claim, and neither side was deceived in this contest of wits.

A rude awakening soon came. For some few days there had been rumours
that the division under Desaix which was fighting the Mamelukes in
Upper Egypt had been engulfed in those sandy wastes; and this report
fanned to a flame the latent hostility against the unbelievers. From
many minarets of Cairo a summons to arms took the place of the
customary call to prayer: and on October 21st the French garrison was
so fiercely and suddenly attacked as to leave the issue doubtful.
Discipline and grapeshot finally prevailed, whereupon a repression of
oriental ferocity cowed the spirits of the townsfolk and of the
neighbouring country. Forts were constructed in Cairo and at all the
strategic points along the lower Nile, and Egypt seemed to be
conquered.

Feeling sure now of his hold on the populace, Bonaparte, at the close
of the year, undertook a journey to Suez and the Sinaitic peninsula.
It offered that combination of utility and romance which ever appealed
to him. At Suez he sought to revivify commerce by lightening the
customs' dues, by founding a branch of his Egyptian commercial
company, and by graciously receiving a deputation of the Arabs of Tor
who came to sue for his friendship.[111] Then, journeying on, he
visited the fountains of Moses; but it is not true that (as stated by
Lanfrey) he proceeded to Mount Sinai and signed his name in the
register of the monastery side by side with that of Mahomet. On his
return to the isthmus he is said to have narrowly escaped from the
rising tide of the Red Sea. If we may credit Savary, who was not of
the party, its safety was due to the address of the commander, who, as
darkness fell on the bewildered band, arranged his horsemen in files,
until the higher causeway of the path was again discovered. North of
Suez the traces of the canal dug by Sesostris revealed themselves to
the trained eye of the commander. The observations of his engineers
confirmed his conjecture, but the vast labour of reconstruction
forbade any attempt to construct a maritime canal. On his return to
Cairo he wrote to the Imam of Muscat, assuring him of his friendship
and begging him to forward to Tippoo Sahib a letter offering alliance
and deliverance from "the iron yoke of England," and stating that the
French had arrived on the shores of the Red Sea "with a numerous and
invincible army." The letter was intercepted by a British cruiser; and
the alar