[396] "The night overtook us, the waters began to rise around us, when the horsemen ahead cried out that their horses were swimming. General Buonaparte rescued the whole party by one of those simple expedients which occur to an imperturbable mind. Placing himself in the centre, he bade all the rest form a circle round him, and then ride out each man in a separate direction, and each to halt as soon as he found his horse swimming. The man whose horse continued to march the last, was sure, he said, to be in the right direction; him, accordingly we all followed, and reached Suez, at midnight in safety; though so rapidly had the tide advanced, that the horses were more than breast-high in the water."—Memoirs of Savary, vol. i., p. 97.
[397] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 211.
[398] "While the army was passing through Syria, there was scarcely a soldier but was heard to repeat these lines from Zaire:—
'Les Français sont las de chercher désormais
Des climats que pour eux le destin n'a point faits,
Ils n'abandonnent point leur fertile patrie
Pour languir aux deserts de l'aride Arabie.'
When the men found themselves in the midst of the Desert, surrounded by the boundless ocean of sand, they began to question the generosity of their general; they thought he had observed singular moderation in having promised each of them only seven acres—'The rogue,' said they, 'might with safety give us as much as he pleases; we should not abuse his good-nature.'"—Las Cases, tom. i., p. 210.
[399] See his despatch to the Directory, on the Syrian campaign.—Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 374.
[400] Expédition en Egypte et Syrie, p. 148.
[401] "I asked him about the massacre of the Turks at Jaffa: he answered, 'C'est vrai; J'en fis fusiller à peu près deux mille.'"—Memorandum of Two Conversations between the Emperor Napoleon and Viscount Ebrington at Porto-Ferraio, p. 12.
"I observed, that Miot asserted that he (Napoleon) had caused between three and four thousand Turks to be shot, some days after the capture of Jaffa. He answered, 'It is not true that there were so many; I ordered about a thousand or twelve hundred to be shot, which was done.'"—O'Meara vol. i., p. 328.
[402] See Jomini, tom. xi., p. 403; Thibaudeau, tom. ii., p. 172; Savary, tom. i., p. 100; Bourrienne, tom. ii., p. 226; Martin, Hist. de l'Expédition d'Egypte, tom. i., p. 289.