“that is not your place.”  I replied that Berthier told me that no assault would take place that day; and he believed there would be no sortie, as the garrison had made one the preceding evening.  “What matters that?  There might have been another.  Those who have nothing to do in such places are always the first victims.  Let every man mind his own business.  Wounded or killed, I would not even have noticed you in the bulletin.  You could have been laughed at, and that justly.”

Bonaparte; not having at this time experienced reverses, having continually proceeded from triumph to triumph, confidently anticipated the taking of St, Jean d’Acre.  In his letters to the generals in Egypt he fixed the 25th of April for the accomplishment of that event.  He reckoned that the grand assault against the tower could not be made before that day; it took place, however, twenty-four hours sooner.  He wrote to Desaix on the 19th of April, “I count on being master of Acre in six days.”  On the 2d of May he told Junot, “Our 18 and 24 pounders have arrived.  We hope to enter Acre in a few days.  The fire of their artillery is completely extinguished.”  Letters have been printed, dated 30th Floreal’ (19th.  May), in which he announces to, Dugua and to Poussielque that they can rely on his being in Acre on 6th Floreal (25th April).  Some mistake has evidently been made.  “The slightest circumstances produce the greatest events,” said Napoleon, according to the Memorial of St. Helena; “had St. Jean d’Acre fallen, I should have changed the face of the world.”  And again, “The fate of the East lay in that small town.”

This idea is not one which he first began to entertain at St. Helena; he often repeated the very same words at St. Jean d’Acre.  On the shore of Ptolemes gigantic projects agitated him, as, doubtless, regret for not having carried them into execution tormented him at St. Helena.

Almost every evening Bonaparte and myself used to walk together, at a little distance from the sea-shore.  The day after the unfortunate assault of the 8th of May Bonaparte, afflicted at seeing the blood of so many brave men uselessly shed, said to me, “Bourrienne, I see that this wretched place has cost me a number of men, and wasted much time.  But things are too far advanced not to attempt a last effort.  If I succeed, as I expect, I shall find in the town the pasha’s treasures, and arms for 300,000 men.  I will stir up and arm the people of Syria, who are disgusted at the ferocity of Djezzar, and who, as you know, pray for his destruction at every assault.  I shall then march upon Damascus and.  Aleppo.  On advancing into the country, the discontented will flock round my standard, and swell my army.  I will announce to the people the abolition of servitude and of the tyrannical governments of the pashas.  I shall arrive at Constantinople with large masses of soldiers.  I shall overturn the Turkish empire, and found in the East a new and grand empire, which