Napoleon in Egypt (72 page)

5. Vertray,
Journal d’un officier de l’armée d’Égypte
, p. 29.
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6. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 243.
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7. Denon,
Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte
, Vol. 1, p. 7.
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8. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 242.
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9. Ibid., p. 130.
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10. Ibid., pp. 244–5.
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11. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 120.
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12. Nelson,
Letters and Despatches
, p. 136.
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13. Ibid., p. 138.
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14. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 3, p. 459.
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15. Nelson,
Letters and Despatches
, p. 143.
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16. Pretyman MSS T 108/44, Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich.
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17. Cited in Christopher Hibbert,
Nelson
(London, 1994), p. 138.
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Chapter V: “A conquest which will change the world”

1. The source for these words is Turc,
Chronique d’Égypte 1798–1804
, p 8. Nicolas El-Turki (often known as Nicholas the Turk) was in fact a Druze poet, descended from Constantinople Greeks, who was living in Egypt at the time. His
Chronique
allows us to see Napoleon’s invasion from a reasonably unpartisan local standpoint; Turc was neither an Arab nor a Muslim. When he himself is not present at the events he describes, he draws on local eyewitness reports, which although not always entirely reliable in the factual sense do tend to convey an authentic flavor of events seen from the Egyptian side.
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2. Denon,
Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte
, Vol. 1, p. 24.
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3. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 250.
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4. Several sources mention this incident, and Napoleon’s reaction, which would appear to be confirmed by the recorded arrival of
La Justice
off Alexandria on July 1. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 251, alludes to the story, though he casts doubt on its veracity; this implies that
La Justice
might have been sighted later,
after
Napoleon boarded the Maltese galley, when Bourrienne would not have been present.
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5. Vertray,
Journal d’un officier de l’armée d’Égypte
, p. 31.
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6. Herold,
Bonaparte in Egypt
, p. 61.
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7. Napoleon,
Correspondance,
Vol. 29, p. 432.
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8. Ibid., p. 433.
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9. Ibid.
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10. Vertray,
Journal d’un officier de l’armée d’Égypte
, p. 28.
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11. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 29, p. 433.
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12. Turc,
Chronique d’Égypte 1798–1804
, p. 9.
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13. Ibid.
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14. Marmont, Duc de Raguse,
Mémoires
(9 vols., published posthumously, Paris, 1857), Vol. 1, p. 367.
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15. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 190.
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16. Turc,
Chronique d’Égypte 1798–1804
, p. 24.
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17. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 29, p. 432.
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18. El-Djabarti,
Merveilles biographiques et historiques, ou Chroniques
, Vol. 6, p. 7. Being both an educated Egyptian and a senior Muslim, El-Djabarti had a profound understanding of the Muslim reaction to the French invasion. He also had access to the workings of government. His views on the invasion are naturally trenchant, yet they are also often highly perceptive. Like Nicolas Turc, his descriptions of events are not always strictly accurate in a factual sense, but there is no doubting the accuracy of his description of Egyptian reactions to such events.
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19. Desvernois,
Mémoires
, p. 100.
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20. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 216.
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21. Marmont, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 366.
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22. Thurman,
Bonaparte en Égypte: souvenirs
, p. 27.
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23. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 29, p. 434. As has been pointed out to me by Jon Latimer in his Internet review of
Napoleon in Egypt,
the “rifles” referred to in this instance, and indeed throughout the book, would in fact have been muskets. Napoleon, and almost all the firsthand sources I have referred to in this work, called the firearm used by the French soldiers (and their enemies)
fusil,
which translates as “rifle”—whereas the French for musket is
mousquet.
There is no doubt that Jon Latimer is technically correct on this point: rifles as we know them did not come into widespread military use until after the Egyptian expedition. However, in keeping with the usage by firsthand sources I have retained the word
rifle
throughout.
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24. Ibid.
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25. Ibid.
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26. Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 218.
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27. Ibid., p. 182.
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28. Ibid.
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29. Ibid.
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30. Ibid., p. 184.
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31.
Correspondance de l’armée française en Égypte
, p. 29. Remarkably, this is a French reprint of a work originally published in English and French in London earlier in the same year, under the self-explanatory title
Copies of Original Letters from the Army of General Buonaparte
[
sic
]
in Egypt, Intercepted by the Fleet under the Command of Admiral Lord Nelson
, which proved so popular that it went through three editions within eighteen months of its first publication.
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32. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 189.
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33.
Correspondance de l’armée française en Égypte
, p. 25.
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34. Millet,
Souvenirs de la campagne d’Égypte
.
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35. Vertray,
Journal d’un officier de l’armée d’Égypte
, p. 32.
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36. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 195.
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37. There are several extant versions of this proclamation, including the official French version in Napoleon’s
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, pp. 191–2, and a slightly different French version which he gives in his memoirs of the Egyptian campaign in Vol. 29 of the
Correspondance
. The Arabic version mentioned by El-Djabarti and Nicolas Turc differed from these, as did the English version printed in the intercepted letters. I have given a shortened conflated variant which mentions the salient points and tends towards the Arabic version, this being the one which actually circulated. However, all the different versions had their own
raison d’être
: for example, the official French version intended for the eyes of the Directory referred to the French as “true friends of the Muslims,” whereas the Arabic version claimed “the French are true Muslims.”
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38. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, pp. 191–2; Turc,
Chronique d’Égypte 1798–1804
, pp. 10–12.
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39. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 29, p. 435.
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40. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 254.
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41. Charles-Roux,
Bonaparte gouverneur d’Égypte
, pp. 130–1.
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42. Denon,
Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte,
Vol. 1, p. 28.
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43. Ibid., p. 29.
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44. Ibid., p. 36.
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45. For full details of just one day’s directives, see Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 196.
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46. Ibid., pp. 224–5.
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Chapter VI: The March on Cairo

1. Napoleon,
Correspondance
, Vol. 4, p. 193.
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2. Napoleon,
Correspondance inédite, officielle et confidentielle: Égypte
, Vol.1, pp. 102–3.
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3. This scene is recounted in Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 253.
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4. Millet,
Souvenirs de la campagne d’Égypte
, p. 48.
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5. De La Jonquière,
L’Expedition en Égypte 1798–1801
, Vol. 2, p. 135.
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6. Ibid., p. 131.
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7. Thurman,
Bonaparte en Égypte: Souvenirs,
p. 89.
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8. Marmont, Duc de Raguse,
Mémoires
(9 Vols., published posthumously, Paris, 1857), Vol. 1, pp. 372–3.
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9. Denon,
Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte
, Vol. 1, p. 37.
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10. Ibid.
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11. Desvernois,
Mémoires
, p. 102.
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12. Denon,
Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte
, Vol. 1, p. 38.
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13. Ibid. A strikingly similar encounter is described in Savary,
Mémoires
, pp.42–3, and it appears that this was a previous encounter with the same woman.
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14. Bourrienne,
Mémoires
, Vol. 1–2, p. 257.
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15. Bernoyer,
Avec Bonaparte en Égypte
, pp. 51–2.
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