132 



MALUS. 



the morning," Mains 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 1 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 Mains, 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. 



Mains, 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 



