Rome was altogether inadmissible; that
England must be subdued once more, as in the times of William the
Conqueror; and the hopes of a complete and final victory over their
natural rival and enemy, as the two nations are but overapt to esteem
each other, presented so flattering a prospect, that there was scarce a
party in France, not even amongst the Royalists, which did not enter on
what was expected to prove the decisive contest, with the revival of all
those feelings of bitter animosity that had distinguished past ages.
Towards the end of October 1797, the Directory announced, that there
should be instantly assembled on the shores of the ocean an army, to be
called the Army of England, and that the Citizen-General Buonaparte was
named to the command. The intelligence was received in every part of
France with all the triumph which attends the anticipation of certain
victory. The address of the Directory numbered all the conquests which
France had won, and the efforts she had made, and prepared the French
nation to expect the fruit of so many victories and sacrifices when they
had punished England for her perfidy and maritime tyranny. "It is at
London where the misfortunes of all Europe are forged and
manufactured--It is in London that they must be terminated." In a solemn
meeting held by the Directory, for the purpose of receiving the treaty
of peace with Austria, which was presented to them by Berthier and Monge
on the part of Buonaparte, the latter, who had been one of the
commissioners for pillaging Italy of her pictures and statues, and who
looked, doubtless, to a new harvest of rarities in England, accepted, on
the part of the army and general, the task imposed by the French rulers.
"The Government of England and the French Republic cannot both continue
to exist--you have given the word which shall fall--already our
victorious troops brandish their arms, and Scipio is at their head."
[Sidenote: PARIS--MADAME DE STAËL.]
[Sidenote: Dec. 5.]
While this farce, for such it proved, was acting in Paris, the chief of
the intended enterprise arrived there, and took up his abode in the same
modest house which he had occupied before becoming the conqueror of
palaces. The community of Paris, with much elegance, paid their
successful general the compliment of changing the name of the street
from Rue Chantereine to Rue de la Victoire.
In a metropolis where all is welcome that can vary the tedium of human
life, the arrival of any remarkable person is a species of holiday; but
such an eminent character as Buonaparte--the conqueror--the sage--the
politician--the undaunted braver of every difficulty--the invincible
victor in every battle--who had carried the banners of the Republic from
Genoa till their approach scared the Pontiff in Rome, and the emperor in
Vienna, was no everyday wonder. His youth, too, added to the marvel, and
still more the claim of general superiority over the society in which he
mingled, though consisting of the most distinguished persons in France;
a superiority cloaking itself with a species of reserve, which inferred,
"You may look upon me, but you cannot penetrate or see through
me."[338] Napoleon's general manner in society, during this part of his
life, has been described by an observer of first-rate power; according
to whom, he was one for whom the admiration which could not be refused
to him, was always mingled with a portion of fear. He was different in
his manner from other men, and neither pleased nor angry, kind nor
severe, after the common fashion of humanity. He appeared to live for
the execution of his own plans, and to consider others only in so far as
they were connected with, and could advance or oppose them. He estimated
his fellow-mortals no otherwise than as they could be useful to his
views; and, with a precision of intelligence which seemed intuitive from
its rapidity, he penetrated the sentiments of those whom it was worth
his while to study. Buonaparte did not then possess the ordinary tone of
light conversation in society; probably his mind was too much burdened
or too proud to stoop to adopt that mode of pleasing, and there was a
stiffness and reserve of manner which was perhaps adopted for the
purpose of keeping people at a distance. His look had the same
character. When he thought himself closely observed, he had the power of
discharging from his countenance all expression, save that of a vague
and indefinite smile, and presenting to the curious investigator the
fixed eyes and rigid features of a bust of marble.[339]
When he talked with the purpose of pleasing, Buonaparte often told
anecdotes of his life in a very pleasing manner; when silent, he had
something disdainful in the expression of his face; when disposed to be
quite at ease, he was, in Madame de Staël's opinion, rather vulgar. His
natural tone of feeling seemed to be a sense of internal superiority,
and of secret contempt for the world in which he lived, the men with
whom he acted, and even the very objects which he pursued. His character
and manners were upon the whole strongly calculated to attract the
attention of the French nation, and to excite a perpetual interest even
from the very mystery which attached to him, as well as from the
splendour of his triumphs. The supreme power was residing in the
Luxembourg ostensibly; but Paris was aware, that the means which had
raised, and which must support and extend that power, were to be found
in the humble mansion of the newly-christened Rue de la Victoire.
Some of these features are perhaps harshly designed, as being drawn
_recentibus odiis_. The disagreement between Buonaparte and Madame de
Staël, from whom we have chiefly described them, is well known. It
originated about this time, when, as a first-rate woman of talent, she
was naturally desirous to attract the notice of the Victor of Victors.
They appear to have misunderstood each other; for the lady, who ought
certainly to know best has informed us, "that far from feeling her fear
of Buonaparte removed by repeated meetings, it seemed to increase, and
his best exertions to please could not overcome her invincible aversion
for what she found in his character."[340] His ironical contempt of
excellence of every kind, operated like the sword in romance, which
froze while it wounded. Buonaparte seems never to have suspected the
secret and mysterious terror with which he impressed the ingenious
author of Corinne; on the contrary, Las Cases tells us, that she
combined all her efforts, and all her means, to make an impression on
the general.[341] She wrote to him when distant, and, as the Count
ungallantly expresses it, tormented him when present. In truth, to use
an established French phrase, they stood in a false position with
respect to each other. Madame de Staël might be pardoned for thinking
that it would be difficult to resist her wit and her talent, when
exerted with the purpose of pleasing; but Buonaparte was disposed to
repel, rather than encourage the advances of one whose views were so
shrewd, and her observations so keen, while her sex permitted her to
push her inquiries farther than one man might have dared to do in
conversing with another. She certainly did desire to look into him "with
considerate eyes," and on one occasion put his abilities to the proof,
by asking him rather abruptly, in the middle of a brilliant party at
Talleyrand's, "whom he esteemed the greatest woman in the world, alive
or dead?"--"Her, madam, that has borne the most children," answered
Buonaparte, with much appearance of simplicity. Disconcerted by the
reply, she observed, that he was reported not to be a great admirer of
the fair sex. "I am very fond of my wife, madam," he replied, with one
of those brief and yet piquant observations, which adjourned a debate as
promptly as one of his characteristic manœuvres would have ended a
battle.[342] From this period there was enmity between Buonaparte and
Madame de Staël; and at different times he treated her with a harshness
which had some appearance of actual personal dislike, though perhaps
rather directed against the female politician than the woman of
literature. After his fall, Madame de Staël relented in her resentment
to him; and we remember her, during the campaign of 1814, presaging in
society how the walls of Troyes were to see a second invasion and defeat
of the Huns, as had taken place in the days of Attila, while the French
Emperor was to enact the second Theodorick.
[Sidenote: PARIS--PUBLIC HONOURS.]
In the meantime, while popular feeling and the approbation of
distinguished genius were thus seeking to pay court to the youthful
conqueror,[343] the Directory found themselves obliged to render to him
that semblance of homage which could not have been withheld without
giving much offence to general opinion, and injuring those who omitted
to pay it, much more than him who was entitled by the unanimous voice to
receive it. On the 10th of December, the Directory received Buonaparte
in public, with honours which the Republican government had not yet
conferred on any subject, and which must have seemed incongruous to
those who had any recollection of the liberty and equality, once so
emphatically pronounced to be the talisman of French prosperity. The
ceremony took place in the great court of the Luxembourg palace, where
the Directory, surrounded by all that was officially important or
distinguished by talent, received from Buonaparte's hand the confirmed
treaty of Campo Formio.[344] The delivery of this document was
accompanied by a speech from Buonaparte, in which he told the Directory,
that, in order to establish a constitution founded on reason, it was
necessary that eighteen centuries of prejudices should be
conquered--"The constitution of the year THREE, and you, have triumphed
over all these obstacles."[345] The triumph lasted exactly until the
year EIGHT, when the orator himself overthrew the constitution,
destroyed the power of the rulers who had overcome the prejudices of
eighteen centuries, and reigned in their stead.
[Sidenote: Dec. 28.]
The French, who had banished religion from their thoughts, and from
their system of domestic policy, yet usually preserved some perverted
ceremony connected with it, on public solemnities. They had disused the
exercises of devotion, and expressly disowned the existence of an object
of worship; yet they could not do without altars, and hymns, and rites,
upon such occasions as the present. The general, conducted by Barras,
the president of the Directory, approached an erection, termed the Altar
of the Country, where they went through various appropriate ceremonies,
and at length dismissed a numerous assembly, much edified with what they
had seen. The two Councils, or Representative Bodies, also gave a
splendid banquet in honour of Buonaparte. And what he appeared to
receive with more particular satisfaction than these marks of
distinction, the Institute admitted him a member of its body[346] in the
room of his friend Carnot, (who was actually a fugitive, and believed
at the time to be dead,) while the poet Chenier promulgated his praises,
and foretold his future triumphs, and his approaching conquest of
England.[347]
There is nothing less philosophical than to attach ridicule to the
customs of other nations, merely because they differ from those of our
own; yet it marks the difference between England and her continental
neighbour, that the two Houses of Parliament never thought of giving a
dinner to Marlborough, nor did the Royal Society choose his successor in
the path of victory a member by acclamation; although the British nation
in either case acquitted themselves of the debt of gratitude which they
owed their illustrious generals, in the humbler and more vulgar mode of
conferring on both large and princely domains.
Meantime, the threat of invasion was maintained with unabated
earnestness. But it made no impression on the British, or rather it
stimulated men of all ranks to bury temporary and party dissensions
about politics, and bend themselves, with the whole energy of their
national character, to confront and resist the preparations made against
them. Their determination was animated by recollections of their own
traditional gallantry, which had so often inflicted the deepest wounds
upon France, and was not now likely to give up to any thing short of the
most dire necessity. The benefits were then seen of a free constitution,
which permits the venom of party spirit to evaporate in open debate.
Those who had differed on the question of peace or war, were unanimous
in that of national defence, and resistance to the common enemy; and
those who appeared in the vulgar eye engaged in unappeasable contention,
were the most eager to unite themselves together for these purposes, as
men employed in fencing would throw down the foils and draw their united
swords, if disturbed by the approach of robbers.
Buonaparte in the meanwhile made a complete survey of the coast of the
British channel, pausing at each remarkable point, and making those
remarks and calculations which induced him to adopt, at an after period,
the renewal of the project for a descent upon England.[348] The result
of his observations decided his opinion, that in the present case the
undertaking ought to be abandoned. The immense preparations and violent
threats of invasion were carried into no more serious effect than the
landing of about twelve or fourteen hundred Frenchmen, under a General
Tate, at Fishguard, in South Wales. They were without artillery, and
behaved rather like men whom a shipwreck had cast on a hostile shore,
than like an invading enemy, as they gave themselves up as prisoners
without even a show of defence to Lord Cawdor, who had marched against
them at the head of a body of the Welsh militia, hastily drawn together
on the alarm. The measure was probably only to be considered as
experimental, and as such must have been regarded as an entire
failure.[349]
The demonstrations of invasion, however, were ostensibly continued, and
every thing seemed arranged on either side for a desperate collision
betwixt the two most powerful nations in Europe. But the proceedings of
politicians resemble those of the Indian traders called Banians, who
seem engaged in talking about ordinary and trifling affairs, while, with
their hands concealed beneath a shawl that is spread between them, they
are secretly debating and adjusting, by signs, bargains of the utmost
importance. While all France and England had their eyes fixed on the
fleets and armies destined against the latter country, the Directory and
their general had no intention of using these preparations, except as a
blind to cover their real object, which was the celebrated expedition to
Egypt.
While yet in Italy, Buonaparte had suggested to the Directory (13th
September, 1797,) the advantage which might be derived from seizing upon
Malta, which he represented as an easy prize. The knights, he said, were
odious to the Maltese inhabitants, and were almost starving; to augment
which state of distress, and increase that incapacity of defence, he had
already confiscated their Italian property. He then proceeded to
intimate, that being possessed of Corfu and Malta, it was natural to
take possession of Egypt. Twenty-five thousand men, with eight or ten
ships of the line, would be sufficient for the expedition, which he
suggested might depart from the coasts of Italy.[350]
[Sidenote: EXPEDITION TO EGYPT.]
Talleyrand, then minister for foreign affairs, (in his answer of 23d
September,) saw the utmost advantage in the design upon Egypt, which, as
a colony, would attract the commerce of India to Europe, in preference
to the circuitous route by the Cape of Good Hope. This correspondence
proves, that even before Buonaparte left Italy he had conceived the idea
of the Egyptian expedition, though probably only as one of the vast and
vague schemes of ambition which success in so many perilous enterprises
had tended to foster. There was something of wild grandeur in the idea,
calculated to please an ambitious imagination. He was to be placed far
beyond the reach of any command superior to his own, and left at his own
discretion to the extending conquests, and perhaps founding an empire,
in a country long considered as the cradle of knowledge, and celebrated
in sacred and profane history, as having been the scene of ancient
events and distant revolutions, which, through the remoteness of ages,
possess a gloomy and mysterious influence upon the fancy. The first
specimens of early art also were to be found among the gigantic ruins of
Egypt, and its time-defying monuments of antiquity. This had its effect
upon Buonaparte, who affected so particularly the species of fame which
attaches to the protector and extender of science, philosophy, and the
fine arts. On this subject he had a ready and willing counsellor at
hand. Monge, the artist and virtuoso, was Buonaparte's confidant on this
occasion, and, there is no doubt, encouraged him to an undertaking which
promised a rich harvest to the antiquarian, among the ruins of temples
and palaces, hitherto imperfectly examined.
But, although the subject was mentioned betwixt the Directory and their
ministers and Buonaparte, yet, before adopting the course which the
project opened, the general was probably determined to see the issue of
the revolution of the 18th Fructidor; doubting, not unreasonably,
whether the conquerors in that struggle could so far avail themselves of
the victory which they had obtained over the majority of the national
representatives, as to consolidate and establish on a firm foundation
their own authority. He knew the Directory themselves were popular with
none. The numerous party who were now inclined to a monarchical
government, regarded them with horror. The army, though supporting them,
rather than coalesce with the Royalists, despised and disliked them; the
violent Republicans remembered their active share in Robespierre's
downfall, and the condemnations which followed the detected conspiracy
of Babœuf, and were in no respect better disposed to their
domination. Thus, despised by the army, dreaded by the Royalists, and
detested by the Republicans, the Directorial government appeared to
remain standing, only because the factions to whom it was unacceptable
were afraid of each other's attaining a superiority in the struggle,
which must attend its downfall.[351]
This crisis of public affairs was a tempting opportunity for such a
character as Buonaparte; whose almost incredible successes, unvaried by
a single reverse which deserved that name, naturally fixed the eyes of
the multitude, and indeed of the nation at large, upon him, as upon one
who seemed destined to play the most distinguished part in any of those
new changes, which the mutable state of the French Government seemed
rapidly preparing.
The people, naturally partial to a victor, followed him every where with
acclamations, and his soldiers, in their camp-songs, spoke of pulling
the _attorneys_ out of the seat of government, and installing their
victorious general. Even already, for the first time since the
commencement of the Revolution, the French, losing their recent habits
of thinking and speaking of the nation as a body, began to interest
themselves in Napoleon as an individual; and that exclusive esteem of
his person had already taken root in the public mind, which afterwards
formed the foundation of his throne.
[Sidenote: ARMIES OF ITALY AND THE RHINE.]
Yet, in spite of these promising appearances, Napoleon, cautious as well
as enterprising, saw that the time was not arrived when he could,
without great risk, attempt to possess himself of the supreme government
in France. The soldiers of Italy were indeed at his devotion, but there
was another great and rival army belonging to the Republic, that of the
Rhine, which had never been under his command, never had partaken his
triumphs, and which naturally looked rather to Moreau than to Buonaparte
as their general and hero.
Madame de Staël describes the soldiers from these two armies, as
resembling each other in nothing, save the valour which was common to
both.[352] The troops of the Rhine, returning from hard-fought fields,
which, if followed by victory, had afforded but little plunder,
exhibited still the severe simplicity which had been affected under the
republican model; whereas the army of Italy had reaped richer spoils
than barren laurels alone, and made a display of wealth and enjoyment
which showed they had not neglected their own interest while advancing
the banners of France.
It was not likely, while such an army as that of the Rhine existed,
opposed by rivalry and the jealousy of fame to the troops of Buonaparte,
that the latter should have succeeded in placing himself at the head of
affairs. Besides, the forces on which he could depend were distant.
Fortune had not afforded him the necessary pretext for crossing, as he
termed it, the Rubicon, and bringing twenty thousand men to Lyons.
Moreau, Jourdan, Kleber, had all high reputations, scarce inferior to
his own; and the troops who had served under them were disposed to
elevate them, even to an equality with the Conqueror of Italy.
Buonaparte also knew that his popularity, though great, was not
universal. He was disliked by the middle classes, from recollection of
his commanding during the affair of the Sections of Paris; and many of
the Republicans exclaimed against him, for his surrendering Venice to
the Austrians. In a word, he was too much elbowed and incommoded by
others to permit his taking with full vigour the perilous spring
necessary to place him in the seat of supreme authority, though there
were not wanting those who would fain have persuaded him to venture on a
course so daring.[353] To such counsellors he answered, that "_the pear
was not ripe_,"--a hint which implied that appetite was not wanting,
though prudence forbade the banquet.
Laying aside, therefore, the character of General of the Army of
England, and adjourning to a future day the conquest of that hostile
island; silencing at the same time the internal wishes and the exterior
temptations which urged him to seize the supreme power, which seemed
escaping from those who held it, Napoleon turned his eyes and thoughts
eastward, and meditated in the distant countries of the rising sun, a
scene worthy his talents, his military skill, and his ambition.[354]
[Sidenote: EXPEDITION TO EGYPT.]
The Directory, on the other hand, eager to rid themselves of his
perilous vicinity, hastened to accomplish the means of his expedition to
Egypt, upon a scale far more formidable than any which had yet sailed
from modern Europe, for the invasion and subjection of distant and
peaceful realms.
It was soon whispered abroad, that the invasion of England was to be
postponed, until the Conqueror of Italy, having attained a great and
national object, by the success of a secret expedition, fitted out on a
scale of stupendous magnitude, should be at leisure to resume the
conquest of Britain.
But Buonaparte did not limit his views to those of armed conquest; he
meant that these should be softened, by mingling with them schemes of a
literary and scientific character, as if he had desired, as some one
said, that Minerva should march at the head of his expedition, holding
in one hand her dreadful lance, and with the other introducing the
sciences and the muses. The various treasures of art which had been
transferred to the capital by the influence of his arms, gave the
general of the Italian army a right to such distinctions as the French
men of literature could confer; and he was himself possessed of deep
scientific knowledge as a mathematician. He became apparently much
attached to learned pursuits, and wore the uniform of the Institute on
all occasions, when he was out of military costume. This affectation of
uniting the encouragement of letters and science with his military
tactics, led to a new and peculiar branch of the intended expedition.
The public observed with astonishment a detachment of no less than one
hundred men,[355] who had cultivated the arts and sciences, or, to use
the French phrase, _Savans_, selected for the purpose of joining this
mysterious expedition, of which the object still remained a secret;
while all classes of people asked each other what new quarter of the
world France had determined to colonize, since she seemed preparing at
once to subdue it by her arms, and to enrich it with the treasures of
her science and literature. This singular department of the expedition,
the first of the kind which ever accompanied an invading army, was
liberally supplied with books, philosophical instruments, and all means
of prosecuting the several departments of knowledge.[356]
Buonaparte did not, however, trust to the superiority of science to
ensure the conquest of Egypt. He was fully provided with more effectual
means. The land forces belonging to the expedition were of the most
formidable description. Twenty-five thousand men, chiefly veterans
selected from his own Italian army, had in their list of generals
subordinate to Buonaparte the names of Kleber,[357] Desaix,[358]
Berthier, Regnier, Murat, Lannes, Andréossi, Menou,[359] Belliard, and
others well known in the revolutionary wars. Four hundred transports
were assembled for the conveyance of the troops. Thirteen ships of the
line, and four frigates, commanded by Admiral Brueyes, an experienced
and gallant officer, formed the escort of the expedition; a finer and
more formidable one than which never sailed on so bold an adventure.
We have already touched upon the secret objects of this armament. The
Directory were desirous to be rid of Buonaparte, who might become a
dangerous competitor in the present unsettled state of the French
Government. Buonaparte, on his side, accepted the command, because it
opened a scene of conquest worthy of his ambition. A separate and
uncontrolled command over so gallant an army seemed to promise him the
conquest and the sovereignty, not of Egypt only, but of Syria, Turkey,
perhaps Constantinople, the Queen of the East; and he himself afterwards
more than hinted, that but for controlling circumstances, he would have
bent his whole mind to the establishment of an Oriental dynasty, and
left France to her own destinies. When a subaltern officer of artillery,
he had nourished the hope of being King of Jerusalem.[360] In his
present situation of dignity and strength, the sovereignty of an Emperor
of the universal East, or of a Caliph of Egypt at the least, was a more
commensurate object of ambition.
The private motives of the government and of the general are therefore
easily estimated. But it is not so easy to justify the Egyptian
expedition upon any views of sound national policy. On the contrary, the
object to be gained by so much risk, and at the same time by an act of
aggression upon the Ottoman Porte, the ancient ally of France, to whom
Egypt belonged, was of very doubtful utility. The immense fertility of
the alluvial provinces irrigated by the Nile, no doubt renders their
sovereignty a matter of great consequence to the Turkish empire, which,
from the oppressed state of their agriculture every where, and from the
rocky and barren character of their Grecian provinces, are not in a
condition to supply the capital with grain, did they not draw it from
that never-failing land. But France herself, fully supplied from her own
resources, had no occasion to send her best general, and hazard her
veteran army, for the purpose of seizing a distant province, merely to
facilitate her means of feeding her population. To erect that large
country into a French colony, would have required a drain of population,
of expense, and of supplies of all sorts, which France, just recovering
from the convulsion of her Revolution, was by no means fit to encounter.
The climate, too, is insalubrious to strangers, and must have been a
constant cause of loss, until, in process of time, the colonists had
become habituated to its peculiarities. It is farther to be considered,
that the most perfect and absolute success in the undertaking must have
ended, not in giving a province to the French Republic, but a separate
and independent kingdom to her victorious and ambitious general.
Buonaparte had paid but slight attention to the commands of the
Directory when in Italy. Had he realized his proposed conquests in the
East, they would have been sent over the Mediterranean altogether in
vain.
Lastly, the state of war with England subjected this attempt to add
Egypt to the French dominions, to the risk of defeat, either by the
naval strength of Britain interposing between France and her new
possessions, or by her land forces from India and Europe, making a
combined attack upon the French army which occupied Egypt; both which
events actually came to pass.
It is true, that, so far from dreading the English forces which were
likely to be employed against them, the French regarded as a
recommendation to the conquest of Egypt, that it was to be the first
step to the destruction of the British power in India; and Napoleon
continued to the last to consider the conquest of Egypt as the
forerunner of that of universal Asia. His eye, which, like that of the
eagle, saw far and wide, overlooking, however, obstacles which distance
rendered diminutive, beheld little more necessary than the toilsome
marches of a few weeks, to achieve the conquests of Alexander the Great.
He had already counted the steps by which he was to ascend to Oriental
Monarchy, and has laid before the world a singular reverie on the
probabilities of success. "If Saint John d'Acre had yielded to the
French arms," said he, "a great revolution would have been accomplished
in the East; the general-in-chief would have founded an empire there,
and the destinies of France would have undergone different combinations
from those to which they were subjected."[361]
In this declaration we recognise one of the peculiarities of
Buonaparte's disposition, which refused to allow of any difficulties or
dangers save those, of which, having actually happened, the existence
could not be disputed. The small British force before Acre was
sufficient to destroy his whole plans of conquest; but how many other
means of destruction might Providence have employed for the same
purpose! The plague--the desert--mutiny among his soldiers--courage and
enterprise, inspired by favourable circumstances into the tribes by whom
his progress was opposed--the computation of these, and other chances,
ought to have taught him to acknowledge, that he had not been
discomfited by the only hazard which could have disconcerted his
enterprise; but that, had such been the will of God, the sands of Syria
might have proved as fatal as the snows of Russia, and the scimitars of
the Turks as the lances of the Cossacks. In words, a march from Egypt to
India is easily described, and still more easily measured off with
compasses upon the map of the world. But in practice, and with an army
opposed, as the French would probably have been, at every step, if it
had been only from motives of religious antipathy, when the French
general arrived at the skirts of British India, with forces thus
diminished, he would have had in front the whole British army, commanded
by officers accustomed to make war upon a scale almost as enlarged as he
himself practised, and accustomed to victories not less decisive.[362]
We should fall into the same error which we censure, did we anticipate
what might have been the result of such a meeting. Even while we claim
the probability of advantage for the army most numerous, and best
provided with guns and stores, we allow the strife must have been
dreadful and dubious. But, if Napoleon really thought he had only to
show himself in India, to ensure the destruction of the British empire
there, he had not calculated the opposing strength with the caution to
have been expected from so great a general. He has been represented,
indeed, as boasting of the additions which he would have made to his
army, by the co-operation of natives trained after the French
discipline. But can it be supposed that these hasty levies could be
brought into such complete order as to face the native troops of British
India, so long and so justly distinguished for approaching Europeans in
courage and discipline, and excelling them, perhaps, in temperance and
subordination?
In a word, the Egyptian expedition, unless considered with reference to
the private views of the Directory, and of their General, must have been
regarded from the beginning, as promising no results in the slightest
degree worthy of the great risk incurred, by draining France of the
flower of her army.
Meanwhile, the moment of departure approached. The blockading squadron,
commanded by Nelson, was blown off the coast by a gale of wind, and so
much damaged that they were obliged to run down to Sardinia. The first
and most obvious obstacle to the expedition was thus removed. The
various squadrons from Genoa, Civita Vecchia, and Bastia, set sail and
united with that which already lay at Toulon.
Yet it is said, though upon slender authority, that even at this latest
moment Buonaparte showed, some inclination to abandon the command of so
doubtful and almost desperate an expedition, and wished to take the
advantage of a recent dispute between France and Austria, to remain in
Europe. The misunderstanding arose from the conduct of Bernadotte,
ambassador for the republic at Vienna, who incautiously displayed the
national colours before his hotel, in consequence of which a popular
tumult arose, and the ambassador was insulted. In their first alarm,
lest his incident should occasion a renewal of the war, the Directory
hastily determined to suspend Buonaparte's departure, and despatch him
to Rastadt, where the congress was still sitting, with full powers to
adjust the difference. Buonaparte accepted the commission, and while he
affected to deplore the delay or miscarriage of "the greatest enterprise
which he had ever meditated," wrote in secret to Count Cobentzel, now
minister of foreign affairs at Vienna, inviting him to a conference at
Rastadt, and hinting at political changes, by which the difficulties
attending the execution of the treaty of Campo Formio might be taken
away. The tenor of this letter having become known to the Directory, and
it appearing to them that Buonaparte designed to make that mission a
pretext for interesting Cobentzel in some change of government in
France, in which he deemed it advisable to obtain the concurrence of
Austria, they instantly resolved, it is said, to compel him to set sail
on the expedition to Egypt. Barras, charged with the commission of
notifying to the general this second alteration of his destination, had
an interview with Buonaparte in private, and at his own house. The mien
of the director was clouded, and, contrary to his custom, he scarcely
spoke to Madame Buonaparte. When he retired, Buonaparte shut himself up
in his own apartment for a short time, then gave directions for his
instant departure from Paris for Toulon. These particulars are given as
certain by Miot;[363] but he alleges no authority for this piece of
secret history.[364] There seems, however, little doubt, that the
command of the Egyptian expedition was bestowed on Buonaparte by the
Directory as a species of ostracism, or honourable banishment from
France.
At the moment of departure, Buonaparte made one of those singular
harangues which evince such a mixture of talent and energy with bad
taste and bombast. He promised to introduce those who had warred on the
mountains and in the plains, to maritime combat; and to a great part of
the expedition he kept his word too truly, as Aboukir could witness. He
reminded them that the Romans combated Carthage by sea as well as by
land--he proposed to conduct them, in the name of the Goddess of
Liberty, to the most distant regions and oceans, and he concluded by
promising to each individual of his army seven acres of land.[365]
Whether this distribution of property was to take place on the banks of
the Nile, of the Bosphorus, or the Ganges, the soldiers had not the most
distant guess, and the commander-in-chief himself would have had
difficulty in informing them.
[Sidenote: SAILS FROM TOULON.]
[Sidenote: May 19.]
On the 19th of May, 1798, this magnificent armament set sail from
Toulon, illuminated by a splendid sunrise, one of those which were
afterwards popularly termed the suns of Napoleon. The line-of-battle
ships extended for a league, and the semi-circle formed by the convoy
was at least six leagues in extent. They were joined on the 8th June, as
they swept along the Mediterranean, by a large fleet of transports,
having on board the division of General Desaix.
The 10th June brought the armament before Malta, once the citadel of
Christendom, and garrisoned by those intrepid knights, who, half
warriors and half priests, opposed the infidels with the enthusiasm at
once of religion and of chivalry. But those by whom the order was now
maintained were disunited among themselves, lazy and debauched
voluptuaries, who consumed the revenues destined to fit out expeditions
against the Turks in cruises for pleasure, not war, and giving balls and
entertainments in the seaports of Italy. Buonaparte treated these
degenerate knights with a want of ceremony, which, however little it
accorded with the extreme strength of their island, and with the
glorious defence which it had formerly made against the infidels, was
perfectly suited to their present condition. Secure of a party among the
French knights, with whom he had been tampering, he landed troops, and
took possession of these almost impregnable fortresses with so little
opposition, that Caffarelli said to Napoleon as they passed through the
most formidable defences,--"It is well, general, that there was some one
within to open the gates to us. We should have had more trouble in
entering, if the place had been altogether empty."[366]
A sufficient garrison was established in Malta, destined by Buonaparte
to be an intermediate station between France and Egypt; and on the 16th,
the daring general resumed his expedition.[367] On the coast of Candia,
while the _Savans_ were gazing on the rocks where Jupiter, it is said,
was nurtured, and speculating concerning the existence of some vestiges
of the celebrated labyrinth, Buonaparte learned that a new enemy, of a
different description from the Knights of Saint John, was in his
immediate vicinity. This was the English squadron.
[Sidenote: VOYAGE TO EGYPT.]
Nelson, to the end as unconquerable on his own element as Buonaparte had
hitherto shown himself upon shore, was now in full and anxious pursuit
of his renowned contemporary. Reinforced by a squadron of ten ships of
the line, a meeting with Napoleon was the utmost wish of his heart, and
was echoed back by the meanest sailor on board his numerous fleet. The
French had been heard of at Malta, but as the British admiral was about
to proceed thither, he received news of their departure; and concluding
that Egypt must be unquestionably the object of their expedition, he
made sail for Egypt. It singularly happened, that although Nelson
anticipated the arrival of the French at Alexandria, and accordingly
directed his course thither, yet, keeping a more direct path than
Brueyes, when he arrived there on the 28th June, he heard nothing of the
enemy, who, in the meanwhile, were proceeding to the very same port. The
English admiral set sail, therefore, for Rhodes and Syracuse; and thus
were the two large and hostile fleets traversing the same narrow sea,
without being able to attain any certain tidings of each other's
movements. This was in part owing to the English admiral having no
frigates with him, which might have been detached to cruise for
intelligence; partly to a continuance of thick misty weather, which at
once concealed the French fleet from their adversaries, and, obliging
them to keep close together, diminished the chance of discovery, which
might otherwise have taken place by the occupation of a larger space. On
the 26th, according to Denon, Nelson's fleet was actually seen by the
French standing to the westward, although the haze prevented the English
from observing their enemy, whose squadron held an opposite
direction.[368]
Escaped from the risk of an encounter so perilous, Buonaparte's greatest
danger seemed to be over on the 1st July, when the French fleet came in
sight of Alexandria, and saw before them the city of the Ptolemies and
of Cleopatra, with its double harbour, its Pharos, and its ancient and
gigantic monuments of grandeur. Yet at this critical moment, and while
Buonaparte contemplated his meditated conquest, a signal announced the
appearance of a strange sail, which was construed to be an English
frigate, the precursor of the British fleet. "What!" said Napoleon, "I
ask but six hours--and, Fortune, wilt thou abandon me?"[369] The fickle
goddess was then and for many a succeeding year, true to her votary. The
vessel proved friendly.[370]
The disembarkation of the French army took place [July 2] about a league
and a half from Alexandria, at an anchorage called Marabout. It was not
accomplished without losing boats and men on the surf, though such risks
were encountered with great joy by the troops, who had been so long
confined on ship-board. As soon as five or six thousand men were landed,
Buonaparte marched towards Alexandria, when the Turks, incensed at this
hostile invasion on the part of a nation with whom they were at profound
peace, shut the gates, and manned the walls against their reception. But
the walls were ruinous, and presented breaches in many places, and the
chief weapons of resistance were musketry and stones. The conquerors of
Italy forced their passage over such obstacles, but not easily or with
impunity.[371] Two hundred French were killed. There was severe military
execution done upon the garrison, and the town was abandoned to plunder
for three hours;[372] which has been justly stigmatized as an act of
unnecessary cruelty, perpetrated only to strike terror, and extend the
fame of the victorious French general. But it was Napoleon's object to
impress the highest idea of his power upon the various classes of
natives, who, differing widely from each other in manners and condition,
inhabit Egypt as their common home.[373]
These classes are, 1st, the Arab race, divided into Fellahs and
Bedouins, the most numerous and least esteemed of the population. The
Bedouins, retaining the manners of Arabia Proper, rove through the
Desert, and subsist by means of their flocks and herds. The Fellahs
cultivate the earth, and are the ordinary peasants of the country.
The class next above the Arabs in consideration are the Cophts, supposed
to be descended from the pristine Egyptians. They profess Christianity,
are timid and unwarlike, but artful and supple. They are employed in the
revenue, and in almost all civil offices, and transact the commerce and
the business of the country.
[Sidenote: MAMELUKES.]
The third class in elevation were the formidable Mamelukes who held both
Cophts and Arabs in profound subjection. These are, or we may say
_were_, a corps of professed soldiers, having no trade excepting war. In
this they resemble the Janissaries, the Sterlitzes, the Prætorian bands,
or similar military bodies, which, constituting a standing army under a
despotic government, are alternately the protectors and the terror of
the sovereign who is their nominal commander. But the peculiar feature
of the constitution of the Mamelukes, was, that their corps was
recruited only by the adoption of foreign slaves, particularly Georgians
and Circassians. These were purchased when children by the several Beys
or Mameluke leaders, who, twenty-four in number, occupied, each, one of
the twenty-four departments into which they had divided Egypt. The
youthful slave, purchased with a heedful reference to his strength and
personal appearance, was carefully trained to arms in the family of his
master. When created a Mameluke, he was received into the troop of the
Bey, and rendered capable of succeeding to him at his death; for these
chiefs despised the ordinary connexions of blood, and their authority
was, upon military principles, transferred at their death to him amongst
the band who was accounted the best soldier. They fought always on
horseback; and in their peculiar mode of warfare, they might be termed,
individually considered, the finest cavalry in the world. Completely
armed, and unboundedly confident in their own prowess, they were
intrepid, skilful, and formidable in battle; but with their military
bravery began and ended the catalogue of their virtues. Their vices
were, unpitying cruelty, habitual oppression, and the unlimited exercise
of the most gross and disgusting sensuality. Such were the actual lords
of Egypt.[374]
Yet the right of sovereignty did not rest with the beys, but with the
Pacha, or lieutenant,--a great officer despatched from the Porte to
represent the Grand Signior in Egypt, where it was his duty to collect
the tribute in money and grain, which Constantinople expected from that
rich province, with the additional object of squeezing out of the
country as much more as he could by any means secure, for the filling of
his own coffers. The pacha maintained his authority sometimes by the
assistance of Turkish troops, sometimes by exciting the jealousy of one
bey against another. Thus this fertile country was subjected to the
oppression of twenty-four prætors, who, whether they agreed among
themselves, or with the pacha, or declared war against the
representative of the Sultan, and against each other, were alike the
terror and the scourge of the unhappy Arabs and Cophts, the right of
oppressing whom, by every species of exaction, these haughty slaves
regarded as their noblest and most undeniable privilege.
From the moment that Buonaparte conceived the idea of invading Egypt,
the destruction of the power of the Mamelukes must have been determined
upon as his first object; and he had no sooner taken Alexandria than he
announced his purpose. He sent forth a proclamation,[375] in which he
professed his respect for God, the Prophet, and the Koran; his
friendship for the Sublime Porte, of which he affirmed the French to be
the faithful allies; and his determination to make war upon the
Mamelukes. He commanded that the prayers should be continued in the
mosques as usual, with some slight modifications, and that all true
Moslems should exclaim, "Glory to the Sultan, and to the French army,
his allies!--Accursed be the Mamelukes, and good fortune to the land of
Egypt!"[376]
[Sidenote: MARCH TO CAIRO.]
Upon the 7th of July, the army marched from Alexandria against the
Mamelukes. Their course was up the Nile, and a small flotilla of
gun-boats ascended the river to protect their right flank, while the
infantry traversed a desert of burning sands, at a distance from the
stream, and without a drop of water to relieve their tormenting thirst.
The army of Italy, accustomed to the enjoyments of that delicious
country, were astonished at the desolation they saw around them. "Is
this," they said, "the country in which we are to receive our farms of
seven acres each? The general might have allowed us to take as much as
we chose--no one would have abused the privilege." Their officers, too,
expressed horror and disgust; and even generals of such celebrity as
Murat and Lannes threw their hats on the sand, and trode on their
cockades. It required all Buonaparte's authority to maintain order, so
much were the French disgusted with the commencement of the
expedition.[377]
To add to their embarrassment, the enemy began to appear around them.
Mamelukes and Arabs, concealed behind the hillocks of sand, interrupted
their march at every opportunity, and woe to the soldier who straggled
from the ranks, were it but fifty yards! Some of these horsemen were
sure to dash at him, slay him on the spot, and make off before a musket
could be discharged at them. At length, however, the audacity of these
incursions was checked by a skirmish of some little importance near a
place called Chebreis, in which the French asserted their military
superiority.[378]
An encounter also took place on the river, between the French flotilla
and a number of armed vessels belonging to the Mamelukes. Victory first
inclined to the latter, but at length determined in favour of the
French, who took, however, only a single galliot.
Meanwhile, the French were obliged to march with the utmost precaution.
The whole plain was now covered with Mamelukes, mounted on the finest
Arabian horses, and armed with pistols, carabines, and blunderbusses, of
the best English workmanship--their plumed turbans waving in the air,
and their rich dresses and arms glittering in the sun. Entertaining a
high contempt for the French force, as consisting almost entirely of
infantry, this splendid barbaric chivalry watched every opportunity for
charging them, nor did a single straggler escape the unrelenting edge of
their sabres. Their charge was almost as swift as the wind, and as their
severe bits enabled them to halt, or wheel their horses at full gallop,
their retreat was as rapid as their advance. Even the practised veterans
of Italy were at first embarrassed by this new mode of fighting, and
lost several men; especially when fatigue caused any one to fall out of
the ranks, in which case his fate became certain. But they were soon
reconciled to fighting the Mamelukes, when they discovered that each of
these horsemen carried about him his fortune, and that it not uncommonly
amounted to considerable sums in gold.
During these alarms, the French love of the ludicrous was not abated by
the fatigues or dangers of the journeys. The _Savans_ had been supplied
with asses, the beasts of burden easiest attained in Egypt, to transport
their persons and philosophical apparatus. The general had given orders
to attend to their personal safety, which were of course obeyed. But as
these civilians had little importance in the eyes of the military, loud
shouts of laughter used to burst from the ranks, while forming to
receive the Mamelukes, as the general of division called out, with
military precision, "Let the asses and the _Savans_ enter within the
square." The soldiers also amused themselves, by calling the asses
_demi-savans_.[379] In times of discontent, these unlucky servants of
science had their full share of the soldiers' reproaches, who imagined,
that this unpopular expedition had been undertaken to gratify their
passion for researches, in which the military took very slender
interest.
[Sidenote: BATTLE OF THE PYRAMIDS.]
Under such circumstances, it may be doubted whether even the literati
themselves were greatly delighted, when, after fourteen days of such
marches as we have described, they arrived, indeed, within six leagues
of Cairo, and beheld at a distance the celebrated Pyramids, but learned,
at the same time, that Murad Bey, with twenty-two of his brethren, at
the head of their Mamelukes, had formed an intrenched camp at a place
called Embabeh, with the purpose of covering Cairo, and giving battle to
the French. On the 21st of July, as the French continued to advance,
they saw their enemy in the field, and in full force. A splendid line of
cavalry, under Murad and the other beys, displayed the whole strength of
the Mamelukes. Their right rested on the imperfectly intrenched camp, in
which lay twenty thousand infantry, defended by forty pieces of cannon.
But the infantry were an undisciplined rabble; the guns, wanting
carriages, were mounted on clumsy wooden frames; and the fortifications
of the camp were but commenced, and presented no formidable opposition.
Buonaparte made his dispositions. He extended his line to the right, in
such a manner as to keep out of gunshot of the intrenched camp, and have
only to encounter the line of cavalry.[380]
Murad Bey saw this movement, and, fully aware of its consequence,
prepared to charge with his magnificent body of horse, declaring he
would cut the French up like gourds. Buonaparte, as he directed the
infantry to form squares to receive them, called out to his men, "From
yonder Pyramids twenty centuries behold your actions."[381] The
Mamelukes advanced with the utmost speed, and corresponding fury, and
charged with horrible yells. They disordered one of the French squares
of infantry, which would have been sabred in an instant, but that the
mass of this fiery militia was a little behind the advanced guard. The
French had a moment to restore order, and used it. The combat then in
some degree resembled that which, nearly twenty years afterwards, took
place at Waterloo; the hostile cavalry furiously charging the squares of
infantry, and trying, by the most undaunted efforts of courage, to break
in upon them at every practicable point, while a tremendous fire of
musketry, grape-shot, and shells, crossing in various directions, repaid
their audacity. Nothing in war was ever seen more desperate than the
exertions of the Mamelukes. Failing to force their horses through the
French squares, individuals were seen to wheel them round, and rein them
back on the ranks, that they might disorder them by kicking. As they
became frantic with despair, they hurled at the immoveable phalanxes,
which they could not break, their pistols, their poniards, and their
carabines. Those who fell wounded to the ground, dragged themselves on,
to cut at the legs of the French with their crooked sabres. But their
efforts were all vain.
The Mamelukes, after the most courageous efforts to accomplish their
purpose, were finally beaten off with great slaughter; and as they could
not form or act in squadron, their retreat became a confused flight. The
greater part attempted to return to their camp, from that sort of
instinct, as Napoleon termed it, which leads fugitives to retire in the
same direction in which they had advanced. By taking this route they
placed themselves betwixt the French and the Nile; and the sustained and
insupportable fire of the former soon obliged them to plunge into the
river, in hopes to escape by swimming to the opposite bank--a desperate
effort, in which few succeeded. Their infantry at the same time
evacuated their camp without a show of resistance, precipitated
themselves into the boats, and endeavoured to cross the Nile. Very many
of these also were destroyed. The French soldiers long afterwards
occupied themselves in fishing for the drowned Mamelukes, and failed not
to find money and valuables upon all whom they could recover.[382] Murad
Bey, with a part of his best Mamelukes, escaped the slaughter by a more
regular movement to the left, and retreated by Gizeh into Upper
Egypt.[383]
Thus were, in a great measure, destroyed the finest cavalry, considered
as individual horsemen, that were ever known to exist. "Could I have
united the Mameluke horse to the French infantry," said Buonaparte, "I
would have reckoned myself master of the world."[384] The destruction of
a body hitherto regarded as invincible, struck terror, not through Egypt
only, but far into Africa and Asia, wherever the Moslem religion
prevailed.
After this combat, which, to render it more striking to the Parisians,
Buonaparte termed the "Battle of the Pyramids," Cairo surrendered
without resistance. The shattered remains of the Mamelukes who had swam
the Nile and united under Ibrahim Bey, were compelled to retreat into
Syria. A party of three hundred French cavalry ventured to attack them
at Salahieh, but were severely handled by Ibrahim Bey and his followers,
who, having cut many of them to pieces, pursued their retreat without
farther interruption. Lower Egypt was completely in the hands of the
French, and thus far the expedition of Buonaparte had been perfectly
successful. But it was not the will of Heaven, that even the most
fortunate of men should escape reverses; and a severe one awaited
Napoleon.
FOOTNOTES:
[337] Annual Register, vol. xl., p. 6.
[338] Thibaudeau, tom. iii., p. 413; Montholon, tom. iv., p. 266.
[339] Mad. de Staël, Consid. sur la Rév. Franç., tom. ii., p. 199.
[340] Considerations, tom. ii., p. 197.
[341] Las Cases, tom. iii., p. 191.
[342] Las Cases, tom. iii., p. 192; Montholon, tom. iv., p. 274;
Thibaudeau, tom. iii., p. 429.
[343] "The leaders of all parties called upon him; but he refused to
listen to them. The streets and squares through which he was expected to
pass were constantly crowded, but Napoleon never showed himself. He had
no habitual visitors, except a few men of science, such as Monge,
Berthollet, Borda, Laplace, Prony, and Lagrange; several generals, as
Berthier, Desaix, Lefebvre, Caffarelli, and Kleber; and a very few
deputies."--MONTHOLON, tom. iv., p. 269.
[344] "Buonaparte arrived, dressed very simply, followed by his
aides-de-camp, all taller than himself, but nearly bent by the respect
which they displayed to him. M. de Talleyrand, in presenting Buonaparte
to the Directory, called him 'the Liberator of Italy, and the
Pacificator of the Continent.' He assured them, that 'General Buonaparte
detested luxury and splendour, the miserable ambition of vulgar souls,
and that he loved the poems of Ossian particularly because they detach
us from the earth.'"--MAD. DE STAËL, tom. ii., p. 203; MONTGAILLARD,
tom. v., p. 83.
[345] Thibaudeau, tom. iii., p. 416.
[346] For the class of arts and sciences. Upon the occasion, Buonaparte
addressed this note to Camus, the president of the class. "The suffrage
of the distinguished men who compose the Institute honours me. I feel
sensibly, that before I can become their equal, I must long be their
pupil. If there were a manner more expressive of conveying to them my
sentiments of respect, that I would employ. The only true conquests,
those which awaken no regret, are those we obtain over ignorance. The
most honourable, as the most useful pursuit of nations, is that which
contributes to the extension of human intellect. The real greatness of
the French republic ought henceforth to consist in not permitting the
existence of one new idea which has not been added to the national
stock."
[347] Thibaudeau, tom. iii., p. 432; Mad. de Staël, tom. ii., p. 204;
Montgaillard, tom. v., p. 82.
[348] Buonaparte left Paris on the 8th of February, and returned thither
on the 22d. He was accompanied by General Lannes, his aide-de-camp
Salkowski, and Bourrienne, his private secretary. "He visited," says the
latter, "Etaples, Ambleteuse, Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk, Furnes,
Newport, Ostend, and Walcheren; making at these different ports the
necessary surveys, with that patience, presence of mind, knowledge,
expertness, and perspicuity, which he possessed in so eminent a degree.
He examined till midnight, sailors, pilots, smugglers, fishermen,--making
objections, and listening with attention to their replies."
[349] For some curious particulars respecting the Descent of the French
in South Wales, see Appendix, No. V.
[350] Correspondence Inédite, tom. iv., p. 176. So early as the 10th of
August, Buonaparte had written to the Directory,--"Les temps ne sont pas
éloignés où nous sentirons que, pour détruire véritablement Angleterre,
il faut nous emparer de l'Egypte."--Ibid., tom. iv., p. 77.--See also
JOMINI, tom. x., p. 512.
[351] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 281.
[352] Considerations sur la Rév. Franç., tom. ii., p. 173.
[353] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 284.
[354] "Napoleon did not think himself popular enough to go alone: he had
ideas on the art of governing different from those of the men of the
Revolution. He therefore determined to sail for Egypt, resolved,
nevertheless, to appear again as soon as circumstances should render his
presence necessary, as he already saw they would do. To render him
master of France, it was necessary that the Directory should experience
disasters in his absence, and that his return should recall victory to
the colours of the nation."--NAPOLEON, _Montholon_, tom. iv., p. 284.
[355] For a "List of the one hundred and two members of the Commission
of the Arts and Sciences attached to the army of the East," see
Thibaudeau, tom. iv., p. 424.
[356] "The following list of books, for a camp library, I copy from a
paper in his own hand. The volumes were in 18mo, and will show what he
preferred in science and literature."--BOURRIENNE, tom. ii., p. 49. See
the List in Appendix, No. VI.
[357] "Napoleon offered to leave Desaix and Kleber, whose talents might,
he thought, prove serviceable to France. The Directory knew not their
value, and refused them. 'The Republic,' said they, 'is not reduced to
these two generals.'"--MONTHOLON, tom. iv., p. 282.
[358] "I have beheld, with deep interest, the fleet at Corfu. If ever it
sails upon those great enterprises of which you have spoken, in pity do
not forget me."--DESAIX to BUONAPARTE.
[359] "Menou, anxious to justify his conduct at Paris on the 13th
Vendêmiaire, entreated to be allowed to join the army of the
East."--THIBAUDEAU, tom. iv., p. 42.
[360] Las Cases, tom. i.
[361] Las Cases, tom. v., p. 58.
[362] "All that Sir Walter Scott says about the expedition to India is
not only exaggerated, but wide of the truth. It is not by the mere march
of an army across Egypt and Arabia that British India is likely to be
conquered, but by establishing and consolidating a French force in
Egypt, by opening the ancient communications by Suez, by multiplying the
relations between Egypt and India; and, in fine, by so augmenting the
French navy in the Mediterranean, that this sea shall become almost
inaccessible to the English squadrons."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE, p. 31.
[363] Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Expéditions en Egypte et en
Syrie.--INTRODUCTION, p. 20.
[364] "It is an error to state, that the affair at Vienna inspired the
idea of abandoning the expedition. The contrary is proved by
Buonaparte's letters to Barraguay d'Hilliers, Desaix, and Admiral
Brueyes; to whom, on the 20th of April, he wrote: 'Some disturbances,
which have just happened at Vienna, require my presence for a few days
at Paris. This will in no way affect the expedition. I send an order, by
the present courier, for the troops at Marseilles to embark and repair
to Toulon. On the evening of the 30th I will send you instructions to
get on board, and depart with the squadron for Genoa, where I will join
you."--_Correspondence Inédite_, tom. v., p. 3; Thibaudeau, tom. iv., p.
43.
[365] "Je promets à chaque soldat qu'au retour de cette expédition, il
aura à sa disposition de quoi acheter six arpens de terre."--_Moniteur_,
No. 242, May 21.
[366] "Napoleon said to one of the companions of his exile at St.
Helena, 'Malta certainly possessed immense physical, but no moral means
of resistance. The knights did nothing disgraceful. They could not hold
out against impossibility. No: but they yielded themselves. The
successful capture of Malta was assured, before the fleet quitted
Toulon.'"--BOURRIENNE, tom. ii., p. 65.
"The capture of Malta had been secured before Buonaparte left Toulon, by
the intrigues and largesses of Poussielque. These have been laid open by
the Bailli Teignie, and others, and made the subject of a formal
accusation against the Grand-master Hompesch, by the knights who had
taken refuge in Germany, Russia," &c.--_Intercepted Correspondence_,
part i., preface, p. vi.
"The sum awarded to the grand-master for his baseness was 600,000
francs. On quitting the island which he had not had the courage to
defend, he further disgraced himself by kissing the hand of the
conqueror who had despoiled him of his dominions."--THIBAUDEAU, tom.
iv., p. 96.
[367] "One of Napoleon's first acts at Malta was to set at liberty the
Turkish prisoners, and clear the disgusting galleys. This was a deed of
reason and humanity. His time was devoted to providing with equal
activity and talent for the administration and defence of the island.
His only relaxation was an occasional walk in the beautiful gardens of
the grand-master."--BOURRIENNE, tom. ii., p. 65.
[368] "During the whole voyage, Buonaparte passed the greater part of
his time below, in his cabin, reclining upon a couch, which, by a
ball-and-socket joint at each foot, rendered the ship's pitching less
perceptible, and consequently relieved the sickness from which he was
scarcely ever free. His remarkable saying to the pupils of a school
which he had one day visited, 'Young people, every hour of time lost is
a chance of misfortune for future life,' may be considered, in some
measure, as forming the rule of his own conduct. Perhaps no man ever
better understood the value of time. If the activity of his mind found
not wherewithal to exercise itself in reality, he supplied the defect by
giving free scope to imagination, or in listening to the conversation of
the learned men attached to the expedition. He delighted in discoursing
with Monge and Berthollet, when the discussion mostly ran upon
chemistry, mathematics, and religion, as also with Caffarelli, whose
conversation, rich in facts, was, at the same time, lively,
intellectual, and cheerful. At other times, he conversed with the
admiral, when the subject always related to naval manœuvres, of which
he showed great desire to obtain knowledge; and nothing more astonished
Brueyes, than the sagacity of his questions."--BOURRIENNE, tom. ii., p.
69.
[369] Miot, p. 16.
[370] "On the 30th of June, Buonaparte had the following proclamation
printed on board the L'Orient, and issued it to the army:--'Soldiers!
You are going to undertake a conquest, the effects of which, upon
commerce and civilisation, will be incalculable. You will give the
English a most sensible blow, which will be followed up by their
destruction. We shall have some fatiguing marches--we shall fight
several battles--we shall succeed in all our enterprises. The destinies
are in our favour. The Mamelouc Beys, who favour the English commerce
exclusively, who have injured our merchants, and who tyrannize over the
unhappy inhabitants of the banks of the Nile, will no longer exist in a
few days after our arrival.
"'The people, among whom you are going to live, are Mahometans. The
first article of their faith is "There is no other God but God, and
Mahomet is his prophet." Do not contradict them. Act with them as you
did with the Jews and with the Italians. Treat their muftis and their
imans with respect, as you did the rabbis and the bishops. You must act
with the same spirit of toleration towards the ceremonies prescribed by
the Koran, that you did to the synagogues and the convents, to the
religions of Moses and of Jesus Christ. The Roman legions protected all
religions. You will find here customs which differ from those of Europe:
you must accustom yourselves to them.
"'The people among whom we are going, treat women differently from us;
but in every country, he who violates them is a monster. Pillage
enriches but a very few men: it dishonours us, it destroys our
resources, and it renders those our enemies whom it is our interest to
have for friends. The first city we shall arrive at was built by
Alexander, and every step we take we shall meet with objects capable of
exciting emulation.'"
[371] "Repulsed on every side, the Turks betake themselves to God and
their Prophet, and fill their mosques: Men, women, old, young, children
at the breast, all are massacred. At the end of four hours the fury of
our troops ceases."--ADJUTANT-GENERAL BOYER TO HIS
PARENTS.--_Intercepted Letters_, part i., p. 150.
[372] Jomini, tom. x., p. 402; Larrey, p. 7.
[373] "Alexandria was not given up to pillage, as repeatedly asserted.
This would have been a very absurd commencement of the conquest of
Egypt, in which there were no fortified places to intimidate by such an
example."--BOURRIENNE, tom. ii., p. 89.
[374] "The Mameloucs are an invincible race, inhabiting a burning
desert, mounted on the fleetest horses in the world, and full of
courage. They live with their wives and children in flying camps, which
are never pitched two nights together in the same place. They are
horrible savages, and yet they have some notion of gold and silver! a
small quantity of it serves to excite their admiration. Yes, my dear
brother, they love gold; they pass their lives in extorting it from such
Europeans as fall into their hands;--and for what purpose?--for
continuing the course of life which I have described, and for teaching
it to their children. O, Jean Jacques! why was it not thy fate to see
these men, whom thou call'st '_the men of nature_?'--thou wouldst sink
with shame, thou wouldst startle with horror at the thought of having
once admired them! Adieu, my dear brother. This climate kills me; we
shall be so altered, that you will discover the change at a league's
distance. Remember me to the _legislator_ Lucien. He might have sailed
with us to advantage; we see more in two days than common travellers in
two years."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE _to his brother_ JOSEPH, dated Alexandria,
July 6th; _Intercepted Correspondence_, part i., p. 8.
[375] See it in the Appendix to this volume, No. VII.
[376] "You will laugh outright, you witlings of Paris, at the Mahometan
proclamation of the commander-in-chief. He is proof, however, against
all your raillery; and the thing itself will certainly produce a most
surprising effect. You recollect that produced by the magic cry of
'Guerre aux chateaux, paix aux cabines!'"--JOUBERT _to_ GENERAL BRUIX;
_Intercepted Letters_, part i., p. 31.
"I send you the proclamation to the inhabitants of the country. It has
produced an effect altogether astonishing. The Bedouins, enemies of the
Mameloucs, and who, properly speaking, are neither more nor less than
intrepid robbers, sent us back, as soon as they had read it, thirty of
our people whom they had made prisoners, with an offer of their services
against the Mameloucs."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE; _Intercepted Correspondence_,
part i., p. 7
[377] "It would be difficult to describe the disgust, the discontent,
the melancholy, the despair of the army, on its first arrival in Egypt:
Napoleon himself saw two dragoons throw themselves into the Nile.--One
day, losing his temper, he rushed among a group of discontented
generals, and addressing himself to the tallest, 'You have held mutinous
language,' said he, with vehemence; 'it is not your being six feet high
that should save you from being shot in a couple of hours.'"--LAS CASES,
tom. i., p. 206.
[378] Jomini, tom. x., p. 407.
[379] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 210.
[380] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 243.
[381] "Pour toute harangue, Buonaparte leur addresse ces mots, qu'on
peut regarder comme le sublime de l'éloquence militaire.--'Soldats! vous
allez combattre aujourdhui les dominateurs de l'Egypte; songez que du
haut de ces Pyramides, quarante siècles vous contemplent!'"--LACRETELLE,
tom. xiv., p. 267.
[382] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 245; Miot, p. 50; Jomini, tom. x., p. 408;
Thibaudeau, tom. iv., p. 184; Larrey, p. 13.
[383] "About nine in the evening, Napoleon entered the country house of
Murad Bey at Gizeh. Such habitations bear no resemblance to our
_chateaux_. We found it difficult to make it serve for our lodging, and
to understand the distribution of the different apartments. But what
struck the officers, was a great quantity of cushions and divans covered
with the finest damasks and silks of Lyons, and ornamented with gold
fringe. The gardens were full of magnificent trees, but without alleys.
What most delighted the soldiers (for every one came to see the place,)
were great arbours of vines covered with the finest grapes in the world.
The vintage was soon over."--NAPOLEON, _Gourgaud_, tom. ii., p. 249.
[384] Buonaparte made his entry into Cairo on the 26th of July. On the
22d, he issued from Gizeh the following proclamation:--
"People of Cairo! I am satisfied with your conduct. You have done right
not to take any part against me: I am come to destroy the race of the
Mamelukes, and to protect the trade and the natives of the country. Let
all those who are under any fear be composed; and let those who have
quitted their houses return to them. Let prayers be offered up to-day,
as usual, for I wish that they may be always continued. Entertain no
fear for your families, your houses, your property, and, above all, the
religion of your Prophet, whom I love."