896 JOSEPH FOURIER. 
became the official medium between the General-in-Chief 
and every Egyptian who might have to complain of an 
attack against his person, his property, his morals, his 
habits, or his creed. An invariable sauvity of manner, a 
scrupulous regard for prejudices to oppose which directly 
would have been vain, an inflexible sentiment of justice, 
had given him an ascendency over the Mussulman popu- 
lation, which the precepts of the Koran could not lead 
any one to hope for, and which powerfully contributed to 
the maintenance of friendly relations between the inhab- 
itants of Cairo and the French soldiers. Fourier was 
especially held in veneration by the Cheiks and the Ulé- 
mas. A single anecdote will serve to show that this 
sentiment was the offspring of genuine gratitude. 
The Emir Hadgey, or Prince of the Caravan, who 
had been nominated by General Bonaparte upon his 
arrival in Cairo, escaped during the campaign of Syria. 
There existed strong grounds at the time for supposing 
that four Cheiks Ulémas had rendered themselves accom- 
plices of the treason. Upon his return to Egypt, Bona- 
parte confided the investigation of this grave affair to 
Fourier. “Do not,” said he, “submit half measures to me. 
You have to pronounce judgment upon high personages : 
we must either cut off their heads or invite them to 
dinner.” On the day following that on which this con- 
versation took place, the four Cheiks dined with the 
General-in-Chief. By obeying the inspirations of his 
heart, Fourier did not perform merely an act of human- 
ity ; it was moreover one of excellent policy. Our learned 
colleague, M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, to whom I am in- 
debted for this anecdote, has stated in fact that Soleyman 
and Fayoumi, the principal of the Egyptian chiefs, whose 
punishment, thanks to our colleague, was so happily 
