132 MALUS. 
the morning,” Malus says, “the army commenced its 
march for Belbeys, where we reckoned on finding the 
Turkish army collected. I went with the division of 
Friant. After an hour’s march I suspected that we 
were losing our way in the desert. As the night was 
very dark we had lost the ordinary tracks. I repre- 
sented the matter to the general, who listened to me for 
a moment, but other persons brought forward opposite 
opinions with so much assurance, that the march was 
continued. One hour and a half afterwards, we were 
taking a direction exactly towards the point whence we 
had started. This I perceived from the position of the 
pole star, which we had at starting behind us. This 
time I was listened to, and I led back the division on the 
right route. This mistake nevertheless caused us much 
delay, and the other divisions were obliged to wait for 
us at one league distance from Belbeys.” 
We see on what little circumstances the great events 
of war often depend. If there had been in the division 
of Friant only an ordinary small compass of a few milli- 
metres in diameter, like those which are hung among 
the trinkets to watches, or even if self-conceited officers 
had not obtained a preference for their opinions over 
that of Malus, the divisions of our army would have 
been reunited much sooner; and that of the Grand 
Vizier would have experienced near Belbeys very con- 
siderable losses. 
Malus, now attached to the division of General Reg- 
nier, took part in the expedition which, after several 
serious affairs, drove back the Ottoman army across the 
desert. Afterwards he returned to Cairo, then in a 
state of revolt excited by the Mamelukes, who, on the 
day of the battle of Heliopolis, fell back on the great 
