440 JOSEPH FOURIER. 



We found ourselves seated at the same table. T!K 

 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. Althougt 

 foreign to the profession of arms, I have, in the midst 01 

 our soldiers, fired against the insurgents of Cairo ; 1 

 have had the honour of hearing the cannon of Helio- 

 polis." Hence to give an account of the battle was bu 

 a step. This step was soon made, and we were presentee 

 with four battalions drawn up in squares in the plain o- 

 Quoubbeh, and manoeuvring, with admirable precision 

 conformably to the orders of the illustrious geometer, 

 My neighbour, with attentive ear, with immovable eye , 

 and with outstretched neck, listened to this recital witi 

 the liveliest interest. He did not lose a single syllable of 

 it : one would have sworn that he had for the first tine 

 heard of those memorable events. Gentlemen, it is so 

 delightful a task to please ! After having remarked tie 

 effect which he produced, Fourier reverted, with sdll 

 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." 



