Napoleon in Egypt (71 page)

Napoleon may have put his Egyptian love out of his mind, but he never forgot his dream of an Oriental empire. Indeed, this persistent fantasy was even to play a role in his downfall. Having become emperor of France and ruler of much of mainland Europe from Spain to Poland, he wrote in 1808 to Tsar Alexander of Russia, proposing that they unite their armies and launch an overland attack on India. Napoleon had already written to the Shah of Persia, seeking his cooperation in such an enterprise. This plan would come to nothing, but it would not be forgotten. When Napoleon launched his invasion of Russia in 1812, many in his 600,000-strong Grand Army were convinced that Russia was not his ultimate aim. In the words of one officer: “Some said that Napoleon had made a secret alliance with Alexander, and that a combined Franco-Russian army was going to march against Turkey and take hold of its possessions in Europe and Asia; others said that the war would take us to the Great Indies, to chase out the English.”
⁴
Such stories were current amongst all ranks: a fusilier wrote home that he was on his way to “the Great Indies” or perhaps to “Egippe.”
⁵

The echoes of Napoleon’s Oriental dream would continue to haunt him to the end. After his defeat at Waterloo by Wellington, the man who had defeated Tippoo Sahib in India, Napoleon would be carried into exile aboard the
Bellerophon
, which had been part of Nelson’s victorious fleet at the Battle of the Nile. As he sailed from France for the last time, Napoleon remarked to her captain: “But for you English, I would have been Emperor of the East.”
⁶

Notes

There is a vast literature on every aspect and period of Napoleon’s life. In general, I have indicated only the firsthand or contemporary historical sources I have used when describing actual events.

Prologue: The Song of Departure

1.                  Different sources give Napoleon’s height as anything between five foot two and five foot eight. At this time, the average height of a Frenchman was five foot six; many contemporaries made reference to Napoleon’s short stature and several were unsympathetic towards him, such as his second-in-command on the Egyptian expedition, General Kléber, who used to refer to him privately as “that Corsican runt.” I have favored this lower figure for Napoleon’s height as it seems more likely given these circumstances.
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2. Translated from a songsheet in
Le Départ du trompette de cuirassiers
.
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3. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 223. As many have noted, Napoleon’s old schoolfriend and loyal secretary could be unreliable on details of fact, date and opinion; this is because these memoirs were at least in part written up by Maxime de Villemarest from scraps of notes. However, it is known that Bourrienne himself certainly wrote the first two volumes (those that cover the Egyptian campaign), which suffered only minor “editing”; here his memory of Napoleon’s conversations, and the circumstances in which he held them, can often be vivid and revealing. I have tried to draw on Bourrienne’s extensive
Mémoires
when the tenor and accuracy of his observations appear to be confirmed by other sources.
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4. Arago,
Éloge de Monge
, delivered at the Académie des Sciences, May 1848. See Arago,
Biographie de Gaspard Monge
, p. 157; cited in Bell,
Men of Mathematics
, p. 223.
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5. The following descriptive elements, as well as the debates and details of Caffarelli’s speech, are assembled from several eyewitness accounts of these discussions, most notably by the savant Antoine-Vincent Arnault in his
Souvenirs d’un sexagenaire
(Paris, 1833), Livre XIV, Ch. II, pp. 633–7; and by Bourrienne in his
Mémoires
, Vol. 2, pp. 231–2. There is also a suitably heroic painting by Charles Lucy, which draws on eyewitness reports and is reproduced in Aubry,
Monge
, opposite p. 234.

6. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, pp. 191–2.
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7. De Rémusat,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1, p. 274.
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Chapter I: The Origins of the Egyptian Campaign

1. Herodotus,
Histories
, Book 2, p. 97.
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2. See Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 8, p. 438.
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3. François de Tott,
Mémoires sur les Turcs et les Tartares
(Maestricht, 1785), Part 4, pp. 11–12.
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4. Details of this training regimen and various other facts concerning Volney’s life appear in the opening pages of his
Oeuvres Complètes
under “Notice sur la vie . . .”
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5. Ibid., Ch. 8, p. 157.
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6. Ibid., Ch. 13, p. 169.
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7. Cited in Charles-Roux,
Les Origines de l’Expédition d’Égypte
, p. 54.
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8. For this and the preceding information see Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, lettres de consul Mure, 1776–7.
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9. In keeping with the Revolution’s aim to start afresh, France adopted a republican calendar in 1793. This began An I (Year One) on September 22, 1792, the day following the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Republic. The new calendar attempted to “rationalize” the year, abolishing Christian and historical names. The year consisted of twelve months, each with thirty days; and instead of weeks, each month was divided into three “decades” (each lasting ten days). At the end of every year, five days (six in leap years) were added, to bring the new calendar into accord with the solar year. The months were evocatively named after the changing year: Vendémiaire (Vintage: Sept. 22–Oct. 21); Brumaire (Fog: Oct. 22–Nov. 20); Frimaire (Frost: Nov. 21–Dec. 20); Nivôse (Snow: Dec. 21–Jan. 19); Pluvôise (Rain: Jan 20–Feb. 18); Ventôse (Wind: Feb. 19–Mar. 20); Germinal (Blossom: Mar. 21–Apr. 19); Floréal (Flowers: Apr. 20–May 19); Prairial (Meadows: May 20–June 18); Messidor (Harvest: June 19–July 18); Thermidor (Heat: July 19–Aug. 17); Fructidor (Fruit: Aug. 18–Sept. 16).
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Instead of saints’ days, each day of the year was named after a seed, tree, flower, fruit, animal or tool. The five (or six) extra days were called “Sansculottides,” in honor of the sans-culottes, the name given to the revolutionaries, who wore trousers instead of the more aristocratic knee-breeches (culottes). This would be the official calendar in use throughout Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt.

10. Talleyrand,
Essai sur les avantages à retirer des colonies nouvelles dans les circonstances présentes: lu à la séance publique
[
de l’Institut
]
du 15 messidor an V
(Paris, 1797).
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11. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 3, p. 294.
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Chapter II: “The Liberator of Italy”

1. De Rémusat,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1, p. 267.
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2. Volney,
Oeuvres Complètes
, “Notice sur la vie . . . ,” p. 5.
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3. Letter to his brother Joseph dated June 20, 1792, cited in Malraux,
Vie de Napoleon par lui-même
, p. 12.
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4. Letter dated December 24, 1793; see Barrow,
The Life and Correspondence of Sir Sidney Smith
, Vol. 1, p. 153.
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5. This quote appears in many of the biographies; e.g., McLynn,
Napoleon
, p. 74; Cronin,
Napoleon
, p. 75.
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6. Doppet,
Mémoires politiques et militaires
, Book III, Ch. IV, Section 102, pp. 180–1.
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7. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 29, p. 84.
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8. Throughout his life Napoleon frequently expressed variations on such sentiments to his confidants, especially Bourrienne; cf. this remark in September 1797: “Great events hang by a thread. The able man turns everything to profit, neglects nothing that may give him one chance more; the man of lesser ability, by overlooking just one thing, spoils the whole,” cited in
Words of Napoleon
, ed. R. M. Johnston (London, 2002), p. 63.
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9. This and the following quotes from Napoleon’s letters to Josephine are from
Napoleon Lettres D’Amour à Josephine, présentées par Jean Tulard
(Paris, 1981); “the last two words were underlined . . .” cited in Christopher Hibbert,
Napoleon and His Women
(London, 2002), p. 49.
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10. Gourgaud,
Journal de Sainte-Hélène 1815–1818
, Vol. 2, Ch. 10, p. 92.
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11. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 3, p. 235.
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12. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 226.
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13. There are many references to this scene in contemporary sources. Those by two of the directors who were present are generally thought to be amongst the more reliable, despite their evident wish to justify themselves. These two sources are Barras,
Mémoires
, and the unpublished papers of Reubell, which came into the possession of Bernard Nabonne and were used by him in
La Diplomatie du Directoire et Bonaparte
(Paris, 1951).
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14. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 234.
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15. Ibid., p. 223.
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Chapter III: The Cream of France

1. March 30, 1821; cited in
Words of Napoleon
, ed. R. M. Johnston (London, 2002), p. 344.
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2. See Kléber’s unpublished pocketbook, which is in the
Archives historiques du ministère de la Guerre: Correspondance de l’armée d’Égypte: Mémoires historiques,
in Paris. This pocketbook contains jottings on Napoleon and the Egyptian campaign, some said to have been written down during staff meetings presided over by Napoleon.
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3.
The Times
, London, April 25, 1798.
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4. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 231.
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5. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 63.
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6. Private correspondence between Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Admiral St. Vincent, dated May 2, 1798.
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7. Nelson,
Letters and Despatches
, p. 132.
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8. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 96.
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9. Nelson,
Letters and Despatches
, p. 133.
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Chapter IV: Outward Bound

1. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 114.
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2. Doublet,
Mémoires Historiques sur l’invasion et l’occupation de Malte en 1798
, p. 150.
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3. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 241.
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4. Desvernois,
Mémoires
, p. 97.
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