Napoleon himself remained some days in Alexandria and left on the 7th of July, leaving Kléber in command, being anxious to force the Mamelukes to an encounter with the least possible delay. General Desaix was sent forward with 4500 men to Beda. The commission of learned men remained at Alexandria, until Napoleon should reach Cairo, with the exception of Monge and Berthollett who accompanied the commander.
The march over the burning sands of the desert brought extreme misery and unheard-of sufferings to the troops; the air was full of pestiferous insects, the glare of the sand weakened the men's eyes, and water was scarce and bad. Even the gallant spirits of Murat and Lannes could not sustain themselves, and they trampled their brilliant cockades in the sand in a fit of rage in the presence of the troops. The common soldiers asked, with sarcastic or angry murmurs, if it was here the general designed to give them their "seven acres of land." "The rogue" said they, "he might, with safety, have promised us as much as we pleased; we should not abuse his good nature." They, however, bore a grudge against Caffarelli, who they thought had advised the expedition, and used to say, as he hobbled past with his wooden leg, "He does not care what happens; he is sure to have one foot at least in France."
Napoleon alone was superior to all these evils. It required, however, more than his example of endurance and the general influence of his firm character to prevent the army from breaking into open mutiny. "Once," said he at St Helena, "I threw myself amidst a group of generals, and, addressing myself to the tallest of their number with vehemence, said, 'You have been talking sedition; take care lest I fulfill my duty; your five feet ten inches would not hinder you from being shot within two hours.'"
On the 10th of July, 1798, the army reached the Nile at Rahmanié: "We no sooner saw the river," says Savary in his memoirs, "than soldiers, officers and all rushed into it; each, regardless whether it was sufficiently shallow to afford security from danger, only sought to quench his burning thirst, and stooped to drink from the stream, the whole army presenting the appearance of a flock of sheep." "We encamped," says Napoleon, "on immense quantities of wheat, but there was neither mill nor oven in the country." The men bruised the grain between stones and baked it in the ashes or parched and boiled it.
The army soon moved on towards Cairo, but the men were unable to leave the ranks for a single instant without certain death from the spears or scimitars of those matchless Mameluke horsemen; and, therefore, although so near the Nile, several fell dead from thirst. But the worriment of their minds was their worst evil. They began to say there was no great city of Cairo; that they believed it would prove only a collection of wretched huts. In this state they came up, on the 13th, with the Mamelukes at Chebreis. They were drawn up in battle array under Mourad Bey, one of their most powerful chiefs, and were a magnificent body of cavalry, glittering with gold and silver and mounted on splendid horses.
The battle commenced without a moment's hesitation on either side. Each Mameluke, feeling in himself the valor of a host, rushed in the singleness of his purpose, as if alone against the opposing mass; and with repeated charges, endeavored, by every means of unbridled fury or consummate skill, to break the solid squares of the French army. They were at length beaten back with the loss of about three hundred.
After the action at Chebreis the French army continued to advance during eight days without opposition of any enemy except the hovering Arabs who lay in wait for every straggler from the main column. The order of march towards Cairo was systematically arranged; each division of the army moved forward in squares six men deep on each side; the artillery was at the angles; and in the centre the ammunition, the baggage, and the small body of cavalry still remaining. Napoleon himself when he rode always made use of a dromedary, though he at first suffered a sensation resembling seasickness from its peculiar motion. "I never passed the desert," said he sometime later, "without experiencing very painful emotions. It was the image of immensity to my thoughts. It showed no limits. It had neither beginning nor end. It was an ocean for the foot of man."
On the 19th of July the soldiers' eyes were gladdened by the sight of the grand pyramids on the horizon. Still advancing towards Cairo, the distant monuments swelling upon the eye at every step, the army reached Embabé on the 21st and found the Mamelukes in battle array to dispute their further progress.
While every eye was fixed on these hoary monuments of the past, Napoleon sighted with his glass a vast army of the Beys spread out before him, the right posted on an intrenched camp by the Nile, its centre and left composed of that brilliant cavalry with which they were by this time acquainted. Napoleon perceived, too, and what had escaped the observation of all his staff, that the 40 pieces of cannon on the intrenched camp of the enemy were without carriages, and consequently could be leveled in but one direction. He instantly decided on his plan of attack by preparing to throw his forces on the left, where the guns could not be available. Mourad Bey, who commanded the Mamelukes, penetrated the French commander's design, and his followers at once advanced gallantly to the encounter.
"Soldiers, you are about to fight the rulers of Egypt," said Napoleon, as he raised his hands high in the air and formed his troops into separate squares to meet the assault; "from the summits of yonder pyramids forty centuries behold you." These imposing and mysterious witnesses were not appealed to in vain, and the great battle began at once at the foot of the ancient and gigantic monuments, the French advancing in five grand squares, Napoleon heading the centre square. In an instant the Mamelukes came charging up with impetuous speed and loud cries. They rushed on the line of bayonets, backed their horses upon them, and at last, maddened by the firmness which they could not shake, dashed their pistols and carbines into the faces of the French troops.