"Before I answer you, General, I must ask your motive for locking that door, and your object in according me the honour of this interview?" "For the purpose of telling you that I consider the highest and the lowest in my army are equal when it becomes a question of discipline; and that, if occasion warrants, I shall shoot a general as soon as a drummer-boy." "Possibly, General; but I think, nevertheless, there are several men whom you would think twice before shooting." "Not if they impeded my plans!" "Wait a bit, General; a moment ago you spoke of discipline, now it is yourself only of whom you are talking.... Very well, then I will give you an explanation.... It is true there was a gathering at Damanhour, and we generals, feeling discouraged after that first march, did question among ourselves the object of this expedition, thinking we detected personal ambition as that object rather than motives of public good; I said that, for the honour and glory of patriotism I would go all round the world, but if it were only just to satisfy your caprice, I would not go another step. What I said that evening I now repeat to your face, and if the sneak who reported my words to you said anything else than what I have told you he is worse even than a spy, he is a liar!" Bonaparte looked at my father for a moment, then, almost affectionately, he said: "And so, Dumas, you make a division in your mind: you place France on one side and me on the other. You think I separate her interests and fortunes from my own." "I think that the interests of France ought to come before those of an individual, no matter how great that man may be.... I do not think that the fortunes of any nation should be subordinated to those of an individual." "So you are ready to separate from me?" "Yes, so soon as I am convinced that you are separating yourself from France." "You are mistaken, Dumas," Bonaparte replied coldly. "Quite possibly," replied my father; "but I disapprove of dictatorships--whether those of Sulla or of Cæsar." "And you request--?" "Leave to return to France, the first opportunity that presents itself." "Very good. I promise you I will raise no difficulties in the way of your departure." "I thank you, General: it is the only favour I ask of you;" and, bowing, my father walked to the door, unbolted it and went out. As he withdrew, he thought he overheard Bonaparte muttering these words: "Blind fool! not to believe in my fortunes!" My father met Dermoncourt a quarter of an hour after, and related what had passed between Bonaparte and himself; and a score of times since has Dermoncourt repeated that conversation to me word for word--a conversation which had so momentous an influence on my father's and on my own future. On August 1st the battle of Aboukir was fought, and the French fleet was destroyed. That put a stop, for the time, to the question of my father's return or that of anybody else.