way to rid himself of the troublesome Directors. On the very day he
wrote to Brueys, and just before the courier from the Directory arrived,
he had told Bourienne, who asked him how long he would be in Egypt:
'A few months or a few years, depending. They don't want me here. To
make things right I suppose I should overthrow them and make myself
King but it's not time to think of that yet.' Doubtless Barras intuited
something of what was on Bonaparte's mind, for on 27 April, four days
after the lengthy and acrimonious session in the Directory, he informed
the general that the Directory had decided not to send him to Rastadt and
he was therefore free to leave for Toulon. Even so, friends like Arnault
urged Napoleon right up to the last moment to stay and seize power.
Napoleon declined. The day before he left Paris he told Arnault: 'The
Parisians complain but they would not take action. If I mounted my
horse, nobody would follow me. We'll leave tomorrow.'
Leaving Paris on 4 May, Napoleon sped southwards to Lyons via
Chalon, then took a boat down the Rhone and arrived in Aix-en
Provence on the 8th. The next day he was in Toulon, conferring with
Brueys, proudly overseeing the armada that had been collected there.
The formal orders from the Directors, originally issued on r2 April, had
been reconfirmed. These instructed Bonaparte to seize Malta and Egypt,
dislodge the British from the Middle East, construct a Suez Canal and
build good relations with Turkey by remitting the annual tribute from
Egypt to Constantinople. At this date Egypt was a Turkish possession in
name only, having for centuries been in the grip of a ruling military elite,
the Mamelukes, who did not recognize the sovereignty of the Porte. The
Directors had agreed on a twin-track strategy towards Turkey whereby,
while Napoleon was conquering Egypt, Talleyrand would head a mission
to Constantinople to explain that the expedition, far from being aimed at
Turkey, actually served their interests.
After ten weeks of frenzied preparations, twenty-one brigades had been
detached from armies in Italy, Rome, Corsica, Switzerland and northern
France, although most of the units were veterans of the Army of Italy. By
legerdemain Napoleon had greatly exceeded the numbers agreed with the
Directory. Instead of 25,000 there were actually 38,ooo troops, ready to
embark in four hundred transports from five ports: Toulon, Marseilles,
Genoa, Ajaccio, Civitavecchia. There were sixty field-guns, forty siege
guns, hard rations for one hundred days and water for forty; only r ,200
horses were taken along as Napoleon expected mainly to use camels as
transport. The convoy was escorted by Brueys and thirteen ships of the
line, including the flagship L 'Orient. To maintain secrecy it was agreed
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