Napoleon in Egypt by Paul Strathern Read Free Book Online

dispatched from Cairo to Alexandria, and thence by sea for France. Unfortunately, before they could reach their destination they were intercepted on the high seas by the British navy, and transmitted to London. The British seized on this opportunity to inflict a propaganda victory on the French, and the letters were published amidst much merriment in the Morning Chronicle of London on November 24, 1798; French spies soon relayed this information back to Paris, where Napoleon truly became a laughingstock.
    But why had Napoleon reacted in such an extreme fashion to what Junot had told him? This was hardly the first time he had heard about Josephine being unfaithful to him; Junot had merely given voice to what he must surely have suspected, as he had on previous occasions. Many explanations have been put forward for Napoleon’s violent outburst this time. Junot had confirmed—in the presence of others—what had previously only been a suspicion: a private fear had been made public. This had caused Napoleon to look a fool in the eyes of others, something he could not abide. It had also forced him to act against Josephine, something he was only willing to do when things reached an unavoidable crisis point. Previously he had been able to confront Josphine, to humiliate her sadistically, and then effect an emotional reconciliation: the sadomasochistic element that bound their relationship had thus been reinforced. But this time she simply was not there, and was not likely to be in the near future—hence his cry of anguish: “Josephine! . . . And I am 600 leagues away!” This unbridgeable absence, amongst the nexus of contributory circumstances, may well have been what tipped the balance. Yet in the end, one can only speculate.
    It has been claimed that this crisis marked both a physical and an emotional turning point in Napoleon’s life, and there is some evidence to support this view. From now on the thin, rakish figure with long, unkempt hair would gradually become transformed into the suave, plump man of legend. Whether this was through compensation for emotional deprivation or due to purely glandular effects is unclear, but there is no doubting that Napoleon underwent a physical transformation, and that this certainly showed its first manifestations around the time of his Egyptian expedition. The mental transformation is equally difficult to pinpoint. In his youth, Napoleon cut a dashing, heroic figure, driven by dreams of glory, but at some pivotal stage in his career these more positive qualities were gradually transmogrified into the cold, ruthless and often blind ambition which led him to his greatest honors and his greatest disasters. There had always been a cruel, heartless element in Napoleon’s character, but it was only in Egypt that this would begin to appear as a ruling characteristic. As he concluded in his letter to his brother Joseph: “There is nothing left for me but to think only of myself.” 4 Whatever the effects of this crisis upon Napoleon, one thing is certain: from this time onwards Junot fell from grace. The fearless sergeant who had stood by the youthful Napoleon at the siege of Toulon would continue to prosper, but he would no longer remain Napoleon’s faithful confidant—someone had to take the blame. As for Napoleon himself: once he had given vent to his extreme emotions, he seemed miraculously capable of putting them from his mind, consciously committing himself to the task at hand with ever-renewed vigor and single-mindedness. At the same time, these ignored elements would continue to play their own souring role, independent of conscious control.
     
    Meanwhile the situation in Egypt as a whole remained unresolved. Napoleon had taken Alexandria, driven his troops down through the delta, defeated the Mamelukes in a set-piece battle and marched into Cairo. He had expected that the taking of Cairo would secure Egypt under French rule, but it had not. As long as Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey