This charge against Napoleon, of running away with the treasure-chests, is, like almost all the others, of French origin. Hear what Madame Junot says, as it shows the feeling of the French army on this point, that some one had taken them (for Napoleon’s benefit): ‘A report was circulated in the army that Junot was carrying away the treasures found in the pyramids by the General in Chief. He could not carry them away himself’ (such was the language held to the soldiers), ‘and so the man who possesses all his confidence is now taking them to him.’ The matter was carried so far that several subalterns, and soldiers, proceeded to the shore, and some of them went on board the merchantman which was to sail with Junot the same evening. They rummaged about, but found nothing; at length they came to a prodigious chest, which ten men could not move, between decks, “Here is the treasure!” cried the soldiers; “here is our pay that has been kept from us above a year; where is the key?” Junot’s valet, an honest German, shouted to them in vain, with all his might, that the chest did not belong to his chenerâl. They would not listen to him. ‘Unluckily, Junot, who was not to embark till evening, was not then on board. The mutineers seized a hatchet, and began to cut away at the chest, which they would soon have broken up, had not the ship’s carpenter come running out of breath. “What the devil are you at?” cried he, “mad fellows that you are: stop! don’t destroy my chest--here’s the key.” He opened it immediately, and lo!--the tools of the master carpenter.’ Barre, of course, alludes to this alleged robbery, and Combe writes of his desertion of his troops as follows:-- Aboukir castle having won, Our hero thought it best to run. The bravest man will run away, When it is dangerous to stay; But, as he to his troops declared, By him all dangers should be shared, And that on no account he’d leave them, ’Twas proper he should now deceive them. The cunning he display’d in fight, He manifested in his flight. On some pretence, it seems, he wrote To certain generals a note, Acquainting them with what he wanted, The time and place, too, he appointed. These generals, so well they fared, The _fame_ of his desertion shared. When to th’ appointed place they got, Nap was already on the spot; And, what of all things made them glad, The military chest he had! He left his army,--but we find He left these words for them behind: ‘This parting grieves me sore, altho’ meant To be for only a short moment.’ [Illustration: BUONAPARTE LEAVING EGYPT. For an Illustration of the above see the intercepted Letters from the Republican General Kleber to the French Directory respecting the Courage, Honor, and Patriotism of ----, the Deserter of the Army of Egypt. ]