440 JOSEPH FOURIER. 
We found ourselves seated at the same table. The 
guest from whom I separated him was an old officer. 
Our colleague was informed of this, and the question, 
“ Have you been in Egypt?” served as the commence- 
ment of a conversation between them. The reply was 
in the affirmative. Fourier hastened to add: “As re- 
gards myself, I remained in that magnificent country 
until the period of its complete evacuation. Although 
foreign to the profession of arms, I have, in the midst of 
our soldiers, fired against the insurgents of Cairo; I 
have had the honour of hearing the cannon of Helio- 
polis.” Hence to give an account of the battle was but 
a step. This step was soon made, and we were presented 
with four battalions drawn up in squares in the plain of 
Quoubbéh, and manceuvring, with admirable precision, 
conformably to the orders of the illustrious geometer. 
My neighbour, with attentive ear, with immovable eyes, 
and with outstretched neck, listened to this recital with 
the liveliest interest. He did not lose a single syllable of 
it: one would have sworn that he had for the first time 
heard of those memorable events. Gentlemen, it is so 
delightful a task to please! After having remarked the 
effect which he produced, Fourier reverted, with still 
greater detail, to the principal fight of those great days: 
to the capture of the fortified village of Mattaryeh, to 
the passage of two feeble columns of French grenadiers 
across ditches heaped up with the dead and wounded of 
the Ottoman army. “ Generals ancient and modern, have 
sometimes spoken of similar deeds of prowess,” exclaimed 
our colleague, “ but it was in the hyperbolic style of the 
bulletin: here the fact is materially true,—it is true like 
geometry. I feel conscious, however,” added he, “ that 
in order to induce your belief in it, all my assurances 
will not be more than sufficient.” , 
