AND LOWER EGYPT. 3 



the course of his travels ; in a word, there is not 

 one among them who, after having been the 

 dupe of deceitful proinises, after having endured 

 the anxieties of penury, the horrors ot dereliction 

 in the midst of painful and glorious enterprises, 

 who did not experience on his return the humili- 

 ation of soliciting in vain the slightest indemnifi- 

 cation, frequently even the reimbursement of 

 what he had advanced, and of presenting himself 

 ineffectually before an insolent clerk of office, 

 who treated him with haughtiness and disdain, j^. 



And this kind of contempt, which was affected 

 with respect to great and generous undertakings, 

 ranked among the vices with which the atmosphere 

 of the court was poisoned. Self-love, which trans- 

 forms the statesman into the wretched slave of his 

 passions; intrigue, which, sometimes supported by 

 ambitious opulence, sometimes conducted with 

 grace by the most seducing as well as the most 

 unbridled depravation of manners, had rendered it 

 a residence inaccessible to the man whose soul, ele- 

 vated and ennobled with the love of his country, 

 disdained to abase himself to those shameful re- 

 sources of corruption, andtotarnMi the dignity of 

 his sentiments and the lustre of commendable ac- 

 tions by vile expedients, although they were the 

 most direct means of procuring him justice. Ac- 

 cordingly, that man was sure to be discouraged 



B 2 who 



