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

140 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTbloody finger and key and proffered the latter to ‘Ali, Ahmad managed to makehimself a go-between, receiving the key, palming it, and giving the key toMadame Gontrand’s room to ‘Ali. The two men then presumably went backupstairs, and Ahmad steered ‘Ali to the French woman’s chambers. He then deliveredBernoyer’s own key to him and gave him some Egyptian clothes to wearso as not to startle the girl.Bernoyer represented himself as now brimming with passion and impatience.Ahmad returned below to the garden to finish scrutinizing the marriagecontract before signing as a witness for the groom. Bernoyer attempted to restrainhimself from bursting into his bedroom so violently as to startle thedemur bride within. “Imagine my confusion when, on opening the door, I sawthat Venus stretched out on a straw mat on the ground, her seductive charms directlyin my view.” Unable to control his passion, he united with her, expectingto find her surprised or unhappy, but instead saw that she was radiant with joy,whispering in his ear, “My friend, my sultan, my brother, my souk.” They sleptin late, and the next morning he showed her the clothes he intended for her andthe extent of their quarters, and she was delighted. She happily tried on her newclothes, he wrote, and settled down to domestic bliss.Bernoyer gave Madame Gontrand a small bag of diamonds and bestowedtwo hundred francs on Ahmad as a reward for their roles. “Moreover, I wouldhave paid a hundred times more to find such a girl: in this country where beautifulwomen are very rare, I could congratulate myself on having a treasure.”Bernoyer had had several prior disastrous adventures in attempting to find sexualgratification in Cairo, and he depicted only his arrangement with Fatima as asuccess. Paying lip service to social and religious convention had the advantage,on both sides, of keeping up appearances, and in this regard it mirrored Bonaparte’sown diplomatic Islam policy perfectly. As time went on, the chronicleral-Jabarti alleged, marriage became increasingly common between the Frenchmen and Muslim women. 24 Attracted by the vast wealth the French concentratedin their hands, even good Egyptian families proved willing to make suchalliances. For their part, French troops gradually lost their initial disdain forMuslim conventions and proved willing to undergo a pro forma conversion as aprerequisite to the wedding. It was not, al-Jabarti sniffed, as though they hadany faith to begin with that they feared losing.The French Jacobins could not help but view Islam as a crucible of superstition.They often saw firsthand evidences of popular religious enthusiasm that in-