ing
army.

Josephine accompanied her husband to Toulon, and remained with him until
his embarkation. She was extremely anxious to go with him to Egypt, and
with tears plead that he would allow her to share his hardships and his
perils. Napoleon, however, deemed the hazards to which they would be
exposed, and the fatigues and sufferings they must necessarily endure,
as quite too formidable for Josephine to encounter. But in the anguish
of their parting, which is described as most tender, she wrung from him
a promise to allow her to follow as soon as affairs in the East should
render it prudent for her to do so. It can hardly be possible, however,
that Napoleon ever expected to see her in Egypt. He himself has thus
described the objects he had in view in this vast enterprise: "1. To
establish on the banks of the Nile a French colony, which could exist
without slaves, and supply the place of Saint Domingo. 2. To open a
market for the manufactures of France in Africa, Arabia, and Syria, and
to obtain for the productions of his countrymen the productions of those
countries. 3. To set out from Egypt, with an army of sixty thousand men,
for the Indus, rouse the Mahrattas to a revolt, and excite against the
English the population of those vast countries. Sixty thousand men, half
Europeans, half natives, transported on fifty thousand camels and ten
thousand horses, carrying with them provisions for fifty days, water for
six, with one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon and double ammunition,
would arrive in four months in India. The ocean ceased to be an obstacle
when vessels were constructed. The desert becomes passable the moment
you have camels and dromedaries in abundance."

As the fleet got under way, Josephine stood upon a balcony, with tearful
eyes, gazing upon the scene, so imposing, and yet so sorrowful to her.
The Orient, a ship of enormous magnitude, contained her husband and her
son. They were going into the midst of dangers from whence it was
doubtful whether they would ever return. She fixed her eyes upon the
ship as its lessening sails grew fainter and fainter in the distance,
until the hardly discernible speck disappeared beneath the horizon,
which the blue waves of the Mediterranean outlined. She retired to her
room with those feelings of loneliness and desolation which the
circumstances were so peculiarly calculated to inspire.

It was arranged that Josephine should take up her residence,
until Napoleon shoul