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 

 Quoubbeh, and manoeuvring, 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." 



