"If he goes to England," said Barras, "he'll conquer it, sure as
fate; and it will be near enough for excursion steamers to take the
French people over to see him do it. If that happens we are lost."

"He'll conquer Egypt, though, and he'll tell about it in such a way
that he will appear twice as great," suggested Carnot. "Seems to me
we'd better sell out at once and be done with it."

"Not so," said Moulin. "Let him go to Egypt. Very likely he'll fall
off a pyramid there and break his neck."

"Or get sunstruck," suggested Barras.

"There's no question about it in my mind," said Gohier. "Egypt is
the place. If he escapes the pyramids or sunstroke, there are still
the lions and the simoon, not to mention the rapid tides of the Red
Sea. Why, he just simply can't get back alive. I vote for Egypt."

Thus it happened that on the 19th day of May, 1798, with an army of
forty thousand men and a magnificant staff of picked officers,
Napoleon embarked for Egypt.

"I'm glad we're off," said he to the sailor who had charge of his
steamer-chair. "I've got to hurry up and gain some more victories or
these French will forget me. A man has to make a three-ringed circus
of himself to keep his name before the public these days."

"What are you fightin' for this time, sir?" asked the sailor, who had
not heard that war had been declared--"ile paintin's or pyramids?"