s foes had thus suddenly and
utterly vanished. Just then Kleber arrived, with his division of two
thousand men, for whom Napoleon had not waited. The distinguished soldier,
who had long been an ardent admirer of Napoleon, was overwhelmed with
amazement in contemplating the magnitude of the victory. In his enthusiasm
he threw his arms around the neck of his adored chieftain, exclaiming,
"Let me embrace you, my General, you are great as the universe."

[Illustration: Napoleon and Kleber.]

Egypt was now quiet. Not a foe remained to be encountered. No immediate
attack, from any quarter, was to be feared. Nothing remained to be done
but to carry on the routine of the administration of the infant colony.
These duties required no especial genius, and could be very creditably
performed by any respectable governor.

It was, however, but a barren victory which Napoleon had obtained, at such
an enormous expenditure of suffering and of life. It was in vain for the
isolated army, cut off, by the destruction of its fleet, from all
intercourse with Europe, to think of the invasion of India. The French
troops had exactly "caught the Tartar." Egypt was of no possible avail as
a colony, with the Mediterranean crowded with hostile English, and
Russian, and Turkish cruisers. For the same reason, it was impossible for
the army to leave those shores and return to France. Thus the victorious
French, in the midst of all their triumphs, found that they had built up
for themselves prison walls from which, though they could repel their
enemies, there was no escape. The sovereignty of Egypt alone was too petty
an affair to satisfy the boundless ambition of Napoleon. Destiny, he
thought, deciding against an Empire in the East, was only guiding him back
to an Empire in the West.

For ten months Napoleon had now received no certain intelligence
respecting Europe. Sir Sydney Smith, either in the exercise of the spirit
of gentlemanly courtesy, or enjoying a malicious pleasure in communicating
to his victor tidings of disaster upon disaster falling upon France, sent
to him a file of newspapers full of the most humiliating intelligence. The
hostile fleet, leaving its whole army of eighteen thousand men, buried in
the sands, or beneath the waves, weighed anchor and disappeared.

Napoleon spent the whole night, with intense interest, examining those
papers. He learned that France was in a state of indescribable confusion;
that the