He spent the first day in reviewing his forces. The second day he gave orders to Admiral Brueys to take the fleet into the old port of Alexandria or to lead it to Corfu. On the third day he made his proclamation to the inhabitants, and ordered Desaix to march upon Cairo. The fourth, he had the names of the men who had been killed outside Alexandria carved on Pompey's pillar, and had their bodies buried at the foot of that monument. On the fifth day General Dugua seized Aboukir. On the sixth, Rosetta was taken, and whilst the flotilla was being mobilised, the army prepared to march on Cairo. On the seventh day he made Kléber commandant of Alexandria, assuring the Porte that he desired to keep on good terms with it, and then he left for Cairo himself. Desaix was the first to set out, and the first to be seized with despondency. I will quote from Desaix's own words (for his devotion to Bonaparte was beyond dispute). On the 15th July, Desaix wrote thus to Bonaparte from Bakahireh:-- "For pity's sake don't leave us in this place! The troops are dejected and grumbling; let us either advance or retire as soon as possible. The villages are mere huts, and utterly devoid of provisions." The army received four days' rations on starting; unluckily, and most unwisely, they had also been allowed four days' supply of rum. The consequence of this addition of liquid to solid provisions was that, during the first hours of the march through the desert that separates Alexandria from Damanhour, the soldiers, parched with thirst, but not yet hungry, attacked the rum, and went so frequently to the canteen where it was kept, that, before half the march was over, the canteen was empty and the men were drunk. Then the soldiers, imagining with the happy optimism of drunkenness that they would never feel the pangs of hunger, began to lighten their knapsacks by scattering abroad their rice and throwing away their biscuits. When their commanding officers found out what was going on, they gave orders for a halt. Now a halt of two hours gave time enough for the first effects of the alcohol to pass off, and they resumed the march, already regretting their indiscreet conduct. Towards five in the morning, the hunger they fancied they had staved off began to attack them cruelly. They could scarcely manage to drag themselves as far as Damanhour, which was reached on the 9th at eight in the morning. They had some hopes of finding food in that town, but it had been completely evacuated. They ransacked every house, and, as the harvest was just over, they found a morsel of threshed wheat; but the hand-mills wherewith the Arabs ground their corn were broken, having been purposely put out of gear. They managed to put several in order, and succeeded in procuring a small quantity of flour, but if distributed it would not have amounted to above half an ounce per man.