[413] Voice from St. Helena, vol. ii., p. 333.
[414] History of the British Expedition to Egypt, vol. i., p. 127.
[415] Miot gives a melancholy, but too true a picture, of the indifference with which soldiers, when on a retreat, regard the sufferings of those whose strength does not enable them to keep up with the march. He describes a man, affected by the fear of being left to the cruelties of the Turks, snatching up his knapsack, and staggering after the column to which he belonged, while his glazed eye, uncertain motion, and stumbling pace, excited the fear of some, and the ridicule of others. "His account is made up," said one of his comrades, as he reeled about amongst them like a drunkard. "He will not make a long march of it," said another. And when, after more than one fall, he at length became unable to rise, the observation that "he had taken up his quarters," was all the moan which it was thought necessary to make. It is in these cases, as Miot justly observes, that indifference and selfishness become universal; and he that would be comfortable must manage to rely on his own exertions, and, above all to remain in good health.—S.
[416] See Thibaudeau, tom. ii., p. 272; Martin, tom. i., p. 315; Desgenettes, Hist. Médicale de l'Armée d'Orient, p. 97; Larrey, Relation Chirurgicale de l'Armée d'Orient, p. 117; Lacretelle, tom. xiv., p. 299. "I feel ashamed," says Savary, "to advert to the atrocious calumny; but the man whose simple assertion was found sufficient to give it currency, has not been able to stifle it by his subsequent disavowal. The necessity to which we were reduced of using roots as a substitute for opium, is a fact known to the whole army. Supposing, however, that opium had been as plentiful as it was scarce, and that General Buonaparte could have contemplated the expedient attributed to him, where could there be found a man sufficiently determined in mind, or so lost to the feelings of human nature, as to force open the jaws of fifty wretched men on the point of death, and thrust a deadly preparation down their throats? The most intrepid soldier turned pale at the sight of an infected person; the warmest heart dared not relieve a friend afflicted with the plague; and is it to be credited that brutal ferocity could execute what the noblest feelings recoiled at? or that there should have been a creature savage or mad enough to sacrifice his own life, in order to enjoy the satisfaction of hastening the death of fifty dying men, wholly unknown to him?"—Memoirs, tom. ii., p. 106.
[417] Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 323.
[418] "Brave Desaix! He would have conquered any where. He was skilful, vigilant, daring—little regarding fatigue, and death still less. He would have gone to the end of the world in quest of victory."—Napoleon, Antommarchi, vol. i., p. 376.
[419] Jomini, tom. xi., p. 420; Thibaudeau, tom. ii., p. 297; Gourgaud, tom. ii., p. 320.
[420] Gourgaud, tom. iii., p. 328.
[421] Miot, p. 249.
[422] "Les Turcs maintenaient le combat avec succes; mais Murat, par un mouvement rapide comme la pensée, dirigea sa gauche sur les derrières de leur droit," &c.—Buonaparte to the Directory.