So great were they, that General Kleber, in secret his enemy and
rival, could nevertheless not refrain from saying, after one of the
victories:
"You are as great, Bonaparte, as the world, but the world is too
small for your glory!"
And yet a day had come when the man who was too great for the world
had to make himself small before the victorious Mameluke beys, when
he secretly, accompanied by a few faithful followers only, departed
from Egypt to return to the mole-hill Europe, to seek a crown for
himself there. Bonaparte had left behind, in want and misery, the
army that had suffered so much, not only from battle and disease,
but also from the cruelty of its leaders. Was it not at Jaffa that
Bonaparte caused the sick and wounded to be poisoned, in order to
shorten their sufferings? And one other deed of cruelty of the
general of civilization, who had gone to Egypt to confer happiness
upon the unbelievers, stands recorded in the books of history. Was
it not in Egypt that the French general caused the prisoners of war
who had surrendered to General Desaix to be led down to the seashore
and shot, contrary to the usages of warfare? Four thousand Arabian
soldiers were assassinated in this manner. This was one of the
monuments of civilization erected by the French general in the
Orient! And the revolt in Cairo, the massacre of so many French
soldiers, and the hatred of the whole people, was the harvest reaped
by Bonaparte for this bloody deed.
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