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

11THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTIONBonaparte’s whereabouts on the day of the uprising are controversial.He wrote that he was absent from Cairo, having gone by the Nile toinspect the French arsenal at Giza. He may have intended to go toGiza, but eyewitnesses report that he had only gone as far as Roda Island thatmorning and that he was brought back to his headquarters in Azbakiya. Detroyealleged that there had been some early-morning manifestations of unrest butthat Bonaparte had just ordered his troops to arm themselves and, not suspectinganything serious might arise, left to inspect the work the French engineerswere doing at Old Cairo and Roda Island. 1This account does not exactly accord with Bonaparte’s own, which raisessuspicions as to why they differ. Was he stricken with depression and paralysisduring the first day of the revolt, which could well have ended in the massacre ofthe French army had the entire city joined in? All the accounts can be reconciledif we assume that, to cover his inaction, he gave out the story of havingbeen quite distant, at Giza, all day long. His presence that morning at Roda Islandis well attested, and he was back at headquarters long before he later admittedbeing there.Lt. Jean-Pierre Doguereau recalled that morning in his memoirs: “Imounted my horse with General Dommartin to go to Giza. We paid no attentionto the rumors of an insurrection, which seemed vague. We met at OldCairo with General Bonaparte, who was going to the isle of Roda. We accompaniedhim. While we were in the company of General Lannes, given that thegeneral headquarters was on that island, he was brought reports that one hadbegun to see wounded officers in the streets. In the same instant, a runner comingfrom general headquarters announced that the commander of the Citadel,General Dupuy, had just been assassinated while attempting to disperse a crowd