"Should the men be sent to Egypt?"
But this would require a large escort, and the army was already over-weak to defend itself against the deadly hostility of the country. Besides that, how could they and their escort be fed until they reached Cairo, when they would be obliged to travel through the enemy's country, previously laid waste by the army which had just passed through it and which had no food to give the prisoners to start with.
"Should they put them on shipboard?"
Where were the ships? Where could they be found? The sea was like a desert, or at least it was dotted by no friendly sails.
"Should they be restored to liberty?"
In that case they would go straight to Saint-Jean-d'Acre, to reinforce the Pasha, or else into the mountains of Nablos. Then in every ravine they would be assailed by an invisible army of sharpshooters.
"Should they incorporate them, disarmed as they were, in the Republican army?"
But the provisions, already scanty for ten thousand men, would be still more inadequate for fourteen thousand. Then they ran great danger from such comrades in a hostile country. At the first opportunity they would deal out death for the life which had been left them. What is a dog of a Christian to a Turk? Is it not a pious and meritorious act in the eyes of the Prophet to deal death to the infidel?
Bonaparte rose as they were about to propose the fifth condition.