He left me at headquarters with only one sentinel; but he had been accurately informed of the situation of the insurgents; and such was my confidence in his activity and foresight that I had no apprehension, and awaited his return with perfect composure.  This composure was not disturbed even when I saw a party of insurgents attack the house of M. Esteve, our paymaster-general, which was situated on the opposite side of Ezbekye’h Place.  M. Esteve was, fortunately, able to resist the attack until troops from Boulac came up to his assistance.

After visiting all the posts, and adopting every precautionary measure, Bonaparte returned to headquarters.  Finding me still alone with the sentinel, he asked me, smiling, “whether I had not been frightened?”—­ “Not at all, General, I assure you,” replied I.

—­It was about half-past eight in the morning when Bonaparte returned to headquarters, and while at breakfast he was informed that some Bedouin Arabs, on horseback, were trying to force their entrance into Cairo.  He ordered his aide de camp, Sulkowsky, to mount his horse, to take with him fifteen guides, and proceed to the point where the assailants were most numerous.  This was the Bab-el-Nasser, or the gate of victory.  Croisier observed to the General-in-Chief that Sulkowsky had scarcely recovered from the wounds at Salehye’h, and he offered to take his place.  He had his motives for this.  Bonaparte consented; but Sulkowsky had already set out.  Within an hour after, one of the fifteen guides returned, covered with blood, to announce that Sulkowsky and the remainder of his party had been cut to pieces.  This was speedy work, for we were still at table when the sad news arrived.

Mortars were planted on Mount Mokatam, which commands Cairo.  The populace, expelled from all the principal streets by the troops, assembled in the square of the Great Mosque, and in the little streets running into it, which they barricaded.  The firing of the artillery on the heights was kept up with vigour for two days.

About twelve of the principal chiefs of Cairo were arrested and confined in an apartment at headquarters.  They awaited with the calmest resignation the death they knew they merited; but Bonaparte merely detained them as hostages.  The aga in the service of Bonaparte was astonished that sentence of death was not pronounced upon them; and he said, shrugging his shoulders, and with a gesture apparently intended to provoke severity, “You see they expect it.”

On the third the insurrection was at an end, and tranquillity restored.  Numerous prisoners were conducted to the citadel.  In obedience to an order which I wrote every evening, twelve were put to death nightly.  The bodies were then put into sacks and thrown into the Nile.  There were many women included in these nocturnal executions.

I am not aware that the number of victims amounted to thirty per day, as Bonaparte assured General Reynier in a letter which he wrote to him six days after the restoration of tranquillity.  “Every night,” said he, “we cut off thirty heads.  This, I hope, will be an effectual example.”  I am of opinion that in this instance he exaggerated the extent of his just revenge.