516 De Bourrienne’s Memoirs. [EMay, 
divine vengeance, in the shape of the plague, pursued us for the massacre. 
Did it never occur to the romantic historian that Providence might have found 
it much more simple to prevent the massacre than to revenge it? I must 
observe, besides, that Kleber’s division had imbibed at Damietta the poison of 
this frightful malady which developed itself and communicated its contagion 
on the march: it in fact accompanied us into Syria.” 
The death of General Caffarelli. 
“On the 9th April, General Caffarelli, so well known for his courage, and 
so much esteemed for his talents, was standing in the trench: his hand rested 
on his hip ; thus opposing a sort of counterpoise to the inconvenience which 
his wooden leg occasioned him. In: this attitude his elbow happened to pass 
the trench. He was warned that the enemy’s fire, directed with fatal preci- 
sion, missed scarcely the smallest object. To this suggestion he paid no 
attention ; and in a few seconds afterwards his elbow was fractured by a ball. 
Immediate amputation was judged necessary. The general survived but 
eighteen days. Bonaparte visited him in his tent regularly twice a-day. His 
orders, seconded by my own personal friendship for Caffarelli, induced me to 
remain with him almost constantly. A short-time before he breathed his last, 
he said to me, ‘My dear Bourrienne, I beg of you to read me. Voltaire’s 
Preface to the Spirit of Laws’ (I’Esprit des Loix). When I returned to 
Bonaparte’s tent, he asked me how Caffarelli was. ‘ His last hour approaches 
—he requested me to read him Voltaire’s Preface to the Spirit of Laws. He 
is now asleep.’ ‘ Bah! he wished to hear that preface! how odd! Bona- 
parte then visited him ; but he was still asleep. I returned to his tent and 
received his last breath, which he gave up with the utmost tranquillity. His 
loss excited the most lively regret throughout the whole army, and was long 
considered irreparable by men illustrious from their birth and station, and still 
more distinguished ‘by the unequivocal advantages of talent, courage, and 
exalted minds.” ; 
“We arrived at Tentoura on the 20th May. The heat that day was exces- 
sive, and produced universal discouragement. Our losses in sick and wounded, 
since we had quitted Acre, were already considerable. The perspective before 
us was most gloomy. Scarcely had we arrived at Tentoura, when Bonaparte 
ordered his tent to be got ready. He summoned me; and, with a degree of 
pre-occupation, the inevitable effect of our situation, he dictated to me an 
order, that every body should go on foot, and that the horses, mules, and 
camels should be given to the sick and wounded who still shewed signs of 
life. ‘Take that to Berthier’ Scarcely had I returned to the tent when 
Vigogne, Bonaparte’s éeuyer, advanced, and, with his hand to his hat— 
“ General, what horse do you reserve for yourself?’ In the first movement of 
anger which this question excited, Bonaparte raised his whip, and struck the 
luckless ecuyer a violent blow in the face, adding in a voice of thunder, ‘ Let 
yey body go on foot, f——e ; myself the first. Do you not know the order ? 
egone.’ 
“We slept at Cesarea on the 22d May, and marched the whole of the 
following night. Towards day-break a fellow, concealed in a thicket on our 
left, (the sea was within a few yards of us, on our right,) discharged his 
musket almost in the face of Bonaparte, who had fallen asleep on his horse. 
I was close to him. The wood was searched, the assassin seized without 
difficulty, and the order given to execute him on the spot. Four men pushed 
him towards the sea, which was close to us, and discharged their carbines at 
him. The four carbines all missed fire—a cireumstance that must be 
attributed to the dampness of the night. The Syrian, profiting by this occur- 
rence, instantly prunged into the sea, and swam with amazing rapidity and 
agility to a rock sufficiently remote from his pursuers to prevent any of the 
troop (who all fired at him as they passed) from killing him. Bonaparte 
