He drew together therefore a body of eminent artists and connoisseurs, under the direction of _Monge_, who had managed his Italian collections: it was perhaps the first time that a troop of _Savans_ (there were 100 of them) formed part of the staff of an invading army.[23] The various squadrons of the French fleet were now assembled at Toulon; and everything seemed to be in readiness.

Yet some time elapsed before Napoleon joined the armament: and it is said by _Miot_ that he did all he could to defer joining it as long as possible, in consequence of certain obscure hopes which he had entertained of striking a blow at the existing government, and remodelling it, to his own advantage, with the assent, if not assistance, of Austria.

This author adds that Barras, having intercepted a letter of Buonaparte to Cobentzel, went to him late one evening, and commanded him to join the fleet instantly, on pain of being denounced as the enemy of the government; that the general ordered his horses the same hour, and was on his way to Toulon ere midnight.
These circumstances may or may not be truly given.

It is not doubtful that the command of the Egyptian expedition was ultimately regarded, both by Napoleon and the Directory, as a species of honourable banishment.

On reaching Toulon, Buonaparte called his army together, and harangued them.