Mourad Bey, the chief of all the Mameluke beys, was sitting at a
joyous banquet in Alexandria, when several of his officers rushed
into the hall to announce that a number of ships were entering the
harbor, and that a body of Franks had already landed. The Mameluke
chieftain laughed, and, without rising from his seat, said to the
messengers, "Give these French beggars a bakshish, and tell them to
clear out, or Mourad Bey will compel them to do so."
"But," observed the English consul, who had just entered the hall,
"excellency, these Franks have come to possess themselves of Egypt.
Hasten to make preparations for your defence."
Mourad Bey laughed again. "You take a gloomy view of things, my
friend.--Go and give these wretches something to eat, and, as I have
already ordered, a little money also, and then advise them to depart
with all speed, or I will have them driven off by my servants."
But the Franks were not to be driven off so easily. They were
bringing civilization, the glory of the French Republic, to Egypt,
and were determined to make them happy by force. The republic at
home had become too small for the great general. "Europe is a mere
mole-hill," he had said; "there never were great kingdoms and great
enterprises elsewhere than in the Orient, where six hundred million
people live!"
And it was indeed a great enterprise that Bonaparte wished to
attempt in Egypt, and great things be really did accomplish there.
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