“’My friends, for the time being they are giving us Egypt to stop our mouths.  But we will swallow down Egypt in a brace of shakes, just as we swallowed Italy, and private soldiers shall be princes, and shall have broad lands of their own.  Forward!’

“‘Forward, lads!’ cry the sergeants.

“So we come to Toulon on the way to Egypt.  Whereupon the English put to sea with all their fleet.  But when we are on board, Napoleon says to us: 

“’They will not see us:  and it is right and proper that you should know henceforward that your general has a star in the sky that guides us and watches over us!’

“So said, so done.  As we sailed over the sea we took Malta, by way of an orange to quench his thirst for victory, for he was a man who must always be doing something.  There we are in Egypt.  Well and good.  Different orders.  The Egyptians, look you, are men who, ever since the world has been the world, have been in the habit of having giants to reign over them, and armies like swarms of ants; because it is a country full of genii and crocodiles, where they have built up pyramids as big as our mountains, the fancy took them to stow their kings under the pyramids, so as to keep them fresh, a thing which mightily pleases them all round out there.  Whereupon, as we landed, the Little Corporal said to us: 

“’My children, the country which you are about to conquer worships a lot of idols which you must respect, because the Frenchman ought to be on good terms with all the world, and fight people without giving annoyance.  Get it well into your heads to let everything alone at first; for we shall have it all by and by! and forward!’

“So far so good.  But all those people had heard a prophecy of Napoleon, under the name of Kebir Bonaberdis; a word which in our lingo means, ‘The Sultan fires a shot,’ and they feared him like the devil.  So the Grand Turk, Asia, and Africa have recourse to magic, and they send a demon against us, named the Mahdi, who it was thought had come down from heaven on a white charger which, like its master was bullet-proof, and the pair of them lived on the air of that part of the world.  There are people who have seen them, but for my part I cannot give you any certain informations about them.  They were the divinities of Arabia and of the Mamelukes who wished their troopers to believe that the Mahdi had the power of preventing them from dying in battle.  They gave out that he was an angel sent down to wage war on Napoleon, and to get back Solomon’s seal, part of their paraphernalia which they pretended our general had stolen.  You will readily understand that we made them cry peccavi all the same.

“Ah, just tell me now how they came to know about that compact of Napoleon’s?  Was that natural?