The Sultan's Daughter (21 page)

In April there came trouble in Vienna. At Rastatt Austria had agreed to cede to France the left bank of the Rhine, but the uncouth brigands sent to the Conference by the Directory as its representatives were behaving in such an aggressive and high-handed manner that, angered by their gratuitous insults, the German plenipotentiaries had come near to refusing to continue the negotiations.

The Directory then poured fuel on the fire by sending as its Ambassador to Vienna General Bernadotte. No choice could have been worse, as he was an unscrupulous, fierce-tempered Gascon and a red-hot revolutionary. His Division had been sent from the Rhine to reinforce Bonaparte's Army in Italy, and several score of his officers and N.C.O.s had fought duels with their compatriots rather than submit to Bonaparte's innovation that the term
‘Citoyen'
should be dropped and the old form of address, ‘Monsieur', be revived.

Now, to flaunt his revolutionary principles in the face of the Viennese, Bernadotte, on the eve of a patriotic festival, displayed an enormous tricolour flag over the gate of the Embassy. The Viennese were so furious that they tore the flag down and threatened to burn the mansion about his ears. He declared that the French Republic had been insulted, demanded his passports and returned to Paris, thus bringing the two countries once again to the brink of war.

It was only on April 12th—three days before the incident in Vienna—that Bonaparte had at last succeeded in getting from the Directory a definite directive for his expedition. In brief, it was that he should take possession of Egypt, chase the English from all their possessions in the East that he could reach, establish bases in the Red Sea, have the Isthmus
of Suez cut through and, as far as he could, maintain good relations with the Sultan of Turkey.

His fury, therefore, can be imagined when news arrived of Bernadotte's provocation of the Austrians, with the renewed threat that another outbreak of war in Europe might, at the eleventh hour, prevent his carrying out his cherished design. For a few hours his future hung in the balance; but by a combination of tact, sound reasoning and browbeating he succeeded in persuading the Directors to swallow the insult to the French flag, thus preventing a resumption of hostilities.

Although the object of the expedition continued to be a closely guarded secret, the fact that a great force was assembling in the Mediterranean ports, under French control, could no longer be concealed. From Marseilles right round to Civitavecchia every ship was being examined for seaworthiness, repaired when necessary and listed with the number of troops she could carry. Picked regiments from all quarters were also on the march, converging on the ports, and vast quantities of supplies were being sent to them.

Bonaparte worked tirelessly, often for more than eighteen hours a day, dictating hundreds of letters and personally supervising the ordering of the smallest details. Berthier, whom he had recalled from Italy, worked even longer hours. People might laugh behind Berthier's back at his vanity and his assumption that brilliant uniforms could disguise his ugliness, but he had a capacity for work which no other Staff officer could rival. He could carry on at a time of crisis for three or four days without any sleep at all, and his memory for facts and figures concerning the Army was prodigious.

From the later part of March, Roger and his fellow aides-de-camp had little leisure. As the chosen band who, with a few of Bonaparte's most trusted Generals, were alone in the great secret, they were called on to carry out a thousand errands needing firmness coupled with discretion. By the end of April the General-in-Chief's demands on them had increased to such an extent that they had to forgo all social activities and were lucky if they could drop into their beds by the early hours of the morning.

On May 1st Roger and several other Staff officers quietly
left Paris. On May 9th Bonaparte joined them in Toulon. Everything was now in readiness. The expedition had by then been organised as four sections. The largest, concentrated on Toulon and Marseilles, was under Bonaparte's personal command. Another from Genoa under Baraguay d'Hilliers, a third under General Vaubois, was to sail from Ajaccio, and the fourth under Desaix from Civitavecchia.

When united, the armada would consist of thirteen ships-of-the-line, fourteen frigates, seventy-four smaller war vessels and between three and four hundred transports. On board there were some forty thousand troops, ten thousand seamen and several hundred civilians whom Bonaparte had decided, for a variety of reasons, to take. The Senior Naval Officer was Admiral Brueys; but he had been placed under the orders of the General-in-Chief, who accepted full responsibility for the direction of the expedition.

For some weeks rumours had been rife about the destination of this great concentration of troops and shipping. Some people believed that the intention was to seize the Sultan's dominions in Europe and free the Greeks and other Christians from the Mohammedan yoke. Others thought that the armada would sail round the Cape of Good Hope to wrest India from the British. A few rightly guessed that its objective was Egypt. But the majority were of the opinion that it was to be a follow-up, on a far greater scale than had ever before been attempted, of the old plan to land an Army in Ireland.

On arriving in Toulon, Bonaparte gave added credence to this last belief by a stirring proclamation addressed to his troops in which he termed them the ‘Left Wing of the Army of England', the inference being that the right wing had mustered in the Channel ports and that, when the two French Fleets had united to destroy that of Britain, both Armies would descend on the hated English.

Bad weather delayed the sailing and, during the days of waiting, Josephine, who had accompanied her husband to Toulon, begged him repeatedly to allow her to sail with him. She argued that since she had been brought up in Martinique she would find the heat of Egypt pleasant rather than exhausting. Feeling that her presence would distract his
thoughts he refused, but at length relented to the extent of agreeing that she should follow him in a few weeks' time.

On May 19th the bad weather at last abated, so it was decided to put to sea. Roger, with the rest of Bonaparte's Staff, was in the hundred-and-twenty-gun
L'Orient
, the largest warship afloat. In the great ship were also most of the senior Generals and a considerable number of distinguished intellectuals whom Bonaparte was taking with him to unravel some of the mysteries of the East. Roger had been allocated a bunk in a fairly spacious cabin, which he shared with three other aides-de-camp, and it was quite near to that which had been given to Bourrienne.

Shortly before anchor was weighed Roger looked in on the
Chef de Cabinet
, who had already settled down to work,

Glancing up at him, as he stood in the narrow doorway, Bourrienne handed him a paper and said, ‘What d'you think of this? I received it only as the last crates of chickens were being hoisted aboard.'

It was an intelligence report and read:

Government in London still believed to credit Deception Plan and assume armament assembling in Mediterranean ports has as object
(1)
combination with Brest Squadron and Army of the North for descent on England or
(2)
possibly invasion of Ireland. Reliable information recently received that on April 20th Cabinet decided to send powerful squadron into Mediterranean with object of intercepting French expedition before it can enter Atlantic and combine with Franco-Spanish forces there. Above now confirmed by squadron detached from Lord St. Vincent's fleet passing Straits of Gibraltar under command of Rear Admiral Sir Nelson
.

Roger had been wondering when he would manage to get back from Egypt. As he returned the intelligence report to Bourrienne, he began to wonder if he would even get there.

The activities in the Mediterranean ports during the past two months had been so exceptional that Roger had felt certain that news of them could not have failed to reach the British Government. But it came as a surprise to him to learn that, after having been compelled to withdraw from the Mediterranean eighteen months before, the British should again have taken the initiative.

He promptly reasoned that the assumption in the intelligence report—that the British Government still credited the Deception Plan—was wrong and that, although he had been unable to send home information of the expedition's destination, they had learned from some other source that Bonaparte intended to invade Egypt. Otherwise, surely St. Vincent would have waited until the French armada was well out into the Atlantic and so far more vulnerable to attack.

In any case, it was incapable of defending itself against a strong British Squadron; and Admiral Brueys had made no secret of it to Bonaparte's Staff that, should he be attacked, he was far from happy about his chances of convoying the Army safely to its objective. The French Navy was still suffering seriously from the effects of the Revolution. During that time nine-tenths of its experienced officers had either been sent to the guillotine or gone into exile, and all offences still had to be tried by jury, which meant that discipline was almost non-existent. Three of the battleships were old and rotten, many of the transports were barely seaworthy, cables and sails were of poor quality, much of the equipment was badly worn and there were very few spares of any kind. In consequence, if an Admiral with the dash and determination
of Nelson came up with the armada the result must be a massacre.

As an Englishman, Roger was naturally pleased to learn that there was now a good prospect of his country gaining a resounding victory and destroying the flower of the French Army at one blow. However, as he was at present with that Army and in a ship from which there was no possible means of escape, he had to face the unnerving fact that he might well be destroyed himself.

Actually his fears were, for the time being, groundless; for Nelson had entered the Mediterranean a few days earlier, with only three ships-of-the-line and five smaller craft, his instructions being to reconnoitre the French coast and, if possible, find out the intended destination of Bonaparte's armada. This latter fact was not, as Roger supposed, known to the British. It was not until some days later that Earl St. Vincent received orders from London to send a strong Squadron into the Mediterranean and despatched, to come under Nelson's command, a further fourteen ships-of-the-line, whose Captains were some of the ablest officers in the British Navy.

Moreover, when the armada had been only one day at sea a tempest sprang up and, while the French Fleet escaped with a severe tossing. Nelson's ships were caught in the centre of the storm. His own ship was dismasted and he had to take refuge under the lee of Sardinia to refit, thus losing his first chance of intercepting the French expedition.

Roger was seasick, as he usually was in bad weather; but even his miserable condition did not prevent his constantly coming up on deck to gaze anxiously in all directions, fearing at any time that Nelson's ships would appear on the horizon, heralding for him the horrible possibility of being killed or drowned within the next few hours.

When, after some days, the weather improved he was able to distract his mind from his fears somewhat by mingling with his fellow-passengers, and rarely can such a galaxy of brains, talent and gallantry have been assembled for a long voyage in one ship. Bonaparte was taking to Egypt Kléber, Desaix, Bon, Menou and Reynier as his Divisional Commanders; Alexandre Dumas to command the cavalry,
Dommartin the artillery and Caffarelli the engineers; Lannes as Quartermaster-General, Berthier as Chief-of-Staff and fourteen other Generals, including Marmont and Pauline's husband Leclerc. Murat, Junot, Davoust, Bessiéres, Rapp, Savary, Duroc and Eugéne de Beauharnais were also included. All of them were to win glory and ten of them were destined to become Princes, Dukes and Marshals of the Empire.

Many of these
beaux sabreurs
sailed with Bonaparte in the mighty
L'Orient
. Also on board were Monge, Berthollet, Denon and a number of other distinguished intellectuals. Even Bonaparte's triumphs in Italy had given him scarcely more pleasure than having been elected to the Institute on his return to Paris. So proud was he of the honour that he even signed his letters, ‘Member of the Institute and General-in-Chief'. His interest in science was hardly less than that in military affairs, and his intention was that, while he conquered Egypt, these civilian members of his entourage should delve into the secrets of the past and bring France honour by revealing to the world much that was still unknown about the ancient civilisations of the East.

To assist them in their labours and for employment with the Army, Bonaparte had enrolled a considerable number of interpreters who spoke Arabic, Turkish or Greek; and in the hold of
L'Orient
there lay several printing presses, with founts of type in these languages, so that declarations and propaganda could be printed without delay.

Roger had a flair for languages and on his long voyage to India in '96 he had learned Persian—the diplomatic language of the East—from one of the India Company's officials. Then, on his return to Europe, via the Red Sea, he had mastered colloquial Arabic. Now he took the opportunity to brush up his Arabic by spending an hour or two each day with one of the interpreters, and also learned from him a few phrases of Turkish.

The main convoy from Toulon and Marseilles sailed first to Genoa then to Corsica, to pick up its other contingents, but it failed to make contact with the fourth flotilla which had assembled at Civitavecchia. It was not until they were off Malta that Desaix succeeded in reporting with it.

Owing partly to contrary winds, and partly to the difficulty of keeping together such a great number of ships, the speed of the armada averaged only fifty miles a day; so it was nearly three weeks later, and June 9th, before they sighted the island stronghold that had for centuries been held by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.