Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

110 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTalong the coast came out to celebrate the British triumph, and “lit bonfires in itshonour.” 4Among the French in Egypt, the effect of the news of the loss of the fleetwas electric. The mathematician Malus wrote, “We foresaw that from then on,all communication with Europe would be broken off. We began to lose hope ofseeing our fatherland.” He departed for Cairo from Salahiya, “tired, sick, andsad.” 5 A French officer who visited the beach thereafter saw hundreds of bodiesof sailors washed up on the shore and remarked that, like ancient Egyptianmummies, they seemed not to be rotting, given the extreme dryness of the climate.It did not last. Jollois revealed that the stink of death soon began rising allalong the coast, remaining for weeks, and one often saw macabre arms or legssticking up out of the sands of the beach.The commander in chief received the news while at Salahiya around 12 August,after having chased Ibrahim Bey out of Egypt. 6 Bonaparte, on his arrival inCairo, let his general staff know the dread news. Bourrienne, Bonaparte’s privatesecretary, recalled that “the catastrophe of Abuqir came like a thunderboltupon the Commander in chief.” Marmont wrote a letter recounting his conversationwith Bonaparte at that juncture. “We are separated from the Motherland[la Mère patrie], without sure communications. Very well, it must be known thatwe are self-sufficient. Egypt is full of immense resources; we must developthem. Once, it formed all by itself a powerful kingdom. . . . The important thingis to safeguard the army from a discouragement that would contain the germ ofits destruction,” he reported the general as saying. 7As he slipped into an even deeper mood of depression than the one provokedby Josephine’s infidelity, Bonaparte faced the rage of his officers overbeing stuck in Egypt. Even before the disaster, Adj. Gen. Pierre Boyer wrote toBonaparte to warn him of the “many generals who wish to return to France”and cautioning that “there appears to be great discontent in the army.” Murat,Lannes, Berthier, and others had conveyed to Bourrienne remarks that “were sounmeasured as almost to amount to sedition.” Bonaparte had hoped, having securedEgypt, to sail soon for Toulon with the fleet. Now he and his army weretrapped. Disillusionment with Egypt itself, the falling away from their eyes ofthe scales of Orientalist fantasy, contributed to the mood of despair. As Bourriennesaw it,Egypt was no longer the empire of the Ptolemies, covered with populous andwealthy cities; it now presented one unvaried scene of devastation and misery.Instead of being aided by the inhabitants, whom we had ruined, for the sake of