"I send you the proclamation to the inhabitants of the country. It has produced an effect altogether astonishing. The Bedouins, enemies of the Mameloucs, and who, properly speaking, are neither more nor less than intrepid robbers, sent us back, as soon as they had read it, thirty of our people whom they had made prisoners, with an offer of their services against the Mameloucs."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE; _Intercepted Correspondence_, part i., p. 7 [377] "It would be difficult to describe the disgust, the discontent, the melancholy, the despair of the army, on its first arrival in Egypt: Napoleon himself saw two dragoons throw themselves into the Nile.--One day, losing his temper, he rushed among a group of discontented generals, and addressing himself to the tallest, 'You have held mutinous language,' said he, with vehemence; 'it is not your being six feet high that should save you from being shot in a couple of hours.'"--LAS CASES, tom. i., p. 206. [378] Jomini, tom. x., p. 407. [379] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 210. [380] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 243. [381] "Pour toute harangue, Buonaparte leur addresse ces mots, qu'on peut regarder comme le sublime de l'éloquence militaire.--'Soldats! vous allez combattre aujourdhui les dominateurs de l'Egypte; songez que du haut de ces Pyramides, quarante siècles vous contemplent!'"--LACRETELLE, tom. xiv., p. 267. [382] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 245; Miot, p. 50; Jomini, tom. x., p. 408; Thibaudeau, tom. iv., p. 184; Larrey, p. 13. [383] "About nine in the evening, Napoleon entered the country house of Murad Bey at Gizeh. Such habitations bear no resemblance to our _chateaux_. We found it difficult to make it serve for our lodging, and to understand the distribution of the different apartments. But what struck the officers, was a great quantity of cushions and divans covered with the finest damasks and silks of Lyons, and ornamented with gold fringe. The gardens were full of magnificent trees, but without alleys. What most delighted the soldiers (for every one came to see the place,) were great arbours of vines covered with the finest grapes in the world. The vintage was soon over."--NAPOLEON, _Gourgaud_, tom. ii., p. 249. [384] Buonaparte made his entry into Cairo on the 26th of July. On the 22d, he issued from Gizeh the following proclamation:-- "People of Cairo! I am satisfied with your conduct. You have done right not to take any part against me: I am come to destroy the race of the Mamelukes, and to protect the trade and the natives of the country. Let all those who are under any fear be composed; and let those who have quitted their houses return to them. Let prayers be offered up to-day, as usual, for I wish that they may be always continued. Entertain no fear for your families, your houses, your property, and, above all, the religion of your Prophet, whom I love." CHAPTER XIII.