We felt ourselves the associates of an all-powerful destiny, wrote
Marmont, concerning the voyage from Egypt. Bonaparte himself was the
author of this sentiment, which for long was to be the controlling
thought of millions. The Orient had quickened in him a latent
conviction as to the value of a destiny and a star. When, in
threatening crises, others forgot it, the great adventurer reminded
them of it, meaning thereby his own clear vision, unclouded by
adversity, penetrating in the confusion of circumstances. In no sense
was he an Oriental fatalist; on the contrary, his destiny was the
power to discern and to dare which resided in himself. It was his
presence in France which was to dispel doubts, restore confidence,
control events. "My presence," he had said on shipboard, "by raising
their spirits will restore to the army its lacking self-reliance, and
to good citizens the hope of a better future. There will be a movement
of opinion to the benefit of France. We must struggle to arrive, and
we shall arrive." To Kléber, the ablest of his generals, he had left
the command and with it a masterly set of directions for the guidance
of affairs. He could not be charged with failure, for the end was not
yet; disaster could not be retrieved in Egypt: he had hastened to the
scene where alone succor could be found, and he had arrived with a
heart ready for the decision, under conditions the most favorable,
with a definite goal and a clear, simple plan for its attainment. To
outsiders and to posterity the result has appeared a happy chance. It
was not so, though unforeseen circumstances contributed. It was a
foregone conclusion.
CHAPTER X[12]
[Footnote 12: The references for Chapters X and XI are as
before, with these additions: the memoirs of Hyde de
Neuville, Duport de Cheverny, Thiébault, Marmont (duc de
Raguse), Sarrazin, Mathieu Dumas, Barras, Allonville, Gaudin
(duc de Gaëte), and Pasquier; the Mémorial de Norvins,
Cahiers du Capitaine Coignet, the Souvenirs of Macdonald, the
Commentaries of Napoleon, the letters of Mme. de Reinhard,
and the correspondence of Fiévée. Likewise, Lescure: Mémoires
sur les journées révolutionnaires et les coups d'état de
1789-1799. Lucien Bonaparte: Révolution de Brumaire. Madelin:
Fouché. Aulard: Le lendemain du 18 Brumaire and Délibérations
du Consulat provisoire. Béranger: Ma Biographie. Guillois: Le
Salon de Mme. Helvetius. Montier: Robert Lindet. Vatout: Le
Palais de Saint Cloud. Stourm: Les finances du Consulat.]
BONAPARTE SEIZES HIS OPPORTUNITY