surviving thirst and hunger, found itself before an enemy proud
of his numbers and his victories, and believing that he saw an easy prey
in our troops, exhausted by their march and incessant combats. He had
yet to learn that the French soldier is greater because he knows how to
suffer than because he knows how to vanquish, and that his courage rises
and augments in danger. Three thousand Frenchmen, as you know, fell
upon eighteen thousand barbarians, broke their ranks, forced them
back, pressed them between our lines and the sea; and the terror of our
bayonets is such that the Mussulmans, driven to choose a death, rushed
into the depths of the Mediterranean.

"On that memorable day hung the destinies of Egypt, France and Europe,
and they were saved by your courage,

"Allied Powers! if you dare to violate French territory, and if the
general who was given back to us by the victory of Aboukir makes an
appeal to the nation--Allied Powers! I say to you, that your successes
would be more fatal to you than disasters! What Frenchman is there who
would not march to victory again under the banners of the First Consul,
or serve his apprenticeship to fame with him?"

Then, addressing the "Invalids," for whom the whole lower gallery had
been reserved, he continued in a still more powerful voice:

"And you, brave veterans, honorable victims of the fate of battles, you
will not be the last to flock under the orders of him who knows your
misfortunes and your glory, and who now delivers to your keeping these
trophies won by your valor. Ah, I know you, veterans, you burn to
sacrifice the half of your remaining lives to your country and its
freedom!"

This specimen of the military eloquence of the conqueror of Montebello
was received with deafening applause. Three times the minister of war
endeavored to make reply; and three times the bravos cut him short. At
last, however, silence came, and Berthier expressed himself as follows:

"To raise on the banks of the Seine these trophies won on the banks of
the Nile; to hang beneath the domes of our temples, beside the flags of
Vienna, of Petersburg, of London, the banners blessed in the mosques of
Byzantium and Cairo; to see them here, presented by the same warriors,
young in years, old in glory, whom Victory has so often crowned--these
things are granted only to Republican France.

"Yet this is but a part of what he has done, that hero, in the flower
of his age covered with the laurels