Napoleon arrived in Paris on the 7th of December, 1797, having been absent about eighteen months. The Directory, jealous of Napoleon’s power and popularity, were forced by the enthusiasm of the people to prepare a triumphal festival for the delivery of the treaty of Campo Formio.
The magnificent palace of the Luxembourg was adorned for this gorgeous show. The walls were hung with glittering trophies; the vast galleries were crowded with those illustrious in rank; martial music rang out upon the air, and the thunders of the cannon mingled with the enthusiastic shouts of the rejoicing multitudes. Napoleon was introduced by Talleyrand in an eloquent speech. Calmly the great hero stood before the assembled multitude. His imposing presence required not the trappings of the bedecked and bejewelled grandees of the court. Majestic was his calm dignity as he addressed the people:—
“Citizens! the French people in order to be free had kings to combat. To obtain a constitution founded on reason, it had the prejudices of eighteen centuries to overcome. Priestcraft, feudalism, despotism, have successively, for two thousand years, governed Europe. From the peace you have just concluded dates the era of representative governments. You have succeeded in organizing a great nation, whose vast territory is circumscribed only because Nature herself has fixed its limits. You have done more. The two finest countries in Europe—formerly so renowned for the arts, the sciences, and the illustrious men whose cradle they were—see with the greatest hopes genius and freedom issuing from the tomb of their ancestors. I have the honor to deliver to you the treaty signed at Campo Formio, and ratified by the emperor. Peace secures the liberty, the prosperity, and the glory of the Republic. As soon as the happiness of France is secured by the best organic laws, the whole of Europe will be free.”
A wild burst of enthusiasm filled the air as Napoleon ceased speaking. The people shouted, “Live Napoleon, the conqueror of Italy, the pacificator of Europe, the saviour of France!”
Napoleon now laid aside the dress of a soldier. He attended constantly the meetings of the Institute, and immediately assumed a pre-eminence amongst those distinguished scholars as marked as he had already attained as a general.
Republican France was now at peace with all the world, England alone excepted. The Directory raised an army for the invasion of England, and gave Napoleon the command. Republicans all over Europe, England included, adored Napoleon as the great champion of popular rights. England trembled. It was necessary that the people should be taught to hate this man whom they now worshipped. The English press came to the rescue of the English government. The most malign and atrocious lies were published regarding Napoleon. He was represented as a demon in human form; a monster of profligacy and tyrannical ambition; a robber, plundering the nations for his own selfish aggrandizement. Regarding these bitter and false libels Napoleon said: “There is not one which will reach posterity. When I have been asked to cause answers to be written to them, I have uniformly replied, ‘My victories and my works of public improvement are the only response which it becomes me to make.’ When there shall not be a trace of these libels to be found, the great monuments of utility which I have reared, and the code of laws that I have formed, will descend to the most remote ages, and future historians will avenge the wrongs done me by my contemporaries.” Napoleon deeming an attack upon England too hazardous, the project was abandoned.
Then followed Napoleon’s expedition into Egypt. Volumes could be written upon each one of Napoleon’s marvellous campaigns, but we can merely give a slight outline. The famous battle of the Pyramids made Napoleon the undisputed conqueror of Egypt. “Soldiers!” he exclaimed, as he rode along the ranks, “from those summits forty centuries contemplate your actions.”
The name of Napoleon became suddenly as renowned in Asia and Africa as it had previously become in Europe. But twenty-one days had elapsed since he landed at Alexandria, and now he was sovereign of Egypt. The Egyptians welcomed him as a friend and liberator. He disclaimed all sovereignty over Egypt, and organized a government to be administered by the people themselves. In the mean time Lord Nelson learned that the French had landed in Egypt. He immediately proceeded thither. The famous battle of the Nile followed, in which the English were victorious. The French fleet had been destroyed, and Napoleon was cut off from Europe. All monarchical Europe rejoiced; all republican Europe mourned. Napoleon now undertook the Syrian expedition. With ten thousand men he commenced his march over the desert. We cannot describe their weary march through the burning sands, their sufferings from want, and the dreadful plague which soon broke out in the army. We can only note the siege of Acre. The subjugation of this fortress would have made Napoleon master of Syria. Sir Sidney Smith conducted the defence with the combined English and Turkish troops. It was here that the marvellous affection of Napoleon’s soldiers for their general was tested. Sir Sidney Smith circulated a proclamation, offering to convey every French soldier safely to France who would desert Napoleon. It is not known that a single man was false to Napoleon, whom all adored as a being seemingly more than mortal.
The siege had continued for sixty days. Napoleon had lost three thousand men by the sword and the plague. At this time fresh Turkish troops arrived to join his enemies; and deeming the enterprise hopeless, Napoleon abandoned the siege. Napoleon was as great in defeat as in success. Speaking of his power to endure trials, he said: “Nature seems to have calculated that I should endure great reverses. She has given me a mind of marble. Thunder cannot ruffle it. The shaft merely glides along.”
At midnight, on the 25th of July, 1799, Napoleon, with six thousand men, arrived within sight of the camp of the Turks, upon the shores of the Bay of Aboukir. Napoleon knew that the Turks were awaiting the arrival of the Mameluke cavalry from Egypt and of re-enforcements from Acre and other parts of Syria. Defeat to Napoleon now would have been utter ruin. But the terrific conflict which followed was not a defeat, but a victory so complete that the whole Turkish army was destroyed. Sir Sidney Smith fled in terror to his ships. Not a foe remained. In the enthusiasm of the moment, Kleber, who had just arrived with a division of two thousand men, for whom Napoleon had not waited, threw his arms around the neck of his adored chieftain, exclaiming, “Let me embrace you, my general; you are great as the universe!”