him that the pilgrims would be protected, and that the caravans would find safety and protection.  The pasha of Cairo had followed Ibraham Bey to Belbeys.  Bonaparte wrote to him, as well as to the several pashas of St. Jean d’Acre and Damascus, to assure them of the good disposition of the French towards the Sublime Porte.  The Arabs were struck by the character of the young conqueror.  They could not comprehend how it was that the mortal who wielded the thunderbolt should be so merciful.  They called him the worthy son of the Prophet, the favourite of the great Allah, and sang in the great mosque a litany in his praise.

Napoleon, in carrying out his policy of conciliating the natives, was present at the Nile festival, which is one of the greatest in Egypt.  It was on the 18th of August that this festival was held.  Bonaparte had ordered the whole army to be under arms, and had drawn it up on the banks of the canal.  An immense concourse of people had assembled, who beheld with joy the brave man of the West attending their festivals.

It was by such means that the young general, as profound a politician as he was a great captain, contrived to ingratiate himself with the people.  While he flattered their prejudices for the moment, he laboured to diffuse among them the light of science by the creation of the celebrated Institute of Egypt.  He collected the men of science and the artists whom he had brought with him, and, associating with them some of the best educated of his officers, established the institute, to which he appropriated a revenue and one of the most spacious palaces in Cairo.

The conquest of the provinces of Lower and Middle Egypt had been effected without difficulty, and had cost only a few skirmishes with the Arabs.  A forced march upon Belbeys had been sufficient to drive Ibrahim Bey into Syria, where Desaix awaited the autumn for wresting Upper Egypt from Murad Bey, who had retired thither with the wrecks of his army.

Fortune was, meanwhile, preparing for Bonaparte the most terrible of all reverses.  On leaving Alexandria, he had earnestly recommended to Admiral Brueys to secure his squadron from the English, either by taking it into the harbour of Alexandria, or by proceeding with it to Corfu; and he had particularly enjoined him not to leave it in the road of Abukir, for it was much better to fall in with an enemy when under sail than to receive him at anchor.  A warm discussion had arisen on the question whether the ships of 80 and 120 guns could be carried into the harbour of Alexandria.  As to the smaller ships, there was no doubt; but the larger would require lightening so much as to enable them to draw three feet less water.  For this purpose it would be necessary to take out their guns, or to construct floats.  On such conditions, Admiral Brueys resolved not to take his squadron into the harbour.  The time which he spent, either in sounding the channels to the harbour, or in waiting for news from Cairo, caused his own destruction.