Here, in the midst
of a terrible storm and surf, Napoleon landed his forces, and
immediately made a proclamation to the people.
"Fellahs!" he cried, "I have come. The newspapers say to destroy
your religion. As usual, they prevaricate. I have come to free you.
All you who have yokes to shed prepare to shed them now. I come with
the olive-branch in my hand. Greet me with outstretched palms. Do
not fight me for I am come to save you, and I shall utterly
obliterate any man, be he fellah, Moujik, or even the great Marmalade
himself, who prefers fighting to being saved. We may not look it,
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.
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