Admiral Gantheaume had by this time two frigates and two smaller vessels (which had been saved in the harbour of Alexandria) ready for sea; and on the morning of the 23rd, the wind having fortunately driven the English squadron of blockade off the coast, Buonaparte and his followers embarked at Rosetta.
The same day the event was announced to the army by a proclamation which the General left behind him, naming Kleber as his successor in the command.

The indignation of the soldiery, who thought themselves deserted by their chief, was for a time violent; but, by degrees, the great qualities displayed by Kleber softened this feeling, and Buonaparte had left agents well qualified to explain what had happened, in the manner most favourable for himself.
Kleber received at the same time a parting letter of instructions--one of the most singular pieces that ever proceeded from Napoleon's pen.

"I send you," said he, "English gazettes to the 10th of June.

You will there see that we have lost Italy; that Mantua, Turin, and Tortona are blockaded.

I hope, if fortune smiles on me, to reach Europe before the beginning of October....