"Milk! I'd love to," returned Dessaix; "but where shall I find
milk?"

"At the dairy," said Napoleon, with a twinkle in his eye.

"What dairy?" asked Dessaix, not observing the twinkle.

"The dromedary," said Napoleon, with a roar.

Little incidents like this served to keep the army in good spirits
until the 21st of July, when they came in sight of the pyramids.
Instantly Napoleon called a halt, and the army rested. The next day,
drawing them up in line, the General addressed them. "Soldiers!" he
cried, pointing to the pyramids, "from the summits of those pyramids
forty centuries look down upon you. You can't see them, but they are
there. No one should look down upon the French, not even a century.
Therefore, I ask you, shall we allow the forces of the Bey, his
fellahs and his Tommylukes, to drive us into the desert of Sahara,
bag and baggage, to subsist on a sea-less seashore for the balance of
our days, particularly when they haven't any wheels on their cannon?"

"No, no!" cried the army.

"Then up sail and away!" cried Bonaparte. "This is to be no naval
affair, but the army of the Bey awaits us."

"Tell the band to play a Wagner march," he whispered, hastily, to his
aide-de-camp. "It'll make the army mad, and what we need now is
wrath."