"I am the
savior of France," he said, "and I must go to her aid." The army didn't
know what he intended to do. If they had known, they would have kept him
in Egypt by force and made him Emperor of the East.
When he had gone, we all felt very blue; because he had been the joy of
our lives. He left the command to Kleber--a great lout of a fellow who
soon afterward lost the number of his mess. An Egyptian assassinated
him. They put the murderer to death by making him sit on a bayonet;
that's their way, down there, of guillotining a man. But he suffered so
much that one of our soldiers felt sorry for him and offered him his
water-gourd. The criminal took a drink, and then gave up the ghost with
the greatest pleasure.
But we didn't waste much time over trifles like that.
Napoleon sailed from Egypt in a cockle-shell of a boat called _Fortune_.
He passed right under the noses of the English, who were blockading the
coast with ships of the line, frigates, and every sort of craft that
could carry sail, and in the twinkling of an eye he was in France;
because he had the ability to cross the sea as if with a single stride.
Pages:
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58