t Napoleon
did, on this occasion, all that became his situation. He issued an order
that every horse should be given up to the service of the sick. A moment
afterwards one of his attendants came to ask which horse the General
wished to reserve for himself: "Scoundrel!" cried he, "do you not know
the order? Let everyone march on foot--I the first.--Begone." He
accordingly, during the rest of the march, walked by the side of the
sick, cheering them by his eye and his voice, and exhibiting to all the
soldiery the example at once of endurance and of compassion.

[_June 14._] Having at length accomplished this perilous journey,
Buonaparte repaired to his old headquarters at Cairo, and re-entered on
his great functions as the establisher of a new government in the state
of Egypt. But he had not long occupied himself thus, ere new rumours
concerning the beys on the Upper Nile, who seemed to have some strong
and urgent motive for endeavouring to force a passage downwards, began
to be mingled with, and by degrees explained by, tidings daily repeated
of some grand disembarkation of the Ottomans, designed to have place in
the neighbourhood of Alexandria. Leaving Dessaix, therefore, once more
in command at Cairo, he himself descended the Nile, and travelled with
all speed to Alexandria, where he found his presence most necessary.
For, in effect, the great Turkish fleet had already run into the bay of
Aboukir; and an army of 18,000, having gained the fortress, were there
strengthening themselves, with the view of awaiting the promised descent
and junction of the Mamelukes, and then, with overwhelming superiority
of numbers, advancing to Alexandria, and completing the ruin of the
French invaders.

Buonaparte, reaching Alexandria on the evening of the 24th of July,
found his army already posted in the neighbourhood of Aboukir, and
prepared to anticipate the attack of the Turks on the morrow. Surveying
their entrenched camp from the heights above with Murat, he said, "Go
how it may, the battle of to-morrow will decide the fate of the world."
"Of this army at least," answered Murat; "but the Turks have no cavalry,
and, if ever infantry were charged to the teeth by horse, they shall be
so by mine." Murat did not penetrate the hidden meaning of Napoleon's
words, but he made good his own.

The Turkish outposts were assaulted early next morning, and driven in
with great slaughter; but the French, when they advanced, came within
the range