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

178 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTLater he happened to pay a visit to Eugène de Beauharnais, Bonaparte’steenage stepson, and discovered that Eugène had bought the slave, now bedeckedwith diamonds, pearls, and finery. Bernoyer reminded Eugène of hisown earlier complaints that whereas in Paris Josephine had denied him nothing,in Cairo Bonaparte left his stepson perpetually empty-handed. Eugène revealedthat he had borrowed 10,000 francs from a merchant in contact with Paris, whowould be reimbursed by his mother there. Bernoyer confessed that he had almostbought the woman himself, but that he was sure she could be in no betterhands. Beauharnais replied, “I assure you, Monsieur Bernoyer, that I have nevermade such good use of my money. I have already spent 6,000 francs to make heras beautiful as a queen. I love her to madness, for her spiritual and vivacious personalityhas opened for me a source of inexhaustible pleasures.”Bernoyer was reduced from philosopher and admirer of Rousseau (authorof the Discourse on Inequality), from inveterate opponent of Bonaparte’s disregardfor the rule of law, to a prurient voyeur willing to reduce a human being to amere commodity. All that prevented him from doing so was the price asked forthe Sudanese woman, who presumably had been of high status in her own country.His initial preference for the delights of repartee and coquettish wordplayevaporated, replaced by a gross fixation on mute body parts and pubic hair. Heeven repeated without qualification Beauharnais’s assertions that there wassomething spiritual about his relationship with his new property and that it hadsomething to do with her personality.Some French observers justified Egyptian slavery by pointing out thatslaves were much better treated than domestics and that masters were obliged,after a few years, to marry off the girls and to establish an estate for the males.Bonaparte himself argued, “In the Orient, slavery never had the same characteras in the Occident. Slavery in the Orient is what one sees in the holy scriptures;the slave inherits from his master, he marries his daughter. Most of the pashashad been slaves. . . . The ideas of the Orient and the Occident are so differentthat it took a long time to make the Egyptians understand that the entire armywas not made up of slaves belonging to the Great Sultan.” 30 Doguereau wrote,“The slavery of blacks is a very happy estate in Egypt. Women are bought tokeep women company or to busy themselves with housework.” As for males, hesaid, they “are the shop boys in the boutiques and often become the adoptivechildren of their masters; they are only bought by wealthy persons.” He concluded,“Their lot is much happier than that of poor Egyptians.” 31 Saint-Hilaireconcurred about the difference, writing to one correspondent, “Slavery is differenthere than in America. It is a veritable adoption. My two slaves never call me