Our departure from Egypt—­Nocturnal embarkation—­M.  Parseval Grandmaison—­On course—­Adverse winds—­Fear of the English—­ Favourable weather—­Vingt-et-un-Chess—­We land at Ajaccio—­ Bonaparte’s pretended relations—­Family domains—­Want of money—­ Battle of Novi—­Death of Joubert—­Visionary schemes—­Purchase of a boat—­Departure from Corsica—­The English squadron—­Our escape—­ The roads of Frejus—­Our landing in France—­The plague or the Austrians—­Joy of the people—­The sanitary laws—­Bonaparte falsely accused.

We were now to return to our country—­again to cross the sea, to us so pregnant with danger—­Caesar and his fortune were once more to embark.  But Caesar was not now advancing to the East to add Egypt to the conquests of the Republic.  He was revolving in his mind vast schemes, unawed by the idea of venturing everything to chance in his own favour the Government for which he had fought.  The hope of conquering the most celebrated country of the East no longer excited the imagination, as on our departure from France.  Our last visionary dream had vanished before the walls of St. Jean d’Acre, and we were leaving on the burning sands of Egypt most of our companions in arms.  An inconceivable destiny seemed to urge us on, and we were obliged to obey its decrees.

On the 23d of August we embarked on board two frigates, the ‘Muiron’

   —­[Named after Bonaparte’s aide de camp filled in the Italian
   campaign]—­

and ‘Carrere’.  Our number was between four and five hundred.  Such was our squadron, and such the formidable army with which Bonaparte had resolved, as he wrote to the divan of Cairo, “to annihilate all his enemies.”  This boasting might impose on those who did not see the real state of things; but what were we to think of it?  What Bonaparte himself thought the day after.

The night was dark when we embarked in the frigates which lay at a considerable distance from the port of Alexandria; but by the faint light of the stars we perceived a corvette, which appeared to be observing our silent nocturnal embarkation.

—­[The horses of the escort had been left to run loose on the beach, and all was perfect stillness in Alexandria, when the advanced posts of the town were alarmed by the wild galloping of horses, which from a natural instinct, were returning to Alexandria through the desert.  The picket ran to arms on seeing horses ready saddled and bridled, which were soon discovered to belong to the regiment of guides.  They at first thought that a misfortune had happened to some detachment in its pursuit of the Arabs.  With these horses came also those of the generals who had embarked with General Bonaparte; so that Alexandria was for a time in considerable alarm.  The cavalry was ordered to proceed in all haste in the direction whence the horses came, and every one was giving himself up to the most gloomy conjectures, when the cavalry returned to the city with the Turkish