added three thousand sea-lubbers to my force, for that number of
French sailors managed to swim ashore during the fight. I manned the
camels with them immediately, but it took them months to get their
land legs on, and the amount of grog they demanded would have made a
quick-sand of the Desert of Sahara, all of which was embarrassing."

But Napoleon did not show his embarrassment to those about him. He
took upon himself the government of Egypt, opened canals, and
undertook to behave like a peaceable citizen for a while.

"I needed rest, and I got it," he said. "Sitting on the apex of the
pyramids, I could see the whole world at my feet, and whatever others
may say to the contrary, it was there that I began to get a clear
view of my future. It seemed to me that from that lofty altitude,
chumming, as I was, with the forty centuries I have already alluded
to, I could see two ways at once, that every glance could penetrate
eternity; but I realize now that what I really got was only a bird's-
eye view of the future. I didn't see that speck of a St. Helena. If
I had, in the height of my power I should have despatched an
expedition of sappers and miners to blow it up."

Quiescence might as well be expected of a volcano, however, as from a
man of Bonaparte's temperament, and it was not long before he was
again engaged in warfare, but not with his old success; and finally,
the plague having attacked his army, Bonaparte, too tender-hearted to
see it suffer, leaving opium for the sick and instructions for
Kleber, whom he appointed his successor, set sail for France once
more in September, 1799.

"Remember, Kleber, my boy," he said, in parting, "these Mussulmen are