y him in the useless but poetical crusade which he was
planning. He left his mother, his sister Amelie, and his young brother
Edouard at Bourg, General de Montrevel's native town. They resided
some three-quarters of a mile out of the city, at Noires-Fontaines,
a charming house, called a chateau, which, together with the farm and
several hundred acres of land surrounding it, yielded an income of six
or eight thousand livres a year, and constituted the general's entire
fortune. Roland's departure on this adventurous expedition deeply
afflicted the poor widow. The death of the father seemed to presage that
of the son, and Madame de Montrevel, a sweet, gentle Creole, was far
from possessing the stern virtues of a Spartan or Lacedemonian mother.

Bonaparte, who loved his old comrade of the Ecole Militaire with all his
heart, granted him permission to rejoin him at the very last moment
at Toulon. But the fear of arriving too late prevented Roland from
profiting by this permission to its full extent. He left his mother,
promising her--a promise he was careful not to keep--that he would
not expose himself unnecessarily, and arrived at Marseilles eight days
before the fleet set sail.

Our intention is no more to give the history of the campaign of
Egypt than we did that of Italy. We shall only mention that which
is absolutely necessary to understand this story and the subsequent
development of Roland's character. The 19th of May, 1798, Bonaparte and
his entire staff set sail for the Orient; the 15th of June the Knights
of Malta gave up the keys of their citadel. The 2d of July the army
disembarked at Marabout, and the same day took Alexandria; the 25th,
Bonaparte entered Cairo, after defeating the Mamelukes at Chebreiss and
the Pyramids.

During this succession of marches and battles, Roland had been the
officer we know him, gay, courageous and witty, defying the scorching
heat of the day, the icy dew of the nights, dashing like a hero or a
fool among the Turkish sabres or the Bedouin bullets. During the forty
days of the voyage he had never left the interpreter Ventura; so that
with his admirable facility he had learned, if not to speak Arabic
fluently, at least to make himself understood in that language.
Therefore it often happened that, when the general did not wish to use
the native interpreter, Roland was charged with certain communications
to the Muftis, the Ulemas, and the Sheiks.

During the night of October 20th an