396 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 Ule- 

 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 Ulemas 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 



