“As the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness complained, and angrily asked Moses for the onions and flesh-pots of Egypt, the French soldiers constantly regretted the luxuries of Italy.  In vain were they assured that the country was the most fertile in the world, that it was even superior to Lombard; how were they to be persuaded of this when they could get neither bread nor wine?  We encamped on immense quantities of wheat, but there was neither mill nor oven in the country.  The biscuit brought from Alexandria had long been exhausted; the soldiers were even reduced to bruise the wheat between two stones and to make cake which they baked under the ashes.  Many parched the wheat in a pan, after which they boiled it.  This was the best way to use the grain; but, after all, it was not bread.  The apprehensions of the soldiers increased daily, and rose to such a pitch that a great number of them said there was no great city of calm; and that the place bring that name was, like Damanhour, a vast assemblage of mere huts, destitute of everything that could render life comfortable or agreeable.  To such a melancholy state of mind had they brought themselves that two dragoons threw themselves, completely clothed, into the Nile, where they were drowned.  It is nevertheless true that, though there was neither bread nor wine, the resources which were procured with wheat, lentils, meat, and sometimes pigeons, furnished the army with food of some kind.  But the evil was, in the ferment of the mind.  The officers complained more loudly than the soldiers, because the comparison was proportionately more disadvantageous to them.  In Egypt they found neither the quarters, the good table, nor the luxury of Italy.  The General-in-Chief, wishing to set an example, tried to bivouac in the midst of the army, and in the least commodious spots.  No one had either tent or provisions; the dinner of Napoleon and his staff consisted of a dish of lentils.  The soldiers passed the evenings in political conversations, arguments, and complaints.  ‘For what purpose are we come here?’ said some of them, ‘the Directory has transported us.’  ‘Caffarelli,’ said others, ’is the agent that has been made use of to deceive the General-in-Chief.’  Many of them, having observed that wherever there were vestiges of antiquity they were carefully searched, vented their spite in invective against the savants, or scientific men, who, they said, had started the idea of she expedition to order to make these searches.  Jests were showered upon them, even in their presence.  The men called an ass a savant; and said of Caffarelli Dufalga, alluding to his wooden leg, ’He laughs at all these troubles; he has one foot to France.’”]

CHAPTER XIV.

1798.