CHAPTER XII.
Buonaparte's Administration in Egypt--Armaments of the Porte--Buonaparte at Suez--At El-Arish--Gaza, Jaffa, Acre--Retreat to Egypt--Defeat of the Turks at Aboukir--Napoleon embarks for France.
Before Nelson's arrival, Buonaparte is said to have meditated returning to France, for the purpose of extorting from the government those supplies of various kinds which, on actual examination, he had perceived to be indispensable to the permanent occupation of Egypt, and which he well knew the Directors would refuse to any voice but his own.

He intended, it is also said, to urge on the Directory the propriety of resuming the project of a descent on England itself, at the moment when the mind of that government might be supposed to be engrossed with the news of his dazzling successes in Egypt.

All these proud visions died with Brueyes.

On hearing of the battle of Aboukir a solitary sigh escaped from Napoleon.

"To France," said he, "the fates have decreed the empire of the land--to England that of the sea." He endured this great calamity with the equanimity of a masculine spirit.