AND LOWER EGYPT. 1 27 



peys column. Nevertheless it is likewise probable, 

 that posterity will recollect that this column was 

 the head-quarters, from whence Buonaparte issued 

 orders for the escalade and capture of Alexandria ; 

 that the bodies of the heroes who perished as the 

 victims of their own bravery, are deposited round 

 the pedestal, and that their names are engraven 

 upon it ; it is likewise probable that, more struck 

 with the genius of the victory, and of the sublime 

 combinations connected with it, than with that 

 which has conferred celebrity on ancient Egypt by 

 her works of stupendous magnificence, absorbed in 

 the immortality of the French nation, shall be dis- 

 posed to fix the era of this dawning glory, and that 

 to future ages the column of Pompey shall be the 

 column of the French Republic. 



I have heard it said at Alexandria, that an idea 

 was formerly entertained of transporting to France 

 the column so much admired there. The Levan- 

 tins and the navigators of Provence considered 

 this enterprise as impracticable ; they forgot, or 

 perhaps they never knew that this very mass of 

 granite had been conveyed from the quarries of 

 Syene, that is, more than two hundred leagues : 

 they did not know that Caius Cesar had transported 

 from Egypt to Rome an obelisk of a hundred cu- 

 bits, or twenty-five fathoms, in height, and eight 

 cubits, or two fathoms, in diameter ; that Augustus 



intended 



