The Sultan's Daughter (22 page)

Bonaparte had declared when he was in Italy that any Power holding Corfu and Malta could control the Mediterranean. Already nurturing secret designs against the East, he had robbed Venice of the Ionian Isles, after installing a French garrison in Corfu by a shabby trick. For Malta then being beyond his military orbit, he had resorted to other methods. A certain M. Poussielgue, who was Secretary of the French Legation in Genoa, had relatives living in Malta. Learning this, Bonaparte sent for him and despatched him on a mission to the island, ostensibly to increase its trade with France, but secretly to undermine the discipline of the Knights and bribe a number of them.

The Knights' original function had been to protect pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land; but with the ending of the Crusades this duty fell into abeyance, so the Knights had undertaken that of protecting Christian shipping in the Mediterranean from the Barbary pirates who infested the coast of North Africa. However, for more than a century past they had become decadent, leading a life of luxurious ease and licentiousness. The only vessels they now possessed were a few half-rotten warships that never put to sea and some gaily painted galleys that they used for water festivals.

On arriving before Valetta, Bonaparte asked permission for his Fleet to enter the great harbour to take on water. The Grand Master replied that by custom only two warships of any nation were allowed into the harbour at one time. Bonaparte then summoned the island to surrender and ordered Admiral Brueys to begin bombarding the forts.

These were immensely strong and Valetta had long been regarded as impregnable. It could certainly have withstood a siege for many weeks. But Poussielgue had done his work well. Only a few cannon were fired in reply. The French Knights betrayed their Order and led the native Maltese,
who were little better than their slaves, in a revolt which put an end to further resistance. So in a single day the Conqueror of Italy became the master of one of the greatest strongholds in Europe.

Yet he and France were soon to pay dearly for this cheaply bought victory. Fearing an aggression that they were too supine to resist on their own, the Knights had recently offered the Grand Mastership of their Order to Paul I of Russia. The Czar, in due course, joyfully accepted, as he saw in Malta a naval base which would be invaluable to him in his ambition to dismember the Empire of Russia's hereditary enemies, the Turks. With childish vanity he began preening himself in the colourful robes of a Grand Master as the champion of Christendom. When he learned that Bonaparte had robbed him of the romantic role which he had expected to play his anger knew no bounds and from that moment he became one of France's most deadly enemies.

Bonaparte stayed only seven days in Malta, but during that time he carried out as many reforms as would have taken most administrators a long term of office. He abolished the Order, compensated the French Knights, gave the people a Constitution, revised the taxes, customs and octroi dues, ordered certain streets to be broadened and public fountains to be installed, decreed a new curriculum for the university and reorganised the hospitals and the post-office. In addition, he naturally suppressed the religious houses, stole their funds and made off with all the bullion, jewelled chalices, crucifixes and other treasure he could lay his hands on. Only the solid silver gates at the Church of St. John escaped him because they happened to have been painted over.

With a Republican Government installed under a French military dictator, and the pillaging of Valetta completed, the armada sailed again, this time for Egypt. Life in
L'Orient
was resumed on the lines it had taken soon after the departure from Toulon. On Bonaparte's instructions Bourrienne had selected a considerable library of books for him to read on the voyage. Knowing his master's tastes, the
Chef de Cabinet
had included a hundred and twenty-five volumes of history both ancient and modern, the best of the Roman poets, the masterpieces of the French theatre, a few books of
travel and some forty novels, most of which were translations from the English. To complete this comprehensive assortment he had added a Bible, a Koran, the Vedas and several other books dealing with Eastern customs and religions.

Bonaparte showed particular interest in these last, as he was anxious to familiarise himself with the ways of the people in the countries he intended to conquer. For the greater part of each day he lay on the bed in his big cabin engrossed in these books or in accounts of the campaigns of Caesar, Hannibal, Marlborough and Louis XIV. But every evening he summoned to his cabin a selected company with whom he carried on animated discussions far into the night. In his insatiable thirst for knowledge he bombarded the savants with an endless stream of questions on an immense variety of subjects, and often propounded some debatable philosophical or religious belief for the pleasure of seeing them argue hotly about it.

Off Crete, those aboard the armada remained blissfully ignorant that it had been missed by Nelson by only a matter of hours; but when approaching Egypt the frigate
Junon
was sent on ahead to Alexandria, and returned with the alarming news that the British Squadron had put in there the previous day. Roger again began to scan the horizon with acute anxiety, but the General-in-Chief showed no trace of dismay. He ordered Admiral Brueys to continue on course, and his lucky star was in the ascendant. Nelson, having revictualled his Fleet at Naples, had guessed that Bonaparte's probable destination was Egypt, so he had made all sail there. Not finding the enemy he had turned north, now believing that the French had made their landing in Syria. On July 1st, the topmasts of his ships disappeared below one horizon only as those of the French armada began to appear over the other.

The French Consul at Alexandria, who had been taken on board the
Junon
, declared that any attempt to enter the harbour would certainly be opposed, so Bonaparte ordered sail to be set again for Marabout, some nine miles along the coast. It was nightfall when they arrived there, the hundreds of transports were scattered over many square miles of sea,
and a gale had arisen driving them on to a lee shore. Nevertheless, the General-in-Chief gave orders for an immediate landing. Brueys protested that such an attempt would be suicidal; but Bonaparte, now harassed by the thought that at any hour Nelson might return and catch him at a terrible disadvantage, overruled his Admiral and was the first to step into a boat.

A night ensued of desperate effort, terror, and death for many. The shore of the creek was lined with reefs upon which the sea broke furiously. The howling wind frequently drove the boats from their course or piled them up on rocks. Bonaparte had brought only a limited number of horses, counting on mounting the bulk of his cavalry on animals procured in Egypt, but it was important to land a few dozen for scouts and despatch riders. The poor brutes were lowered by slings into the heaving sea, and men in the boats then grabbed their bridles to tow them ashore. Terrified and, except for their heads, totally submerged, many of the horses dragged the men from the boats so that they drowned with them, but others swam gamely and survived the ordeal. In the darkness on the beach there was hopeless confusion. The night was cold and everyone was drenched to the skin, yet Bonaparte would not allow any attempt to form a camp. By dawn he had some five thousand troops ashore and ordered an immediate advance on Alexandria.

Wet, cold and hungry, but inspired by his indomitable purpose, his soldiers began their first march across the sands of Egypt. The horses so far landed were so few and in such poor shape that he and his Generals marched with the men. On their way they were fired on by a few mounted Arabs, but no serious resistance was offered until by mid-morning they came within musket shot of the walls of the city, beyond which rose the domes of mosques and the slender towers of minarets.

There he divided his force into three columns. One was to be led by Bon against the Rosetta Gate, another by Kléber against the Gate of the Pillar and the third by Menou against the Gate of the Catacombs. The Turkish garrison maintained a steady fire with both muskets and antiquated cannon, whereas the French had so far been unable to land any of
their artillery. But now, suffering for the first time under a blazing sun from acute thirst, their desperate need for water inspired them with a fierce determination to break into the city. After a number of bloody assaults, in which both Kléber and Menou were seriously wounded, they forced a breach in the crumbling walls, poured through it and drove the defenders back in confusion through the narrow streets.

A Turkish Captain who had been captured realised that further resistance was useless, and offered to act as intermediary. Bonaparte then produced a proclamation which he had prepared and sent him with it to his Commander. In this proclamation the wily Corsican declared that the French had come only to liberate the Egyptian people from the tyranny of the Mamelukes and prevent their further depredations on French commerce. He guaranteed respect for property and the Mohammedan religion—pointing out that it was France that had destroyed the Pope and the Knights of Malta, who had for centuries waged war on the Muslims—and promised to support the Sheiks, Cadis and Imams in a continuance of their duties to the glory of the Sultan. These specious promises had the desired effect. A cease-fire was ordered and by four o'clock that afternoon he was master of Alexandria.

Yet when the French Army took possession of the city the troops were bitterly disappointed. Thousands of them were veterans of Bonaparte's Italian campaign, during which they had lined their pockets and had hoped, on returning to France, to buy pleasant farms or little businesses and settle down to a peaceful life of domesticity. Thousands of others were conscripts who had been forced to leave their homes in order that regiments might be brought up to full strength. The reluctance on the part of both veterans and conscripts to leave France had been overcome after the armada had sailed by a rumour put about amongst them that they were on their way to the East, where riches were inexhaustible, and that every man of them would return with a fortune.

Now, as they marched through the streets of the ancient city where Cleopatra had ruled in splendour, and which had been famous for centuries for its luxury, they saw only half-ruined mosques, palaces long since fallen into disrepair and squalid slums inhabited by poverty-stricken people.

This was no surprise to Roger, as he had spent several days in Alexandria during the previous July. He knew that, apart from the residences of the Mameluke Beys, the only well-furnished, comfortable houses were those occupied by Greek merchants in the so-called ‘new town' which lay outside the city.

One of them was the property of a Greek banker named Sarodopulous, who had been most helpful to Roger and, moreover, had him invited to stay until he could get a passage to Crete. This now presented Roger with a problem, as he had been travelling as an Englishman and Sarodopulous's principal reason for entertaining him so hospitably was because Mrs. Sarodopulous had been born an Englishwoman. If Bonaparte remained long in Alexandria it seemed highly probable that, since the banker was one of the town's wealthiest citizens, he and Roger would meet; and the Greek was going to be very surprised at finding that the Englishman he had entertained had in a few months been transformed into a French Colonel.

The thought of such a meeting did not cause Roger any great anxiety because, unlike Talleyrand and the despicable Fouché — who appeared to have sunk into oblivion — the Sarodopulouses had only the story he had given them himself to go on. He could, therefore, simply repudiate it; and, should Bonaparte learn of the encounter, he would accept without question Roger's explanation that while in Alexandria he had posed as an Englishman in order to secure as much information as he could about the enemies of France.

Now that the Army of Egypt had established itself on land, Roger knew that he was likely to be very fully employed. His appointment by Bonaparte as his Aide-de-Camp-in-Chief had, of course, not matured, as the appointment had been dependent on the invasion of England and had been announced only as one of many little bluffs which would help give credence to the deception plan. But Bonaparte's reason for making Roger one of his aides-de-camp when in Italy had been because he was already dreaming of conquering the East and, as Roger had just returned from travelling in India and Egypt, he had decided that an old companion-in-arms
with such experience would be of value to him on his Staff.

As usual, the General-in-Chief lost no time in putting to use any asset he had secured and that morning, much to Roger's relief, he had kept him out of the battle, but told him to arrange for suitable quarters as soon as the city surrendered.

It was Géraud Duroc, one of Roger's companions in Italy, who now held the appointment of Aide-de-Camp-in-Chief. He was a Republican and puritan but a man whose gentle charm made him beloved by all, and he now lived only to serve Bonaparte. Roger set off with him and an escort from Bonaparte's pet regiment of Guides and in the course of an hour they visited several palaces. Had Roger been in his master's shoes he would have taken up his quarters in one of the fine villas in the ‘new town', but he knew that the General-in-Chief would be extremely angry if he were not installed in one of the most imposing buildings in the city. There was also the point that he had given strict instructions that there was to be no pillaging and that the inhabitants were to be put to a minimum of inconvenience in accommodating his troops. They were, therefore, fortunate in finding a palace owned by a wealthy Pasha who had fled with his family on learning of the approach of the invaders.

Roger did all the talking, while Duroc made certain suggestions about the allocation of rooms for various purposes. The water carts were sent for, so that there would be ample for all purposes, extra divans brought in for junior members of the staff and a lavish supply of food procured from the nearest market. In due course Bonaparte arrived with his entourage. They ate a hearty meal then, utterly exhausted from their night and day of strenuous effort, threw themselves, still in their clothes, on the divans and slept.