ry marched over burning sand at some distance from the river. The
miseries of this progress were extreme. The air is crowded with
pestiferous insects, the glare of the sand weakens most men's eyes, and
blinds many; water is scarce and bad: and the country had been swept
clear of man, beast, and vegetable. Under this torture even the gallant
spirits of such men as Murat and Lannes could not sustain
themselves:--they trod their cockades in the sand. The common soldiers
asked, with angry murmurs, if it was here the General designed to give
them their seven acres? He alone was superior to all these evils. Such
was the happy temperament of his frame, that--while others, after having
rid them of their usual dress, were still suffused in perpetual floods
of perspiration, and the hardiest found it necessary to give two or
three hours in the middle of the day to sleep--Napoleon altered
nothing; wore his uniform buttoned up as at Paris; never showed one bead
of sweat on his brow; nor thought of repose except to lie down in his
cloak the last at night, and start up the first in the morning. It
required, however, more than all his example of endurance and the
general influence of Napoleon's character, could do to prevent the army
from breaking into open mutiny. "Once," said he at St. Helena, "I threw
myself suddenly amidst a group of _generals_, and, addressing myself to
the tallest of their number with vehemence, said, _You have been talking
sedition: take care lest I fulfil my duty: your five feet ten inches
would not hinder you from being shot within two hours._"

For some days no enemy appeared; but at length scattered groups of
horsemen began to hover on their flanks; and the soldier, who quitted
the line but for a moment, was surrounded and put to death ere his
comrades could rescue him. The rapidity with which the Mamelukes rode,
and their skill as marksmen, were seconded by the character of the soil
and the atmosphere; the least motion or breath of wind being sufficient
to raise a cloud of sand, through which nothing could be discerned
accurately, while the constant glare of the sun dazzled almost to
blindness. It was at Chebreis that the Mamelukes first attacked in a
considerable body; and at the same moment the French flotilla was
assaulted. In either case the superiority of European discipline was
made manifest; but in either case also the assailants were able to
retreat without much loss. Meantime the hardships of the ma