but we are true Mussulmen. If you doubt it, feel our muscle. We
have it to burn. Desert the Mamelukes and be saved. The Pappylukes
are here."

On reading this proclamation Alexandria immediately fell, and
Bonaparte, using the Koran as a guide-book, proceeded on his way up
the Nile. The army suffered greatly from the glare and burning of
the sun-scorched sand, and from the myriads of pestiferous insects
that infested the country; but Napoleon cheered them on. "Soldiers!"
he cried, when they complained, "if this were a summer resort, and
you were paying five dollars a day for a room at a bad hotel, you'd
think yourselves in luck, and you'd recommend your friends to come
here for a rest. Why not imagine this to be the case now? Brace up.
We'll soon reach the pyramids, and it's a mighty poor pyramid that
hasn't a shady side. On to Cairo!"

"It's easy enough for you to talk," murmured one. "You've got a
camel to ride on and we have to walk."

"Well, Heaven knows," retorted Napoleon, pointing to his camel,
"camel riding isn't like falling off a log. At first I was carried
away with it, but for the last two days it has made me so sea-sick I
can hardly see that hump."

After this there was no more murmuring, but Bonaparte did not for an
instant relax his good-humor.

"The water is vile," said Dessaix, one morning.

"Why not drink milk, then?" asked the commander.