is name would be placed by the side of Alexander in history. Already
negotiations had been carried on for some time with Tippoo Sahib.
Commissioners had been despatched to him, and an alliance proposed
against the British. His power had been greatly overrated by the French,
and but a feeble idea was entertained of the enormous difficulties of
the scheme they proposed, which was that, after completely subduing and
organizing Egypt, they should march through Syria and Damascus, thence
to the head of the Persian Gulf, and thence down through India.

No account had been taken of the enormous difficulties of the journey.
There was no thought of the powerful and warlike people of Northern
India. The only idea was to revenge the total overthrow of the French
power in India by the British, to re-establish it on a firmer and wider
base than ever, and so not only to humiliate the pride of England, but
to obtain a monopoly of the trade of the East.

The news that possibly a French fleet might at any moment appear before
the port spread the greatest dismay throughout Alexandria; the native
population were furious, and foreigners scarcely dared to show
themselves in the streets. Mr. Blagrove and Edgar were busy from morning
till night on the day after the British fleet had left, in transporting
the goods from the store to the ship that had been chartered.

"It is quite possible that all this is needless," the merchant said to
Edgar when they sat down to a hasty meal late in the evening. "I think
myself that it is almost absurd, although I do not mean to leave
anything to chance; but it is purely a surmise that the French
expedition is intended to operate against Egypt. It seems to me that
either Greece or Syria is much more likely to be its destination. I have
just had a letter put into my hand, brought by the captain of a small
Maltese trader. It is from a correspondent in Malta. He states that the
French fleet has appeared off the island and summoned the knights to
surrender, and that it is thought probable that the demand will be
acceded to. He said that he sent me a line by a little coaster that
intended to sail late that evening, and was taking a cargo of grain for
Alexandria.

"That certainly looks as if the expedition is intended to operate
farther east, for Malta is altogether out of the way for a fleet coming
from Toulon hither. Still it is just as well to continue our work. There
is, naturally enough, a violent ferment