d 21st Cairo revolted. At five in the
morning the death of General Dupey, killed by a lance, was made known.
At eight, just as the revolt was supposedly quelled, an aide-de-camp of
the dead general rode up, announcing that the Bedouins from the plains
were attacking Bab-el-Nasr, or the Gate of Victory.

Bonaparte was breakfasting with his aide-de-camp Sulkowsky, so severely
wounded at Salahieh that he left his pallet of suffering with the
greatest difficulty only. Bonaparte, in his preoccupation forgetting the
young Pole's condition, said to him: "Sulkowsky, take fifteen Guides and
go see what that rabble wants."

Sulkowsky rose.

"General," interposed Roland, "give me the commission. Don't you see my
comrade can hardly stand?"

"True," said Bonaparte; "do you go!"

Roland went out and took the fifteen Guides and started. But the order
had been given to Sulkowsky, and Sulkowsky was determined to execute it.
He set forth with five or six men whom he found ready.

Whether by chance, or because he knew the streets of Cairo better than
Roland, he reached the Gate of Victory a few seconds before him. When
Roland arrived, he saw five or six dead men, and an officer being led
away by the Arabs, who, while massacring the soldiers mercilessly, will
sometimes spare the officers in hope of a ransom. Roland recognized
Sulkowsky; pointing him out with his sabre to his fifteen men, he
charged at a gallop.

Half an hour later, a Guide, returning alone to head-quarters, announced
the deaths of Sulkowsky, Roland and his twenty-one companions.

Bonaparte, as we have said, loved Roland as a brother, as a son, as he
loved Eugene. He wished to know all the details of the catastrophe, and
questioned the Guide. The man had seen an Arab cut off Sulkowsky's
head and fasten it to his saddle-bow. As for Roland, his horse had
been killed. He had disengaged himself from the stirrups and was seen
fighting for a moment on foot; but he had soon disappeared in a general
volley at close quarters.

Bonaparte sighed, shed a tear and murmured: "Another!" and apparently
thought no more about it. But he did inquire to what tribe belonged
these Bedouins, who had just killed two of the men he loved best. He was
told that they were an independent tribe whose village was situated some
thirty miles off. Bonaparte left them a month, that they might become
convinced of their impunity; then, the month elapsed, he ordered one of
his aides-de-camp, named Cr