found his authority invalidated by the very precautions which Sultan Selim had formerly taken to preserve it. That sultan, judging that Egypt was likely from its remoteness to throw off the dominion of Constantinople, and that a clever and ambitious pasha might create there an independent empire, had, as we have seen, devised a plan to frustrate such a motive, should it exist, by instituting a Mamluk soldiery; but it was the Mamluks, and not the pasha, who rendered themselves independent of Constantinople and the masters of Egypt. Egypt was at this time an absolute feudality, like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. It exhibited at once a conquered people, a conquering soldiery in rebellion against its sovereign, and, lastly, an ancient degenerate class, who served and were in the pay of the strongest. Two beys, superior to the rest, ruled Egypt: the one, Ibrahim Bey, wealthy, crafty, and powerful; the other, Murad Bey, intrepid, valiant, and full of ardour. They had agreed upon a sort of division of authority, by which Ibrahim Bey had the civil, and Murad Bey the military, power. It was the business of the latter to fight; he excelled in it, and he possessed the affection of the Mam-luks, who were all eager to follow him. Bonaparte immediately perceived the line of policy which he had to pursue in Egypt. He must, in the first place, wrest that country from its real masters, the Mam-luks; it was necessary for him to fight them, and to destroy them by arms and by policy. He had, moreover, strong reasons to urge against them; for they had never ceased to ill-treat the French. As for the Porte, it was requisite that he should not appear to attack its sovereignty, but affect, on the contrary, to respect it. In the state to which it was reduced, that sovereignty was not to be dreaded, and he could treat with the Porte, either for the cession of Egypt, by granting certain advantages elsewhere, or for a partition of authority, in which there would be nothing detrimental; for the French, in leaving the pasha at Cairo, and transferring to themselves the power of the Mamluks, would not occasion much regret. As for the inhabitants, in order to make sure of their attachment, it would be requisite to win over the Arab population. By respecting the sheikhs, by flattering their old pride, by increasing their power, by encouraging their secret desire for the re-establishment of their ancient glories, Bonaparte reckoned upon ruling the land, and attaching it entirely to him. By afterwards sparing persons and property, among a people accustomed to consider conquest as conferring a right to murder, pillage, and devastate, he would create a sentiment that would be most advantageous to the French army. If, furthermore, the French were to respect women and the Prophet, the conquest of hearts would be as firmly secured as that of the soil.