“General Bonaparte,” said the ‘Moniteur’, “has departed for Dunkirk with some naval and engineer officers.  They have gone to visit the coasts and prepare the preliminary operations for the descent [upon England].  It may be stated that he will not return to Rastadt, and that the close of the session of the Congress there is approaching.”

Now for the facts.  Bonaparte visited Etaples, Ambleteuse, Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk, Furnes, Niewport, Ostend, and the Isle of Walcheren.  He collected at the different ports all the necessary information with that intelligence and tact for which he was so eminently distinguished.  He questioned the sailors, smugglers, and fishermen, and listened attentively to the answers he received.

We returned to Paris by Antwerp, Brussels, Lille, and St. Quentin.  The object of our journey was accomplished when we reached the first of these towns.  “Well, General,” said I, “what think you of our journey?  Are you satisfied?  For my part, I confess I entertain no great hopes from anything I have seen and heard.”  Bonaparte immediately answered, “It is too great a chance.  I will not hazard it.  I would not thus sport with the fate of my beloved France.”  On hearing this I already fancied myself in Cairo!

On his return to Paris Bonaparte lost no time in setting on foot the military and scientific preparations for the projected expedition to the banks of the Nile, respecting which such incorrect statements have appeared.  It had long occupied his thoughts, as the following facts will prove.

In the month of August 1797 he wrote “that the time was not far distant when we should see that, to destroy the power of England effectually, it would be necessary to attack Egypt.”  In the same month he wrote to Talleyrand, who had just succeeded Charles de Lacroix as Minister of Foreign Affairs, “that it would be necessary to attack Egypt, which did not belong to the Grand Signior.”  Talleyrand replied, “that his ideas respecting Egypt were certainly grand, and that their utility could not fail to be fully appreciated.”  He concluded by saying he would write to him at length on the subject.

History will speak as favourably of M. de Talleyrand as his contemporaries have spoken ill of him.  When a statesman, throughout a great, long, and difficult career, makes and preserves a number of faithful friends, and provokes but few enemies, it must be acknowledged that his character is honourable and his talent profound, and that his political conduct has been wise and moderate.  It is impossible to know M. de Talleyrand without admiring him.  All who have that advantage, no doubt, judge him as I do.

In the month of November of the same year Bonaparte sent Poussielgue, under the pretence of inspecting the ports of the Levant, to give the finishing stroke to the meditated expedition against Malta.

General Desaix, whom Bonaparte had made the confidant of all his plans at their interview in Italy after the preliminaries of Leoben, wrote to him from Affenbourg, on his return to Germany, that he regarded the fleet of Corfu with great interest.  “If ever,” said he, “it should be engaged in the grand enterprises of which I have heard you speak, do not, I beseech you, forget me.”  Bonaparte was far from forgetting him.