Berthier, chief of the staff, relates that a glass of water sold for its weight in gold.

Even brave officers abandoned themselves to transports of rage and despair which left them completely prostrate.[103] But Bonaparte flinched not.

His stern composure offered the best rebuke to such childish sallies; and when out of a murmuring group there came the bold remark, "Well, General, are you going to take us to India thus," he abashed the speaker and his comrades by the quick retort, "No, I would not undertake that with such soldiers as you." French honour, touched to the quick, reasserted itself even above the torments of thirst; and the troops themselves, when they tardily reached the Nile and slaked their thirst in its waters, recognized the pre-eminence of his will and his profound confidence in their endurance.

French gaiety had not been wholly eclipsed even by the miseries of the desert march.

To cheer their drooping spirits the commander had sent some of the staunchest generals along the line of march.