On such trifles does the fate of empires sometimes depend.
Meanwhile events were crowding thick and fast upon Bonaparte.

To free himself from the terrible risks which had menaced his force off the Egyptian coast, he landed his troops, 35,000 strong, with all possible expedition at Marabout near Alexandria, and, directing his columns of attack on the walls of that city, captured it by a rush (July 2nd).
For this seizure of neutral territory he offered no excuse other than that the Beys, who were the real rulers of Egypt, had favoured English commerce and were guilty of some outrages on French merchants.

He strove, however, to induce the Sultan of Turkey to believe that the French invasion of Egypt was a friendly act, as it would overthrow the power of the Mamelukes, who had reduced Turkish authority to a mere shadow.

This was the argument which he addressed to the Turkish officials, but it proved to be too subtle even for the oriental mind fully to appreciate.

Bonaparte's chief concern was to win over the subject population, which consisted of diverse races.