242 Biographical Account of [April, 



the ranlc he had held at the period of his first nomination, he was 

 ahnost immediately raised to that of Captain, and was employed as 

 Professor of Mathematics in the School of Metz. 



It was at this epoch (1/97) that his military career began. He 

 was present in the army of the Samhro-and-IMeuse at the crossing 

 of the Rhine, and at the battles of Ukrath and Alterkirk. The 

 same year was marked by a more agreeable circumstance, which 

 afterwards constituted the happiness of his life : it was then tiiat he 

 saw for the first time Madame Malus (Wilkelmine Louise Koch, 

 daughter of the Chancellor of the University of Giessen, in the 

 dutchy of Hesse-Darmstadt). Honour and duty prevented him at 

 that time from realizing the wish which was dearest to his heart. 

 He was obliged to embark for Egypt, assisted at the battles of 

 Chebreis and of the Pyramids, and at that of Soebisch ; and he was 

 named a member of the Institute at Cairo : but his life was too 

 active, and he was too much employed, to be able to devote himself 

 to the sciences. A single opportunity presented itself, of which he 

 profited with sufficient address. In a reconnaissance, in which he 

 was employed with M. Lefevre, engineer of bridges and causeways, 

 he was lucky enough to discover a branch of tlie Nile unknown 

 before that time to travellers, to give a descrij)tion of it, and con- 

 struct a chart of a country into which no Frenchman had penetrated 

 since the time of the crusades. (The memoir which he wrote on 

 this subject makes a part of the first volume of the Decade Egyp- 

 tienne.) But during the course of this memorable expedition, he 

 chiefly distinguished himself as a militiiry engineer. 



Dangers of every kind attended him in Syria, at the siege of El 

 Harisch, and at the siege of Jaffa, where he performed the duties 

 of an engineer. After the taking of this last town, he was employed 

 in repairing its fortifications, and establishing military hospitals in it. 

 Here he caught the plague ; but had the good fortune to recover 

 without any assistance whatever. He had scarcely regained his 

 health, v/hen he was obliged to repair to Damietta to superintend 

 similar labours. Thence lie marciied against the Turks who had 

 disembarked at Lesbeh. He was present at the battles of Heliopolis 

 and Coraim, and at the siege of Cairo. He then went to build 

 Benisouef-Saioum, a fort intended to preserve tlie communication 

 between the Delta and Upper Egypt. When he returned to Cairo 

 he contributed to fortify that city against three great armies that 

 were marehip.g against it. Finally, he embarked at Abouklr, in the 

 British transport The Castor, and arrived in the roads of ISlarseilles 

 on the 14th i^i October, 1801, and disembarked at the Lazaretto of 

 that city on the 2(>th of the same month. 



Thus, exhausted by so many fatigues, and by the terrible diseases 

 which iind ruined his !:ealth for. ever, he did not forget the engage- 

 ment which he had formed four years before. His first care was to 

 go in search of her who had received that promise, and who had 

 shown no less fidelity, though in all probability she expected never 

 to sec him more, lie married her, carried her to France, and 



