HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



[3 



gage in their lodgings, and their 

 horses on the shore. Having arrived 

 on board the ships prepared for the 

 voyage, their names were called 

 over. Two strangers were found 

 among them and relanded. They 

 then weighed anchor and set sail, 

 but contrary winds did not permit 

 them to get out of the road of 

 Aboukir till the twenty-fourth of 

 August. 



Previously to liis departure, 

 Buonaparte left a letter addressed 

 to general Klebcr, with orders that 

 it should not be opened for twenty- 

 four hours after his quitting the 

 land. This letter contained his ap- 

 pointment to the chief command of 

 the army of all Egypt, during the 

 absence of Buonaparte, and an or- 

 der for conferi'ing the command of 

 Upper Egypt on general Dessaix. 

 On leaving the anchorage of Abou- 

 kir, the small French squadron 

 could descry but one frigate, and 

 they arrived at Ajaccio, in Corsica, 

 on the thirtieth of September. — 

 There they were detained by con- 

 trary winds till the sixth of Octo- 

 ber. On the sixth they were but 

 ten leagues distant from Toulon, 

 when, in the evening, they per- 

 ceived an English squadron of eight 

 sail. The question now proposed 

 in council was, whether they should 

 sail back to Corsica, or attempt to 

 make the shore. Buonaparte soon 

 decided it. Recollecting, perhaps, 

 the encouraging words of Julius 

 Cscsar to his mariners in circum- 

 stances also of danger, he said, 

 " Be not alarmed, fortune will not 

 abandon me, let us make directly 

 for the coast." Signals were made 

 accordingly, and the frigates veered 

 immediately eastward. The Aviso 

 not perceiving the .signals, remain- 

 ed behind in the midst of the ene- 



my's fleet. Dut the ship that carried 

 Buonaparte, with crowded sails,was 

 soon out of danger. The other three 

 ships, about nine in the morning of 

 the seventh, came to anchor near 

 St. Rapheau, which, about noon, the 

 crews were permitted to enter. A- 

 bout two, Buonaparte,with his com- 

 panions and suite,arrived at Frejus, 

 a small sea-port of Provence, amidst 

 an immense concourse of people, who 

 hastened to behold him from the 

 neighbouring country. The mo- 

 ment they landed, they fell down, 

 in imitation of a custom among the 

 Greek and Roman generals, and 

 embraced the ground, which they 

 called the Land of Liberty. Trans- 

 ports of enthusiastic joy broke out 

 among the spectators on every side, 

 and nothing was heard but cries of 

 Vive laRepublique! vivc Buonaparte. 

 The magistrates of Frejus went out 

 to meet them, and received them 

 with a kind of triumphal honours. 



The generals Lannes and Murat, 

 both wounded, set out from St. 

 Rapheau with all the crews for 

 Toulon, from whence, some days 

 thereafter, they proceeded to Paris. 



It was certainly a piece of great 

 good fortune that Buonaparte and 

 his companions should effect their 

 escape through so many hostile ships 

 of war, Russian, Turkish, and Eng- 

 lish. His greatest dangers, how- 

 ever, were encountered during the 

 two first days after his embarka- 

 tion, when he was prevented by 

 contrary winds from getting out of 

 the road of Aboukir- The army 

 must have supposed that he was 

 only going to reconnoitre some part 

 of the coast, or for concerting and 

 planning some secret expedition. 

 There was not a little danger of his 

 real design, in the course of those 

 two days being discovered ; in 

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