On the 14th of July Bonaparte left Cairo for the Pyramids.  He intended spending three or four days in examining the ruins of the ancient necropolis of Memphis; but he was suddenly obliged to alter his plan.  This journey to the Pyramids, occasioned by the course of war, has given an opportunity for the invention of a little piece of romance.  Some ingenious people have related that Bonaparte gave audiences to the mufti and ulemas, and that on entering one of the great Pyramids he cried out, “Glory to Allah!  God only is God, and Mahomet is his prophet!” Now the fact is, that Bonaparte never even entered the great Pyramid.  He never had any thought of entering it:—­I certainly should have accompanied him had he done so for I never quitted his side a single moment in the desert He caused some person to enter into one of the great Pyramids while he remained outside, and received from them, on their return, an account of what they had seen.  In other words, they informed him there was nothing, to be seen!

On the evening of the 15th of July, while we were taking a walk, we perceived, on the road leading from Alexandria, an Arab riding up to us in all haste.  He brought to the General-in-Chief a despatch from General Marmont, who was entrusted with the command of Alexandria, and who had conducted himself so well, especially during the dreadful ravages of the plague, that he had gained the unqualified approbation of Bonaparte.  The Turks had landed on the 11th of July at Aboukir, under the escort and protection of English ships of war.  The news of the landing of from fifteen to sixteen thousand men did not surprise Bonaparte, who had for some time expected it.  It was, not so, however, with the generals most in his favor; whose apprehensions, for reasons which may be conjectured, he had endeavoured to calm.  He had even written to Marmont, who, being in the most exposed situation, had the more reason to be vigilant, in these terms: 

The army which was to have appeared before Alexandria, and which left Constantinople on the 1st of the Ramadhan, has been destroyed under the walls of Acre.  If, however, that mad Englishman (Smith) has embarked the remains of that army in order to convey them to Aboukir, I do not believe there can be more than 2000 men.

He wrote in the following strain to General Dugua, who had the command of Cairo: 

   The English Commander, who has summoned Damietta, is a madman.  The
   combined army they speak of has been destroyed before Acre, where it
   arrived a fortnight before we left that place.

As soon as he arrived at Cairo, in a letter he despatched to Desaix, he said: 

   The time has now arrived when disembarkations have become
   practicable.  I shall lose no time in getting ready.  The
   probabilities, however, are, that none will take place this year.

What other language could he hold, when he had proclaimed when after, the raising of the siege of Acre, that he had destroyed those 15,000 men who two months after landed at Aboukir?