Then, turning to Dermoncourt, Bonaparte said:
"M. Dermoncourt, you have just heard a word drop which indicates the destination of our expedition. Not a creature knows it yet: do not let the word 'Egypt' escape your lips; you will readily understand the importance of such a secret."
Dermoncourt signified that he would be as dumb as a disciple of Pythagoras.
Joséphine consoled herself: indeed, if we may believe Bourrienne, she managed to console herself too well.
On the 15th May my father again visited Bonaparte, and the departure was fixed for the 19th.
He found Bonaparte just about to dictate an order to Bourrienne; so he was discreetly about to withdraw, when Bonaparte called after him: "No, stay, you are not in the way;—hear what I am going to do."
Then, putting his hand on that giant's shoulder: "What I like about you, Dumas (he said) is, not only your indisputable courage, but your humanity, a rarer quality. I know that Collot d'Herbois wanted to cut your head off because in some little town in the Tarantaise you rescued from the guillotine three or four poor devils who did not wish to let their village bells be melted down. Very well! Would you believe that only six weeks ago they shot an old man of eighty—the butchers—under cover of the law sur les émigrés. Now write, Bourrienne." And he dictated.
"HEADQUARTERS AT TOULON,
"27th Floréal, Year VI (16th May 1798).
"BONAPARTE, Member of the National Institute, to the Military Commissioners of the 9th Division established in consequence of the law of 19th Fructidor.
"I learn with the deepest concern, citizens, that aged people of seventy and eighty years old, poor women who were enceinte and needed by their children, have been shot as suspected of wanting to emigrate.
"Have, then, the soldiers of Liberty become executioners? Has the spirit of compassion, which they take even into the very battlefield, become dead within their hearts? The law of 19th Fructidor was a measure providing for public safety; its object was to get at conspirators, not miserable women, and worn-out old men.
"I exhort you, then, citizens, whenever the law brings before your tribunal people above sixty years of age or women, to declare that you have respect for the aged and the women of your enemy even in the midst of fighting.
"The military officer who signs a sentence against any person incapable of carrying arms is a coward.
"BONAPARTE."
As he left Bonaparte's house, my father met Kléber re-entering it.
"You do not know what we are going to do over there?" he said.