have not deceived me; the fools have lost Italy. All the fruit of our victories has disappeared: I must leave Egypt.'

He desired Berthier to be called; he told him to read the news. Things,' said he, 'go ill in France; I must see what is passing there; you must come with me.' Myself, Berthier and Gantheaume, whom he had sent for, were the only parties to be intrusted with the secret. He recommended Berthier to be prudent, to testify no symptoms of joy, to change nothing of his usual habits, nor to purchase any thing. He finished by saying, that he depended upon him. 'I am sure of myself,' said he; I am sure of Bourrienne.' Berthier promised to be silent, and he kept his word. He had had enough of Egypt; he burned with the desire of returning to France, and feared lest his own indiscretion might ruin all. Gantheaume arrived, and Bonaparte gave him orders to prepare two frigates, Le Muiron and La Carrière, and two small vessels, La Revanche and La Fortune, with provisions for 400 or 500 men, and for two months. He communicated to him his secret intentions, and recommended the strictest secrecy, lest intelligence of his preparations should reach any of the English cruisers. He afterwards arranged with Gantheaume the course he intended to steer; he provided for every thing.

Bonaparte left Alexandria on the 5th of August, and arrived at Cairo on the 10th, for the purpose of making some parting arrangements. There he caused to be renewed the report of his proceeding to Upper Egypt, which appeared the more feasible, as such had been, in fact, his determination previous to our excursion to the Pyramids, as was well known to the army and to the inhabitants of Cairo. All at once, he announced an intention of examining the Delta; and to encourage that belief, he wrote on the 18th to the Divan, desiring them to keep him regularly informed of the state of affairs at Cairo during his absence. By this means he succeeded in preventing any suspicion of his projected departure from arising among the soldiery; and we had no sooner left Cairo than we returned to Alexandria.

Hitherto our secret had been well kept. General Lanusse, however, who commanded at Menouf, where we arrived on the 20th, had divined our intentions. 'You are going to France,' said he. My reply in the negative confirmed his suspicions.

On the 22d of August, we returned to Alexandria, and the general informed all those who had accompanied him from Cairo, that France was their destination. At this intelligence, joy appeared in every countenance.

General Kleber, who was instructed by Bonaparte to succeed him in the command of the army, was invited to come from Damietta to Rosetta, to confer with him on affairs of extreme importance. Bonaparte, in making an appointment which he knew he could not keep, wished to avoid the reproaches and sturdy frankness of Kleber. He wrote to him all that he had got to say, and assigned as his reason for not keeping his appointment, that his fear of being observed by the English cruisers had induced him to depart three days earlier than he intended. But Bonaparte knew well, when he wrote this letter, that he should be at sea when it was received. Kleber complained bitterly of this deception, to the Directory. The singular fate which befell his despatches will be seen hereafter.

CHAP. IX.

Voyage from Egypt · Danger of Capture · lands at Frejus-Joy of the People-State of the CountryBonaparte arrives at Paris-his Intrigues-Plot and Conspiracy the 18th Brumaire - Bonaparte First Consul.

ON the 23d of August, we embarked in the two frigates La Muiron and La Carrière. Our number was between 400 and 500. The night was dark when we got on board ; but, by the feeble light of the stars, we were enabled to perceive a corvette, which approached to observe, and, as it were, to be a party in our silent and nocturnal embarkment.*

* The horses of the escort had been left to run loose on the beach, and all was perfect stillness in Alexandria, when the advanced posts of the town were alarmed by the wild galloping of horses, which, from a natural instinct, were returning to Alexandria through the desert. The picket ran to arms on seeing horses ready saddled and bridled, which were soon discovered to belong to the regiment of guides. They at first thought that a misfortune had happened to some detachment in its pursuit of the Arabs. With these horses came also those of the generals who had embarked with General Bonaparte; so that Alexandria was, for a time, in considerable alarm. The cavalry was ordered to proceed, in all haste, in the direction whence the horses came; and every one was giving himself up to the most gloomy con

It has been falsely stated, that Admiral Gantheaume was absolute master of his movements, as if any one could. command when Bonaparte was present. So far from that, he told the admiral, in my presence, that he would not follow the usual course, and run out into the open sea. It is my wish,' said he, that you keep on the African side till you get to the southward of Sardinia. I have here a handful of brave fellows, with some artillery. If the English should fall in with us, I will immediately run on shore, and, with my party, make my way by land to Oran, Tunis, or some other port, from whence we may obtain the means of getting home.' Such was his resolution, and it was irrevocably fixed.

During one-and-twenty days of impatience and disappointment, we were tossed about by contrary winds. At length, however, a favourable breeze sprung up, which, in a short time, carried us past that point on the African coast near which Carthage formerly stood; and we soon afterwards made Sardinia, and ran along its western coast, keeping well in with the land. Bonaparte intended to have run ashore, in case of falling in with an English squadron; then to have gained Corsica, and to have awaited a favourable opportunity of reaching France.

Every thing had contributed to render our voyage dull and monotonous. The general had lost four aides-de-camp, Croisier, Sulkowsky, Julien, and Guibert; Caffarelli, Brueys, Casabianca, were no more. Our misfortunes; the uncertainty of our favourable reception at home; the situation of affairs in France, of whose reverses we had acquired an imperfect knowledge; the dangers of being made prisoners in a sea swarming with the ships of the enemy;-all these threw a gloom over our spirits, and checked every disposition to amusement. Bonaparte incessantly paced the deck, occupied in superintending the execution of his orders. The appearance of the smallest sail renewed his inquietudes. The fear of being a prisoner to the English haunted him continually; he dreaded, as the worst of evils, the falling into their hands; and, at last, he trusted to their generosity!

At length, on the 8th of October, after having been chased by, and escaped from, an English squadron, we

jectures, when the cavalry returned to the city with the Turkish groom, who was bringing back General Bonaparte's horse to Alexandria.'Memoirs of the Duke de Rovigo.

entered, at eight in the morning, the bay of Frejus. None of the sailors being acquainted with that part of the coast, we knew not exactly where we were; for a moment we were in doubt as to whether we should run in. We were not expected, and we could not answer the signals, which had been changed during our absence. Some shots were fired at us from the batteries; but our confident entrance into the harbour, the numbers which crowded the decks of both frigates, and our demonstrations of joy, did not allow them long to remain in suspense. Scarcely had we come to an anchor, when it was rumoured about that one of the ships carried General Bonaparte. In an instant the sea was covered with boats. In vain we endeavoured to keep the people off; we were fairly lifted up, and carried on shore. When we represented to the crowd of men and women, who pressed about us, the danger they run, they all cried out, 'We'd rather have the plague than the Austrians.'

It will be remembered what effects the simple announcement of the return of Bonaparte produced in France and throughout Europe. He has been accused, among other things, of breaking the sanatory laws. It was his intention to have submitted implicitly to the usual quarantine; but the inhabitants of Frejus would not permit it: we were, as I have already stated, absolutely carried on shore. Still, when we consider the landing of 500 persons and a quantity of goods from Alexandria, where the plague had been raging during the summer, we must regard it as a singular happiness that France and Europe had been preserved from such a scourge.

People frequently speak of the good fortune which attaches to an individual, and even accompanies him through life. Without professing to believe in this sort of predestination, yet, when I call to mind the numerous dangers which Bonaparte escaped in so many enterprises, the hazards he encountered, the chances he ran, I can conceive that others may have this faith; but, having for a length of time studied the man of destiny,' I have remarked, that what was called his fortune, was, in reality, his genius; that his success was the consequence of his admirable foresight of his calculations, rapid as lightning-and of the conviction that boldness is often the truest wisdom. If, for example, during our

voyage from Alexandria to Frejus, he had not imperiously insisted on pursuing a course different from that usually taken, and which usual course was recommended by the admiral, would he have escaped the perils which beset his path? Probably not. And was all this the effect of chance? Certainly not.

Scarcely had he arrived at Frejus, than, in his anxiety for news, he questioned every one he met. There he first learned the extent of our reverses in Italy. The evil is too great,' said he; there is nothing to be done.' He decided on returning to Paris the very evening of the day on which we landed. Every where on his journey, in the towns, in the villages, he was received, as at Frejus, with enthusiasm which it is impossible to describe: those only who witnessed his triumphal journey could form even a faint idea of it; and it required no great spirit of observation to foresee something similar to what afterwards happened.

The provinces, a prey to anarchy and civil war, were threatened with foreign invasion. Nearly the whole of the south presented the afflicting spectacle of one vast arena of contending factions. The nation groaned under the weight of tyrannical laws, and was universally opposed to a pentarchy, without moral force, without justice, and which had become the sport of faction and intrigue. The highways were infested by robbers; the agents of the Directory practised the most scandalous extortions-disorder reigned throughout-every thing wore the aspect of dissolution. Any change was felt to be preferable to the continuance of such a state of things; and the majority of Frenchmen wished to escape from such an intolerable position. Two dangers threatened at the same time; anarchy, and the Bourbons. Every one felt the pressing necessity of concentrating the powers of the state in a single hand; and, at the same time, maintaining those institutions, which were suited to the spirit and intelligence of the age; and which, France, after having so dearly purchased, was now upon the point of losing for ever. The country looked for a man, who was capable of restoring her to tranquillity; but as yet, no such man had appeared. A soldier of fortune presented himself, covered with glory; he had planted the standard of France on the Capitol, and on the Pyramids. His great actions, his brilliant enterprises, always