"
The Directory were quite as glad to have Napoleon go to Egypt as he
was to be sent. Their jealousy of him was becoming more painful to
witness every day.
"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.
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