north, who could not exist without it.
They consulted together accordingly, and in about three weeks issued
a fetham, declaring that circumcision might be omitted, because it
was merely a profession; that as to drinking wine, it might be drunk
by Mussulmans, but that those who drank it would not go to paradise,
but to hell I replied that this would not do; that we had no
occasion to make ourselves Mussulmans in order to go to hell, that
there were many ways of getting there without coming to Egypt, and
desired them to hold another consultation. After deliberating and
battling together for I believe three months, they finally decided
that a man might become a Mussulman, and neither circumcise nor
abstain from wine; but that, in proportion to the wine drunk, some
good works must be done. I then told them that we were all
Mussulmans and friends of the Prophet, which they really believed,
as the French soldiers never went to church, and had no priests with
them. For you must know that during the Revolution there was no
religion whatever in the French army. Menou," continued Napoleon,
"really turned Mahometan, which was the reason I left him behind."
--(Voices from St. Helena.)]--

The General-in-Chief had a Turkish dress made, which he once put on,
merely in joke. One day he desired me to go to breakfast without waiting
for him, and that he would follow me. In about a quarter of an hour he
made his appearance in his new costume. As soon as he was recognised he
was received with a loud burst of laughter. He sat down very coolly; but
he found himself so encumbered and ill at ease in his turban and Oriental
robe that he speedily threw them off, and was never tempted to a second
performance of the masquerade.

About the end of August Bonaparte wished to open negotiations with the
Pasha of Acre, nicknamed the Butcher. He offered Djezzar his friendship,
sought his in return, and gave him the most consolatory assurances of the
safety of his dominions. He promised to support him against the Grand
Seignior, at the very moment when he was assuring the Egyptians that he
would support the Grand Seignior against the beys. But Djezzar,
confiding in his own strength and in the protection of the English, who
had anticipated Bonaparte, was deaf to every overture, and would not even
receive Beauvoisin, who was sent to him on the 22d of August. A second
envoy was beheaded at Acre. The oc