nearly forgotten--you
will at the same time announce that I have appointed Joseph a Councillor
of State. Should anything happen I shall be back again like a
thunderbolt. I recommend to you all the great interests of France, and I
trust that I shall shortly be talked of in Vienna and in London."

We set out at two in the morning, taking the Burgundy road, which we had
already so often travelled under very different circumstances.

On the journey Bonaparte conversed about the warriors of antiquity,
especially Alexander, Caesar, Scipio, and Hannibal. I asked him which he
preferred, Alexander or Caesar. "I place Alexander in the first rank,"
said he, "yet I admire Caesar's fine campaign in Africa. But the ground
of my preference for the King of Macedonia is the plan, and above all the
execution, of his campaign in Asia. Only those who are utterly ignorant
of war can blame Alexander for having spent seven months at the siege of
Tyre. For my part, I would have stayed there seven years had it been
necessary. This is a great subject of dispute; but I look upon the siege
of Tyre, the conquest of Egypt, and the journey to the Oasis of Ammon as
a decided proof of the genius of that great captain. His object was to
give the King of Persia (of whose force he had only beaten a feeble
advance-guard at the Granicus and Issus) time to reassemble his troops,
so that he might overthrow at a blow the colossus which he had as yet
only shaken. By pursuing Darius into his states Alexander would have
separated himself from his reinforcements, and would have met only
scattered parties of troops who would have drawn him into deserts where
his army would have been sacrificed. By persevering in the taking of
Tyre he secured, his communications with Greece, the country he loved as
dearly as I love France, and in whose glory he placed his own. By taking
possession of the rich province of Egypt he forced Darius to come to
defend or deliver it, and in so doing to march half-way to meet him.
By representing himself as the son of Jupiter he worked upon the ardent
feelings of the Orientals in a way that powerfully seconded his designs.
Though he died at thirty-three what a name he has left behind him!"

Though an utter stranger to the noble profession of arms, yet I could
admire Bonaparte's clever military plans and his shrewd remarks on the
great captains of ancient and modern times. I could not refrain from
saying, "General, you often reproach me for